“Can’t do it,” exclaimed Cribbens, sitting back on his heels, “hand shakes so.  You take it, pardner.  Careful, now.”

McTeague took the horn spoon and began rocking it gently in his huge fingers, sluicing the water over the edge a little at a time, each movement washing away a little more of the powdered quartz.  The two watched it with the intensest eagerness.

“Don’t see it yet; don’t see it yet,” whispered Cribbens, chewing his mustache.  “LEETLE faster, pardner.  That’s the ticket.  Careful, steady, now; leetle more, leetle more.  Don’t see color yet, do you?”

The quartz sediment dwindled by degrees as McTeague spooned it steadily.  Then at last a thin streak of a foreign substance began to show just along the edge.  It was yellow.

Neither spoke.  Cribbens dug his nails into the sand, and ground his mustache between his teeth.  The yellow streak broadened as the quartz sediment washed away.  Cribbens whispered: 

“We got it, pardner.  That’s gold.”

McTeague washed the last of the white quartz dust away, and let the water trickle after it.  A pinch of gold, fine as flour, was left in the bottom of the spoon.

“There you are,” he said.  The two looked at each other.  Then Cribbens rose into the air with a great leap and a yell that could have been heard for half a mile.

“Yee-e-ow!  We got it, we struck it.  Pardner, we got it.  Out of sight.  We’re millionaires.”  He snatched up his revolver and fired it with inconceivable rapidity.  “Put it there, old man,” he shouted, gripping McTeague’s palm.

“That’s gold, all right,” muttered McTeague, studying the contents of the spoon.

“You bet your great-grandma’s Cochin-China Chessy cat it’s gold,” shouted Cribbens.  “Here, now, we got a lot to do.  We got to stake her out an’ put up the location notice.  We’ll take our full acreage, you bet.  You—­we haven’t weighed this yet.  Where’s the scales?” He weighed the pinch of gold with shaking hands.  “Two grains,” he cried.  “That’ll run five dollars to the ton.  Rich, it’s rich; it’s the richest kind of pay, pardner.  We’re millionaires.  Why don’t you say something?  Why don’t you get excited?  Why don’t you run around an’ do something?”

“Huh!” said McTeague, rolling his eyes.  “Huh!  I know, I know, we’ve struck it pretty rich.”

“Come on,” exclaimed Cribbens, jumping up again.  “We’ll stake her out an’ put up the location notice.  Lord, suppose anyone should have come on her while we’ve been away.”  He reloaded his revolver deliberately.  “We’ll drop him all right, if there’s anyone fooling round there; I’ll tell you those right now.  Bring the rifle, pardner, an’ if you see anyone, plug him, an’ ask him what he wants afterward.”

They hurried back to where they had made their discovery.

“To think,” exclaimed Cribbens, as he drove the first stake, “to think those other mushheads had their camp within gunshot of her and never located her.  Guess they didn’t know the meaning of a ‘contact.’  Oh, I knew I was solid on ‘contacts.’”