“And the Major, too.”
“Why, he’s not in it, sir, is he?”
“Of course. He will be my father’s partner.”
Hardock whistled, and was very silent all the way up to the house by Ydoll Cove.
He was talkative enough, though, when he came away, but in a very mysterious fashion.
“It’s all right, Mr Gwyn,” he whispered. “Going to be a very big thing. I mustn’t talk about it; but you’re like one of us, and I may tell you. I’m off to Truro this afternoon to talk to an old friend of mine—engineer, and a very big man on working mines. He’ll advise on the best kind of pump to have.”
The engineer came, examined the shaft, gave his opinions, and in a week’s time masons were at work setting up an engine-house, ready for the steam machinery that was to come round by ship from Liverpool; and in a short time the wild slope at the top of the great cliffs was invaded by quite a colony of workmen. The masons’ hammers were constantly chipping as they laboriously went on building and raising a platform above the mouth of the shaft, while, whenever a few rich pieces of ore, after possibly lying there many hundred years, were turned up, they were solemnly conveyed to the two old officers for examination.
Here the two boys were soon in their element, and began working away with a great deal of enthusiasm in a small, corrugated iron shed which had been erected in the garden, and dignified by the name of laboratory. For, to the boys’ great delight, a model furnace had been made, with bellows, and a supply of charcoal was always ready. There was a great cast-iron mortar fitted on a concrete stand, crucibles of various sizes, and the place looked quite ship-shape.
Both the old officers worked hard at assaying the ore brought from about the mouth of the pit, dug no one knew when, and though they spent a good deal of time, they were very soon superseded by Gwyn and Joe. Hardock gave them a little instruction; everything about the work was interesting and fresh; and in a few weeks they were able to roughly declare how much pure metal could be obtained from a ton of the quartz which they broke up in the great mortar, powdering, and washing and drying, and then smelting in one of the plumbago crucibles of the laboratory.
“There’s no telling yet what we may find in that mine, Joe,” said Gwyn; “only we don’t know enough chemistry to find out.”