"You take matches, light that pipe and smoke it," insisted the cook, a man named Leon, in a tone that compelled obedience.
Poor Alf smoked wretchedly away. Finally, when he thought Leon wasn't looking, he tried to hide the pipe.
"Here, you keep that a-going!" ordered the cook wrathfully, wheeling upon the miserable youngster.
So Alf puffed up, feebly, and, when the pipe went out, he lighted the tobacco again.
"Here!" he protested, three minutes later, handing back the pipe.
"Smoke it!" gruffed Leon.
"I—-I don't wanter."
"Smoke it!"
"I—-I can't," pleaded Alf Drew, the ghastly pallor of his face bearing out his assertion.
"You smoke that pipe, or I'll——-"
"You can kill me, if you wanter," gasped, Alf, feeling far more ill than he had ever felt in his life before. "I don't care—-but I won't smoke that pipe. There!"
He flung it violently to the ground, smashing the pipe.
"You little——-" began the cook, making a leap after the youngster.
But Alf, his sense of self-preservation still being strong, fled with more speed than might have been looked for in one so ill.
Tom Reade, passing a clump of bushes, and hearing low moans, stopped to investigate. He found the little cigarette fiend stretched out on the ground, his face drawn and pale.
"What on earth is the matter, mosquito?" inquired Reade, with more sympathy than his form of speech attested.
"Oh, dear!" wailed Alf.
"So I gathered," said Tom dryly. "But who got behind you and scared you in that fashion?"
"O-o-oh, dear!"
"You said that before; but what's up?"
"At first I was afraid I was going to die," Alf declared tremulously.
"Yes?"
"And now I'm afraid I won't die!"
Alf sat up shivering convulsively.
"Now, Alf," Tom pursued, "tell me just what happened."
By degrees the young engineer extracted the information that he was after. Bit by bit Alf told the tale, interspersing his story with dismal groans.
"I always told you, Alf, that smoking would do you up if you ever tackled it," Reade said gravely.
"But I have smoked for a year," Alf protested.
"Oh, no," Tom contradicted him. "The use of cigarettes isn't smoking. It's just mere freshness on the part of a small boy. But smoking—-that's a different matter, as you've found out. Now, Alf, I hope you've learned a needed lesson, and that after this you'll let tobacco alone. While you're about it you might as well quit cigarettes, too. But I'm going to change your job. Don't go back to the cook. Instead, report to me in about an hour."
Then Tom strode forward. After he had left young Drew there was an ominous flash in the young engineer's eyes. He strode into camp and went straight to the cook's shack.
"Leon," Tom demanded, "what have you been doing to that poor little shrimp of a helper?"
The cook turned around, grinning.
"I've been teaching him something about smoking," the man admitted.
"So I've heard," said Tom. "That's why I've dropped in here—-to tell you what I think about it."
"If you're going to get cranky," warned the cook, angrily, "you needn't take the trouble."
"Punishing Alf isn't your work, Leon," Tom went on quietly. "I'm one of the heads here, and the management of this camp has been left more or less in my hands. I gave you a weak, deluded, almost worthless little piece of humanity as a helper. I'll admit that he isn't much good, but yet he's a boy aged fourteen, at any rate, and therefore there may be in that boy the makings of a man. Your way of tackling the job is no good. It's a fool way, and, besides, it's a brutal, unmanly way."
"I guess you'd better stop, right where you are, Mister Reade!" snapped Leon, an ugly scowl coming to his face. "I don't have to take any such talk as that from you, even if you are the boss. You may be the boss here, but I'm older and I've seen more of the world. So you may pass on your way, Mister Reade, and I'll mind my own business while you mind yours."
"Good!" smiled Tom amiably. "That's just the arrangement I've been trying to get you to pledge yourself to. Mind your own business, after this, just as you've promised. Don't play the brute with small boys."
"You needn't think you can boss me, Mister Reade," sneered Leon, a dangerous look again coming into his eyes. "I've told you that I won't take that kind of talk from you."
"You'll have to listen to it, just as long as you stay in camp," Reade answered. "I don't want to be disagreeable with any man, and never am when I can avoid it. But there are certain things I won't have done here. One of them is the bullying of small boys by big fellows like you. Do I make myself plain?"
"So plain," Leon answered, very quietly, as one hand traveled back to the butt of the revolver hanging over his right hip, "that I give you just ten seconds, Mister Reade, to get away and do your talking in another part of the camp."
Tom saw the motion of the hand toward the weapon, though no change in his calm face or steady eyes denoted the fact.
"I believe I've just one thing more to say to you, Leon. I've told young Drew that he needn't bother about coming back as your helper. He is to report to me, and I shall find him another job."
"Are you going to get away from here?" snarled the angry cook.
"Presently."
"I'll give you only until I count ten," Leon snapped, his hand still resting on the butt of his revolver.
"You're not threatening me with your pistol, are you?" Tom inquired in a mild tone.
"You'll find out, if you don't vamoose right along. One—-two—-"
"Stop it," Tom commanded, without raising his voice. "You may think you could get your pistol out in time to use it. Try it, and you'll learn how quickly I can jump on you and grab you. Try to draw your weapon, or even to shift your position ever so little, and I'll show you a trick that may possibly surprise you."
There was no trace of braggadocio in Tom Reade's quiet voice, but Leon knew, instantly, that the young engineer could and would be as good as his word.
