E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) SILVER AND GOLD * * * * * BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE FIGHTING FOOL: A Tale of the Western Frontier Cloth, 12mo. with a wrapper drawn by Edward Borein $1.75 net E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY NEW YORK * * * * * SILVER AND GOLD A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp by DANE COOLIDGE Author of "The Fighting Fool" Etc. [Illustration] "Gold is where you find it, and Silver in high places." --_Miners' Saying_. New York E. P. Dutton & Company 681 Fifth Avenue Copyright, 1919 By E. P. Dutton & Company All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Ground-Hog 1 II. Big Boy 7 III. Hobo Stuff 16 IV. Cash 23 V. Mother Trigedgo 33 VI. The Oraculum 42 VII. The Eminent Buttinsky 53 VIII. The Silver Treasure 61 IX. Bible-Back Murray 72 X. Signs and Omens 81 XI. The Lady of the Sycamores 92 XII. Steel on Steel 100 XIII. Swede Luck 108 XIV. The Strike 119 XV. A Night for Love 128 XVI. A Friend 138 XVII. Broke 147 XVIII. The Hand of Fate 154 XIX. The Man-Killer 161 XX. Jumpers--and Tenors 170 XXI. Broke Again 180 XXII. The Rock-Drilling Contest 189 XXIII. The Heart of his Beloved 200 XXIV. Colonel Dodge 210 XXV. The Answer 219 XXVI. The Course of the Law 231 XXVII. Like a Hog on Ice 238 XXVIII. Parole 245 XXIX. The Interpretation Thereof 251 SILVER AND GOLD _THE PROPHECY_ "You will make a long journey to the West and there, within the shadow of a Place of Death, you will find two treasures, one of Silver and the other of Gold. Choose well between them and both shall be Yours, but if you choose unwisely you will lose them Both and suffer a great disgrace. You will fall in love with a beautiful woman who is an artist, but beware how you reveal your affection or she will confer her hand upon Another. Courage and constancy will attend you through life but in the end will prove your undoing, for you will meet your death at the hands of your Dearest Friend." SILVER AND GOLD CHAPTER I THE GROUND-HOG