Presently, almost before the boys dreamed they were so near, the croon of the stamps at the mine broke on their ears. At the trail which forked from the main road to lead to the mining camp, Frank and Jode turned, leaving the cowboy to hustle on into town with the recovered mail pouches.
“I’ll report to King, the expert in charge of the cyanide works,” Lenning said, after Merry had hitched Borak by the bunk house, “and then I’ll hunt my blankets. Are you going to stop, Chip?”
“I’ll just speak a word with Burke,” Frank answered.
He accompanied Lenning toward the cyanide plant, climbing the slope that led to the mill, and lingering near the long ore platform. Then he watched while Lenning made his way to the laboratory building, disappeared inside, and, after a few minutes, reappeared and climbed the slope in Frank’s direction.
Fate, at that moment, had once more taken Lenning’s affairs in hand. All the details of an accident were forming, and the accident itself was about to project itself suddenly into the peaceful activities of the camp.
Frank and Jode, as it chanced, were so placed at that moment as to become active participants in the near tragedy which was about to be launched.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE RUNAWAY ORE CAR.
Colonel Hawtrey got the better of Mr. Bradlaugh on the golf links that Monday forenoon. This event, no doubt, pleased the colonel mightily, and yet there was something at the back of the colonel’s consciousness which disturbed him.
Young Merriwell had come to him and had spoken a good word for the colonel’s cast-off nephew. Rather brusquely the colonel had refused to meet Merriwell’s advances on Lenning’s behalf. This, as Hawtrey fondly assured himself, was because the Lenning matter was less an affair of pride than of principle. Yet, for all that, the colonel was sorry that he had been so unyielding.