The Bite of Memory

The heavy boom of a dynamite blast rolled across the fiat to the hills
that flung it back in a tardy echo like a spent ball of sound. A blob of
blue smoke curled out of a hole the size of a hogshead in a steep bank
overhung with alders. Outside, the wind caught the smoke and carried
streamers of it away to play with. A startled bluejay, on a limb high up
on the bank, lifted his slaty crest and teetered forward, clinging with
his toe nails to the branch while he scolded down at the men who had
scared him so. A rattle of clods and small rocks fell from their high
flight into the sweet air of a mountain sunset.

"Good execution, that was," Cash remarked, craning his neck toward the
hole. "If you're a mind to go on ahead and cook supper, I'll stay and
see if we opened up anything. Or you can stay, just as you please."

Dynamite smoke invariably made Bud's head ache splittingly. Cash was not
so susceptible. Bud chose the cooking, and went away down the flat, the
bluejay screaming insults after him. He was frying bacon when Cash came
in, a hatful of broken rock riding in the hollow of his arm.

"Got something pretty good here, Bud--if she don't turn out like that
dang Burro Lode ledge. Look here. Best looking quartz we've struck yet.
What do you think of it?"

He dumped the rock out on the oilcloth behind the sugar can and directly
under the little square window through which the sun was pouring a
lavish yellow flood of light before it dropped behind the peak. Bud set
the bacon back where it would not burn, and bent over the table to look.