or that turned them dizzy met them as they floundered
into the dark tunnel. The lamp burned uncertainly, but they crept on
by the feeble ray of light over masses of fallen rock, until they
reached a spot where the adit was blocked with the debris. Weston,
dropping on hands and knees, tore out several smaller fragments, and
held up one of them; but as he did it there was a faint, hoarse cry,
and sudden darkness, as Devine fell forward upon the lamp.

"Get me out! Quick!" he gasped.

Weston felt for the lamp, and contrived to light it, though he wasted
several matches in the attempt; but he felt greatly tempted to
disregard the dictates of humanity when he hooked it in his hat.

"Well," he said reluctantly, "I suppose we'll have to take him out."

They did it with some difficulty, and left him unceremoniously when
they had deposited him, limp and almost helpless, in the open air; for
miners who meet with unpleasantness of that kind recover, and one does
not make a discovery that promises to put thousands of dollars into
one's pockets very frequently. They went back, and, though Weston felt
faint and dizzy, he flung himself down among the smaller stones, and
thrust one or two of them into Saunders' hands.

"Feel them--and look at the break!" he exclaimed.

Saunders poised one of the stones carefully, and then glanced at the
rent where it had been torn from the rock.

"Yes," he said, "we've struck it this time, sure. Guess we'll get out
of this and make supper."

"Make supper!" Weston gazed at him incredulously. "I don't stir out of
here until sun-up!"

Then he tore off his tattered shirt and stood up, stripped to the
waist.

"Get hold of the drill," he said, hoarsely. "You've got to work
to-night."

Saunders remembered that night long afterward. For the first half-hour
he was troubled by a distressful faintness; and when that passed off,
as the air grew clearer, his back and arms commenced to ache
unpleasantly. He already had toiled since soon after sunrise; but
Weston, too, had done so, and he, at least, seemed impervious to
fatigue. So intent was he that every now and then he swung the heavy
hammer long after his turn had run out, without asking for relief; and
Saunders judiciously permitted him to undertake the more arduous task.
By and by, however, Devine crept back to join them, and, when at
length morning broke and the mouth of the adit glimmered faintly,
Weston glanced at his bleeding hands as he flung