Chinaman remaining in the settlement. Then the fatal secret was out.
The heap of tailings had probably never yielded the See Yup company more
than twenty dollars a week, the ordinary wage of such a company. See Yup
had conceived the brilliant idea of "booming" it on a borrowed capital
of five hundred dollars in gold-dust, which he OPENLY transmitted by
express to his confederate and creditor in San Francisco, who in turn
SECRETLY sent it back to See Yup by coolie messengers, to be again
openly transmitted to San Francisco. The package of gold-dust was thus
passed backwards and forwards between debtor and creditor, to the
grave edification of the Express Company and the fatal curiosity of the
settlement. When the syndicate had gorged the bait thus thrown out, See
Yup, on the day the self-invited committee inspected the claim, promptly
"salted" the tailings by CONSCIENTIOUSLY DISTRIBUTING THE GOLD-DUST OVER
IT so deftly that it appeared to be its natural composition and yield.
I have only to bid farewell to See Yup, and close this reminiscence of
a misunderstood man, by adding the opinion of an eminent jurist in San
Francisco, to whom the facts were submitted: "So clever was this alleged
fraud, that it is extremely doubtful if an action would lie against See
Yup in the premises, there being no legal evidence of the 'salting,'
and none whatever of his actual allegation that the gold-dust was the
ORDINARY yield of the tailings, that implication resting entirely with
the committee who examined it under false pretense, and who subsequently
forced the sale by intimidation."
THE DESBOROUGH CONNECTIONS
"Then it isn't a question of property or next of kin?" said the consul.
"Lord! no," said the lady vivaciously. "Why, goodness me! I reckon
old Desborough could, at any time before he died, have 'bought up' or
'bought out' the whole lot of his relatives on this side of the
big pond, no matter what they were worth. No, it's only a matter of
curiosity and just sociableness."
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