Both Mr. Anderson and the superintendent were vastly interested by this information, which evidently they accepted as true. The latter gentleman read aloud the assayer’s statement of his analysis of the ore, and pointed out that it gave very little black-jack, antimony, etc., which indicated that the ore would be easy to smelt, a most important consideration in estimating its value.
“Is the whole vein, so far as you have gone, like this?” Mr. Anderson asked, as he held up his light, and scrutinized the walls and roof of the small chamber.
“No; there is not much at the very entrance, though, after we learned to recognize them, we could find traces of both the carbonate and telluride clear to the door-way, but we saw much more in the interior, and argued that the deeper we went the richer the mine would grow, which has proved true up to the present time. If it hadn’t been for those pesky jumpers, we should have gone several yards deeper.”
“The vein doesn’t seem to be uniformly composed of the ore minerals.”
“No, it has been growing very strange in its distribution of late, a fact we began to notice when we were about two-thirds of the way to this point. The lode gradually became filled with more or less globular cavities, which steadily increased in size. The wall of each of these cavities is formed almost wholly of the telluride, and the spaces between are pretty nearly dead rock. Inside, whenever they are small,—there are some little ones in the roof, just over your head, which show it well,—they are quite filled with nearly solid carbonate; but when they are larger—the last one we struck, you can see a remnant of it in the breast, was as big as a barrel—they are only partly full, and the ore of the interior soft and crumbling.”
“They are like miniature caves or monstrous geodes,” said Mr. Anderson.
“Yes,” Len put in—he had been quiet as long as he could stand it, “and sometimes we are warned of what is ahead by the hollow sound.”
“Maybe we can find one now, to show you,” Max suggested; and, taking a pick, he moved toward the extremity of the tunnel, whither the rest followed him.
Tapping here and there the breast of rock forming the head of the tunnel, Max presently detected near the floor a peculiar echo; all listened, and agreed that this sound denoted a hollow.
“I’m not very sure, but I’ll try it,” he said, and slipping aside swung back his sturdy arms preparatory to delivering a tremendous stroke.