Artist: Nick Tobier North America, Year of 2006 It has been months, nay, days, since the last sighting of our precious mineral grail have revealed their bedazzled luster. In the opening hours, nay seconds, of the expeditionary thrust of the delicate probes, expectations and emotions ran as the falls at Niagara. Just as these self same waters rise a-thunder, so do they fall, and thus the trajectory of these quests are at once filled with a mix of elation and deflation. The instigator of these sensations has many faces. Seen by some as a grainy substrate, others a precious mineral, finds your humble recipient an easy mark for this intensity for your narrator is a hopeless romantic. Let me count the ways the mere possibility of this mineral encounter bestows nobility to this world that knows no bounds. But I digress, for emotions being what they are (rampant hormonal bursts that lead otherwise rational beings to fits of bluster), our story begins before the top of this screen, and even before the one before the one before that with another. Allow me to set the stage for this quixotic journey by reprinting a certain document. The following Preface and ensuing Notes (with marginal errors presumed at a rate of 1/2) were received by our offices (N.A.) via facsimile and transmitted the following information thusly: Sir or Madam, In two weeks, give or take 14 days, plus or minus a fortnight, and most certainly within the calendrical period defined by a month halved, the value of certain minerals aforementioned and those mentioned after that may or may not render the gold standard obsolete, or in fact, support the same standard's very existence for all eternity. (The following subjects, direct and indirect, objects likewise and corresponding quotients shall from this point on for the purposes of this treatise be expressed as un-renderable glyphs which for the convenience of this text be treated as X and Y) (That being said, there are neither guarantees nor promises, conclusive, inconclusive or indecipherable commencing with or preceding up to the given interval expressed by the forum herein known as "auction.") We have reason to believe (although for the purposes of this transmittal must strongly suggest that these reasons may be either unfounded or apocryphal while not entirely without value) that there exists small quantities of substances currently bounded by the earthen walls of your property which may or may not pertain to the above clauses, including those pertaining to punctuation and nomenclature. The world being what it is (a complex interconnected mass of water, land mass, life forms and post consumer products), we are contacting you with due caution at this point in time to notify you of the potential presence of such substances. While the substances may be present their exchange value may range from phenomenal to marginal/negligible. In the intervening time between now and the time that comes after now, your actions need not be pre determined by the promises of either financial gain and/or the commensurate freewheeling over spending that accompanies said gain. We ask that you proceed with divulging this information with all due diligence. I remain yours sincerely, Hector P. Valenti, DDS, aesthete and investor Surely you jest. Surely, I proclaimed in haute voix as the French say, to no one in particular (for I was alone at the time of receiving Mr. Valenti's transmittal) this is either too good to be true or indeed it is true, every last word from the mundane to the sublime. And I was to become a miner not for coal, not for pig iron, not for earthworms, but for something ever more enigmatic. Chapitre 2 (after the first chapter, le deuxieme) That is without a doubt, the single most splendid moment in this hemisphere. Thoughts traipsed hapless and joyful through my minds eye, enabling my world weary soul to envision the next years, nay moments, nay all eternity, as a period filled with fine silks, imported bon bons, bon mots, bons vivants and bon chance. Caution being the better part of valor, if not seventy percent of pre-caution, I stilled the wild horses and hushed the winds. Silence, beasts and earthly phenomena! How to proceed, as our Valenti's communication suggested, with diligence (due or otherwise) I wondered to myself (I had learned by this point that wondering to someone else is talking.) After my chronometer rather than the constellations yet calibrated a pause of what seemed like months, I came to the realization that this scenario provided more than a quotidian quest for riches and had provoked an inescapable obsession. Even saying the name fills me now with the wonderful physical sensation that accompanies the pursing of the lips around the lower front teeth often required to pronounce the sound that commences it all. f. Do you hear the winds whistle with each mention? Horses gallop in the distance, their very savageness stoked by the fantasies of this find. Feldspar. Feldspar.... The winner of this auction effectively commissions and joins our intrepid miner/explorer on the continuance of this epic saga . The selected individual (winning bid) will receive the next installment of the mineral speculation along the journey for Feldspar. This appropriately illustrated and bound text is accompanied by a re-sealable tin filled with what may (or may not) be