Those whom they wished to consult were at the mine, and without even stopping to tell Mrs. Byram of their discovery they went directly to the slope.
Bill and Joe were in the second level, at some distance from the other workmen when the boys arrived.
"What do you think of that?" Fred asked, excitedly, as he held out one of his specimens.
Bill, supposing he was to see a rare sight, brought his cap-lamp close to the object for a second, and then said angrily:
"Haven't you boys got anything better to do than bring coal in here for us to look at? We see enough of that stuff without luggin' it around in our pockets."
"But this didn't come from Farley's."
"Well, s'posin it didn't, what of that?" and Bill threw the coal far down the drift.
"Not much, except that Sam and I found a vein three miles from any settlement."
"What?" both the miners cried in the same breath, and Bill ran to pick up what he had thrown away so contemptuously.
Fred began and Sam ended the story of the "find," and while they were talking Bill turned the specimen over and over, saying when they concluded: