Concho, a dusty Mexican vaquero crossing the Monterey Coast Range with a bottle of bad whisky, stumbles on a quicksilver lode. From that discovery the mine passes through squatters, rival claimants, forged Spanish land grants, San Francisco courts and finally the lobbies of Washington, where Harte turns his satire on the whole machinery of American government.
Harte’s sharpest look at greed and law in Gold Rush California, a Western with a satirist’s bite. Download the free EPUB.