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 dol