I received a message in a dream, in a vision of the night, a promise
from the Sphinx. I fancied that I was on Lynx Creek, sitting on the
windlass at the shaft of my silver mine. This mine is within a mile
of the place where we had camped and met the party of miners. I had
worked the mine with profit until I met, through no fault of mine,
with a fault in the mine and encountered a horse in the formation
which faulted the ground in such a manner as to interrupt the pay
chute and to make further work unprofitable.
While I sat there, lighting my pipe and blessing my luck, I saw a
black tomcat come along and jump my claim. As I have always detested
claim jumpers, I threw a rock at him and with an uncanny mee-ow and
bristling tail he disappeared down the mine. When I went to the spot
where he had scratched, after the fashion of cats, probably preparing
to build his location monument and place his notice, I was
thunderstruck to see that the rock I had thrown at him had been
transformed into a chunk of pure gold. Surely where that cat jumped
into the mine, there lies a bonanza, there shall I sink to the water
level.
From the time of my youth have I always possessed great bodily
strength and physical endurance, combined with good health, and now,
I am, if anything, stronger in body than ever and I am blessed with
the identical passions and thoughts I harbored in the days of my
youth.
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