“Mother asked us to tell her when you got the first gold from your Golconda. Have you got any yet?” Sue asked. “I know what that means, too, for Beth told me the story.”
“Not yet, Sue,” Ben replied. “Maybe you’re just in time to see some, though. We’re nearly ready to open the retort.” He flung in a shovelful of coal. “I’m glad you came down, Beth, to see it; for if we get any it’ll be the result of your idea.”
“Nonsense, Ben! O, Sue,” she exclaimed as she looked up the long funnel of the chimney to where it pierced the blue sky, “think of any one’s sitting on those little sticks and being hoisted up that frightful distance! It makes me dizzy to think of it. How did you ever get the rope over the top?” she inquired of Ben.
“Mundon did it,” Ben explained, “one day, when he sent me off to buy the mule.”
“Did he climb up on the outside?”
“No, goosey; of course not. He built a rough scaffolding inside, somehow, as he went along, until he could throw a rope over the top. The rest was easy.”
“And is he going to chip off the whole inside? O-o-h! How can he bear to sit on that thing and let you haul him to the top?”
“O, he doesn’t mind it; he’s been a sailor. He says it’s safer than lots of high places he’s been in, because there’s no wind.”
So interested had all three been in peering up the chimney that they had not noticed the entrance of several men who were curiously inspecting the interior.