418 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



nomenal a result again and that plenty of room 

 was left for proof that we had discovered a great 

 mine. My heart sank as the seconds passed and 

 I tasted the bitterness of blasted hopes and for 

 the first time realized how I had builded upon 

 them. There was no chance left. There was 

 only a trace of silver when the last of the litharge 

 was absorbed. 



Ned had got the hunting excursion in the 

 Vallecito that he wanted at the cost of a filing 

 from a gold piece that he carried, though it was 

 days before I recovered sufficiently from my dis- 

 appointment to speak of it to him. 



Of the more than five hundred assays which I 

 made of our work in the Needles no series of 

 them were promising enough to justify the advice 

 that more money should be put into the mines and 

 the enterprise was dropped for a time. Later it 

 was taken up by others, notably by William 

 Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, and al- 

 though much money was put in I never learned 

 of any being taken out. 



