about ten to one
Not a word was spoken . Silently Rod drew something from his pocket , carefully wrapped in a bit of cloth . `` You remember I kept this little nugget from my share in the buckskin bag , intending to have a scarf-pin made of it , '' he explained . `` When I took my course in geology and mineralogy I learned that , if one had half a dozen specimens of gold , each from a different mine , the chances were about ten to one that no two of them would be exactly alike in coloring . Now -- '' He exposed the nugget , and made a fresh cut in it with his knife , as Mukoki had done with the yellow bullet . Then the two gleaming surfaces were compared . One glance was sufficient .