Mat Bailey
cracked his whip and dashed by as if under fire.
From the Back-Bone the descent to North Bloomfield was very steep, and
was made with grinding of brakes and precipitate speed. Arrived at the
post-office, Dr. Mason and the two gamblers left the coach; and a
store-keeper and two surveyors employed by the great Malakoff Mining
Company took passage to Nevada City. In those halcyon days of hydraulic
mining, the Malakoff, employing fifty men, was known to clean up
$100,000 in thirty days. It was five hundred feet through dirt and
gravel to bed-rock, and a veritable canon had been washed out of the
earth.
The next stop was Lake City,--a name illustrative of Californian
megalomania; for the lake, long since gone dry, was merely an artificial
reservoir to supply a neighboring mine, and the city was a collection of
half a dozen buildings including a store and a hotel. Through the open
door of the store a huge safe was visible, for here was one of those
depositories for gold dust locally known as a bank. As the stage pulled
up, the banker and a lady stepped out to greet Will Cummins, who
alighted and cordially shook hands.
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