"Take your hand away from the butt of your pistol," came Tom's next command.
Something in the look of the young engineer's eyes compelled the angry cook to obey.
"Now, unbuckle your belt and hand it to me, revolver and all."
"I'll——-" Leon flared up, but Tom interrupted him.
"Exactly, my friend. You'll be very wise if you do, and very sorry if you don't!"
White with rage Leon unbuckled his belt. Then he handed it out, slowly. He was prepared to leap upon the young engineer like a panther, but Tom was watching alertly. He received the belt with his left hand, holding his right hand clenched ready for "business."
"Thank you," said Tom quietly. "Now, you may return to your work.I'm ready to forget this, Leon, if you are."
Leon glared speechlessly at his conqueror. This cook had lived in some of the roughest of mining camps, and had the reputation of being dangerous when angry.
From outside came an appreciative chuckle. Then Jim Ferrers stepped into the shack.
"So you were hanging about, ready to back up the kid?" demanded the cook.
"I? Oh, no," chuckled Jim. "Leon, when you've known Mr. Reade as long and as well as I do you'll understand that he doesn't ask or need any backing. Mr. Reade wants only what's right—-but he's going to have it if he has to move a township."
Tom departed, swinging the belt and revolver from his right hand.
"I'm through here," muttered Leon, snatching off his apron. "That is, just as soon as I've squared up accounts with that kid."
"Then you'd better put your apron on again," Jim drawled, humorously. "It takes longer than you've got left to live when any one goes after Tom Reade to get even."
"Jim Ferrers, you know me well enough," remarked Leon, reaching for his hat. "Most times I'm peaceable, but when I get started I'm a bad man."
"Exactly," nodded Jim undisturbed. "That's why you can never hope to come out on top in a row with Mr. Reade. While you may be a bad man, he's a good man—-and ALL MAN! You don't stand any show with that kind. Hang up your hat, Leon. Here's your apron. Put it on and stay with us. When you cool down you can stay right along here and take lessons in the art of being a real man!"
Jim Ferrers strolled out of the shack, leaving the vanquished cook in a towering rage. By degrees the expression on the fellow's face altered. Ten minutes later he was at work—-at cook's duties.
Four weeks moved on rapidly. All too rapidly, in some respects, to please Engineer Harry Hazelton.
Sheriff's officers had ridden into camp, and had scoured that part of the country, in an effort to locate Dolph Gage and that worthy's friends. Just where the four vagabonds were now no man knew, save themselves.
However, another spectre had settled down over the camp. The truth was that the young engineers were now using up the last thousand dollars of their combined savings.
By way of income, less than fifty dollars' worth of gold and silver had been mined. Every few days some promising-looking ore was turned out, but it never came in sufficient quantities. None of this ore had yet been moved toward Dugout City. There wasn't enough of it to insure good results. Brilliant in streaks, still the mine looked like a commercial fizzle.
"Hang it, the gold is down there!" grunted Tom, staring gloomily at the big cut that had been blasted and dug out along the top of the ridge.
"I'll be tremendously happy when you show me a little more of it," smiled Hazelton weakly.
"It's lower down," argued Tom. "We've got to dig deeper—-and then a lot deeper."
"On the capital that we have left?" ventured Harry.
"Oh, we may strike enough, any day, to stake us for a few weeks longer," urged Tom.
"We'll soon have to be working in covered outs, where the frost won't put up trouble for us, you know," Hazelton hinted.
"Yes; I know that, of course. What we must begin to do, soon, is to sink the shaft deeper and then tunnel."
"That will cost a few thousand dollars, Tom."
"I know it. Come on, Harry. Get a shovel."
Tom himself snatched up a pick.
"What are you going to do, Tom?"
"Work. You and I are strong and enduring. We can save the wages of two workmen."
Both young engineers worked furiously that afternoon. Yet, when knocking-off time came, they had to admit that they had no better basis for hope.
"I wonder, Tom, if we'd better get out and hustle for Jobs?" Harry asked.
"You might, Harry. I'm going to stick."
Mr. Dunlop dropped in at camp, that evening, after dark.
"You young men are doing nothing," said the mine promoter. "I can use you a couple of months, if you'll stop this foolishness here and come over to me."
"Why, I suppose Hazelton could go over and work for you, Mr. Dunlop,"Tom suggested.
"That would be of no use. I need you both, but you, Reade, most of all."
"I can't go to you now, Mr. Dunlop," Tom replied regretfully. "I'm committed to the development of this piece of property, which is only a third my property."
"Bosh! A decent farm would be worth more to you than this claim," argued Mr. Dunlop derisively.
"Perhaps. But neither of my partners has quit, Mr. Dunlop, and I'm not going to quit, either."
"This is the last chance I can give you, Reade. You'd better take it."
"No; though I beg you to accept my best thanks, Mr. Dunlop. However,Hazelton can go over and help you."
"Both, or neither," returned Mr. Dunlop firmly.
Harry looked half eagerly at Reade, but Tom shook his head.
"What do you say, Mr. Reade?" pressed the promoter. "Last call to the dining car. With your funds running low, and a hard winter coming on you'll soon know what it means to be hungry."
"I'm much obliged, sir but I'm going to stick here at my own work."
"What do you say, Hazelton?" coaxed the promoter.
"Nothing," Harry replied loyally. "You heard what my partner had to say. In business matters he talks for both of us."
