of ladders up the black wet shaft he never knew. He
remembered nothing of the agony of the toil the day after, when all
seemed like a dream.

He made his way into the Mount of Gold drive again. An impulse moved him
to block the opening connecting the two drives with loose reef, and the
same impulse led him to hide the skin bag containing the gold away under
the dirt in the shaft of the Mount of Gold. The excitement that had
driven him to the rescue of Harry Hardy sustained him till he had crawled
out into the quarry; then his strength all went out of him, and left him
sick and wretched. He was famished, all his limbs ached with a dull
insistent pain after he had rested for a few minutes, and his weariness
was so great that it was a terrible task to drag himself out of the
quarry. But he succeeded in gaining the hillside at length, and hastened
as quickly as he could through the trees in the direction of the Silver
Stream, stumbling as he went, and sobbing quietly in utter collapse of
strength and spirit.

When Dick reached the vicinity of the big mine he was surprised to find
the brace deserted. He stole up and peered through the engine-house
window at the driver's clock, and saw with dull amazement that it was not
yet half-past twelve. It had taken him little over half an hour to reach
Harry Hardy and return--it seemed to him that he had been toiling for
many hours. He crept in between the long stacks of firewood, made a bed
on the soft bark, and waited. The first night shift of the week did not
start work till one o'clock on Monday morning, and the mine was silent
save for the slow puffing of the pumping engine and the deliberate
rumbling of the bob.

Lying on his stomach on the bark, the boy fixed his eyes upon the mine
and suffered through the slow dragging minutes. He wept incessantly, and
his teeth chattered, although the night was warm. A new fear had taken
possession of him, a fear that Harry Hardy, if alive, would perhaps move
and roll down the incline into the water again before the miners reached
him. He waited in an agony of anxiety, and his eyes never moved from the
cage at the surface.

The miners began to come in at length, with heavy footsteps, swinging
their crib billies, calling to each other in gruff voices. Lamps were lit
upon the brace, and in the boiler-house and changing shed, and Dick saw
the first cageful of men drop out of sight, as the engine groaned and the
mine took up its busy duties ag