t a little way to the rear before you fire the blasts,"
pleaded Josh.

"Go back a couple of hundred feet, if you want," assented Dolph.
"But don't you run away! Remember that part of your job is to
stand by me if we're followed and fired upon."

Josh and his companion carefully made their way back over the crust.

Dolph Gage waited until he saw them to be a sufficient distance away.

"Now, work away, my magneto beauty" muttered Gage, exultantly.
"Do your work, straight and true. Drive these upstarts off of
Indian Smoke Range and bring my mine back into my own hands!
These fool engineers have found no gold in the ridge, but it's
there---waiting for me. And---now!"

He pumped the handle of the magneto vigorously. In another instant
the spark traveled.

From underground there came a sudden rocking, followed, after
a breathless interval, by a loud, crashing boom.

Both blasts had exploded in the same instant, and the dynamite
had done its work!

CHAPTER XXIII

TOM BEGINS TO DOUBT HIS EYES

When the shock came it shook the shacks so that nearly all of the
sleeping miners became instantly alert.

Harry Hazelton, dozing lightly, sat up in bed, then felt dizzy and
lay down again.

"You keep on your pillow, Mr. Hazelton," Tim Walsh ordered, gently.
"It isn't your time to sit up yet, sir."

"What was the racket?" asked Harry, anxiously.

"A blast in the mine," Tom Reade answered, truthfully enough.

"I didn't know we had any dynamite left," persisted Harry.

"You haven't been in a condition to know all that has been going
on for the last few days," Tom retorted, gently. "Now, don't
ask me any more questions, for I've got to go out and see how
the blast came along."

As he spoke Tom was hustling into his coat and pulling his cap
down over his ears.

Then, full of the liveliest anxiety, the young chief engineer
hastened out.

His instant conclusion had been that some treachery was afoot,
but whence it came he had no idea. Just now Tom Reade wanted
facts, not conjectures.

As he closed the door and hurried across the camp, Tom found the
aroused miners flocking out. Several of them bore rifles, for
they, too, had guessed treachery.

"Here's the boss!"

"What's happened, Mr. Reade?"

"Men," Tom called softly, "I don't know what's up. But don't
talk loudly or excitedly, for Hazelton has been aroused by the
noise and the shake, and I've tried to turn it off. Don't let
him hear your voic