At the Time Appointed

"Give him the position of assayer in charge."

"Great Scott! and fire Benson, who's been there for five years?"

"It makes no difference how long he's been there. Darrell is a better

man every way,--quicker, more accurate, more scientific. You can put

Benson to sorting and weighing ores down at the ore-bins."

After a brief silence Mr. Britton continued, "You couldn't find a better

man for the place or a better position for the man. The work is

evidently right in the line of his profession, and therefore congenial;

and even though you should pay him no more salary than Benson, that,

with outside work in the way of assays for neighboring camps, will be

better than any business interest you would give him short of twelve or

eighteen months at least."

"I guess you're right, and I'll give him the place; but hang it all! I

did want to put him in Harry's place. You and I are getting along in

years, Jack, and it's time we had some young man getting broke to the

harness, so that after a while he could take the brunt of things and let

us old fellows slack up a bit."

"We could not expect that of Darrell," said Mr. Britton. "He is neither

kith nor kin of ours, and when once Nature's ties begin to assert

themselves in his mind, we may find our hold upon him very slight."

Both men sighed deeply, as though the thought had in some way touched an

unpleasant chord. After a pause, Mr. Britton inquired,-"You have no clue whatever as to Darrell's identity, have you?"

Mr. Underwood shook his head. "Queerest case I ever saw! There wasn't a

scrap of paper nor a pen-mark to show who he was. Parkinson, the mine

expert who was on the same train, said he didn't remember seeing him

until Harry introduced him; he said he supposed he was some friend of

Harry's. Since his sickness I've looked up the conductor on that train

and questioned him, but all he could remember was that he boarded the

train a little this side of Galena and that he had a ticket through from

St. Paul."

"You say this Parkinson was a mine expert; what was he doing out here?"

"He was one of three or four that were here at that time, looking up the

Ajax for eastern parties."

"In all probability," said Mr. Britton, musingly, "Darrell was here on

the same business."

"If that was his business, he said nothing about it to me, and I would

have thought he would, under the circumstances."

"I wonder whether we could ascertain from the owners of the Ajax what

experts were out here or expected out here at that time?"

Mr. Underwood smiled grimly. "Not from the former owners, for nobody

knows where they are, though there are some people quite anxious to

know; and not from the present owners, for they are too busy looking for

their predecessors in interest to think of anything else."