"Do you know where it is?"
"Yes, I know; but that is all I do know about it. I saw two men who went there to work the pit, and who were frightened so badly that they lit out for this place as quick as they could go, and that was all I wanted to know of the mine."
"Then you have never been down in it?"
"Not much, I haven't!" exclaimed the man, looking surprised. "I would not go down into it for all the money there is in the mountain."
"Did those men see anything?"
"No, but they heard a sight; and if men can be so badly scared by what they hear, they don't wait to see anything."
"Well, I want to go up there, and who can I get to act as my guide?"
"I can tell you one thing," answered the man, emphatically—"you won't get me and Jake to go up there with you. I'll tell you what I might do," he added, after thinking a moment. "Are you going to stay here this winter?"
"Yes, I had thought of it. It is pretty cold up there in the mountains—is it not?"
"The weather is so cold that it will take the hair right off of your head," replied the man. "If you will stay here until spring opens, you might hire me and Jake to show you up as far as Dutch Flat; but beyond that we don't budge an inch."