ELDORADO 159 



Captain Sutter gave the following interesting ac- 

 count of how he received the news : "I was sitting 

 one afternoon just after my siesta engaged in writing 

 a letter to a friend in Switzerland, when I was inter- 

 rupted by Mr. IMarshall bursting hurriedly into my 

 room. From the unusual agitation in his manner I 

 imagined that something serious had occurred, and, as 

 we involuntarily do in this part of the world, I at once 

 glanced to see if my rifle was in its proper place. You 

 should know that the mere appareance of Mr. Mar- 

 shall at that moment in the fort was cjuite enough to 

 surprise me, as he had but two days before left the 

 place to make some alterations in the mill for sawing 

 pine planks, which he had just run up for me some 

 miles higher up the Americanos. When he had re- 

 covered himself a little he told me that, however great 

 my surprise might be at his unexpected appearance, it 

 would be much greater when I heard the intelligence 

 he had come to bring me. 'Intelligence,' he added, 

 'which, if properly profited by, would put both of us 

 m possession of unheard of wealth — millions and mill- 

 ions of dollars, in fact.' I franklv own when I heard 

 this I thought something had touched Marshall's brain, 

 when suddenly, all my misgivings were at an end by 

 his flinging on the table a handful of scales of pure 

 virgin gold. T was fairly thunderstruck, and asked 

 him what all this meant, when he went on to say that 

 according to my instructions, he had thrown the mill- 

 wheel out of gear to let the whole body of the water 

 in the dam find a passage through the tail-race which 

 was previously too narrow to allow the water to run 

 off in sufficient quantity, whereby the wheel was pre- 

 vented from efficiently performing its work. Ry this 



