CHAPTER XXIV
DIGGING FOR SALT
Early the next morning Mr. Vanter went to the spring-glade, and started the two men at work, sinking the shaft, which they had to abandon so suddenly the day before. The surveyor decided on going straight down, instead of in at a slant, which he had at first believed best. Roger and Adrian watched the operations with interest, as did a throng of people, who were not disturbed as they gathered about the spot. The good news had gone all over Cardiff, and there was not a person, excepting the plotters, but what rejoiced at Mr. Kimball's fortune in saving his land.
The digging progressed slowly, as only a small shaft was to be sunk, and but one man could work in it at a time. For three anxious days the labor went on, the hole in the ground becoming deeper and deeper. The man whose turn it was to go into the excavation was below the level of the surface now. Mr. Kimball, and all his family, as well as the neighbors, were wondering whether or not salt would be struck in sufficient quantities to make the venture pay. If not, it would have been better had Mr. Kimball accepted the offer of Mr. Ranquist. Two days more of digging would tell the story. And those two days were filled with anxious uneasiness on the part of all in the farmhouse. The work went on early and late, and Mr. Kimball neglected all but the most necessary of his duties to watch the progress.
The sinking of the shaft was done in rather a primitive fashion. A hole, almost like that dug for a well, was started, and, when the bottom got so far below the surface that the earth could no longer be tossed out, the men rigged up a windlass and rope, on the end of which was a large bucket, into which the dirt was placed to be hauled up and dumped.
It happened on Wednesday, just a week after the day when the farm was saved, that the men had dug down about thirty feet. Toward the close of the afternoon Roger and Adrian, who were constantly at the mine, had strolled away, and were up in the woods, looking for signs of foxes, which were plentiful that year. They were sitting on a log, idly tossing stones at an old stump, when Adrian suddenly called: "Hark!"
They both listened intently. A faint cry came to them.
"Sounds like some one hollering," said Roger.