A Daughter of the Dons | Page 2

drift with air-drills. Every day he gits closeter to that
lake dammed up there. Right now there can't be more'n a few feet of
granite 'twixt him and it. He don't know how many any more'n a rabbit,
because he's going by old maps that ain't any too reliable. The question

is whether the wall will hold till he dynamites it through, or whether the
weight of water will crumple up that granite and come pouring out in a
flood."
"Your friend, then, is in peril, is it not so?"
"You've said it. He's shooting dice with death. That's the way I size it
up. If the wall holds till it's blown up, Dick has got to get back along
the crosscut, lower himself down the upraise, and travel nearly a mile
through tunnelings before he reaches a shaft to git out. That don't leave
them any too much time at the best. But if the water breaks through on
them, it's Heaven help Dick, and good-by to this world."
"Then Mr. Gordon is what you call brave?"
"He's the gamest man that ever walked into this camp. There ain't an
inch of him that ain't clear grit through and through. Get into a tight
place, and he's your one best bet to tie to."
"Mr. Gordon is fortunate in his friend," bowed the New Mexican
politely.
The little miner looked at him with shining eyes.
"Nothing like that. Me, I figure the luck's all on my side. Onct you meet
Dick you'll see why we boost for him. Hello, here's where we get off at.
If you're looking for Dick, stranger, you better follow me. I'm going
right up to the mine. Dick had ought to be coming up from below any
minute now."
Pesquiera checked his suitcase at the depot newsstand and walked up a
steep hill trail with his guide. The miner asked no questions of the New
Mexican as to his business with Gordon, nor did the latter volunteer
any information. They discussed instead the output of the camp for the
preceding year, comparing it with that of the other famous gold districts
of the world.
Just as they entered the shafthouse the cage shot to the surface. From it

stepped two men.
Several miners crowded toward them with eager greetings, but they
moved aside at sight of Pesquiera's companion, who made straight for
those from below.
"What's new, Tregarth?" he asked of one of them, a huge Cornishman.
"The drill have brook into the Last Dollar tunnel. The watter of un do
be leaking through, Measter Davis. The boss sent us oop while Tom
and him stayed to put the charges in the drill holes to blow oot the wall.
He wouldna coom and let me stay."
Davis thought a moment.
"I'll go down the shaft and wait at the foot of it. There'll be something
doing soon. Keep your eye peeled for signals, Smith, and when you git
the bell to raise, shoot her up sudden. If the water's coming, we'll be in
a hurry, and don't you forget it. Want to come down with me,
Tregarth?"
"I do that, sir." The man stepped into the cage and grinned. "We'll bring
the byes back all right. Bet un we do, lads."
The cage shot down, and the New Mexican sat on a bench to wait its
return. Beside him was a young doctor, who had come prepared for a
possible disaster. Such conversation as the men carried on was in low
tones, for all felt the strain of the long minutes. The engineer's eye was
glued to his machinery, his hand constantly on the lever.
It must have been an hour before the bell rang sharply in the silence
and the lever swept back instantly. A dozen men started to their feet
and waited tensely. Next moment there was a wild, exultant cheer.
For Tregarth had stepped from the cage with a limp figure in his arms,
and after him Davis, his arm around the shoulder of a drenched,
staggering youth, who had a bleeding cut across his cheek. Through all
the grime that covered the wounded miner the pallor of exhaustion

showed itself.
But beaten and buffeted as the man had plainly been in his fight for life,
the clean, supple strength and the invincible courage of him still shone
in his eye and trod in his bearing. It was even now the salient thing
about him, though he had but come, alive and no more, from a wrestle
with death itself.
He sank to a bench, and looked around on his friends with shining eyes.
"'Twas nip and tuck, boys. The water caught us in the tunnel, and I
thought we were gone. It swept us right to the cage," he panted.
"She didn't sweep