"Good night, then," grunted Mr. Dunlop, rising. "If you should change your minds in the morning, after breakfast, come and tell me."
After Dunlop had gone Tom and Harry walked up and down the trail together under the stars.
"Sixteen hundred dollars a month Dunlop is offering the two of us," half sighed Hazelton. "Two months of that would mean thirty-two hundred dollars. How much money have we now, Tom?"
"Six hundred and forty-two dollars and nineteen cents," Reade answered dryly.
"That won't last us long, will it?"
"No; especially as we owe some of it on bills soon due at Dugout."
"Then—-what?"
"I don't know," Tom answered almost fiercely. "Yes; I do know! As soon as our present few pennies are gone it means a future of fight and toil, on empty stomachs. But it's worth it, Harry—-if we live through the ordeal."
"And for what are we fighting?" inquired Harry musingly.
"First of all, then, for gold."
"Tom, I never knew you to be so crazy about gold before. What are we going to do with it—-if we get it?"
"There are the folks at home."
"Of course, Tom, and they would be our first thought—-if we had the gold. But we can do all we want to for the home folks out of the pay that we are able to earn at steady jobs."
"True."
"Then why are we fooling around here? We are nearly broke, but we can honestly settle all the debts we owe. Then we could get back to work and have bank accounts again within a few months."
"Yes; but only pitiful bank accounts—-a few hundreds of dollars, or a few thousands."
It would be steady and growing."
"Yes; but it would take years to pile up a fortune, Harry."
"What do we really want with fortunes?"
"We want them, Harry," Tom went on, almost passionately, "because we have ambitions. Look out upon the great mountains of this Range. Think of the rugged bits of Nature in any part of the world, waiting for the conquering hand and the constructive brain of the engineer! Harry, don't you long to do some of the big things that are done by engineers? Don't you want to get into the real—-the big performances of our profession?"
"Of course," nodded Hazelton. "For that reason, aren't we doubly wasting our time here?"
"That's just as it turns out," Reade went on, with a vehemence that astonished his chum. "Harry, what's our office address? Where are our assistant engineers—-where our draftsmen? Where are our foremen that we could summon to great undertakings? Where is the costly equipment that we would need as a firm of really great engineers? You know that we must these things before we can climb to the top of our profession. The gold that's hidden somewhere under that ridge would give us the offices, the assistants, the draftsmen, the equipment and the bank account that we need before we can launch ourselves into first class engineering feats of the great civilization that rules the world today. Harry, I've firm faith in our claim, and I can go on working on a meal every third day."
"Then now, as always, you can count on me to stand by you without limit or complaint," said Harry generously.
"But, just the same, you haven't my faith in the mine, have you?"Tom queried half-disappointedly.
"Er—-er—-"
"Out with it, chum!"
"So far I have been disappointed in the claim. But I am well aware that I may be wrong. Listen, Tom, old fellow. This isn't a matter of faith in the mine; it's one of faith in you. Go as far as you like, and, whichever way it turns out, remember that I regard your judgment as being many times as good as my own."
"Yet you'd drop out if the decision rested solely with you, wouldn't you, Harry,"
"You'll never again get my opinion of this claim of ours," laughed Hazelton. "You'll have to be contented with my good opinion of you and your judgment."
"But see here, Harry, I wish you'd get out of here for a while. Go back into the world; take a position that will support you and provide the luxuries and savings as well. I'll work here faithfully and work for both of us at the same time."
"You must have a mighty small opinion of me, Tom Reade, to thinkI'd leave you in the lurch like that."
"But I ask it as a favor, Harry."
"If you ever ask that sort of a favor again, Tom Reade, you andI will be nearer to fighting than we've ever been yet in our lives!"
It was plain that Hazelton intended to stick to the mine, even to the starving point, if Reade did. After some further talk the two went back to their tent and lay down on their cots.
Five minutes later Harry's quiet, regular breathing betrayed the fact that he was asleep. With a stealthy movement, Tom Reade threw down the blankets, reached for his shoes, his coat and hat and stole out into the quiet and darkness.
From other tents and shacks nearby came snores that showed how soundly miners could sleep.
"I believe this is the first night that I ever failed to sleep on account of business worries," muttered Reade grimly, as he strode away. "This may be a fine start toward becoming a nervous wreck. In time I may become as shattered as poor little Alf Drew. I wonder if I shall ever fall so low as to smoke cigarettes!"
For some minutes Tom plodded on through the darkness. He did not go toward the claim, but in the opposite direction. He walked like one who felt the need of physical exhaustion. Presently coming to a steep trail winding along among boulders he took to the trail, striding on at barely diminished speed.
At last, out of breath from the rapid climb, Tom halted and gazed down over the rugged landscape. "The gold is there," he muttered. "I'm sure of it. Oh, if we could only find it!"
As Tom stood, deep in thought, the face of his patient friend rose before him.
"I don't mind going to smash for myself, in a good, hard fight," Reade went on audibly. "But it seems a crime to drag Harry down to poverty with me. If I could only get him to go away I'd give up my own life, if need be, to prove what's under our ridge of Nevada dirt."
"Ye'll give up your life for less'n that, I reckon!" sounded another voice, close at hand.
Around a boulder Dolph Gage stepped into view, followed by two of his men.
"Good evening, Gage," Tom responded pleasantly, after a slight start of alarm. "What brings you in this section again?"
"Wanter know?" sneered Gage, while his companions scowled.
