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Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity

Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker

© 2009 G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker ISBN: 978-1-405-18408-3
9781405184083_1_pre.qxd 28/8/09 10:44 AM Page ii

Other volumes of this Commentary

Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning, Volume 1 of An Analytical

Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations
Part I: Essays
G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker,
second, extensively revised edition by P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning, Volume 1 of An Analytical

Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations
Part II: Exegesis §§1–184
G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker,
second, extensively revised edition by P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind, Volume 3 of An Analytical Commentary

on the Philosophical Investigations
Part I: Essays
P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind, Volume 3 of An Analytical Commentary

on the Philosophical Investigations
Part II: Exegesis §§243–427
P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Mind and Will, Volume 4 of An Analytical Commentary on

the Philosophical Investigations
Part I: Essays
P. M. S. Hacker

Wittgenstein: Mind and Will, Volume 4 of An Analytical Commentary on

the Philosophical Investigations
Part II: Exegesis §§428–693
P. M. S. Hacker

Epilogue:
Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy
P. M. S. Hacker
9781405184083_1_pre.qxd 28/8/09 10:44 AM Page iii

Volume 2
of An Analytical Commentary on
the Philosophical Investigations

Wittgenstein:
Rules, Grammar and Necessity


Essays and Exegesis of §§185–242

G. P. Baker & P. M. S. Hacker

Fellows of St John’s College · Oxford

Second, extensively revised edition

by

P. M. S. Hacker
9781405184083_1_pre.qxd 28/8/09 10:44 AM Page iv

This second edition first published 2009

© 2009 G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker
Edition history: Blackwell Publishers Ltd (1e, 1985)
Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s
publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, Gordon P.
Wittgenstein – rules, grammar and necessity: essays and exegesis of 185–242 / G. P. Baker
& P. M. S. Hacker. – 2nd, extensively rev. ed. / by P. M. S. Hacker.
p. cm. – (An analytical commentary on the philosophical investigations; v. 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-8408-3 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889 –1951. Philosophische Untersuchungen.
2. Philosophy. 3. Language and languages–Philosophy. 4. Semantics (Philosophy)
I. Hacker, P. M. S. (Peter Michael Stephan)
II. Title. B3376.W563 P5323 2010 vol. 2
192 – dc22
2009018428
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in 10/12pt Bembo by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Printed in Singapore
1 2009
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For Anne and Sylvia

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Contents

Acknowledgements x
Introduction to Volume 2 xii
Abbreviations xvi

ANALYTICAL COMMENTARY 1

I Two fruits upon one tree 3

1. The continuation of the Early Draft into philosophy
of mathematics 3
2. Hidden isomorphism 7
3. A common methodology 12
4. The flatness of philosophical grammar 19

FOLLOWING A RULE §§185–242 23

Introduction to the exegesis 25

II Rules and grammar 41

1. The Tractatus and rules of logical syntax 41
2. From logical syntax to philosophical grammar 43
3. Rules and rule-formulations 46
4. Philosophy and grammar 55
5. The scope of grammar 59
6. Some morals 65

Exegesis §§185–8 68

III Accord with a rule 81

1. Initial compass bearings 81
2. Accord and the harmony between language and reality 83
3. Rules of inference and logical machinery 88
4. Formulations and explanations of rules by examples 90
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viii Contents

5. Interpretations, fitting and grammar 93

6. Further misunderstandings 95

Exegesis §§189–202 98
IV Following rules, mastery of techniques, and practices 135
1. Following a rule 135
2. Practices and techniques 140
3. Doing the right thing and doing the same thing 145
4. Privacy and the community view 149
5. On not digging below bedrock 156

V Private linguists and ‘private linguists’ – Robinson

Crusoe sails again 157
1. Is a language necessarily shared with a community of speakers? 157
2. Innate knowledge of a language 158
3. Robinson Crusoe sails again 160
4. Solitary cavemen and monologuists 163
5. Private languages and ‘private languages’ 165
6. Overview 166

Exegesis §§203–37 169

VI Agreement in definitions, judgements and forms of life 211
1. The scaffolding of facts 211
2. The role of our nature 215
3. Forms of life 218
4. Agreement: consensus of human beings and their actions 223

Exegesis §§238–42 231

VII Grammar and necessity 241
1. Setting the stage 241
2. Leitmotifs 245
3. External guidelines 258
4. Necessary propositions and norms of representation 262
5. Concerning the truth and falsehood of necessary propositions 270
6. What necessary truths are about 280
7. Illusions of correspondence: ideal objects, kinds of reality
and ultra-physics 283
8. The psychology and epistemology of the a priori 289
(i) Knowledge 289
(ii) Belief 291
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Contents ix

(iii) Certainty 294

(iv) Surprise 298
(v) Discoveries and conjectures 300
(vi) Compulsion 305
9. Propositions of logic and laws of thought 308
10. Alternative forms of representation 320
11. The arbitrariness of grammar 332
12. A kinship to the non-arbitrary 338
13. Proof in mathematics 345
14. Conventionalism 356

Index 371
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Acknowledgements

While writing the second edition of Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity,
I have benefited greatly from friends and colleagues who were kind enough
to read some of the draft essays or the exegesis or both, and to discuss the
difficulties with me. I am grateful to Edward Kanterian, who read and com-
mented on many of the essays. Leo Cheung, Andrew English, Timo-Peter
Ertz, Anthony Kenny, Wolfgang Künne, Felix Mühlhölzer, Hans Oberdiek,
Piero Pinzauti and Joachim Schulte all gave me numerous helpful comments
and corrections on the final essay on grammar and necessity. I am especially
indebted to Hanoch Ben-Yami and to Herman Philipse who read most of the
exegesis and essays and whose remarks saved me again and again from error
or unclarity.
My college, St John’s, generously supports research done by its Emeritus
Research Fellows and offers its many facilities for their use. For this I am most
grateful. The team at Wiley-Blackwell have seen this project through the press
with their customary efficiency and courtesy. I am particularly indebted to Nick
Bellorini and Liz Cremona.
A version of the essay ‘Private linguists and “private linguists” – Robinson
Crusoe sails again’ was presented at a conference organized by Nuño
Venturinha at the Universidad Nova de Lisboa in May, 2008, and is to be
published in the volume he has edited, entitled Wittgenstein after His Nachlass
(Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2009). Parts of the essay ‘Grammar and neces-
sity’ were presented at seminars at the University of Bologna in April/May
2009 and at the 32nd International Wittgenstein Symposium at Kirchberg in
August 2009.
P. M. S. H.
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Thoughts reduced to paper are generally nothing

more than the footprints of a man walking in
the sand. It is true that we see the path he
has taken; but to know what he saw on the way,
we must use our own eyes.

