heading.

"Hard rock!" muttered Reade. "The blast didn't make much of a
dent. Hand me a pick, one of you."

Then Tom swung it with all the force and skill of which he was
possessed.

Some of the miners, who thought themselves strong men, looked on
admiringly as Tom swung the pick again and again.

Clack! clack! clack!

"Some muscle there," proclaimed Tim Walsh. "I didn't think it
was in a slim fellow like you."

"I haven't so much muscle," Tom informed him, "but I have a tremendous
amount at stake here. One of you shovelmen come forward and get
this stuff back."

Reade went tirelessly on with his pick. Some of the big fellows
came forward with their tools and worked beside him. Tom still led.

For half an hour all hands worked blithely. Then Tom, halting,
called them off.

"No use to go any further, boys, until we get some dynamite,"
he declared. "We're striking into harder and harder rock every
minute. We are dulling our tools without making any headway."

"Dynamite?" asked Jim Ferrers, who had been looking over the shoveled
back rook with Harry. "Where are we going to get any?"

"It's time for a council of war, I reckon," sighed Tom. "At any
rate it's no use to work here any longer this morning. Let's
go above."

As it was yet too early for dinner, the men congregated in one of
the shacks, while the partners went to their own rough one-room abode.

"What's to be done?" asked Harry.

"I'd say quit," muttered Jim Ferrers. "Only, if we do, we lose
our title to our claim. Of course, I mean quit only for a while---say
until spring---but even that would forfeit our title here."

"Then it's not to be thought of," rejoined Tom, with a vigorous
shake of his head. "I haven't lost a bit of my faith that, one of
these days, this ridge is going to pay big profits to some one."

"We either have to quit, and give up, or stay and starve," rejoined
Ferrers.

"We've got to stick," Tom insisted. "In the first place, we owe
our men a lot of money."

"They offered to take their chances," suggested Jim.

"True, but it's a debt, none the less. I shall see everyone of
these men paid, even if I have to wait until I can save money
enough at some other job to square the obligations in full. For
myself, I don't intend to quit as long as I can swing a dull pick
against a granite ledge."

"Then what did you come up for?" asked Harry dryly.

"Because there's nothing the men can do for the present, an