"That was my object in inquiring," Tom smiled.
"We're hiding—-that's what we're doing here," Gage volunteered harshly, though he spoke in a low voice.
"Hiding here—-with the officers looking for you?"
"Well, what could be a safer place than right where we're wanted?" demanded Dolph. "The officers are scouring other counties for us, and they have handbills up offering rewards for us. Right here, overlooking your claim, they'd never think of looking for men who have a price set on their capture."
"Well, you needn't be afraid of me," offered Reade, with mock generosity. "I'm short of money, but I'm not looking for blood money. You had better travel fast from here. I'll give you until daylight before I send word to the law's officers."
"Daylight? You'll never see daylight again," Gage retorted. "You will be lying here, looking up at the stars, but you won't see anything!"
"Your words have a mysterious ring to them," laughed Tom.
He wasn't in any doubt as to what the rascals meant to do with him. It was a rule with Tom Reade, however, that he wasn't dead until he had actually been killed. Even while he spoke so lightly, Tom, through his half-closed eyes, was taking in every detail of the situation.
None of the trio had yet drawn their weapons, though all wore them in plain sight. If they started to draw their pistols Tom decided that he would leap forward holding to Gage, kicking one of the latter's companions so as to render the fellow helpless, and——
"But the third man will get me with his pistol," Tom decided. "That is, unless they become flustered when I show fight. It's a slim chance for me—-a mighty slim chance, but I'll do my best as soon as these wretches start something!"
"Lost your money in your claim, haven't you?" jeered Gage, who was plainly playing with his intended victim. "Serves you right, after jumping us out of the property just because the law said you could! But the gold's there, and we've got a man with mineral rights to nab the claim as soon as you give up."
"That will be a long while, I imagine," Tom smiled back at the rascal.
"Not as long as you may think," laughed Gage harshly. "We've got you now, and we'll get Hazelton and Jim Ferrers, next thing you know. Then our claim will be established through our friend, and we'll protect him from being jumped by any one else."
"If you live," Tom reminded the fellow.
"Oh, we'll live!" Gage retorted grimly. "We're hunted, now, and we'll kill every man that comes near enough."
"Begin with this cub!" spoke up Eb, gruffly. "Don't play with him until he tricks us and gets away."
"Perhaps you don't realize how close help is to me," Tom broke in quickly. It was a "bluff," but he hoped that it might have its effect.
"If there's help near you," quivered Gage, his anger rising, "we'll make sure that it doesn't get here in time to do you any good. Draw and finish him boys!"
Before Reade could tense his muscles for a spring, a shot rang out behind them. Eb fell, with a swift, smothered groan of pain.
"Duck!" panted Dolph Gage. "Out of this! To cover, and then we'll reckon with any one who tries to follow us!"
In the same instant Tom turned, bounding down the trail in the direction from which the shot had come.
"Good! Keep on going, boss!" whispered a calm voice. "Don't let 'em catch you again."
"Who are you?" Tom demanded, halting and trying to make out the man's face in the intense shadow under a ledge of rock.
"Duck!" commanded the same voice. "I'll follow close. I'm alone, and some of that crew may pluck up heart and follow us. Vamoose!"
"I'll go at your side, but I won't run ahead of you," Tom whispered back. "I know you, now. Thank you, Leon!"
In the darkness, in lieu of shaking hands Tom gripped one of the man's elbows in sign of thanks.
"We'd better get out of this," Tom went on, in a barely louder whisper."But how did you come to be on hand, Leon?"
"Followed you," was the terse reply.
"From the camp?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Wanted to get even with you."
"You're talking in riddles," Reade protested, in a puzzled tone."At the same time I'm greatly obliged to you."
"Thought you'd be," grunted Leon. "That's how I got even."
"What do you mean?" Tom wanted to know. "You got even by placing me under a great obligation?"
"Just that," nodded the cook, "we had trouble, once, and you came out on top, didn't you?"
"Yes; but that little affair needn't have prevented us from being friends."
"It did, until I had done something to make you needed me as a friend," the cook declared.
Tom laughed at this statement of the case. It accorded quite closely, however, with the cook's generally sulky disposition. Even a friendship Leon would offer or accept grudgingly.
"But why did you follow me?" Tom continued, as they neared the camp."Did you think I was going to run into danger?"
Leon hesitated.
"Well," he admitted, finally, "when I saw you stealing off, soft like, I had a queer notion come over me that, maybe, you were discouraged, and that you were going off to put an end to yourself."
Tom started, stared in amazement, then spoke in a tone of pretended anger:
"Much obliged for your fine opinion of me, Leon," he declared."Only cowards and lunatics commit suicide."
"That's all right," nodded the cook doggedly. "I've seen men lose their minds out here in these gold fields."
They were now in camp.
"Wait, and I'll call Ferrers and a few of the men, Leon," Tom proposed.
"What for? To stand guard?"
"No; we must send back a few of the men to find that man you wounded. It was Eb. He fell in a heap. If his own companions didn't carry him away he was left in a bad fix."
"You'll be going back to nurse rattlesnakes yet!" almost exploded the cook.
"That's all right, but we're going to find that wounded man if he's in need of help," Tom stoutly maintained.
He called Jim Ferrers, who roused five more men. Then the party returned to the place on the trail where Eb had been left. There were still blood spots on the ground, but Eb had vanished. The party spent some minutes in searching the vicinity, then concluded that Gage had rescued and carried away the wounded man.