Schopenhauer
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Introduction to Volume 2

The first edition of this book was written between 1981 and 1984. Gordon
Baker and I had not originally intended to dedicate a whole volume to the
fifty-seven remarks that run from Philosophical Investigations §185 to §242. But
we found that the text was exceedingly difficult to penetrate. The interpreta-
tive controversies about these remarks were extensive and deep. The amount
of manuscript material on rules, following rules, practices and techniques was
large. The ratio of directly related Nachlass notes and typescripts to published
text is high. For, as we noted, Wittgenstein went over this ground again
and again, criss-cross in all directions, repeatedly redrafting remarks, adding,
pruning and polishing. Much of this material is invaluable, making his inten-
tions clear and resolving disputes about the interpretation of the final text.
We thought it a fundamental part of our enterprise to lay this documentation
before the reader. The manuscript material is indispensable for understanding
Wittgenstein’s ideas, and it provides the background against which our exposi-
tion of his ideas must be judged. So we resolved to write a volume dedicated
to Wittgenstein’s views on grammatical rules, on accord with a rule, on follow-
ing rules, on internal relations, and on the nature of logical, grammatical and
mathematical necessity.
Because the themes raised in these fifty-seven remarks of the Investigations
are so densely interwoven, the essays in this volume are more closely integ-
rated as parts of a single logical nexus than those in Volume 1, Part I. The
clarification of what precisely Wittgenstein meant by ‘a rule of grammar’, what
the relation is between a rule and the acts that accord with it, what it is to
follow a rule, and whether, and in what sense, one can follow a rule privately
or ‘privately’ are a sequentially related array of enquiries that are essential to
understanding Wittgenstein’s thought both upon the philosophy of mathematics
and upon the philosophy of language. Precisely because the Frühfassung con-
tinued into an early draft of the Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, Part
1, rather than into what we now know as ‘the private language arguments’,
we thought it essential to explain how two such diverse trees as the philo-
sophy of mathematics and explanation of the nature of necessity, on the one
hand, and the private language arguments, on the other, could be grafted onto
the same stock. And we also thought it necessary to take some steps to explain
the direction of Wittgenstein’s thought in the Remarks. Hence the long con-
cluding essay on ‘Grammar and necessity’. For it is not possible to understand
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Introduction to Volume 2 xiii

Wittgenstein’s thought in general without some grasp of his conception of the

nature of the necessary truths of logic, mathematics and grammar (metaphysics),
even though this theme is muted in the Investigations.
While we were working on this volume of the Commentary, Saul Kripke
published his lecture on Wittgenstein on following rules, which was sub-
sequently expanded into a small book, Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language
(Blackwell, Oxford, 1982). We were convinced, on the basis of our research
on the Nachlass, that Kripke’s (and Robert Fogelin’s prior) interpretation of
what they both called the ‘paradox’ of rule-following was mistaken. We were
even more doubtful about the sceptical Humean solution to the alleged prob-
lem, which they attributed to Wittgenstein, and of the assertability-conditional
semantic theory that Kripke, following Dummett, ascribed to Wittgenstein.
We confronted those views explicitly in a small volume of three essays on the
subject, Scepticism, Rules and Language (Blackwell, Oxford, 1984), and impli-
citly in this volume, especially in the essays ‘Accord with a rule’ and ‘Following
rules, mastery of techniques and practices’ and in the exegesis of §§198–202.
We showed that they had no adequate basis in Wittgenstein’s writings.
Indeed, we argued that they conflict with much that Wittgenstein had written
and with the point and purpose of his discussions.
In the quarter of a century since we published the first edition of this
volume, there has been much discussion of Kripke’s interpretation, some cri-
ticizing and others defending it. Some philosophers, such as Norman Malcolm,
prescinded from Kripke’s sceptical interpretation of the remarks on following
rules, but supported the so-called community view according to which there
can be rules only if they are shared by a community of rule-followers. These
continuing debates merited fresh scrutiny. New Nachlass materials were dis-
covered, shedding further light on the issues. The Bergen electronic edition
of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass was published, with an invaluable search engine.
Puzzlement and bafflement about Wittgenstein’s writings on the philosophy
of mathematics continued, still largely guided by Michael Dummett’s mis-
interpretations of Wittgenstein’s Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics in
his 1959 review of the book and in his later writings on the subject. All this
warranted an extensively revised edition that would take advantage of the new
materials and of the Nachlass search engine, and examine the issues afresh.
In 2001 Gordon Baker and I decided to produce a second edition of
Volume 1 of this Commentary, Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning, in order
to correct errors that we had made twenty-five years earlier, to bring it up to
date with the continuing research on Wittgenstein’s texts, to make use of the
electronic edition of the Nachlass and its search engine, and to elaborate the
new ideas we had had in the course of a quarter of a century’s further reflections.
Before we had even begun, however, Gordon fell ill with cancer, and died
in 2002. Working therefore alone, I rewrote large parts of the first edition of
Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning, compressing the old text and adding
a great deal of new material, as well as two new essays, completely redrafting
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xiv Introduction to Volume 2

about half of the old essays, and comprehensively rewriting the exegesis. The
second edition was published in two volumes, one of essays and the other of
exegesis, in 2005. Having completed that task, I turned in 2007 to examine
Volume 2 of the Commentary, and decided that this too needed redrafting
and supplementing with new material.
In this second edition I have redrafted much of the exegesis in the light of
numerous debates on the text over the last twenty-five years. I have, as in the
revisions to Volume 1, benefited greatly from Professor Eike von Savigny’s
methodical criticisms in his Wittgensteins ‘Philosophische Untersuchungen’: Ein
Commentar für Leser, 2nd edn (Klosterman, Frankfurt am Main, 1994). I have
also been able to make use of the Bergen electronic edition to hunt down
passages Gordon and I had missed as we searched our way through the 20,000
pages of Nachlass in the 1980s. Hence the tables of correlation are much expanded,
and will enable scholars to trace each remark to its sources. The result of this
new research is, I hope, an exhaustive survey of the relevant materials that
bear on the text, which will enable readers to judge for themselves whether
the interpretation offered is faithful to the printed text and supported by the
relevant manuscript materials. I should emphasize that I bear sole responsibility
for any new views advanced in this second edition.
The essays have been rewritten, sometimes extensively. One point that I
have tried to bring out, which was not previously made adequately clear, is
the point and purpose of Wittgenstein’s lengthy investigations into rules and
following rules, and their structural role within the Philosophical Investigations.
We had endeavoured to clarify why this issue arises out of the conception of
meaning as use, on the one hand, and the notion of understanding, in parti-
cular understanding something at a stroke, on the other. But no less pertinent
is the need to elucidate the nexus between internal relations and the idea that
following a rule is a practice. For internal relations are the fruits of a norma-
tive practice – a rule-governed regularity of action. And, against the backdrop
of the stream of human life, it is they that determine what is to be called, for
example, describing, calculating, inferring, and so forth. These ideas are at the
heart of Wittgenstein’s normative conception of mathematical propositions and
laws of inference and, indeed, it was for that purpose that they were origin-
ally crafted. For the book was originally intended to proceed from §189 into
what we now know as Part I of the Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics.
So it is important to set the discussion of following a rule in both contexts.
One new essay has been added. ‘Private linguists and “private linguists”
– Robinson Crusoe sails again’ is designed to settle the debate between the
‘community view’ and its ‘individualist’ adversaries once and for all as far as
Wittgensteinian exegesis is concerned.
By far the most important modification to the essays is the substantial ex-
pansion of ‘Grammar and necessity’. I have rewritten this essay, compressing
the old text and adding much new material. My intention was to produce an
overview of Wittgenstein’s conception of logical, grammatical and mathematical
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Introduction to Volume 2 xv

