“Say, Jack! I’d like to be there when you get in with yer first load of dirt and see ’em laugh. Don’t s’pose yeou have any dirt in the teown yeou come from.”
“Not dirt that is pure nitrate of soda, and possessing the highest qualities for fertilization of any known compound. Hello! what is up now?”
Chapter XVII
In the Nitrate Fields
The last exclamation was called from Jack by the fact that the teams had suddenly stopped, and the native drivers were shouting excitedly over something which had happened.
They were at the time trying to make a roadway to the nitrate bed through a trackless wilderness, and had thus far progressed with greater ease than the young speculator had calculated.
But upon reaching the spot where the teamsters and workmen were holding an excited controversy, Jack found that the cause of the excitement was the fact that the way had been stopped by a sharp, rocky ridge, which extended for miles in both directions.
“We can’t go any further, señor,” declared the head driver. “No team can find its way through these rocks and up and down the hill.”
Jack had seen this place when making his survey and had calculated upon the difficulty in passing it, having the route most feasible at this point.
“Let two men come forward with axes to clear away the stunted growth, and the rest get their levers. I will show you by to-morrow it can be passed.”