It may be said, in passing, that Eb was subsequently found, by officers, lying in a shack not far from Dugout City. The fellow was nearly dead, when found, from careless handling of his wound. At Dugout the surgeons amputated his wounded leg, and Eb finally wound up in prison.
During all the excitement Hazelton had not been aroused. He knew nothing of what had happened until morning came.
Before Tom Reade turned in that night he shook hands with the sullen cook.
"I think you and I are going to be good friends, after this, Leon,"Tom smiled. "I hope so, anyway."
"And I'm glad you gave me back my gun," grunted Leon. "It gave me a chance to do something for you. Yes; I reckon we'll be good friends after this."
"Hey, Tom!" Harry called down, from the top of their shaft, now one hundred and thirty feet down into the ground.
"Yes!" Reade answered from below, making a trumpet of his hands.
"Doing anything?" Harry bawled.
"Not much. Why?"
"If you want to come up I'll show you something."
"What?"
"The first snow of winter is falling." Harry tried to speak jovially, but his tone was almost sepulchral.
"Yes, I'll come up, then," Tom Reade answered. "It's high time for us to see to building a shelter that will keep out of the shaft the big snows that are coming."
"The big snows are likely to be here, now, within a week," remarkedone of the miners who had paused to rest from digging for a moment."Men!" bawled Tom, stepping from the long into the short tunnel."All hands knock off and go up to the surface."
There was a tub hand-hoist for carrying up ore, but the men always used the series of ladders that had been built in on the side of the shaft. Two minutes later these ladders swarmed with men going above.
As they stepped out into the world the first soft flakes of winter floated into their faces.
"Reade, we'll have to start building the cover to the shaft," spokeJim Ferrers, who stood beside Hamilton.
"I know it," Tom nodded. "However, first of all, I want a few words with you and Harry."
The three partners stepped aside, waiting in silence while a whispered consultation went on around Tom.
At length Reade stepped back.
"Men" he began, and every eye was turned in his direction. "You are waiting for orders to start on shedding over the shaft, and the lumber is ready. However, we mean to be fair with you. You all know that this claim has been going badly. When my partners and I started we had some capital. Before we do any more work here it is only fair to tell you something. We now have money enough left so that we can pay you your wages up to Saturday. When we've paid that we shall have a few dollars left. If you men want to quit now we'll pay you up to Saturday, and you'll have time to be in Dugout before your time here is up."
"Do you want us to go, Mr. Reade?" asked Tim Walsh."
"Why, no, of course not," Tom smiled. "If we had the money we'd want to keep you here all winter. But we haven't, and so we've no right to ask you to stay."
Walsh glanced around him, as though to inquire whether the men were willing that he be their spokesman. Receiving their nods the big miner went on:
"Mr. Reade, sir, we've seen this coming, though, of course, we didn't know just how big your pile was. We've talked it over some, and I know what the fellows think. If you don't pay us our wages, but put the money into grub only, you can keep a-going here some weeks yet."
"Yes," Tom nodded. "But in that case, if the mine didn't pan out, we wouldn't have a cent left out of which to pay you off. At least, not until Reade and I had been at work for months, perhaps a year, on some salaried job. So you see that we can't fairly encourage you men to remain here."
"Mr. Reade," Walsh declared, this time without glancing at the other men, and there was a slight huskiness in the big miner's voice, "we wouldn't feel right if we went anywhere else to work. We've never worked under men as fair and square as you three men have been. You've treated all of us white. Now, what kind of fellows would we be if we cleared out and left you just because the snow had come and the money had gone. No, sir! By your leave, gentlemen, we'll stay here as long as you do, and the money can take care of itself until it shows up again. Mr. Reade, and gentlemen, we stick as long as you'll let us!"
Tom felt slightly staggered, as his face showed it.
"Men," he protested, "this is magnificent on your part. But it wouldn't be fair to let you do it. You are all of you working for your living."
"Well, aren't you three working for your living, too?" grinned Walsh.
"Yes; but we stand to make the big stake here, in case of victory at last."
"And I reckon we stand a show of having a little extra coming to us, if we do right by you at this minute," laughed Walsh.
"Yes, you do—-if we strike the rich vein for which we're hunting. Yet have you men any idea a how little chance we may have of striking that vein? Men, the mine may—-perhaps I would better say probably will—-turn out a fizzle. I am afraid you men are voting for some weeks of wasted work and a hungry tramp back to Dugout City at the end. As much as we want to go on with the work, we hate to see you all stand to lose so much."
"You're no fool, Mr. Reade. Neither is Mr. Hazelton," returnedWalsh bluntly. "You're both engineers, and not green ones, either.You've been studying mines and mining, and it isn't just guess-workwith you when you say that you feel sure of striking rich ore."
"Only one of us is sure," smiled Tom Reade wistfully. "I'm the sure one. As for my partners, I'm certain that they're sticking to me just because they're too loyal to desert a partner. For myself, I wouldn't blame them if they left me any day. As for you men, I shall be glad to have you stay and stand by us, now that you know the state of affairs, but I won't blame you if you decide to take your money and the path back to Dugout City."
"It's no use, Mr. Reade," laughed Walsh, shaking his shaggy head."You couldn't persuade one of us to leave you now."
"And I'd thrash any man who tried to," declared another miner.
"Men, I thank you," Tom declared, his eyes shining, "and I hope that we shall all win out together."