necessity and also a prolegomenon to his later (post-1936) philosophy of math-

ematics. A new section on mathematical proof has been added, with an expla-
nation of Wittgenstein’s remarks on decision that is at odds with the views
commonly ascribed to him. I have also elaborated the section on the relation-
ship between Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mathematics and logic and that
of the Vienna Circle. This was rewritten in the light of Gordon Baker’s
essay on this subject in Wittgenstein, Frege and the Vienna Circle (Blackwell,
Oxford, 1988).
The exegesis follows the same model as in Volume 1, Part II, save that in
this volume it is dispersed between the essays. It has been thoroughly revised.
The number of German quotations has been reduced, since the text of
Wittgenstein’s manuscripts is now readily available in the Bergen electronic
edition of the Nachlass. The text of the Philosophische Untersuchungen used is
the 4th edition. The English text of the Investigations is also the 4th edition
with its considerably modified translation.

P. M. S. Hacker
St John’s College, Oxford
March, 2009
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Abbreviations

1. Wittgenstein’s published works

The following abbreviations, listed in alphabetical order, are used to refer to
Wittgenstein’s published works.
BB The Blue and Brown Books (Blackwell, Oxford, 1958).
BlB Occasionally used to refer to the Blue Book.
BrB Occasionally used to refer to the Brown Book.
BT The Big Typescript, tr. C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue
(Blackwell, Oxford, 2004).
C On Certainty, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright, tr.
D. Paul and G. E. M. Anscombe (Blackwell, Oxford, 1969).
CE ‘Cause and Effect: Intuitive Awareness’, repr. in Ludwig Wittgenstein:
Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951, ed. J. Klagge and A. Nordmann
(Hackett, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1993), pp. 370–426.
CL Cambridge Letters, ed. Brian McGuinness and G. H. von Wright
(Blackwell, Oxford, 1995).
CV Culture and Value, ed. G. H. von Wright in collaboration with
H. Nyman, tr. P. Winch (Blackwell, Oxford, 1980).
EPB Eine Philosophische Betrachtung, ed. R. Rhees, in Ludwig Wittgenstein:
Schriften 5 (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, 1970).
GB ‘Remarks on Frazer’s “Golden Bough” ’, tr. J. Beversluis, repr. in
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951, ed. J. Klagge
and A. Nordmann (Hackett, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1993),
pp. 118–55.
LPE ‘Wittgenstein’s Notes for Lectures on “Private Experience” and
“Sense Data” ’, ed. R. Rhees, repr. in Ludwig Wittgenstein:
Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951, ed. J. Klagge and A. Nordmann
(Hackett, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1993), pp. 202–88.
LW I Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. I, ed. G. H. von
Wright and H. Nyman, tr. C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue
(Blackwell, Oxford, 1982).
NB Notebooks 1914 –16, ed. G. H. von Wright and G. E. M. Anscombe,
tr. G. E. M. Anscombe 2nd edn (Blackwell, Oxford, 1979).
PG Philosophical Grammar, ed. R. Rhees, tr. A. J. P. Kenny (Blackwell,
Oxford, 1974).
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Abbreviations xvii

PI Philosophical Investigations, revised 4th edn edited by P. M. S. Hacker

and Joachim Schulte, tr. G. E. M. Anscombe, P. M. S. Hacker and
Joachim Schulte (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2009).
PO Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951, ed. J. Klagge
and A. Nordmann (Hackett, Indianapolis and Cambridge, 1993).
PPF Philosophy of Psychology – A Fragment published in Philosophical
Investigations, revised 4th edn edited by P. M. S. Hacker and Joachim
Schulte, tr. G. E. M. Anscombe, P. M. S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte
(Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2009).
PR Philosophical Remarks, ed. R. Rhees, tr. R. Hargreaves and R. White
(Blackwell, Oxford, 1975).
PTLP Proto-Tractatus – An Early Version of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, ed.
B. F. McGuinness, T. Nyberg and G. H. von Wright, tr. D. F. Pears
and B. F. McGuinness (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1971).
RC Remarks on Colour, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright,
tr. L. L. McAlister and M. Schättle (Blackwell, Oxford, [1977]).
RFM Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, ed. G. H. von Wright,
R. Rhees, G. E. M. Anscombe, rev. edn (Blackwell, Oxford, 1978).
RLF ‘Some Remarks on Logical Form’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian
Society, suppl. vol. 9 (1929), pp. 162–71.
RPP I Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. I, ed. G. E. M.
Anscombe and G. H. von Wright, tr. G. E. M. Anscombe
(Blackwell, Oxford, 1980).
RPP II Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. II, ed. G. H. von Wright
and H. Nyman, tr. C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue (Blackwell,
Oxford, 1980).
TLP Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, tr. D. F. Pears and B. F. McGuinness
(Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1961).
Z Zettel, ed. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright, tr. G. E. M.
Anscombe (Blackwell, Oxford, 1967).

