"This will be your
job after we've fired a few charges. I want you to get the hang
of the trick."
Harry worked the handle of the magneto up and down.
Bang! Over where the drilling had been done a mass of dirt and
rock was shot up into the air.
"What are you running so fast for, Harry?" laughed Tom, as he pursued
his chum back to the scene of the blast.
"I want to see if we stirred up any real ore. I want to know if our
claim is worth the grub it takes to feed the men," was Hazelton's
almost breathless response.
CHAPTER XIV
THE COOK LEARNS A LESSEN
Arrived on the spot it took Tom only a moment to estimate that
considerably less than a quarter of a ton of ore had been loosened
from the rock bed by the blast.
"We'll drill six inches deeper next time, and put in fifty per
cent. more dynamite," Reade decided.
The men brought up the drill and set it, after which the engineer
was signaled.
Harry, in the meantime, was down on his hands and knees, curiously
turning over the small, loose bits of rock.
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