now," chuckled Dolph, "and both blasts
will go on at once. Whew! This old ridge will rock for a few
seconds!"

For a few moments he stood surveying his work with huge satisfaction.

"Now, get up with you," he ordered. "Remember, at the bottom of the
last ladder, blow out your lanterns."

"The wires?" queried Josh.

"I'll carry 'em. All you have to do is to get out of here."

In quivering silence the three evil-doers ascended. The light
of their lanterns extinguished, they stepped out of the shaft
and once more on the hard snow crust.

"Now, take the magneto back about two hundred feet, leaving the
wires stretched on the snow," whispered Dolph.

"Who's that coming?" Josh demanded, in sudden alarm, clutching
his leader's sleeve.

For an instant all three men quailed. But they remained silent,
peering.

"Don't get any more dreams, Josh," Dolph ordered sharply. "There's
no one coming. It's all in your nerves."

"I was sure I heard some one coming." Josh insisted in a whisper.

"But you didn't"

"What if some one comes now?"

"No one is coming."

"But if some one should?"

"All the more reason for getting our work done with speed. Once
we've connected the magneto and fired the blast our whole job
will be done."

Josh, only half-convinced, drew a revolver and cocked the weapon.

"Now, be mighty careful!" snarled Dolph. "Don't get rattled and
shoot at any shadows! A shot might spoil our plans tonight, for
it would bring men tumbling out this way as soon as they could
get out of their bunks and into some clothes. Give me that pistol!"

Josh, hesitating, obeyed, whereupon Dolph Gage let down the hammer
noiselessly, next dropping the weapon into a pocket of his own
badly-frayed overcoat.

"Now, get the magneto back, as I told you. I'll take care of
the wires and see that they don't snap or get tangled."

This latter part of the work was quickly executed. Dolph deftly
attached the wires to the magneto, then seized the handle, prepared
to pump.

"All ready, now!" he whispered gleefully. "Two or three pumps,
and damage will be done that it would cost at least fifteen thousand
dollars' worth of material and labor to remedy. The kid engineers
haven't the money and can't raise it. They'll have to give up---be
driven out. Then we'll send our own man, who has his mineral rights,
in here to take possession, and the mine will be ours once more---as
it always has been by rights."

"Let us ge