“That does sound easy,” she agreed. “Give me the data, then, please, and I’ll have myself driven to Ragtown to-morrow morning and take the stage out of the mountains. Madge will think I’m deserting her in her hour of trouble, but I’ll plead sickness and strain and tell her I’m going to a friend of ours in the city for a day or two. Will the deception be justifiable, Joshua?”
“I’ll shrive you,” he smiled.
“Then we have a secret between us, Joshua. Not a hint to Madge, now!”
Joshua crossed his heart and “hoped to die,” and Elizabeth Mundy laughed like a girl.
“You’ve given me a new heart, my boy,” she said. “I feel a different woman since you came.”
“You must remember,” he warned, “that there is the possibility of our claims being rejected by the land office.”
“Oh, no! Not a chance in the world, Joshua. Fate could not be so unkind as that. Go on with your gloominess—go see Madge and cheer her up, while I pack my suitcase. A woman has to have at least a full day to pack for a three-days’ trip, you know.”
Work was in full swing when Joshua reached the mouth of the tunnel—but what a waste of energy! For fifty feet the walls and roof of the tunnel presented solid rock, then one reached the spot where Jawbone’s fatal shot had been fired. Here the roof and the timbers had been unable to stand the shock, and had given way. And the top of the mountain was literally sliding into the tunnel. Every cartload that was hauled away made room for another cartload to slide down in its place; and it was plain to be seen that, if no way was found to stop the gap, the entire top of the hill must be carried out through the tunnel’s mouth.
Madge was in the tunnel. With her were Demarest and Tillou and three engineers. Up on the hilltop, where the mud springs and magnesia waters gushed, were more engineers, studying the trend of the slide.
“Hello, Joshua!” Madge called as she saw him entering with his candle over his head. “You’ll have to excuse me to-day. I’m not at home. But it was kind of you to come. Just make yourself at home, and I’ll talk to you at dinnertime.”