“And go down?”
“Of course. You will take care of me, I know.”
“Oh, yes; you shall come ‘back to grass,’ as we say, safe and sound. Not much grass, though, by the way.”
He touched a gong, and upon a boy answering it, sent a message for Mr Sturgess to come to the office.
In a few minutes the foreman presented himself, and receiving the manager’s orders, he led the way to the entrance to the mouth, newly fitted with a strong engine-house and wire rope, with a cage which ran down the nearly perpendicular slope into the depths of the mine, where a trolly bore them along with their lights for half a mile.
Then followed a walk, made easy now by the levelling which had gone on through the passages that ran maze-like through the mine. Finally, when the Major was growing weary, Clive led him into the natural cavernous part, and along over the falling water, to stop at length at the bottom of a slope, newly cut, with a platform in front of the discovery made on the day when the lanthorn fell.
“You were asking me,” he said, “whether the old workings would pay, and I told you yes. But here is my mainstay: this great vein of ore. I have tested fair specimens of this, and found that not only is it very rich in lead, but the lead, in turn, is rich in silver.”
The Major turned from inspecting the dull bluish-looking stone against which Sturgess held up a lanthorn.
“You amaze me,” he said. “This is indeed a find. I had no idea that our hills contained anything so good. Yes; I know enough of metallurgy to see that what you say is correct. I congratulate you, Mr Reed. And to think that this mine should have been lying barren all these years for want of a little enterprise and money!”
“There, you have seen enough for to-day, I think,” said Clive, smiling; and they returned to the daylight, Sturgess leaving them at the mouth of the shaft.