“It was there,” and Uncle Tod pointed to the mouth of the cavern. “Where it is now nobody knows—I wish we did, for without it our mine isn’t worth a pinch of snuff. I don’t know, Rick—maybe I’m crazy as some say I am, but I had an idea if I sent for you and Ruddy we could find Lost River. That’s why I telegraphed you to come—to help me find Lost River. It’s in there—somewhere,” and again he pointed to the cavern, “but where, Sam and I can’t discover. Maybe, with the help of Ruddy—”
“Hark!” suddenly interrupted Sam in less gloomy tones than before. “Hark! I think I hear something!”
CHAPTER XIII
THE DRY MINE
Sam Rockford turned his head to bring one ear—evidently his best—to bear on the black, tunnel-like opening in the side of the mountain. His listening attitude was imitated by the others.
There were a few moments of tense silence, even Ruddy standing at “attention” in response to a lifted finger on the part of Rick. Then Uncle Tod remarked:
“I don’t hear anything but the wind.”
“Reckon that’s all it was,” said Sam, gloomily. “I thought, for a minute, I heard the water coming back through the tunnel,” he went on.
“Is that what’s the trouble?” asked Mr. Campbell, with a more ready understanding of western matters than that possessed by Rick or Chot.
“That’s it—yes, sir,” answered Uncle Tod, and this time his voice was almost as gloomy as that of Sam Rockford’s. “We’re up against a dry mine, and the ore is of such a nature that water is the only thing that will make it pay. A dry mine—that’s what we’re up against.”
“But why did you tackle a dry mine?” asked Mr. Campbell.