"Huh!" grunted Rimrock as he swung lightly to the ground. "Two bits,
maybe! Four bits! A couple of dollars! What's that to talk about
when a man is out after millions? Is my credit good for the drinks?
Well, come on in then, boys; and I'll show you something good!"
He led the way through the swinging doors and Hassayamp followed
ponderously. The card players followed also and several cowboys,
appearing as if by miracle, lined up along with the rest. Old
Hassayamp looked them over grimly, breathed hard and spread out the
glasses.
"Well, all right, Rim," he observed, "between friends--but don't bid in
the whole town."
"When I drink, my friends drink," answered Rimrock and tossed off his
first drink in a month. "Now!" he went on, fetching out his sack,
"I'll show you something good!"
He poured out a pile of blue-gray sand and stood away from it
admiringly.
Old Hassayamp drew out his glasses and balanced them on his nose, then
he gazed at the pile of sand.
"Well," he said, "what is it, anyway?"
"It's copper, by grab, mighty nigh ten per cent copper, and you can
scoop it up with a shovel. There's worlds of it, Hassayamp, a whole
doggoned mountain! That's the trouble, there's almost too much! I
can't handle it, man, it'll take millions to do it; but believe me, the
millions are there. All I need is a stake now, just a couple of
thousand dollars----"
"Huh!" grunted Hassayamp looking up over his glasses, "you don't reckon
I've got that much, do you, to sink in a pile of _sand_?"
"If not you, then somebody else," replied Rimrock confidently. "Some
feller that's out looking for sand. I heard about a sport over in
London that tried on a bet to sell five-pound notes for a shilling.
That's like me offering to sell you twenty-five dollars for the English
equivalent of two bits. And d'ye think he could get anyone to take
'em? He stood up on a soap box and waved those notes in the air, but
d'ye think he could get anybody to buy?"
He paused with a cynical smile and looked Hassayamp in the eye.
"Well--no," conceded Hassayamp weakly.
"You bet your life he could!" snapped back Rimrock. "A guy came along
that knowed. He took one look at those five-pound notes and handed up
fifty cents."
"'I'll take two of 'em,' he says; and walks off with fifty dollars!"
Rimrock scooped up his despised sand and poured it back into the bag,
after which he turned on his heel. As the doors swung to behind him
Old Hassayamp looked at his customers and shook his head impressively.
From the street outside Rimrock could be heard telling a Mexican in
Spanish to take his horse to the corrals. He was master of Gunsight
yet, though all his money had vanished and his credit would buy nothing
but the drinks.
"Well, what d'ye know about that?" observed Hassayamp meditatively.
"By George, sometimes I almost think that boy is right!"
He cleared his throat and hobbled towards the door and the crowd took
the hint to disperse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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