"Nothing very difficult about it," laughed Tom. "Can you make a noise by grinding your molars together—-your grinding teeth? Try it."
Harry did. The noise came forth from his mouth, though it didn't sound exactly like the rattle of a rattler.
"Keep on practicing, and you'll get that rattle down to perfection—-that's all," nodded Tom.
Spring found the young engineers restless for new fields. They longed to tackle other big feats of engineering. Jim Ferrers understood, and said to them:
"You youngsters know, now, that you can trust me to run this mine."
"We always knew that we could trust you," Tom corrected him.
"Well, you know it now, anyway. You want to get back into the world. You are restless for new fields to conquer. Go ahead; only come back once in a while and shake hands with old Jim. While you're away I'll send you a monthly statement of your earnings and see that the money is placed to your credit."
On their ride to Dugout, Tom and Harry were favored with the company of Mr. Dunlop, promoter of the Bright Hope Mine.
"I suppose it's a lucky thing for you boys that you stuck to your own mine," said Dunlop. "you've come out a good deal better. I wish I had secured your services, though. We're making some money over at the Bright Hope, but we'd make a lot more with the right engineers in charge. I'm on my way to Dugout to use the telegraph wires in earnest. I've learned that the real way to make money out of a mine is to have a real engineer in charge."
Tom and Harry delayed but a couple of hours at Dugout. Then——-