h drill,
asked where he was, that we remembered how long he had been gone.

"Gone back to the cabin, has he?" remarked Tom. "Well, he's welcome to
stay there as far as I'm concerned."

The work went on, until presently Tom declared that they had gone deep
enough, and while we others cleared away the tools, Connor himself
loaded and tamped the hole.

"Now, get out of the way!" cried he; and while we ran off and hid behind
convenient trees, Tom struck a match and lighted the fuse. The dull thud
of an explosion shortly followed; but on walking back to the spot we
were all greatly surprised to see that the rock had remained intact--it
was as solid as ever.

"Well, that beats all!" exclaimed Tom. "The thing has shot downward; it
must be hollow underneath. We'll have to put in some short holes and
crack it up."

It did not take long to put in three short holes, and these being
charged and tamped, we once more took refuge behind the trees while Tom
touched them off. This time there were three sharp explosions, a shower
of fragments rattled through the branches above our heads, and on going
to inspect the result we found that the rock had been so shattered that
it was an easy matter to pry out the pieces with pick and crowbar--a
task of which Joe and I did our share.

At length, the hole being now about three feet deep, Joe, who was
working with a crowbar, gave a mighty prod at a loose piece of rock,
when, to the astonishment of himself and everybody else, the bottom of
the hole fell through, and rock, crowbar and all, disappeared into the
cavity beneath.

"Well, what kind of a vein is it, anyhow?" cried Tom, going down upon
his knees and peering into the darkness. "Blest if there isn't a sort of
cave down here. Knock out some more, boys, and let me get down. This is
the queerest thing I've struck in a long time."

We soon had the hole sufficiently enlarged, when, by means of a rope
attached to a tree, Tom slid down into it, and lighting a candle, peered
about.

Poor old Tom! The change on his face would have been ludicrous had we
not felt so sorry for him, when, looking up at us he said in lugubrious
tones: "Done again, boys! Come down and see for yourselves."

We quickly slid down the rope, when, our eyes having become accustomed
to the light, Tom pointed out to us the extraordinary accident that had
caused him to believe he had struck a three-foot vein of galena.

Though there was no sign of such a thing on the