Gold Mess

In his palace in Panama last week sat sturdy little President Dr. Juan Demosthenes Arosemena, smiling contentedly. He had just received official messages from Oscar Teran, the Governor of Chiriqui Province, and Captain Nicolas Sagel of the Panama police confirming that three weatherbeaten prospectors, stumbling into an abandoned mine shaft, had found a huge number of 50-lb. gold ingots, worth not $1,120,000 as previously reported (TIME, July 26). but some $3,000,000.

Everything was nicely in hand, read the reports to the President. Thirty Panama troopers with machine guns were already guarding the treasure, half of which under Panama law belonged to the Government. Determined that there should be no hitch President Arosemena ordered his trusty chief of police, Colonel Manuel Pino, to take five planes and fly to David--nearest possible landing ground to the mine--to bring the bullion to Panama.

Before long a second report reached the President from Captain Sagel who by this time had arrived at the mine with the Governor of Chiriqui Province. He sent word that Joanes van Steck, one of the three prospectors--the other two were missing--had volunteered to lead the way into the gold-choked tunnel, where he had then inexplicably shot himself. There was nothing to worry about, said Sagel, because a Czechoslovak worker in the tunnel testified that he had seen the gold. The next report to reach the President, from Chief Pino, was slightly less encouraging. Arrin Thorpe, one of the two missing prospectors had been run to earth, had revealed that he had contributed $6,000 to van Steck's treasure hunt, but had not seen a speck of gold.

At this point Captain Sagel sent yet another message saying that so far as he could see the "abandoned mine tunnel" in which the gold was supposed to have been discovered was "nothing but a cleft in the river bed" and quite empty.

Irate President Arosemena, suspecting that he was the victim of a hoax, demanded to know why the Governor of Chiriqui and Captain Sagel had confirmed the "discovery" in the first place. He received the official explanation that "someone must have interpreted a message wrongly." This was too much for the President's patience. He dismissed both the Governor of Chiriqui and Captain Sagel, ordered a judicial inquiry.

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