Thrusting a hand in her pocket, she drew out a box of safety matches. Having lighted one, she looked about her. By the yellow light she discovered several facts. This place had been made by men. Holes had been drilled in the rock. The rock had been blasted away. At her feet were bits of greenish rock. This, she found, was not rock, but pure copper.
“An abandoned copper mine! A white man’s mine!” Her heart sank. Not one of these mines had been worked for forty years.
“Got to get out of here some way.”
She studied the rocky surface about her. “Might get a good foothold here and—”
The match flared out. She lit another. “Could get a handhold there, and there!”
She doubted her ability to make this perilous ascent. She had been fortunate to escape with no broken bones. Next time she might fare badly.
“Might scream. No harm in that.”
She screamed at the top of her voice and at once felt better.
When, however, after a half hour’s attempt at scaling the rocky wall, she found herself at the bottom with only fresh bruises to show for her trouble, she was near to despair.
Then a curious thing happened. Some object came bumping down the wall, which at the upper end was not steep.