"No, but papa was one of the men here when the mine was working."
"What did it quit working for?" ventured Billiard, testing the weather-stained rope still coiled about the winch above the shaft.
"The vein of rich silver stopped all of a sudden and they couldn't make the other ore pay, so they shut down, and the men went to work in other mines, or else moved away."
"How deep is a shaft?" asked Toady, as Susie sent another pebble spinning after the first and counted rapidly until it struck the bottom.
"Some are hundreds of feet deep," replied Mercedes impressively, glad of a chance to air her meagre knowledge of mining affairs. "But this——"
"Is only a hole," finished Inez contemptuously.
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Billiard, mystified. "Ain't this a sure-enough shaft?"
"Oh, yes," Mercedes hastened to inform him; "only 'tisn't the main one. That's all boarded up, and no one can go down it any more. This was dug later. Someone thought there was more silver here, and they made this shaft. It's not very deep——"
"Let's go down it!" proposed Billiard, boyishly eager for such an adventure.
"Oh, horrors!" shrieked Mercedes. "With all those lizards down there?"