oo expensive, restoring
all the square-sets and clearing out the fallen rock; and he had learned
to his sorrow that Colonel Huff had blown up every heading with
dynamite. In that tangle of shattered timbers and caved-in walls the
miners made practically no progress, for the ground was treacherous and
ten years under water had left the wood soft and slippery. To be sure
the hidden chute lay at the breast of some such drift; but to clear them
all out, with his limited equipment and no regular engineer in charge,
would run up a staggering account. So Blount began to crosscut, and to
sink along the contact, but chiefly to cut down expenses.

With the railroad that had tapped the camp torn up and hauled away,
every foot of timber, every stick of powder, cost twice as much as it
ought. And then there was machinery, and gas and oil for the engine, and
valves and spare parts for the pumps, and the board of the men, and
overhead expenses--and not a single dollar coming in. Blount sat up late
in his office, adding total to total, and at the end he leaned back
aghast. At the very inside it was costing him two hundred dollars for
every day that he operated the mine. And what was it turning back?
Nothing. The mine had been gutted of every pound of ore that it would
pay to sack and ship, and unless something was done to locate the lost
ore body and give some guarantee of future values, well, the Paymaster
would have to shut down. Blount considered it soberly, as a business man
should, and then he sent for Wiley Holman.

There were others, of course, to whom he might appeal; but he sent for
Wiley first. He was a mining engineer, he had had his eye on the
property and--well, he probably knew something about the lost vein. So
he sent a wire, and then a man; and at last Holman, M. E., arrived. He
came under protest, for he had been showing a mine of his own to some
four-buckle experts from the east, and when Blount made his appeal he
snorted.

"Well, for the love of Miguel!" he exclaimed, starting up. "Do you think
I'm going to help you for nothing? I'm a mining engineer, and the least
it will cost you is five hundred dollars for a report. No, I don't think
anything; and I don't know anything; and I won't take your mine on
shares. I'm through--do you get me? I sold out my entire interest for
one hundred dollars, cash. That puts me ahead of the game, up to date;
and while I'm lucky I'll quit."

He stamped out of the office--Blount hav