f argument when he could come across a foeman worthy of his steel. "I
accede in toto to your premises; but your deduction is somewhat a little
too rapid, for there are other circumstances to be considered which I
have not yet brought to your notice, and which, I have no doubt, will
alter your decision."

"By Jove!" said Ernest Wilton, with a laugh, "I must treat it as a
conundrum, and give it up. I am certain that I cannot solve it."

"Stop a minute," said Mr Rawlings, "and you'll soon see how it is.
During the winter we had a hard time of it to keep the roof of our house
over our head, let alone preserving the mine in working order! The
snow, the ice, the stormy gales, that seem to haunt the vicinity of the
Rocky Mountains and their outlying ranges, each in turn assailed us: and
then, on the melting of the snow at the first breath of approaching
spring, the floods, which were the most virulent antagonists with whom
we had to grapple, almost overwhelmed us! There was `water, water
everywhere,' as Coleridge says in his `Ancient Mariner.' The whole
valley, almost as far as you can see, was one vast foaming torrent, that
bore down all our puny protections in the shape of ramparts and
stockades. It nearly swept away our rough dwelling bodily; it did more,
it demolished the dam we had erected across the gulch just there,"--
pointing to the spot as he spoke--"and wrecked the heading of the shaft,
filling the mine as a matter of course."

"And up to then, in spite of all your digging, you had met with no
water?" asked Ernest Wilton. "Was that so?"

"Not a drop, which I very much wondered at, considering that we are
almost in the centre of the tributaries of the Cheyenne and Missouri--
any number of tiny streams rising amongst these hills, and gaining
additional body as they proceed onward to join the greater rivers from
fresh sources that cross their course at different angles."

"And after the floods?"

"Why, we set to work like men, I can tell you:--Seth, there, will bear
me out."

"We did so, sirree," said that worthy, with a most emphatic nod.

"Yes," continued Mr Rawlings, "we first renovated the dam, and dug out
a channel for the overplus of water on either side of the shaft; and
then we started pumping out the mine."

"An' it were a job!" said Seth, taking up the thread of the story.
"I've been in a vessel as sprung a leak, and where the hands were
pumping day and night, with nary a spell off, so as to