ion to another "law," that a man like
Steve Harrison, for instance, is entitled to all the time required to
do his work and set up his monuments. One part of the law is just as
good as another.

The return to camp was quickly made, and there was news to tell all
around, for the hunters not only brought in game but also the
information that they "reckoned an army train could be hauled down that
gap to the westward. It's almost as good as a road."

"We'll try it to-morrow," said the Captain.

He went out with all the men he could spare from camp as soon as supper
was eaten, and they carried with them pickaxes, crow-bars, mining
drills, and shovels. All the tools were pretty well worn, but they
would answer for the work in hand.

It was getting dark when they reached the ledge; but that was of less
consequence after two huge bonfires had been built near the central
monument, and heaped with fragments of fallen pine-trees. Then the
work began.

"Gangs of three," said Captain Skinner--"one on each side. We'll have
two shafts started. Bill, drill your blast right there."

The shafts would not have been needed for a long time in actually
working out ore from a ledge like that, but two such holes would make a
very deep mark that could not be wiped out, and the "blast" would make
another.

It was hard work, but as fast as the men who were prying and picking
loosened a piece of quartz, it was lifted away by their comrades, and
it was a wonder how those two shafts did go down.

All the while Bill was tapping away with his hammer and drill on the
spot pointed out to him, and was making a hole in the rock about the
size of a gun-barrel.

"Two feet, Cap," he shouted at last. "That's as far as I can go with
this drill, and it's the longest there is in camp."

"That'll do. Charge it. Our job's 'most done."

The night was cool, but the miners had kept themselves warm enough.
They were not sorry to quit when their hard-faced little Captain
ordered them out of the two holes; but it was odd to see such great,
brawny fellows obeying in that way a man who looked almost like a dwarf
beside them.

"Got her charged, Bill?"

"All right, Cap."

"Stand back, boys. Touch yer fuse, Bill."

That was a slow-match that stuck out of the hole he had drilled in the
rock, and it led down to the charge of powder he had skilfully rammed
in at the bottom.

"We can hardly afford to waste so much powder," the Captain had
muttere