ghtiest hammers, and lashed them fast to
the back of mine, not so as to strike, but to burden the fall. Having
made this firm, and with room to grasp the handle of the largest one
only--for the helves of the others were shorter--I smiled at Uncle Ben,
and whirled the mighty implement round my head, just to try whether I
could manage it. Upon that the miners gave a cheer, being honest men,
and desirous of seeing fair play between this 'shameless stone' (as Dan
Homer calls it) and me with my hammer hammering.

Then I swung me on high to the swing of the sledge, as a thresher
bends back to the rise of his flail, and with all my power descending
delivered the ponderous onset. Crashing and crushed the great stone fell
over, and threads of sparkling gold appeared in the jagged sides of the
breakage.

'How now, Simon Carfax?' cried Uncle Ben triumphantly; 'wilt thou find a
man in Cornwall can do the like of that?'

'Ay, and more,' he answered; 'however, it be pretty fair for a lad of
these outlandish parts. Get your rollers, my lads, and lead it to the
crushing engine.'

I was glad to have been of some service to them; for it seems that this
great boulder had been too large to be drawn along the gallery and too
hard to crack. But now they moved it very easily, taking piece by piece,
and carefully picking up the fragments.

'Thou hast done us a good turn, my lad,' said Uncle Reuben, as the
others passed out of sight at the corner; 'and now I will show thee the
bottom of a very wondrous mystery. But we must not do it more than once,
for the time of day is the wrong one.'

The whole affair being a mystery to me, and far beyond my understanding,
I followed him softly, without a word, yet thinking very heavily, and
longing to be above ground again. He led me through small passages, to a
hollow place near the descending shaft, where I saw a most extraordinary
monster fitted up. In form it was like a great coffee-mill, such as
I had seen in London, only a thousand times larger, and with heavy
windlass to work it.

'Put in a barrow-load of the smoulder,' said Uncle Ben to Carfax, 'and
let them work the crank, for John to understand a thing or two.'

'At this time of day!' cried Simon Carfax; 'and the watching as has been
o' late!'

However, he did it without more remonstrance; pouring into the scuttle
at the top of the machine about a baskeful of broken rock; and then a
dozen men went to the wheel, and forced it round, as s