"We'll take a breathin' spell before leaving. You see now there was no use in comin'."
"So it seems; but I couldn't help thinking some of that crowd which passed the slope knew how to get here."
"It ain't possible—Hark! What was that?"
A low hum as of conversation could be heard from the other side of the wall, and Sam sprang to the aperture made by Fred and Joe Brace.
"I'll never yip again about you're being scared," he whispered after one glance. "Here come the whole crowd, an' we're in a fix."
"They won't dare to crawl through, if we threaten to shoot."
"Let's first find out exactly what they are here for. It may be they are only looking for Joe."
Standing either side the aperture the boys watched the approach of the men whose movements were revealed by the miner's lamp each carried.
It was impossible to distinguish the conversation until the party was very near the break in the wall, and then one shouted:
"Hello Joe! How are you?"