"Now, what do you want us to do?" asked Walsh.
"We have timbers and boards here," Tom replied. "If the big snows are likely to be upon us within a week, then we can't lose any time in getting our shaft protected. At the same time we must use other timber for putting up two or three more shacks. The tents will have to come down until spring."
Harry immediately took eight of the men and started the erection of three wooden shacks not far from the mine shaft. Ferrers took the rest of the men and speedily had timbers going up in place over the mouth of the shaft.
For three hours the snow continued to float lightly down. Then the skies cleared, but the wind came colder and more biting.
Jim Ferrers and one of the men started for Dugout City with a two-horse wagon, that the camp might be kept well-supplied with food.
By night of the day following all of the carpenter work had been finished, though not an hour too soon, for now the weather was becoming colder.
"Never put in a winter on the Indian Smoke Range, did you, Mr.Reade?" Walsh inquired.
"Never."
"Then you'll find out what cold weather is like. A winter on this Range isn't much worse, though, than what I've heard about cold weather in Alaska."
"It'll be a relief to see six feet of snow, after living on the hot desert of Arizona," Harry muttered.
By evening of the following day, when Jim and his companion returned with the wagon-load of provisions, another day's work had been done in the mine.
"Any color today?" was Ferrers's first question.
"No signs of gold," sighed Harry.
"I heard a new one over at Dugout City," Jim remarked carelessly.
"Heard a new one?" echoed Tom. "What was it?"
"A baby," Jim answered dryly.
"What are you talking about?" Harry demanded. "What has a baby to do with a 'new one'?"
When the men began to laugh Harry suddenly discovered the joke.
"That's all right, Jim," growled Harry. "But I know something that would tickle you."
"A feather, or a straw," mocked Ferrers.
"No! A crowbar!" grunted Hazelton making a reach for a tool of that description.
Jim hastily jumped out of the way as Harry balanced the bar.
"Go and tell the men about the 'new one' you heard, Jim," laughed Tom. "By the time you get back Harry will have the joke pried loose with that bar of his."
"'Heard a new one'!" grunted Harry. But his look of disgust was because it had taken him so long to penetrate the "sell."
"Haul away!" called Jim, from the bottom of the shaft.
Up came the tub, filled with chunks of ore, each about the size of a man's head.
At the top stood Harry Hazelton, on the crust of two feet of frozen snow.
Tom thrust his head out through the doorway of the nearby shack in which the partners lived.
"Is Jim sending up any bricks" he inquired.
"He's sending up ore, but I don't know whether it's any good,"Harry answered.
"Why don't you look the stuff over?"
"I haven't had the heart to look at it."
Close to the shaft stood a wagon. The horses were resting in the stable shack, for by this time the weather averaged only a few degrees above zero and the horses were brought out only when they could be used.
"Take a good look at the stuff, Harry," called Tom, as soon as he saw two of the workmen dumping it.
Then Reade closed the door, and went back to the furnace that he had rigged up under the chimney at one end of the shack.
"Oh, what's the use?" sighed Hazelton, to himself, as he paused, irresolute. "In weeks and weeks we haven't brought up enough gold to pay for the keep of the horses."
Still, as Tom had asked him to do so, Hazelton presently walked over to the little pile that had just been dumped.
"You men up there work faster," sounded Jim's voice. "We want to send up a tub every five minutes."
"Want the team yet?" bawled the teamster, from another shack.
"No," Harry answered. "Not for a half an hour yet."
That question was enough to cause the young engineer to forget that he had intended to inspect the tub-load of ore. He strolled back to the head of the shaft. The wind was biting keenly today. Harry was dressed in the warmest clothing he had, yet his feet felt like lumps of lead in his shoes.
"Arizona may be hot, but I'd rather do my mining down there, anyway," thought the young engineer. "If I could move about more, this wouldn't be so bad."
Just off of the shaft was a rough shack several feet square which contained a small cylinder of a wood stove. There was a fire going in the stove, now, but Harry knew from experience that if he went in to the stove to get warm, he would only feel the cold more severely when he came out again.
"Say, I don't know why I couldn't run that furnace as well asTom, and he likes this cold stuff better than I do," murmuredHazelton. "I am going to see if he won't swap jobs for a coupleof hours."
"Getting anything out of those ore-tests of yesterday's dump?"Harry demanded, entering their shack.
"Not so much," Tom replied cheerily. "We're in a bad streak of stuff, Harry. But I thought you were watching the dump. What's the matter? Too cold out there?"
"Yes," nodded Harry. "I feel like a last year's cold storage egg. Don't you want to spell me a bit out there, Tom? I can run the furnace in here."
"Certainly," Reade agreed, leaping up. "There's nothing to do, now, but weigh the button when it cools."
"Did you really get a button?" Harry asked, casually, as he drew off his heavy overcoat.
"Yes; a small one."
"How much ore did you take it from?"
"About two tons, I should say."
"Then, if the button is worth sixty cents," mocked Harry, "it will show that our ore is running thirty cents to the ton."
"Oh, we'll have better ore, after a while," Tom laughed.
"We've got to have," grunted Hazelton, "or else we'll have to walk all the way to our next job."
"Just weigh the button, when it cools, and enter the weight on this page of the notebook," directed Reade, then went for his own outdoor clothing. "Have you been inspecting the dump as the stuff came up?"
"You'll think me a fool," cried Harry, "but I totally forgot it."