Reference style: all references to Philosophical Investigations are to sections

(e.g. PI §1), except those to boxed notes on various pages. Reference to these
pages is given by two numbers, the first referring to the page of the first and
second editions, the second to the fourth edition. References to Philosophy of
Psychology – a Fragment (previously known as Philosophical Investigations Part II)
are to numbered sections, and to page numbers in the first two editions (e.g.
PPF §1/p. 174). References to other printed works are either to numbered
remarks (TLP) or to sections signified ‘§’ (Z, RPP, LW); in all other cases
references are to pages (e.g. LFM 21 = LFM, page 21) or to numbered let-
ters (CL); references to The Big Typescript are to the original pagination of the
typescript as given in the Bergen electronic edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass
(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000) and in the published translation edited
by Aue and Luckhardt.
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xviii Abbreviations

2. Derivative primary sources and Waismann’s publications

AWL Wittgenstein’s Lectures, Cambridge 1932–35, from the Notes of Alice Ambrose
and Margaret MacDonald, ed. Alice Ambrose (Blackwell, Oxford, 1979).
IMT Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, F. Waismann, tr. T. J. Benac
(Hafner, London, 1951).
LA Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Beliefs,
ed. C. Barrett (Blackwell, Oxford, 1970).
LFM Wittgenstein’s Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, Cambridge 1939,
ed. C. Diamond (Harvester Press, Sussex, 1976).
LPM Lectures on the Philosophy of Mathematics, F. Waismann, ed. with an
introduction by W. Grassl (Rodopi, Amsterdam, 1982).
LPP Wittgenstein’s Lectures on Philosophical Psychology 1946 –47, notes by
P. T. Geach, K. J. Shah and A. C. Jackson, ed. P. T. Geach (Harvester
Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1988).
LSD ‘The Language of Sense Data and Private Experience’, notes
taken by R. Rhees of Wittgenstein’s lectures, 1936, Philosophical
Investigations 7 (1984), pp. 1–45, 101–40.
LWL Wittgenstein’s Lectures, Cambridge 1930–32, from the Notes of John King
and Desmond Lee, ed. Desmond Lee (Blackwell, Oxford, 1980).
M G. E. Moore’s notes entitled ‘Wittgenstein’s Lectures in 1930–33’,
repr. in Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951, ed.
J. Klagge and A. Nordmann (Hackett, Indianapolis and Cambridge,
1993), pp. 46–114.
PLP The Principles of Linguistic Philosophy, F. Waismann, ed. R. Harre
(Macmillan and St Martin’s Press, London and New York, 1965).
RR Discussions of Wittgenstein, by R. Rhees (Routledge and Kegan Paul,
London, 1970).
VoW The Voices of Wittgenstein, transcribed and edited by Gordon Baker,
tr. Gordon Baker, Michael Mackert, John Connolly and Vasilis Politis
(Routledge, London, 2003).
WWK Ludwig Wittgenstein und der Wiener Kreis, shorthand notes recorded
by F. Waismann, ed. B. F. McGuinness (Blackwell, Oxford, 1967).
The English translation, Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle (Blackwell,
Oxford, 1979), matches the pagination of the original edition.

3. Nachlass
All references to other material cited in the von Wright catalogue (G. H. von
Wright, Wittgenstein [Blackwell, Oxford, 1982], pp. 35ff.) are by MS or TS
number followed by page number (‘r’ indicating recto, ‘v’ indicating verso)
or section number ‘§’, as it appears in the Bergen electronic edition of
Wittgenstein’s Nachlass.
In the case of the first manuscript draft of the Investigations, MS 142 (the
Urfassung), references are to Wittgenstein’s section number (‘§’), save in the
case of references to pp. 77f., which are redrafts of PI §§1–2 and to pp. 78–91,
9781405184083_1_pre.qxd 28/8/09 10:44 AM Page xix

Abbreviations xix

which Wittgenstein crossed out and redrafted on pp. 91ff., subsequently

assigning them section numbers in the redrafts alone.

Manuscripts
MSS 105–22 refer to the eighteen large manuscript volumes written be-
tween 2 February 1929 and 1944. These were numbered by Wittgenstein as
Vols I–XVIII. In the first edition of this Commentary they were referred to
by volume number, followed by page number (e.g. ‘ Vol. XII, 271’). Since
then it has become customary to refer to them by von Wright number alone.
Here they are referred to on their first occurrence in a discussion by their von
Wright number, followed by volume number in parenthesis, followed by page
number as paginated in the Bergen edition (e.g. ‘MS 116 (Vol. XII), 271’).
In the subsequent occurrence of a reference to the same volume in the same
discussion, the volume number is dropped.
‘MS 114 (Vol. X), Um.’ refers to Wittgenstein’s pagination of the
Umarbeitung (reworking) of the Big Typescript in MS 114. The Umarbeitung begins
on folio 31v of MS 114 (Vol. X), and is consecutively paginated 1–228.

Typescripts
BI Bemerkungen I (TS 228), 1945–6, 185 pp. All references are to num-
bered sections (§).

All other typescripts are referred to as ‘TS’, followed by the von Wright
number and pagination as in the Bergen edition.
The successive drafts of the Investigations are referred to as follows:
TS 220 is the typescript of the ‘Early Draft’ (Fruhfassung (FF)) of the
Investigations, referred to in the first edition of this Commentary as ‘PPI’ (‘Proto-
Philosophical Investigations’), dictated from MS 142 (the Urfassung ( UF)).
TS 226R is Rhees’s pre-war translation of TS 220 §§1–116, referred to in the
1st edn of this Commentary as PPI(R).
TS 227a and 227b are the two surviving typescripts of the Investigations (the
copy from which the text was printed having been lost).
TS 238 is a reworking of TS 220, §§96–116, with renumberings, deletions,
corrections and additions in Wittgenstein’s hand, referred to in the 1st edn of
this Commentary as PPI (A).
TS 239 is a reworking of TS 220 (Bearbeitete Frühfassung).
ZF is the reconstructed ‘Intermediate Draft’ (Zwischenfassung) of the Investiga-
tions, previously known as ‘The Intermediate Version’, and referred to in the
1st edn of this Commentary as PPI(I).
In transcriptions from the Nachlass I have followed Wittgenstein’s convention
of enclosing alternative draftings within double slashes ‘//’.
9781405184083_1_pre.qxd 28/8/09 10:44 AM Page xx

xx Abbreviations

4. Abbreviations for the other volumes of An Analytical

Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations
G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker, Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning,
Volume 1 of An Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, 2nd edn,
extensively revised by P. M. S. Hacker, Part I – Essays, Part II – Exegesis §§1–
184 (Blackwell, Oxford, 2005).
P. M. S. Hacker, Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind, Volume 3 of an Analytical Com-
mentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, Oxford and Cambridge,
Mass., 1990).
P. M. S. Hacker, Wittgenstein: Mind and Will, Volume 4 of an Analytical Com-
mentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell, Oxford and Cambridge,
Mass., 1996).
All references to these are of the form ‘Volume’, followed by the volume
number and the quoted title of an essay in the designated volume (and, in the
case of Volume 1, to Part I). References to the exegesis are flagged ‘Exg.’,
followed by section number prefixed with ‘§’ or page number (in the case of
the boxed remarks).

