, father," I exclaimed with a sort of gasp, and then I told him what
we had done with the powder.

"Humph! Nice fellows!" he exclaimed as I ended. "Why, you might have
blown each other to pieces. Powder wants using only by an experienced
man, and young Chowne, who seems to have played first fiddle, seems to
know more about his father's powders than that out of a keg. Humph! So
you blew down one of the lumps of stone?"

"Yes, father."

"Well, why didn't you say so at once?" he continued tartly, "and not
shuffle and shirk. It was a foolish, monkeyish trick, but I suppose no
great harm's done. What did you do it for?"

"To see the stones rush down, sir," I said.

"Humph! Well, don't do so any more."

"I will not, father," I said hastily.

"That's well. Now we will not say any more about it. Many stones come
down?"

"Yes, father, they swept a bare place down the side of the cliff right
to the old rock."

"Here, Sep," said my father excitedly, holding out the lump of mineral,
"did you pick this up before or after?"

"After, father; where the rock was swept bare."

My father looked at me quite excitedly.

"Done breakfast?" he said sharply.

"Yes, father."

"Put on your hat and come with me to the Gap. Stop a moment. Did your
school-fellows notice that piece of rock--did you show it to them?"

"No, father. I was alone when I found it."

"So much the better. Then, look here, Sep; don't say anything to them
about it, nor about what you see to-day."

"No, father; but--"

"Don't ask any questions, boy. I am not sure but you may have made a
very important discovery in the Gap. I had no idea of there being any
metals there."

"And are there, father?"

"We are going to see, my boy. So now, keep your counsel. Put on your
cap and we will walk over to the Gap at once, when you can show me the
exact spot where you found this piece."

I grew as excited as my father seemed to be, but with this difference,
namely, that as I grew warmer he grew more cool and business-like.

After I had given him some better idea of the place where the specimen
had been found, he decided that we would not go round by the cliff path,
and past Jonas Uggleston's cottage, but take a short cut over the high
moorland ground at the back of the bay, and so on to the Gap, where we
could descend just where we lads had blown down the rock.

It was not a long walk that way, though a hilly one, and before half an
hour had p