Dick, when the plans had been made.
"We can take some candles with us and I guess we can get down the cable
at the mine. Then we'll see if there's any crooked work going on."

After supper Tim, Frank and Dick started off. They little realized what
was before them, or perhaps they would not have been so light-hearted.

CHAPTER XXV

DOWN IN A GOLD MINE

"It's going to take over two hours to get out there," said Dick, as he
and his companions tramped on. "I don't know how long we'll stay. It all
depends on circumstances. If they discover us we'll not stay as long as
we otherwise would," and he laughed. "But I guess it's an all-night job.
Well, the road is a good one, and it's a nice night."

"That's what it is," answered Frank. "That moon looks as if it was pure
silver, hung up there in the sky."

"You're getting poetical," commented Dick.

"Dat oughter be a gold moon to be right in de swim," was Tim's opinion.

"What do you expect to do when you get to the mine?" asked Frank, as,
now that they were beyond the borders of Yazoo City, they were not
afraid to talk of their object.

"I hardly know," answered Dick. "What I want to find out is whether or
not that mine is a fake one."

"How do youse tell a fake gold mine?" asked Tim. "Is it like a lead
nickel or counterfeit money so youse can tell by bitin' a chunk of it?"

"Hardly," replied Dick, with a laugh. "I've been reading up about mines
lately, and, according to the book, the most common way of making a fake
mine is to 'salt' it, or 'sweat' it."

"Salt it?" repeated Frank. "I've heard of salting cattle, but never
mines."

"That doesn't describe it very well," went on Dick, "but that's what
they call it. Sometimes it is termed 'sweating.' By either way it means
making the ore in the mine look as if it was filled with gold, when, in
fact, the gold had only been put there by some man who wanted a
worthless mine to look like a good one."

"How do they do it?" asked Tim.

"The most common way is to take some real gold dust, put it into a
shotgun, load it heavily with powder and shoot it at the side of the
mine. The gold particles are shot into the rock a little way and it
appears like real ore. They do this several times down the sides of a
rocky mine and it looks very much like the real thing. After a man has
bought the mine and begins to dig, he discovers it's all a fake."

"Wow!" exclaimed Tim. "T'ink of shootin' gold out of a gun. I wish
somebod