When the third Saturday came, with the appearance of See Yup and four hundred and fifty dollars’ worth of gold-dust, the clerk felt he was no longer bound to keep the secret.  He communicated it to others, and in twenty-four hours the whole settlement knew that See Yup’s coolie company were taking out an average of four hundred dollars per week from the refuse and tailings of the old abandoned Palmetto claim!

The astonishment of the settlement was profound.  In earlier days jealousy and indignation at the success of these degraded heathens might have taken a more active and aggressive shape, and it would have fared ill with See Yup and his companions.  But the settlement had become more prosperous and law-abiding; there were one or two Eastern families and some foreign capital already there, and its jealousy and indignation were restricted to severe investigation and legal criticism.  Fortunately for See Yup, it was an old-established mining law that an abandoned claim and its tailings became the property of whoever chose to work it.  But it was alleged that See Yup’s company had in reality “struck a lead,”—­discovered a hitherto unknown vein or original deposit of gold, not worked by the previous company, and having failed legally to declare it by preemption and public registry, in their foolish desire for secrecy, had thus forfeited their right to the property.  A surveillance of their working, however, did not establish this theory; the gold that See Yup had sent away was of the kind that might have been found in the tailings overlooked by the late Palmetto owners.  Yet it was a very large yield for mere refuse.

“Them Palmetto boys were mighty keerless after they’d made their big ‘strike’ and got to work on the vein, and I reckon they threw a lot of gold away,” said Cy Parker, who remembered their large-handed recklessness in the “flush days.”  “On’y that we didn’t think it was white man’s work to rake over another man’s leavin’s, we might hev had what them derned Chinamen hev dropped into.  Tell ye what, boys, we’ve been a little too ‘high and mighty,’ and we’ll hev to climb down.”

At last the excitement reached its climax, and diplomacy was employed to effect what neither intimidation nor espionage could secure.  Under the pretense of desiring to buy out See Yup’s company, a select committee of the miners was permitted to examine the property and its workings.  They found the great bank of stones and gravel, representing the cast-out debris of the old claim, occupied by See Yup and four or five plodding automatic coolies.  At the end of two hours the committee returned to the saloon bursting with excitement.  They spoke under their breath, but enough was gathered to satisfy the curious crowd that See Yup’s pile of tailings was rich beyond their expectations.  The committee had seen with their own eyes gold taken out of the sand and gravel to the amount of twenty dollars in the two short hours of their examination.  And the work