"No matter," Tom answered cheerily. "I've been doing bench work so long in here that I need exercise. I can run over all the stuff."
After Reade had pulled on his overcoat and buttoned it he fastened a belt around his waist. Through this he thrust a geologist's hammer.
"Don't go to sleep, Harry, old fellow, until you've cooled and weighed the button. Then you may just as well take a nap as not."
"There he goes," muttered Hazelton, as the door closed briskly. "Faith and enthusiasm are keeping Tom up. He could work twenty-four hours and never feel it. I wish I had some of his faith in this ridge. I could work better for it. Humph! I'm afraid the ridge will never yield anything better than clay for brick-making!"
Harry did succeed in keeping his eyes open long enough to attend to the button. That tiny object weighed, and the weight entered, Hazelton sat back in his chair. Within a minute his eyes had closed and he was asleep.
Tom Reade, out at the ore dump, looked anything but sleepy. With tireless energy he turned over the pieces of rock, pausing, now and then, to hold up one for inspection.
In reaching for a new piece his foot slipped. Glancing down, to see just where the object was on which he had slipped, Tom suddenly became so interested that he dropped down on his knees in the snow.
It was a piece of rock that had come up in the first tubful. At one point on the piece of rock there was a small, dull yellow glow.
Reads pawed the rock over in eager haste. Then he drew the hammer from his belt, striking the rock sharply. Piece after piece fell away until a solid yellow mass, streaked here and there faintly with quartz, lay in his hand.
"By the great Custer!" quivered Tom.
"What's the matter, boss?" called one of the workmen. "Got a sliver in your hand?"
"Have I?" retorted Tom joyously. "Come here and take a look."
"Haul away!" sounded Ferrers's hoarse voice from below.
"Tell Jim to stop sending and come up a minute," nodded Tom.
"Do you often see a finer lump than this?" Tom wanted to know as the two workmen came to him. He held up a nugget. Shaped somewhat like a horn-of-plenty, it weighed in the neighborhood of three ounces.
"Say, if there are many more like that down at the foot of the shaft this old hole-in-the-ridge will be a producer before another week is out!" answered one of the workmen. "How much is it worth, boss?"
"Allowing for the quartz that streaks this little gold-piece, it ought to be worth from forty to fifty dollars," Tom responded thoughtfully.
"Fifty dollars?" broke in Jim Ferrers, as he sprang from the top ladder to the ground. "Is there that much money on the Indian Smoke?"
"Not minted, of course," laughed Tom. "But here's something as good as money."
"Where did you get it?" Jim demanded, tersely, after one look at the nugget.
"In this ore-dump."
"Today's send-up, then?"
"Of course."
Without a word Ferrers fell at work on the pile of rocks, turning them over fast.
Tom helped him. The two men, released from hoisting duty, also aided.
"Nothing more like that sticking out of the rock," Jim grunted, turning to one of the men. "Bring me a sledge."
With that larger hammer, held in both hands, Jim placed ore pieces with his feet, swiftly bringing down sharp blows that reduced the rocks to nearly the size of pebbles.
"I don't see any more nuggets coming," mused! Tom. "But waita minute. Look at the yellow streak through some of these fragments.""We're getting into the vein, I believe," spoke Jim solemnly."Look at the stuff! But wait! I've a little more hammering to do."
Back of them stood the teamster, who had just come up with the horses.
"Am I to take that stuff and dump it down the ravine?" he asked slowly.
"If you do," retorted Ferrers heatedly, "I'll hammer in the top of your head, Andy! Reade, won't you pick out what you want for the site of the ore-dump. We've got some real ore at last!" One of the two hoist-men now ran to the shaft, shouting down the great news.
"Hold on there, Bill," Tom called dryly. "Don't get the boys excited over what may turn out to be nothing. Don't tell 'em any more than that we have——-"
"Tell 'em yourself, boss," retorted Bill. "Here they come!"
From the ladder a steady stream of men discharged itself until the last one was up.
"Where are you going, Tim?" called Tom, turning just in time to note big Walsh's movements.
"Going to call Mr. Hazelton, sir."
"Don't do it. Don't get him stirred up for nothing."
"For nothing, boss?"
"Don't bother Hazelton until we can tell him something more definite. Boys, with all my heart I hope that we have something as good as we appear to have. But every man of you knows that, once in a while, gold is found abundantly in a few hundred pounds of rock, and then, from that point on, no more yellow is found. We won't get excited until we get our first thousand dollars' worth out of the ground and have the smelter's check in hand. We'll hope—-and pray—-but we won't cheer just yet."
"Humph! If you don't want us to cheer, then what shall we do?" demanded big Walsh.
"We'll work!" Tom retorted energetically. "We'll work as we never did before. We'll keep things moving every minute of the time. Back with you into the shaft and out into the tunnel! You hoist-men stand by for a big performance with the tub. Jennison, you may stay up from below and tote specimens for me. I shall be at the furnace until midnight at the least."
"I'll tote for you till daylight, if the good streak only holds out," laughed Jennison, with glowing eyes.
"Come softly into the shack when you do come," Tom directed. "I'm going to put Mr. Hazelton to bed, and I don't want any one to wake him. When I play out tonight he'll have to be fresh enough to take my place at the assay bench and furnace."
Softly Tom entered their shack.
Harry lay fast asleep, breathing heavily.