5. Abbreviations for works by Frege

BLA i The Basic Laws of Arithmetic, vol. i (1893); references to the preface
by roman numeral indicating original page number, all other refer-
ences by section number (§).
BLA ii The Basic Laws of Arithmetic, vol. ii (1903); all references by section
number (§).
CN Conceptual Notation and Related Articles, tr. and ed. T. W. Bynum
(Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972). References to sections (§) are to
‘Conceptual Notation’.
FA The Foundations of Arithmetic, tr. J. L. Austin, 2nd edition (Blackwell,
Oxford, 1959).
PW Posthumous Writings, ed. H. Hermes, F. Kambartel and F. Kaulbach,
tr. P. Long and R. White (Blackwell, Oxford, 1979).

6. Abbreviations for works by Russell

PM Principia Mathematica, vol. I (with A. N. Whitehead), 2nd edn
(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1927).
PrM The Principles of Mathematics, 2nd edn (rev.) (Allen and Unwin,
London, 1937).
9781405184083_4_001.qxd 28/8/09 10:43 AM Page 1

ANALYTICAL

COMMENTARY

Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker

© 2009 G. P. Baker and P. M. S. Hacker ISBN: 978-1-405-18408-3
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 The Project Gutenberg eBook of
The Golden Chimney: A Boy's Mine
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Title: The Golden Chimney: A Boy's Mine

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at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOLDEN

CHIMNEY: A BOY'S MINE ***
THE GOLDEN CHIMNEY
A BOY’S MINE

“The Golden Chimney.”

THE GOLDEN CHIMNEY
 A BOY’S MINE

BY

ELIZABETH GERBERDING

A. M. ROBERTSON

SAN FRANCISCO

1902

COPYRIGHT 1901

BY

A. M. ROBERTSON

The Murdock Press

San Francisco
TO MY BOYS
 CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Discovery of the Mine 9
II. The Purchase 31
III. The Smugglers’ Cache is Found 52
IV. Funds for the Enterprise 64
V. Ben’s Partner Proves a Trump 72
VI. The Mule Auction 78
VII. Building the Arastra 93
VIII. Gold in the “Jigger” 111
IX. The Mysterious Chinese 123
X. Work Stopped 136
XI. A Midnight Fight 156
XII. In the Sickroom 166
XIII. The Opium Raid 180
XIV. A Crime Discovered 190
XV. Ben Chooses a Profession 200
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
“The Golden Chimney” Frontispiece
Facing Page
“Our Boy Miner” 136
“As Ben approached he saw Ng Quong
182
leaning against the iron balustrade”
“‘Rockin’ on the beach of San Francisco
and makin’ our two and three hundred 206
a day,’ said Mundon”

