“I’ll be glad to, because it was a mistake, and they realize it now. Until Corning took over, I’d been in charge here for nearly three years. Emerald production began to drop during the last six months or so. That wasn’t my fault. The vein’s played out.”
“Then it was because production had fallen off that Corning was assigned here?” Mr. Livingston inquired.
“That was behind it,” Rhodes admitted with a scowl. “Corning’s a big talker. He sold himself and ran me down—convinced the operators that the miners weren’t being handled right, and that I—”
“Yes?” the Scout leader prompted as Rhodes ended in mid-sentence.
“Nothing,” the engineer said shortly. “That’s all there was to it. Corning took over here and things went to the dogs fast. He had a wild theory that he could find the old mine that was worked at the time of the Spanish Conquest. He spent a lot of his time searching for it, and even had some of the natives helping him. Production fell off more than ever.”
“Corning didn’t find the rich vein?” Mr. Livingston questioned to keep the other talking.
“What do you think? That old mine has been lost for centuries, and it will stay hidden for years to come.”
“Corning always was a methodical sort of fellow,” Mr. Livingston said thoughtfully. “If he searched for that old vein, he must have done it systematically. He’d have left a record of his work too.”
“He did make a map.”
“A map?” Jack interposed eagerly. “May we see it?”