e'll see if the superintendent
won't take us all through the Silver Legion mine before the summer is
over; but to-day we're just going to show Toady how the miners go up
and down the shaft. He won't b'lieve they use a bucket. Don't you
want to come too?"

"Nope, guess not," Billiard answered promptly, though the wistful look
in his eyes belied his words.

"It's int'resting," urged Irene, who somehow seemed to understand that
Billiard did not really mean what he said.

"Is it a real bucket?" he could not refrain from asking.

"Yes."

"Like a water bucket?"

"Yes, only bigger."

"I sh'd think the miners would fall out."

"Oh, it's big enough so they can't tumble if they mind the rules; but
you've got to keep your head down inside, or you'll be killed by the
big beans--" she meant beams--"which are built in to hold the dirt from
caving in and filling up the mine. Come and see for yourself."

"Well, p'r'aps I will." With a great show of indifference, the boy
uncoiled his legs, slid to the ground beside Irene, and hurried with
her after the others, now a considerable distance in advance; but the
little group had reached their goal and were gingerly peering into the
black depths of the abandoned shaft when Billiard and Irene joined them.

"Ugh!" shuddered Mercedes, drawing back with a shiver from the yawning
mouth of the hole. "It smells like lizards. I'll bet the bottom of
the shaft is full of them."

"It didn't use to be," remarked Susie, dropping a pebble over the brink
and listening to the hollow echoes it awoke as it bounded from timber
to timber.

"Were you ever down there?" asked Toady in surprise.

"No, but papa was one of the men here when the mine was working."

"What did it quit working for?" ventured Billiard, testing the
weather-stained rope still coiled about the winch above the shaft.

"The vein of rich silver stopped all of a sudden and they couldn't make
the other ore pay, so they shut down, and the men went to work in other
mines, or else moved away."

"How deep is a shaft?" asked Toady, as Susie sent another pebble
spinning after the first and counted rapidly until it struck the bottom.

"Some are _hundreds_ of feet deep," replied Mercedes impressively, glad
of a chance to air her meagre knowledge of mining affairs. "But
this----"

"Is only a hole," finished Inez contemptuously.

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Billiard, mystified. "Ain't this
a sure-enough shaft?"

"