Theodore Seixas Solomons

“ And when the friends converted into cash their holdings in mine and store and workshop, or begged or borrowed funds for fictitious purposes, and then besought Othmer and the others to buy interests for them—any interests, no matter how small, or how remote from the discovery claim—there was simply nothing for these soft-hearted ones to do but beg Ticely to let them have a little more ground. And when Ticely yielded, they immediately reconveyed to the friends, who thereupon became sick with rapture. There are no sheep like mining-camp sheep! ”

“ So much quietude attracted the attention, finally, of a contingent of canny and crafty ones who were footloose and unencumbered—true camp followers, these, whose only equipment would be alertness and a wit to profit by whatever might happen, meretriciously or otherwise. ”

“ Of much of this enterprise and preparation Ticely himself knew little. For though a man now and again, and once a woman, carried tales to him, to gain his favor, he was obliged to depend for the most part on his own observation to estimate the extent of the movement toward Midas Creek. ”