A DISCOURAGING EXPLORATION.
It was with eager interest that the young partners shouldered their
picks, lighted their lamps, and prepared to begin work on the second day
after their arrival. And yet it was with no little trepidation--at any
rate in the minds of the two leaders in the enterprise; for Max and Len
well knew that they were relying wholly upon a theory, and were going
against not only the experience of the early prospectors and miners
here, but against the judgment of the whole population of the district,
among which were many miners of practical knowledge. As for Sandy--a
stranger to these facts--he was simply full of the buoyancy which hope
and novelty lends to every new movement in the line of one’s ambition.
If there is anything more inspiriting than mining for the precious
metals, the world has not yet found it. It is the secret charm of how
many a fairy tale! By it how many a fable can be practically
interpreted! Just before you, perhaps right under the first clod, or
hidden in the dark recesses of this very crevice out of which springs
the service-bush whose sugary berries you are pausing to taste, lies
waiting the all-powerful gold.
But just here halt with me a moment, while I sketch the position and
outward appearance of this mine. The entrance of the tunnel had been
made in a pretty nearly vertical face of rock, at the edge of the little
bench or terrace upon which the cabin stood, and the rock which had been
excavated had been brought out by cars running upon a rude wooden
tramway, and pitched down into the valley, forming an elongated heap of
stone, like the beginning of a railway embankment. This was called “the
dump.” The track still remained along the level top of the dump, and
one of the small cars, somewhat out of repair, lay overturned beside it,
its load, apparently the last brought out of the mine, still half
filling its box.
How deep and large the tunnel or drift might be, the boys could judge
only by the size of the dump, for a heavy door prevented entrance. From
under the door trickled a stream of clear cold water, which had already
proved a great convenience. The Aurora mine, a hundred yards below, was
almost precisely similar in outward appearance--even to the rivulet, but
it had no door.
Breakfast dispatched and overalls donned, their picks sharpened, their
lamps “trimmed and burning,” the firm marched up to the portal in single
file, Max at the head.
“Open, sesame!” shouted the leader.
“Allee samee open,” echoed Len, in the best Chinese he knew.
“Kai duxon parasitidos gignotai,” muttered McKinnon in broad Gaelic
Greek.
But his talisman was no more effective than that of the others, and the
door stood firm.
Max struck an attitude resembling Thor with his hammer, and made ready
to deal the barricade a splintering blow.
“He that would eat the kernel maun crack the nut,” pronounced Sandy, in
as solemn a tone of voice as though he were giving a death-warrant.
“Hold on!” exclaimed Len, seizing his partner’s uplifted arm. “Don’t
smash it. I reckon we can get in more peaceably. Let’s try to pry off
the lock.”
“Very well,” assented Max; “here goes!”
Inserting his pick-point carefully into the staple clasping the padlock,
by which the door seemed to be secured, two or three forcible wrenches
pulled it out, and the released latch fell easily out of place.
It only remained to swing open the door and face the burst of icily damp
air that rushed out, as though delighted to be set free and allowed to
mingle with the sunshine.
[Illustration: FORCING THE BARRICADE.
Silver Caves, Page 24.]
You will remember that a steady stream of water was described as pouring
out from beneath this door, and coursing down the side of the dump in a
channel which showed it had long been followed. The water was cold and
pure, and had proved a great convenience to the boys in the cabin, who
otherwise must have made a tedious descent to the creek-bed for all they
wanted to use.
Upon opening the door it was seen that this stream spread itself over
nearly the whole width of the tunnel, which was badly made and far from
orderly.
The trio were not afraid of mud and water, however, so they pushed their
way in, stumbling along over fallen fragments, and in and out of the
puddles, feeling that it would take a longer time to clear the path of
these obstacles than they could well afford. They had not gone more than
thirty or forty paces, however, when the tunnel became choked with
prostrate and moldy timbers and great heaps of fallen rock, which they
could with difficulty crawl over. No sooner had this first obstruction
been passed than a second similar one was encountered, and they began to
feel that it was perilous work to proceed under a tunnel roof so
insecure as this one appeared to be.
“I wonder how much deeper this thing is,” said Max, after a third great
barricade had been surmounted. “What did our dear old friend, the late
lamented proprietor, tell you under that head, Lennox?”
“Said it was 180 feet long.”
“But he didn’t mention that it was only six inches wide!” Max retorted,
coming to a halt at the same time.
“We may as well go on a bit farther,” Sandy advised. “A Scotchman doesna
like to gie it up till he ha’ seen the end of a thing. ‘A’maist and very
near,’ I’ve heard, ‘hae aye been great liars.’”
“All right, we’ll explore it as long as we can scramble,” Max rejoined
cheerfully, and the three pushed on, enduring many a bump and scratch
on hands and toes, knees and elbows, in spite of their lamp light.
Before long, however, progress was completely blocked. A great mass of
the roof had fallen where a crevice opened upward and sideways, and out
of this crevice gushed a steady stream of water to swell that which
trickled from lesser fountains elsewhere, and drained out along the
bottom of the tunnel.
“Thus far and no farther. Satisfied, Sandy?”
“Oo, aye. ‘Down wi’ the lid,’ quo’ Willie Reid.”
They were turning back when Max asked them to wait a minute, and taking
out a pocket-compass, he noted as well as he was able the direction the
excavation pointed at that inner end.
“I suspect,” he explained, “that as it deepens this tunnel bends a
trifle to the left--down the creek--on a slight curve following the
vein. If so I want to know it.”
Making their way out, he took another compass observation near the
entrance and found he was right, though the bend was a slight one.
Before leaving the inner end, the two Americans had selected several
specimens of the vein-rock from the sides and roof of the tunnel, and
other pieces were gathered as they returned. When daylight was reached
they spread these specimens out and talked them over, explaining to
Sandy, who turned out rather wiser in respect to minerals than he had
claimed to be, what were the prominent characteristics of each kind of
rock represented.
A few of the fragments, showing some peculiar brown nodules and threads,
they separated from the rest, and compared them with similar pieces
taken from the overturned car-load on the dump, which had excited their
attention before. None of the rock at the entrance had shown this
characteristic; all pieces of that kind, they discovered, had come from
the innermost depth.
“If we could get past that barrier I think we should find much more of
it,” Max remarked.
“We know well enough as to that,” Len replied, “for certainly that
car-load was about the last one brought from the mine, and must show
what the breast is made of.”
“What do you mean by the breast?” Sandy inquired.
“The rock across the end of the tunnel into which the digging is carried
forward.”
“Well,” Max resumed, “the gangue there, judging by the car-load of
specimens, contains more of this brown stuff than anything we saw as far
as we went, so I think it is fair to conclude that it increases steadily
in that direction, and that if the tunnel were pushed farther the whole
vein would be seen, before very long, to be well impregnated with it,
taking the place of this useless copper and quartz.”
“Can we not examine the outcrop?” Sandy asked, “and learn something from
that?”
The outcrop of a vein is that part of it which appears above the surface
of the soil, or enclosing rocks,--crops out, as geologists say.
“I don’t know; perhaps so. It would do no harm to go and take a look at
it.”
MAX HAS AN IDEA.