"A good idea, Sam, and I'm sure Skip will be a decent fellow after this. We must try to get back here to-night with food and oil."
"Unless Joe and Bill keep us at work we'll have plenty of time, for—hello! Here they come now!"
The two miners could be seen in the distance, or, rather, the light of their lamps was visible, and when they were within speaking distance, Fred asked:
"Did you find him?"
"No; we've followed up the drift as far as we dared, an' are now goin' back to see if any of the day crew know these old works. Where did that slope lead to?"
"It ends about fifty yards from here."
"Didn't see anything of the villains, eh?"
"Billings isn't there, that's certain," Fred replied after a brief hesitation.
The men did not appear to notice the equivocal answer, and Bill suggested that they return to the workings without further delay.
"We'll have a guard set at the shaft, so he can't give us the slip in that way, an' if any of the boys know these drifts it won't be a long job to smoke him out."