ents regarding himself: "Git onto the dude!" "D'ye
see the tenderfoot?" "Thinks he's goin' to boss us, does he? we'll
show him a trick or two." These were mainly from Maverick's consorts,
and men of their ilk, ignorant and brutal. Houston paid no attention
to their remarks or frowns, but continued his rounds among them,
conscious that he was master of the situation, meanwhile giving
instructions to the foreman who accompanied him. As he passed and
repassed Jack and Mike, working together with almost the automatic
precision of machinery, he stopped to watch them, attracted partly by
admiration for their work, and partly by a slight interest in the man
who had been his fellow passenger, and concerning whom he had heard
such various reports.

During the slight pause in their work, the Irishman eyed him
curiously, with indications of his native drollery and humor betraying
themselves in his mirthful face; he seemed about to speak, but Jack,
with set, stern features, was ready, and the work continued without a
word. In that brief interim, however, Jack had fixed one of his keen,
piercing glances upon Houston, which the latter returned with one
equally searching, and though not a muscle relaxed in that immobile
face, covered with dust and grime, yet a strange thrill of mutual
sympathy quivered and vibrated through the soul of each man, and
Houston knew that he had found a friend.

"There is a man among a thousand," he thought as he walked away, "a
man of honor, in whom one could place unbounded confidence; no wonder
Lyle has found him such a friend!"

At the next pause in their work, Mike's feelings found expression:

"Begorra! but the young mon is progressin' foinely, to be put over the
loikes of us, and bein' as how most loikely he niver sit foot in a
moine, till comin' out into this counthry!"

Jack's face had grown strangely set and white: "We are to be his
friends, remember that, Mike," he said, in a voice unnaturally stern.

"Frinds!" exclaimed the astonished Mike, "Be-dad! and whin did I iver
know ye to make frinds with ony of owld Blaisdell's men befoor?"

"Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, Mike," was Jack's only reply
as he again began work, and Mike had nothing to do but to follow his
example.

CHAPTER XXVI.

In a short time Houston had become perfectly familiar with his new
surroundings. He was thoroughly at home in the underground workings,
readily finding his way in the labyrinth of shaf