I don't want any of you men hurt
by saving dirt from the sides of the shaft."
All four men stopped work at once.
"What's the matter!" asked Reade.
"Coming down's easy, sir; we're waiting to see you go _up_
that rope."
"Then I'll endeavor not to keep you long away from your tasks,"
smiled the young engineer athlete.
Grasping the rope just above a knot over his head, Tom gave a
slight heave, then went rapidly up, hand over hand. He was soon
lost from the little circle of light thrown by the lanterns at
the shaft's bottom.
"Not many men like him," remarked one of the miners named Tibbets,
admiringly.
"I've been told that's what young fellers learn at college," said
another miner, as he spat on his hands and raised his pick.
For two hours Reade attended to the mending of the walling, as
the system of laying walls in shafts is termed. Ladders had to
be rebuilt even in order to put temporary walling in place.
Then the young chief engineer deemed it time to run over to the
partners' shack.
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