His son ever after claimed that Henry had hired the man to kill him, which was manifestly absurd. Texans, as a rule, will give a man a fair fight and some chance for his life, but all the men at the mines were not Texans, not even Americans. There were two Italians from New York, expert mastic-makers, who were sent down by the company to instal a mastic plant. One of them had trouble with the foreman and laid a trap for him. On the third storey of the mastic-house there was a balcony exactly over the main entrance. Here the Italian took his stand, leaning on the rail, and at his feet a piece of plank. When the foreman passed underneath, he timed things very nicely, tipped the plank over the edge with his foot as he turned, and went into the building, not stopping to see the result. Fortunately, some one saw the whole performance and yelled. The foreman ducked, and the plank struck him a glancing blow on the shoulder. Of course it was “an accident”; but both Italians were discharged at once. The branch railroad on which I was employed being completed, I was put in the extractor house as apprentice to learn the work. After the rock is crushed to about two inches in diameter, it is put into large steam-jacketed extractors holding five tons each. The top is sealed down and naphtha pumped in on the rock till the extractors are full; then steam is turned into the jacket, and the hot naphtha extracts all the bitumen from the rock. After a while the asphalt-laden naphtha is drawn off; the rock is then washed with fresh naphtha, which, in turn, is drawn off. The live steam is turned in on the rock and drawn off through condensers, carrying with it the last of the naphtha. The condensed steam and naphtha are run through a settler having two pipes, one at the top to carry off the naphtha to its tank, and one at the bottom for the water. Two or three days after I started in the extractor house the man in charge let the water run too low, and thus some naphtha got out through the water-pipe into the creek, for which he was discharged. I was then put in charge, and though I hardly knew anything about the business, I dared not let the opportunity for advancement slip by me.