n his lean face and a
hand laid reassuringly on the shoulder of his half-dazed companion.

CHAPTER XII

THE COPPER-MINE

The red sun had risen above the dusky firs on a shoulder of the range
when Weston and his companions reached the copper-mine. It consisted
of an opening in the forest which clothed the hillside with the black
mouth of an adit in the midst of it, and a few big mounds of debris,
beside which stood a rude log shanty. The men who had just come out of
the latter gazed at the strangers with undemonstrative curiosity, and
when, saying nothing, they, trooped away to work, the new arrivals sat
down to wait until the mining captain should make his appearance. In
the meanwhile one of them amused himself by throwing stones at a
smaller log building with a galvanized roof which stood among the
firs. He looked at the others for applause when he succeeded in
hitting it.

"Let up," said a comrade. "The boss lives in there."

The man flung another stone, a larger one, which rang upon the iron
roof.

"Well," he said, "I guess that ought to fetch him."

It evidently did so, for the door of the shanty opened, and a man
attired in shirt and trousers came out. He was a big, lean man,
somewhat hard of face, and he favored the assembly with a glance of
quiet scrutiny, for he was, as it happened, acquainted with the habits
of the free companions.

"Getting impatient, boys?" he asked, and his voice, which was
curiously steady, had in it a certain unmistakable ring. It suggested
that he was one accustomed to command. "Well, what do you want?"

"A job," said one of Weston's companions.

The man looked at him with no great favor.

"Quite sure it isn't money? You can't have one without the other
here."

Then Grenfell rose and waved his hand.

"The explanation, I may observe, is unnecessary. In this country you
don't get money anywhere without first doing a good deal for it.
Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that you don't get it then."

"How long is it since you did anything worth counting?" asked the
captain.

One of Grenfell's companions pulled him down before he had a chance to
reply.

"Now you sit right down before you spoil things," he said. "You can't
put up a bluff on that kind of man. You don't know enough."

The miner glanced at them again, with a little grim smile.

"Well," he said, "you may stay there until I've started the boys in
the adit. Then I will come back and talk to you."

H