dred feet and strike an airline west by north for
about a quarter of a mile, and you'd be right close to him. He's down
there, tackling a mighty uncertain proposition. The shaft and the
workings of the Last Dollar are full of water. He's running a crosscut
from an upraise in the Radley drift, so as to tap the west tunnel of the
Last Dollar."

"It is dangerous, you inform me?"

"Dangerous ain't the word. It's suicide, the way I look at it. See here,
my friend. His drill goes through and lets loose about 'steen million
gallons of water. How is he going to get in out of the rain about that
time?"

The New Mexican showed a double row of pearly teeth in a bland smile.

"Pardon, sir. If you would explain a leetle more fully I would then
comprehend."

"Sure. Here's the way it is. Dick and his three men are plugging away at
the breast of the drift with air-drills. Every day he gits closeter to
that lake dammed up there. Right now there can't be more'n a few feet of
granite 'twixt him and it. He don't know how many any more'n a rabbit,
because he's going by old maps that ain't any too reliable. The question
is whether the wall will hold till he dynamites it through, or whether
the weight of water will crumple up that granite and come pouring out in
a flood."

"Your friend, then, is in peril, is it not so?"

"You've said it. He's shooting dice with death. That's the way I size it
up. If the wall holds till it's blown up, Dick has got to get back along
the crosscut, lower himself down the upraise, and travel nearly a mile
through tunnelings before he reaches a shaft to git out. That don't
leave them any too much time at the best. But if the water breaks
through on them, it's Heaven help Dick, and good-by to this world."

"Then Mr. Gordon is what you call brave?"

"He's the gamest man that ever walked into this camp. There ain't an
inch of him that ain't clear grit through and through. Get into a tight
place, and he's your one best bet to tie to."

"Mr. Gordon is fortunate in his friend," bowed the New Mexican politely.

The little miner looked at him with shining eyes.

"Nothing like that. Me, I figure the luck's all on my side. Onct you
meet Dick you'll see why we boost for him. Hello, here's where we get
off at. If you're looking for Dick, stranger, you better follow me. I'm
going right up to the mine. Dick had ought to be coming up from below
any minute now."

Pesquiera checked his suitcase at the depot newsstan