Читать книгу The Last Chance: A Tale of the Golden West онлайн

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ssss1‘Well, my dear, these are truths—stranger than fiction, as the eminent person says. Shows that all mining ventures are not swindles; and now for my proposal. You haven’t had leave of absence lately?’

‘Not for four years. Leave obtainable, but no visible means, if I had gone.’

‘Quite so—couldn’t be better put. But now the case is different. You have the five hundred pounds to come and go on—Oh! I may say here that I called at the Bank and asked Mr.Bright to show me the specimens. They made my mouth water. What necklaces and rings—pearls and diamonds I saw in the future—if the reef “went down,” as old Waters said. How the shares would go up! That wasn’t the only thing I saw. I saw schools and colleges—travel, society for the children, a house in town—a carriage (which my soul loveth),—all these I saw in those pretty white and fawn-coloured stones with their threads and veins of gold—pure gold running through and through them. Mr.Bright thinks well of the affair too, I can see.’

‘Yes, he does—and he ought to be a judge. How many a ton of that same quartz, more or less auriferous, has he handled in his time! Many a pound has he lost over it too.’