"Only ten tons!" he groaned. "You'll have to do better than that. Unless you can handle twelve you're not fit to be below ground."
"I understand, sir, that twelve tons a day is the record and that only one man has accomplished that in the last ten years," answered the boy promptly. "But I'll equal it before I am through here; not especially to gratify you, but for my own satisfaction."
Mr. Spooner had no more to say.
"How many tons a day does he get out of this contract?" asked Steve, as he was waiting for the cage to ascend to the surface.
"Fifty tons is the most we ever got out in a day," was the answer from Steve's companion.
"How much does he get a ton?"
"That we don't know. He never tells his business. Some contractors get less and some more, depending upon how the ore runs, how much paint rock there is to be thrown out in the dirt."
"Do the others run about the same?"
"I reckon they do."