ake a grip on that screamin' woman's tongue o' yours.
It don't matter whether he saw you 'r didn't see you, 'cause he won't
live t' tell it.'

'Oh, Heaven! Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! I didn't mean that--I swear to Heaven, I
on'y meant to stun him!'

'I know yer didn't. Pull yerself together, you quiverin' idiot. D'ye
think I meant to do murder?'

'No, no, no; o' course not. P'raps he ain't hurt ez bad ez you think.'

'Tain't the hurt, it's this. I on'y thought of it comin' up the ladders.
Did yer notice where he fell? He went back down the incline, fallin' with
his head a few feet up from the pumps. Know what that means? Harry
Hardy'll be found drowned!'

Dick heard Shine gasping for breath, and Rogers went on coolly:

'He was in the Sunday afternoon shift at the pumps. The water in the
incline'll rise up over him before the first workin' shift goes down.'

'Let's go back, an' drag him out. Let's go back!

'Sit still, damn you! Go back an' be trapped, or be recognised if his
senses return? His candle was burnin'.'

'But it's murder--it's murder!

'Is it? Listen here. I noticed a lump o' rock had fallen out o' the roof.
It'll be thought he was stunned by it, an' drowned in the water as it
rose.'

'Man, it's terrible. Two brothers! My sin is findin' me out, Joe Rogers!

'Shut up cant, d'you hear! It served him thunderin' well right. What'd he
want to come pokin' into the mine at all fer? What the devil did the
other one interfere in what didn't concern him fer? But we've got it in
spite of 'em.' Rogers had plunged his hands into the skin bag.

'All, Rogers, all!' For the moment Shine's cupidity triumphed over his
fears. 'Every blessed ounce. All the stuff I've been puddlin' away in the
floor o' that drive fer weeks. An' the nugget, ain't it a beauty--ain't
it a beauty? An' to think I've been shepherdin' that daisy fer ten
shifts!

Dick crept closer and, peering through a slit in the great hollow trunk
of the tree, saw that Rogers was handling the contents of the bag. On his
knee lay a gleaming mass that the boy knew to be a beautiful nugget.

'What devil's luck brought that young fool to the 'T' drive?'

'He must 'a' heard you splashin'. You wasn't careful.'

'Ez careful ez I could be. I had to scoop the stuff outer holes in the
wet floor o' the drive where I'd puddled it away in the mud.'

'Ain't there a chance fer him--not a single hope?'

'Oh, yes, but it's a bad un fer us if he recognised you. There's t