"Let us get a little way to the rear before you fire the blasts," pleaded Josh.
"Go back a couple of hundred feet, if you want," assented Dolph. "But don't you run away! Remember that part of your job is to stand by me if we're followed and fired upon."
Josh and his companion carefully made their way back over the crust.
Dolph Gage waited until he saw them to be a sufficient distance away.
"Now, work away, my magneto beauty" muttered Gage, exultantly.
"Do your work, straight and true. Drive these upstarts off of
Indian Smoke Range and bring my mine back into my own hands!
These fool engineers have found no gold in the ridge, but it's
there—-waiting for me. And—-now!"
He pumped the handle of the magneto vigorously. In another instant the spark traveled.
From underground there came a sudden rocking, followed, after a breathless interval, by a loud, crashing boom.
Both blasts had exploded in the same instant, and the dynamite had done its work!