Arrived on the spot it took Tom only a moment to estimate that considerably less than a quarter of a ton of ore had been loosened from the rock bed by the blast.
"We'll drill six inches deeper next time, and put in fifty per cent. more dynamite," Reade decided.
The men brought up the drill and set it, after which the engineer was signaled.
Harry, in the meantime, was down on his hands and knees, curiously turning over the small, loose bits of rock.
"Stung, if this stuff proves anything," sighed Hazelton.
"You can't judge by one handful, Harry," Tom told him. "Besides, we may have to get down twenty, or even fifty feet below surface before we strike any pay-stuff. Don't look for dividends in the first hour. I've been told that gold-mining calls for more sporting blood than any other way in which wealth can be pursued."
"But I don't find a bit of color in this stuff," Harry muttered. "If we're on the top of a vein of gold it seems to me that we ought to find a small speck of yellow here and there."
A dozen blasts were made that morning. When the men knocked off at noon Harry Hazelton's face bore a very serious expression.
"Tom," he murmured to his partner, "I'm afraid we have a gold brick of a gold mine."
"It's an even chance," nodded Reade.