"Hold on; don't leave so soon. I'm just getting ready to rest in proper style."
Fred turned around to return when he struck his toe against what appeared to be a projecting rock, and fell headlong.
"That's what you get for tryin' your hand at prospecting," Sam said, with a laugh, and Fred arose to his feet with a rueful look on his face, which caused his companion yet more mirth.
"It may be sport for you, but I don't see anything so funny about knocking all the skin off——Hello! What a queer looking rock I tumbled over!"
He had turned, and was gazing at the projecting point, a fragment of which was broken, when Sam came up to learn the cause of his companion's astonishment.
"Why, it looks like coal!" he exclaimed, taking a piece from the ground to examine it more closely, and an instant later Fred was startled by hearing him shout, "It is coal! The vein at Farley's must run straight through the hill!"
"Then this belongs to the company."
"Not a bit of it. The one who owns the land can work here, and if we could raise money enough to buy ten or fifteen acres on this side of the hill, Byram and Thorpe would be mighty rich fellows."