“You’re welcome to go out as much as you please, Fred,” answered his uncle. “All I ask of you is that you keep out of trouble.”
“Oh, we know how to take care of ourselves,” answered the youngest Rover confidently.
“But remember, Uncle Tom, we won’t want to leave you if you need us,” put in Jack quickly. “If there is any fighting to be done, we want to be right alongside to help you.”
“I don’t expect any fighting, Jack,” was the reply. “Peter Garrish isn’t that kind of a man. As Hank Butts said, he’s a good deal of a coward. If he tries anything at all, it will be in a very underhand way. What I want him to do is to open the books of the concern and let me talk with the superintendent and the others in charge of the mine and find out exactly how things are going. I have an idea they are selling a good portion of their ore to another concern at a low price and that that concern is owned by Garrish and his friends.”
It was not yet noon when they came in sight of Gold Hill. As they made a turn of the mountain trail they came again within sound of the thundering falls, which was now below them.
The entrance to the Rolling Thunder mine was not a prepossessing one. The opening was in the side of the hill and from it ran a small railway to a crusher a short distance off. There were half a dozen buildings, some of wood and some covered with galvanized iron. Half a dozen men were moving about and they gazed curiously at the new arrivals.
“We’ll go over to Toby White’s boarding house first and see what sort of accommodations we can get there,” said Tom Rover. “I don’t want to give Garrish a chance to keep us out.”
“Keep us out! What do you mean?” questioned Randy.
“He might give Toby a tip not to take us in. He might try to make it so uncomfortable that we couldn’t stay here.”