THE GOLDEN CHIMNEY

 CHAPTER I
DISCOVERY OF THE MINE

Ben Ralston and his cousin Beth were sitting on the northern slope
of Russian Hill, one of the many hills of San Francisco. At the foot of
the elevation the black buildings and smokeless chimney of an
abandoned smelting-works rose from the beach which skirted the
hill. Beyond, the blue bay sparkled in the sunlight, except where
fleeting cloud-shadows raced across its surface.
“I was born just about forty years too late,” the boy remarked with
emphasis.
“But the city’s a big place, and it’s getting bigger and bigger,—I
heard a man say so to-day.”
“I know all that, Beth; and the reason is, there are more people
coming all the time. Every one who comes lessens my chances to
get on. Forty years ago there weren’t many folks here, but there
were a heap of chances.”
“I had a feeling when I came up here to-day that you weren’t going
to take that place in Stratton’s store.”
“What made you think so?”
“O, I just guessed so from the way you talked. You always talk that
way when you’re blue.” She buried one of her hands in the shining
sand on which it rested.
“Think,”—he pointed to the huge chimney at the foot of the hill,
—“think of the gold the fire of that chimney has melted! And then
expect me to be an errand boy at three dollars a week, with a
chance of a raise to four in six months! I tell you, Beth, I can’t do it.
I’m not that kind. I’d get so wild thinking of it all. If it were
something more to do, or something where I could get ahead
quicker, I wouldn’t be so dead set against it.”
“Syd would like the place, I think, if you’re positive you’ll not take it.”
“Well, he’s welcome to it. Perhaps he’s the plodding kind,—though I
never thought he was; but I’ve got two hundred dollars, and it’s got
to help me to something better.”
“I thought you said it was three hundred?”
“So it was; but some more bills turned up and had to be paid, so it’s
dwindled. I’ve got it in the savings bank.”
The girl looked at the massive pillar which reared itself before them.
“I should think some of the gold would have stuck to the chimney,”
she remarked.
Her companion suddenly grasped her wrist.
“Beth!” he exclaimed. His eyes glowed with excitement, and he
sprang to his feet and whirled his hat around his head as he gave a
cheer. Then he stood quite still and gazed at the chimney.
The girl looked at him in wonder. “What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know myself—exactly. Maybe, it’s nothing, and maybe,—
you’ve found my fortune.”
“I?”
“Yes, you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, goosey, don’t you see it yet? To buy the right to mine the soot
for gold, the gold of the early days. Somehow, I’ve always felt that
that would be the stuff to put me on my feet,—and here it is.
Maybe, I’ve been mistaken,—maybe, I wasn’t born too late, after
all.”
“Mine the soot! How can you?”
“Why not? I’ve heard of its having been done.” His face shone with
hope. “No one’s ever thought of this!” he exclaimed. “Don’t you see
it’s a big thing?” he questioned, as she did not speak.
“If you can only do it. Will old Madge give you leave?”
“He will if I pay him for it. He’d give me the right, too, to tear down
the old sheds; and of course there’s gold under the crazy ramshackle
things. They had so much of it in the early days that they weren’t
any too careful.”
“Mr. Madge would be foolish to give you the right, if the gold is
there.”
“He is sort of fool-crazy over his mines. He’s always telling every one
all about them, how rich they are and all that. The biggest vein ever
seen is always just ahead. He wouldn’t come down to mining soot.”
“But wouldn’t it be his gold if you found it on his land?”
“No, ’twouldn’t. Not any more his than mine. The Works were just a
mill to crush everybody’s ore; and what’s left is for the sweeper.
Besides, the land is only leased, anyway, and if I go open-handed
and buy the right to sweep, what I find’s mine.”
“I should think that some of it would be his, too.”
“I don’t see it that way. A girl’s always got such cranky ideas of
business.”
“Well, we won’t quarrel about it until you get it. Shall you put in all
your money?”
“Every cent, if I have to. I’d like mighty well to have some left,
though, for the expense of working the thing.”
“O, Ben, suppose you shouldn’t find any gold?”
“That’s the chance I’ve got to take. But you shall have anything you
want, Beth.”
Her face flushed as she saw him glance at her shabby shoes and
frock, and she tried to cover her feet with the hem of her dress.
“These are trifles,” she bravely said, pointing to them; “but what I
should like would be more schooling.”
“You shall go to school, and before I get any gold either. I know a
way to fix it.”
“Don’t anger Mr. Hodges, will you, Ben?” She turned an anxious face
toward him.
“I won’t. I didn’t tell you that I found a note of his for ninety dollars
among father’s papers.”
“No. You don’t expect to get it?”
“Of course not; but I can hold it over his head for nearly two years
yet.”
Her face brightened. “And make him let me go to school! That isn’t a
bad scheme.”
“We’re doing great things in schemes to-day. Let’s go through the
old Works!” He seized her hand and they tore down the hillside, until
they stood, out of breath, before the nailed gates.
Grim and gaunt the building faced them. Boards were nailed over
the broken windows, and there were gaping sags in the roof.
Ben found an aperture in the fence, and they squeezed themselves
through it into the yard.
“Here,” he cried, “is where they dumped the ore! Beth, millions have
lain were we are standing!”
She did not appear to be greatly impressed by this dramatic
statement, and nervously glanced about.
“I should think tramps would sleep here.”
“No fear of that,” he replied; “it’s too cold. Come inside!”
She followed him timorously, feeling the mystery of a vacant house,
the unseen presence of former occupants.
“See!” Ben eagerly exclaimed, “there is where the boilers stood. And
there,”—he pointed to where some twisted and rusty pipes loosely
hung against the wall, like petrified serpents,—“is where the tanks
stood in which they washed the gold. They washed it before melting
it into bricks. Father has told me how the men used to stand knee-
deep in it in the tanks and shovel it out, just as if they were
shoveling coal.”
“They must have lost a lot.”
“It couldn’t be helped. And no one’s ever worked it over!”
“What was that!”
“Nothing but a loose shingle in the roof. Why, Beth, I didn’t know
you were such a coward.”
“I’m not a coward; but I don’t like spooky places.” She looked
apprehensively toward a dark corner.
“Spooky! Well, I hope some old miner’s ghost will kindly show me
where to dig, that’s all. See how wide the cracks are in the floor of
this shed,” he said, as he looked through an opening which led to an
adjoining building. “There are thousands of dollars in the dirt under
it—probably.”
They peered into the black cracks and could almost fancy they saw
the glitter of the precious metal. The boy threw back his head and
gazed at the massive brickwork of the chimney.
“It’s a chance, of course, but I’m going to take it. It’s funny to think
of mining for gold in the heart of San Francisco in 1901!” He laughed
and gave a low whistle.
“I’m so afraid you’ll lose all you’ve got,” she said. Then she suddenly
made up her mind to side with him. “But, after all, there’s a risk in
everything. I’d do it, if I were you, Ben,” she stoutly affirmed.
“There’s lots of risks I’d take if I were a man.”
“That’s got some grit to it,” Ben approvingly replied. His seventeen-
year-old vanity was flattered by being called a man.
“You see,” he continued, “if I’d been taught a trade it would be
different; or if father had had any business to leave me. But he was
just like old Madge,—wouldn’t do anything but trade in mines. He
always had a big fortune just in sight, but it never came near
enough to catch.”
“That’s a hard way to live.”
“Yes. It wore mother out; never to know from month to month
whether we were going to stay or move on, or what our income
would be. I believe all old miners are alike. Once a miner, always a
miner. The gold fever of early times bewitched them for all the rest
of their lives.”
“Take care you’re not bewitched, too.”
“It’s entirely different with me,” he began.
“No, it isn’t,” she interrupted. “But I’m with you, Ben. O, what a
crazy scheme it is!” She laughed at his troubled face. “What was
that? It is something in the house!”
“It’s some one in the yard,” Ben replied, looking out.
A man’s figure appeared in the doorway.
“Good-afternoon, Mr. Madge,” Ben said. “We are viewing your
property. With a floor, this would make a first-rate skating-rink.”
The man came toward them. Of medium stature, with a halting gait,
as though his joints were rusty, he helped himself along by the aid of
a stout hooked cane. A sparse gray beard covered the lower part of
his face, which was flushed from liquor. He looked uncomfortably
warm, and he took off his shabby broad-brimmed hat and ran his
fingers through his hair until it stood erect in tufts.
“A skating-rink! Like as not ’twould come down about your heads.
Run home, girl,” he said to Beth; “this is no place for you.”
“We were just going when you came in,” Ben replied, before she
could answer. “Good-night.”
“Didn’t you want to talk to him about the scheme?” she asked, when
they were out of hearing.
“Not when he’s in that condition. I wouldn’t take advantage of him.
Run home, now, before Mrs. Hodges has a chance to scold.”
“She’ll scold, anyway,” the girl replied. Then she shrugged her
shoulders as if to dismiss an unpleasant subject, and her face
brightened. “Race you to the Point, Ben!” she cried, placing one foot
forward for the start.
He did not respond, but gazed at her with a preoccupied air.
“One, two!” Still he made no answer. Her expectant attitude changed
and her arms fell to her sides, while a look of disappointment spread
over her face. “I think it’s just horrid if you’re going to be poky and
grown-up! I don’t see why people can’t work and play too; but it
seems they never do. Just because you’re three years older than me,
you think you’re grown up!”
“Why, Beth, what’s come over you?”
“You’re a man all at once; that’s all. I s’pose now we can’t have any
more fun with stilts and tar-barrels. Nor fly kites, nor run races, nor
—nor do anything we used to do! I hate the scheme,—I do!”
Ben laughed. “Come on,” he said; “I’ll race you.”
Off they went, flying along the beach until they came up, breathless,
against the wooded slopes of Black Point. They climbed up the bank
until they reached the ramparts.
“That was fine!” Beth said, seating herself on the grassy slope.
“Now, you can tell me some more about your plan. I don’t hate it
any more.”
Spread before them was the bay, dotted with craft. Across the
channel the Marin County hills rose abruptly from the water’s edge.
At Fort Point, which jutted out beyond the promontory on which they
were sitting, some experiments in a new explosive were being made.
They watched the flash and report and the little cloud of dust the
charge made when it struck the opposite shore. Above them, on a
higher embankment, a sentry paced to and fro, his bayonet
glistening in the sunlight.
“So, Dame Trot scolds a good deal, does she?” Ben remarked,
ignoring the invitation to expatiate on the scheme. “I must stop
calling her that. Her name’s Mrs. Hodges.”
“Yes, she does. I don’t think she means to, though,” she added. “I
think she’s been disappointed in so many things that it’s made her
cross with everything. If it wasn’t for poor little Sue I couldn’t stand
it.”
“Sue would miss you—if you should go away.”
“I know she would—terribly.”
“You’ve thought of going, then?”
“O, sometimes I think of it; but when Sue turns her poor little face
and looks at me, I can’t bear to think any more about it.”
“Doesn’t she look so at her mother, too?”
“Yes; but her mother always seems to want to get her out of her
sight. She wouldn’t hurt her, of course; but it seems as if she held a
grudge against God and Sue for her being so deformed. Somehow,
she acts as if she held both of them responsible for the child’s
misery.”
“Most mothers would be more tender to such a child.”
“I know it,—just cuddle it up in their arms, away from all the rest of
the world! But she doesn’t. I guess it’s because she’s so selfish. She
wants everything of hers to be the best. Of course it isn’t, and so
she’s always complaining.”
“I know. And I say, Beth, do you know that ill-humor’s catching? I
don’t like to hear you say that you ‘hate’ things.”
“You know I don’t mean it.”
“Then, don’t say it. But how are the boys? Are they good to Sue?”
“O, yes; how could they help it? Even Hodges is different to her.”
“How’s Syd? Somehow, I’ve got sort of turned against him lately.”
“He’s just the same old Syd. You say you’ve turned against him
lately; but you know, Ben Ralston, that you never liked him.”
Ben laughed. “I can’t fool you, can I, Beth? I think I was trying to
fool myself the most. Tell me about him.”
“His mother favors him always, and that spoils him. He’s envious and
suspicious, always imagining that some one’s going to slight him;
and she makes this silly feeling worse by encouraging him in it.”
“I know he always looks sidewise at me, as though he thought I
meant to trip him up, or eat his share of the treat, or get the best of
him somehow.”
“Perhaps you’d rather I wouldn’t tell him about that place?”
“Tell him, if you want to; but I don’t believe you’ll get any thanks for
it. He’ll think it’s some sort of a trap we’ve set for him.”
“How do you suppose he ever got into such a habit?”
“Partly disposition, partly habit. It’s a habit that grows, till after a
while he will not trust any one. But don’t let’s talk of him when we
can talk about the scheme. Beth, if it pans out, I’ll always think you
were my fairy godmother.”
“I? Why, I haven’t done anything at all!”
“Yes, you have. You’ve shown me the way, just like the fairy
godmother who pointed out the ring in the tree-trunk to Aladdin and
told him to pull and a door would open that would lead down to the
treasure-house.”
“That wasn’t a fairy godmother; it was a magician, an old Chinaman;
so I don’t feel complimented.”
Ben did not reply. He was busily planning how to reach his treasure.
“I’ll have to have machinery and things; and at least one man to
help me, I suppose,” he said. “I don’t know, exactly, what I’d better
do first. But I can find out,” he added, with a rather blank look.
A few minutes before he had exulted in the fact that he was his own
master, to negotiate the business and carry it on unaided; but
already he found himself wishing for some friend of experience with
whom he could consult. A few of the difficulties to be surmounted
had dawned upon him.
“Why not ask Hodges about it?”
“I don’t want to do that if I can help it. I know just how he’d sneer
and throw cold water on it all.”
“Couldn’t you find a partner?”
“I’m not sure that I want to. If I let others into it I’d be afraid they’d
freeze me out. Men with more money than he had did that to father
lots of times.”
“O, I hope you won’t get cheated, Ben!” She clasped her hands and
looked so distressed that he laughed.
“I’ll be too many for them. I’d better paddle my own canoe, though,
and then there won’t be any danger.”
“I don’t see why there need be any such thing as cheating in the
world.”
“It’s a queer old world. Mother used to say that sometimes she
thought it was the lunatic asylum of the universe.”
“I should think, for instance, that in case you work over the old
Works and get out the gold, everybody would be glad that you’d
succeeded, and would go on with their own work and earn their own
money, without wanting to cheat you out of yours.”
“I know, Beth, that’s the fair way to look at it; but all men don’t feel
that way. Those that don’t are the ones I’ve got to look out for.”
“When men are so selfish, it makes life just a big fight.”
“Yes,” Ben replied. “And ’most every man is fierce to down every
other one. It’s just like a big school. You despise the bullies and
sneaks, of course, but you’ve got to look out for them. I don’t mean
to leave a crack for a rascal to get the better of me in this business.
I’d rather make forty blunders myself than to have some one jam me
in the door.”
“Don’t you wish you knew whether you could get it or not?”
“Yes. First ‘catch your hare.’ Thunder! I wish I didn’t have to wait till
to-morrow. Waiting’s the hardest thing in the world!”
The cousins slowly walked back on the beach where they had raced
a half-hour before.
“I’ll let you know just as soon as I can,” Ben said at parting. “You
gave me the idea, and who knows what’ll come of it?”
 CHAPTER II
THE PURCHASE

