“We’ll rig up something to help him, never fear,” declared Jackson, who was the first to climb the shaft with the aid of the knotted rope. He carried a miner’s lamp with him, and the boys and Mr. Havens sat down and watched the spark of the lamp as it wavered back and forth up the shaft.
The other four men started in succession after the mine boss. Mr. Havens questioned the boys regarding their adventures since the accident at the Silent Sue shaft. He was much interested in the condition of the Crayton shaft, and in the Indian boy’s knowledge of this new entrance into the old gold diggings.
“Beats me!” was his puzzled comment. Then he continued:
“I want to get to Grub Stake in a hurry, and here I am laid up with a lame leg. It’s important for me to see old John Morrisy, who was one of the original owners of this Crayton mine. He has agreed to sell me his share, and I need it to get control of the mine. Why I want control is a secret.
“Now, it looks to me,” pursued Mr. Havens thoughtfully, “as though somebody else was anxious to get the Crayton mine—or to stop me from getting it. I don’t know which.
“I don’t care so much about the old shaft’s being closed. Maybe that is a good thing, all things considered. But I must get the deeds to John Morrisy and have him put his mark on them before a Justice of the Peace. This lame foot is going to trouble me a whole lot—
“Hi! there’s Jackson hallooing. Ay, ay! we hear you,” answered Mr. Havens, and scrambled to his feet again.
A noose was let down from a ledge some distance up the shaft, and into this Mr. Havens placed his uninjured foot. The men above raised him to the shelf, and then they climbed up to another wide footing and swung Mr. Havens up to their level, this being repeated until he was finally raised to the top of the shaft.
Behind him Chet and Dig climbed, and they were all finally in the bears’ den. They found no sign of John Peep either in the den or after they came out upon the mountainside.
“It certainly is good to be out of that mine, boys!” declared Mr. Havens. “We’ll surprise old Rafe and Mr. Fordham, I surmise, when we arrive at the Silent Sue.”