"This won't do, old fellow," spoke Tom gently, shaking his chum's shoulder. "No; don't wake up. Just get into bed. I may want to turn in later, and, when I do, I may have some work left over that I'll want you to do."
"Anything up?" asked Harry drowsily.
"I'm going to be busy for a while, and then I want you to be,"Tom answered.
He half pushed his chum toward the narrow bunk against the wall. Drowsy Hazelton needed no urging, but stretched himself out in his bunk.
Tom drew the blankets up over him, adding:
"Don't stir until I call you."
Hour after hour the men below in the mine sent up tub-lots of rock. Jim spent half of his time above ground, the rest below. Jennison was busy bringing the best samples in to Reade, but he walked so softly that Harry slept peacefully on.
Still the yellow rock came up. None of it looked like the richest sort of ore, but it was good gold-bearing stuff, none the less. Tom made many assays. It was seven in the evening ere the excited miners would agree to knock off work for the day.
Then Tom quit and had supper with them. There was excitement in the air, but Tom still counseled patience.
"We'll know more in a week than we do now," he urged.
"That's all right, Mr. Reade," laughed Tim Walsh. "As long as you were hopeful we didn't bring up enough yellow to pay for the dynamite we used in blasting. Now, boss, you're begging us not to be hopeful, and the luck is changing."
"I'm not kicking against hopefulness," Tom objected, smiling. "All I ask of you men is not to spend the whole year's profits from the mine before we get even one load fit to haul to the smelter."
"We've got the ore dump started," retorted Jennison, "and we don't have to haul stuff to the smelter. Boss, you can raise money enough without hauling a single load before spring."
"How?" Tom wanted to know.
"The banks at Dugout will lend you a small fraction of the value of the dump as soon as they're satisfied that it has any value," Jim Ferrers explained.
"I didn't know that," Tom admitted.
"Now you can understand why the boys are excited tonight. They know you'll outfit the camp liberally enough if the yellow streak holds out."
"Outfit the camp liberally?" repeated Tom. "I'll go just as far in that line as my partners will stand for."
"We want a bang-up Christmas dinner, you see, boss," Tim Walsh explained. "We wouldn't have spoken of it if this streak hadn't panned today. Now, we know we're going to have doings on the ridge this winter."
"If the yellow rook holds out," Tom urged.
"Don't say anything more in that strain, just now, Reade," whispered Jim. "If you do, and things go badly, the boys will think you've been the camp's Jonah."
Tom went back to work in the partners' shack. Jim came in at ten and went to bed. It was midnight when Tom shook Harry by the shoulder.
"Time to get up, young man, and give me a rest," Tom announced.
Harry got drowsily out of his bunk.
"Why didn't you call me before, Tom?"
"Well, to tell the truth, I was too busy. But now you may have a few hours' work all by yourself, while I turn in," drawled Reade.
"Tom, old fellow, there's something up," discovered Hazelton, now studying his chum's face keenly. "Out with it."
Then Tom told of the day's luck, though he cautioned Harry against too soon growing elated.
"We'll just wait and hope," Reade finished. "Now I'll show you the work that's on the bench."
The gold news had waked up Hazelton. He examined eagerly the assay reports that Tom had filled out, then turned to the specimens that awaited his attention.
At six in the morning Reade was up again, nor did Harry turn in. Both were present to inspect the first tub-lot of ore that came up the shaft. The yellow streak was continuing.
By the middle of the afternoon, however, the streak played out. Though the men worked an hour overtime they did not succeed in sending up any more ore.
"Just one pocket?" wondered Tom. "Or does our vein run in scattered pockets?"
"Oh, we'll find more pockets soon," predicted Harry cheerily."Our luck has turned again. It's running in the old channels."
A feverish week passed. Towards its end the first big snow of the winter came, and the ridge was shut off from the rest of the world. It would have been all but impossible to get over even to the Bright Hope Mine.
The week of brisk work was using up the stock of dynamite, while the rock was too hard to work much with picks. Moreover, the money of the partners was gone. To seek credit at Dugout would be a dangerous proceeding, for those who granted the accommodation of credit would be sure to want a high price for it, even to a goodly share in the output of the mine. More than one mine has been taken over by creditors, and the original owners have gone out into the world again, poor men.
Saturday morning of this week Tom and Harry descended the shaft together. Jim was already there with the men.
"I thought we had two more boxes of dynamite, Reade," explainedFerrers. "I find that we have just six sticks left."
"Then may the Fates favor us with some lucky blasts!", muttered Tom.
"We can borrow money on our ore dump," suggested Harry.
"How about that?" asked Tom, looking intently at Ferrers.
"How much do you figure there is in the dump?" queried Jim.
"About two hundred dollars' worth of metal."
Ferrers shook his head.
"It would cost us forty dollars to cart the stuff to Dugout in the Spring. Then there'd be the smelter's charges. We couldn't borrow more than fifty dollars on such security. No bank is going to bother with such a small item."
Tom said nothing, but went forward to the heading of the tunnel. Here he made a careful examination ere he ordered the men to go ahead.
One after another five sticks of the dynamite were fired in small blasts, but the ore that came out did not suggest hope.
Then another drilling was made, and the sixth stick put in place, the magneto wires being connected with the charge.
Tom himself seized the magneto handle.
"Now, hold your breaths," he called, cheerily. "This blast means a lot, and then a bit more, to all of us. This blast may point the path to fortune!"