depth, and that most
of the ledges came in stronger as they went down. The Cross ain't
shown it so far, but eight hundred feet ought to show whether that's
the right line of work."

"How is the sump hole under the shaft?" Dick asked.

"Must be somewhere about seventy or eighty feet of water in it; but we
can pump that out in no time. She isn't makin' much water. Almost a
dry mine now, for some reason I don't quite get. Looks as if it leaked
away a good deal, somewhere, through the formation. There wouldn't be
no trouble in sinkin' the shaft."

"And thirty feet, about, would bring us to the seven-hundred-foot
mark?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll tell you what I want to do: I want you to shift the crew so
that there is a day and a night shift. The rebuilding of the dam can
be put off for a while, except for such work as the millmen are
agreeable to take on. I want to sink! I don't want to waste any time
about it. I want to go down just as fast as it can be done, and when
we get to the seven-hundred-foot, one gang must start to drift for the
green lead, and the others must keep going down."

He was almost knocked over the desk by a rousing, enthusiastic slap on
the back.

"Now you're my old pardner again!" Bill shouted. "You're the lad again
that was fresh from the schools, knew what he wanted, and went after
it. Dick, I've been kind of worried about you since we came here," the
veteran went on, in a softer tone of voice. "You ain't been like the
old Dick. You ain't had the zip! It's as if you were afraid all the
time of losing Sloan's money, and it worried you. And sometimes--now,
I don't want you to get sore and cuss me--it seemed to me as if your
mind wa'n't altogether on the job! As if the Cross didn't mean
everything."

He waited expectantly for a moment, as if inviting a confidence; then,
observing that the younger man was flushed, and not looking at him,
grinned knowingly, and trudged out of the office, calling back as he
went: "There'll be sump water in the creek in half an hour."

As if imbued with new energy, he ordered one of the idle millmen to
act as stoker, if he cared to do so, which was cheerfully done, had
the extra pump attached, saw the fire roaring from another boiler, and
by noon the shaft rang with the steady throb of the pistons pounding
and pulling the waste water upward. The last of the unwatering of the
Cross was going forward in haste. By six o'clock in the evening he
reported that soundings