“I’d like to speak to you on a matter of business.”

Ben’s face flushed in spite of the effort he made to look
unconcerned, and it vexed him that his voice trembled.
The old man addressed surveyed the boyish figure before him.
“Business?” he questioned.
“Yes. It’s about the Works.”
“Well, what about ’em?”
“I should think there’d be a good deal of lumber in the frame and
bricks in the chimney.”
“Yes, I s’pose there is; but what’s that to you?”
“I want to know what you’ll take for the whole concern as it stands?
I suppose the lease you’ve got won’t run forever.”
“No, I guess it won’t.” Mr. Madge meditated for a moment. He
needed money badly, to finish a pet tunnel in his “Bonanza Princess”
mine. The sum that Ben could give would be a small one, he knew,
but it would be better than nothing. As for the lease—“The leas’ said
about that the better,” he said to himself, with a chuckle at his own
wit. He sat down on a pile of boards and motioned to Ben to take a
seat beside him. Then he hung his hooked cane on his left arm.
“How much’d you have left after your father’s affairs was settled up?
Must’ve been quite a tidy little sum, I reckon.”
Ben had resolved not to furnish any information in regard to his
finances, unless obliged to do so.
“There wasn’t much left, after the debts were paid,” he replied.
“Didn’t he give you all he had ’fore he died?”
“Yes. There wasn’t any one else to leave it to, except my cousin,
Beth Morton; and my father knew that if he left her anything, Mr.
Hodges would take it.”
“And you don’t mean to tell me ’t you paid his debts outen it, when
you wasn’t obliged to!”
“Every last one of them!” the boy said with emphasis.
“Well, Ben Ralston, you are an odd stick!” He regarded his cane with
a speculative air, as though he were comparing it with Ben. “Guess I
must be gittin’ along hom’ards, now,” he added, as he slowly rose.
Ben was busily speculating upon his intentions. “The old sharper
means to find out exactly how much money I’ve got, and then make
a stand to get it all,” he thought. He instantly decided to furnish the
information himself.
“I’ve got just two hundred dollars,—not a cent more,—and my
board’s paid to the first of the month. So you see I’ve got to get to
work at once,” he said.
Mr. Madge resumed his seat. “Make me an offer,” he replied, with a
shrewd glance at Ben from his watery eyes.
“That’s my offer: all I’ve got.”
“U-m-m! It’s little enough for the stuff.”
As he paused, Ben nerved himself for the hardest part of all—the
disclosure of his object in buying the Works. The temptation not to
unfold his plan was very strong, but he resisted it.
“Lumber’s tol’rable high now,” the old man continued, “and it’s
bound to go higher ’fore the year’s out.” A remembrance of the lease
urged him to close the bargain at once. “But, if you’re smart enough
to sell at a profit—”
“Before we come to a settlement, Mr. Madge,” Ben interrupted, “I
want to tell you of one reason I have in buying your property. I
mean to work over the bricks and soot of the chimney and the
ground for gold.”
The old man was visibly astonished.
“So? For gold! Well, that’s another thing altogether!” he remarked,
as the instinct to get the better of a bargain demanded precedence
over all others. Then a gleam of avarice shone in his eyes. “Tell you
what, boy, if you’re anxious to mine, I kin show you some splendid
properties!” He waved his cane in his excitement. “The place to look
for gold is in a virgin mine, not in forty-year-old soot!”
“I don’t want any mine that can be bought for two hundred dollars,”
Ben said with decision. “And I must invest in something right off. I
can’t leave my offer open either,” he added as he saw the other
make a move to go. “If I don’t buy your ruin, I’ll have to get into
something else.”
“You are in a hurry, ain’t you? I wish ’t I could persude you to go
into a mine. ’Tain’t no use, eh?” he added as Ben shook his head.
“Well,” he rose stiffly, “I’ll see you to-morrow ’bout it.”
“To-morrow will do. I’ll meet you at the Works at ten o’clock. I’ve got
something on hand for the afternoon,” Ben answered.
When he was alone the boy tried to formulate a plan of operation,
should he succeed in buying the property. His most difficult task was
to control his impatience.
“I suppose I’ll have to do some more waiting,” he said to himself.
“How I wish to-morrow were here!”
He knew as well as if Mr. Madge had told him so, that his statement
in regard to his funds would not be believed without verification.
“He couldn’t take my word for it,” Ben reflected; “but all his digging
can’t bring up anything more than the truth. It’s just two hundred
dollars,—not a cent more.”

