The Furnace of Gold

Furnace of Gold, The

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Furnace of Gold, by Philip
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Title: The Furnace of Gold
Author: Philip Verrill Mighels
Illustrator: J. N. Marchand
Release Date: August 31, 2005 [EBook #16629]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
FURNACE OF GOLD ***

Produced by Al Haines

The Furnace of Gold
By
PHILIP VERRILL MIGHELS

Author of
THE PILLARS OF EDEN, BRUVVER JIM'S BABY, ETC

Illustrations by
J. N. MARCHAND

GROSSET & DUNLAP
Publishers :: New York

Copyright, 1909, by
P. V. Mighels
Copyright, 1910, by
Desmond FitzGerald, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
PRINCE OR BANDIT II. INTO THE MOUNTAINS III. A RESCUE
IV. CONGENIAL COMPANY V. VAN'S PARTNERS VI. THE

BATTLE VII. AN EXCHANGE OF QUESTIONS VIII. A NIGHT'S
EXPENSES IX. PROGRESS AND SALT X. THE LAUGHING
WATER CLAIM XI. ALGY STIRS UP TROUBLE XII. BOSTWICK
LOSES GROUND XIII. A COMBINATION OF FORCES XIV.
MOVING A SHACK XV. HATCHING A PLOT XVI. INVOLVING
BETH XVII. UNEXPECTED COMPLICATIONS XVIII. WHEREIN
MATTERS THICKEN XIX. VAN AND BETH AND BOSTWICK
XX. QUEENIE XXI. IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROPE XXII. TWO
MEETINGS AFTER DARK XXIII. BETH'S DESPERATION XXIV.
A BLIZZARD OF DUST XXV. A TIMELY DELIVERANCE XXVI.
THE NIGHT IN THE DESERT XXVII. TALL STORIES XXVIII.
WORK AND SONG XXIX. SUSPICIOUS ANSWERS XXX. BETH'S
ONE EXPEDIENT XXXI. McCOPPET BUSIES HIS MIND XXXII.
THE HARDSHIPS OF THE TRAIL XXXIII. THE CLOUDS OF
TROUBLE GATHER XXXIV. THE TAKING OF THE CLAIM
XXXV. THE MEETINGS OF TWO STRONG MEN XXXVI. VAN
RUNS AMUCK XXXVII. THE PRIMITIVE LAW XXXVIII. BETH
MAKES DEMANDS XXXIX. ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S
DESPAIR XL. GLEN AND REVELATIONS XLI. SUVY PROVES
HIS LOVE XLII. THE FURNACE OF GOLD XLIII. PREPARING
THE NET FOR A DRAW XLIV. THE ENGINES OF CLIMAX XLV.
THE LAST CIGARS XLVI. WASTED TIME XLVII. A TRIBUTE
TO THE DESERT

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
He Proceeded to Pan from a Dozen Different Places in the Cove . . . .
Frontispiece [missing from book]
His Hold Was Giving Way
The Angry Miner Lurching in Closer to Shoot [missing from book]
"Don't You Want to Give This Man a Chance?"
Beth Felt Her Heart Begin New Gymnastics [missing from book]

No Corpse Snatched from Its Grave Could Have Been More Helplessly
Inert
"Yesh, He's Broke the Law"
Till the Mechanism Burst, He would Chase His Man Across the Desert
[missing from book]

THE FURNACE OF GOLD
CHAPTER I
PRINCE OR BANDIT
Now Nevada, though robed in gray and white--the gray of sagebrush
and the white of snowy summits--had never yet been accounted a nun
when once again the early summer aroused the passions of her being
and the wild peach burst into bloom.
It was out in Nauwish valley, at the desert-edge, where gold has been
stored in the hungry-looking rock to lure man away from fairer pastures.
There were mountains everywhere--huge, rugged mountains, erected in
the igneous fury of world-making, long since calmed. Above them all
the sky was almost incredibly blue--an intense ultramarine of
extraordinary clearness and profundity.
At the southwest limit of the valley was the one human habitation
established thereabout in many miles, a roadside station where a spring
of water issued from the earth. Towards this, on the narrow, side-hill
road, limped a dusty red automobile.
It contained three passengers, two women and a man. Of the women,
one was a little German maid, rather pretty and demure, whose duty it
was to enact the chaperone. The other, Beth Kent, straight from New
York City, well--the wild peach was in bloom!
She was amazingly beautiful and winning. It seemed as if she and not

the pink mountain blossoms must be responsible for all that haunting
redolence in this landscape of passionless gray. Her brown eyes burned
with glorious luminosity. Her color pulsed with health and the joyance
of existence. Her red lips quivered with unuttered ecstacies that surged
in the depths of her nature. Even the bright brown strands of her hair,
escaping the prison of her cap, were catching the sunlight and flinging
it off in the most engaging animation. She loved this new, unpeopled
land--the mountains, the sky, the vastness of it all!
For a two-fold reason she had come from New York to Nevada. In the
first place her young half-brother, Glenville Kent--all the kin she had
remaining in the world--had been for a month at Goldite camp, where
she was heading, and all that he wrote had inflamed