Shortly before ten o’clock on the following morning, Ben approached

the Works. He crossed the lumpy, uneven ground of the yard and
entered the building. As he gazed at the black walls of the structure
and through the many holes in the roof where the blue sky looked
down, he wished that they might speak and foretell the success or
failure of his venture.
The side of the building next to the water was built upon piles driven
into the beach, and through an opening in the wall he could see the
waves running back and forth, until they almost touched the
building.
He was very much excited, and involuntarily he kept his hand over
the pocket which held his money. The responsibility of the step he
was about to take weighed heavily upon him. Never before had he
felt so utterly alone in the world. His visionary father had been the
one heretofore to whom he had naturally turned for advice, even
when he felt grave doubts as to his judgment. Now he was about to
risk his all in a speculation which might yield no return. He was
buoyant with hope; yet the doubt which always accompanies a first
trial steadied him.
A rope hung from one of the joists of the flooring, and he idly
watched the waves wash it backward and forward. At another time
he would have questioned the presence of a deep furrow and some
footprints in the sand which the incoming tide was rapidly
obliterating; but now he was too preoccupied to notice them. He
turned and saw Mr. Madge entering the building.
“So, you got here ’fore me,” the old man began. “It’s a good thing to
be prompt. I don’t know of any one thing I like more in a young man
than punctooality. Allers practice it and you’ll never be sorry for it.”
He deliberately seated himself. “I recollec’ once, way back in the
early ’50’s, how punctooality paid me in one of the pootiest mines
that mortal man ever see. Clear white quartz, with lumps of yellow
gold peppered all through it! ’Twas this here way,” he continued as
he hung his cane on his arm—“the mine b’longed to a man who’d
gone back East, and hadn’t touched a pick to it for ’most a year; so
another man and me was both a-watchin’ for the day when the
year’d be up, so’s we could take up the claim.”
Ben fidgeted during this recital, but the other did not appear to
notice his impatience.
“The other feller,” continued Mr. Madge, “he got up at dawn,—’twas
summer time, ’bout three o’clock,—but when he clim’ up the hill to
the mine, there I was a-settin’, havin’ planted my claim two hours
before. I’d been there sence midnight!” He laughed at his story,
regardless of Ben’s inattention. “’Nother time, up in the Comstocks,
—this time I was just a-tellin’ you ’bout was in Nevada County of this
State,—I recollec’ how bein’ prompt saved a good mine and kept a
hull concern from goin’ to rack and ruin. ’Twas a silver mine—as
beautiful green ore as ever you see—”
“But I’d like to know, first,—before I hear about it, Mr. Madge,—
whether you’re going to accept my offer or not,” Ben interrupted, for
he could no longer control his impatience.
“Well, I’ve ben thinkin’ over your offer, Ben, and I’ve ’bout made up
my mind that it ain’t no price for the property, considerin’ the gold
that’s lyin’ hid on it. No price at all; in fact—”
“But it’s a chance whether I find any gold or not,” Ben impatiently
exclaimed. “When you buy a mine do you pay as much for it as you
expect to get out of it?” His heart sank with fear that his offer might
not be accepted. He felt that he must meet the old man on his own
ground, and he was on his mettle.
“It ain’t much of a price for the buildin’ material that’s in it, let alone
the gold,” Mr. Madge continued, as if he had not heard the question.
“I ain’t willin’ to let it go at your figure; but I’ll tell you what I’ll do:
I’ll go shares with you, if you’ll pay me the two hundred, and put up
the coin for the machinery. I s’pose a ’rastra will do for the crushin’.”
“I don’t care to take a partner,” Ben firmly replied. His heart was
growing heavier with every second that failure seemed more certain.
He nerved himself for a final effort. “If you don’t care to accept my
offer, Mr. Madge, there’s no use wasting any more words over the
matter,” he said, and turned to go.
A vindictive gleam shot from the old man’s eyes. He did not reply for
a moment, but stopped Ben as he was going out of the door.
“I need the money,” he briefly said; “so I’ll take your offer; but I’m
just a-givin’ it to you.”
Ben dived in his pocket with alacrity and produced a bill of sale for
the lumber and bricks and also an agreement permitting him to work
over the ground until the expiration of the lease. The dates of the
latter he had omitted, as he did not know them.
He had opened his purse to pay over the money before he recalled
the omission. It flashed upon him, too, that the paper should be
signed in the presence of witnesses. He put his purse back in his
pocket.
“Come to Hodges’ shop,—we must have witnesses,” Ben said.
Mr. Hodges was a locksmith, and owned a small shop in the old part
of the city known as North Beach. He was Beth’s stepfather; and as
she was Ben’s cousin, the boy naturally turned to him as a friend.