Nor did the rascals stop running until they had reached distant cover.
"Stop it, Jim---don"t shoot!" gasped Tom Reade, choking with laughter, as Ferrers leaped to his feet, taking aim after the fugitives.
"I want Dolph Gage, while I"ve got a good, legal excuse," growled Ferrers, glancing along rifle barrel at the forward sight.
"Don"t think of shooting," panted Tom, darting forward and laying a hand on the rifle barrel to spoil the guide"s aim. "Jim, it isn"t sportsmanlike to shoot a fleeing enemy in the back! Fight fair and square, Jim---if you must fight."
There was much in this to appeal to the guide"s sense of honor and fair play. Though scowled, he lowered the rifle.
"Tom, you everlasting joker, what happened?" demanded Harry Hazelton.
"You saw for yourself, didn"t you?" retorted Reade.
"Yes; but-----"
"Are you so little of an engineer that you don"t know a _mine_ when you see one, Harry?"
"But how did that mine come to be there?"
"I planted it."
"When?"
"Today, when you started on your ride."
"Oh!"
"You see, Harry, I was pondering away over mining problems this morning. As you had the only horse, that was all that there was left for me to do. Now, you must have noticed that most of the outcropping rock around here is of a very refractory kind?"
"Yes," nodded Hazelton.
"Then, of course, you realize that for at least a hundred feet down in the mine the rock that would be found would be the same."
"Undoubtedly."
"So, Harry, I was figuring on a way to blast ore rock out whenever we should find refractory stuff down a shaft or in the galleries or tunnels of a mine."
"Fine, isn"t it?" retorted Hazelton. "A great scheme! You blast out the rock and the force of the explosion shoots all the fine particle of gold into the walls of the mine---just the way you"d pepper a tree with birdshot!"
Mr. Dunlop had drawn close and now stood smiling broadly.
"That appears to be one on you, Reade," suggested the mine promoter.
"That"s what I want to find out," returned Tom soberly; "whether I"m a discoverer, or just a plain fool."
"What do you think about it?"
"Let"s go and look at the ledge, and then I can tell you, sir,"
Reade answered, striding forward.
"Look out!" cautioned Joe Timmins. "Those hyenas will shoot.
They"ll be sore over the trick you played on them, and they"ll be hiding waiting for a chance for a shot."
"Oh, bother the hyenas," Tom retorted, impatiently. "I"m out for business today. Coming, Mr. Dunlop?" The mine operator showed signs of hanging back.
Harry promptly joined his chum at what was left of the little ledge.
After a few moments Mr. Dunlop, seeing that no shots were fired, stepped over there also, followed by his nephew. Jim Ferrers climbed a tree, holding his rifle and keeping his eyes open for a shot, while Timmins threw himself behind a rock, watching in the direction that the four men had taken.
"This looks even better than I had expected," Tom explained, his eyes glowing as he held up fragments of rock. "You see, the dynamite charge was a low-power one. It just splintered the rock. There wasn"t so very much driving force to the explosion. Another time I could make the force even lower."
"Here"s gold in this bit of rock!" cried Harry, turning, his eyes sparkling.
"Yes; but not enough to look promising," replied Mr. Dunlop, after examining the specimen. "But we"ll look through the rest of the stuff that"s loose."
The two men who had hung back soon joined them.
"I wouldn"t care about filing a claim to it," Mr. Dunlop, shaking his head after some further exploration. "This rock wouldn"t yield enough to the ton to make the work profitable."
"Just a little, outcropping streak, possibly from the claim that I have below," was Mr. Dunlop"s conclusion "By the way, Reade, how did you explode the mine?"
"With a magneto," Tom explained, then ran and took the battery from behind the tree from which he had fired it. "I buried the wire, of course, so that no one would trip over it," he added.
"Just after I got it attended to Alf Drew happened along, looked forlorn, and wanted a job. So I had almost forgotten the mine, until I realized that the thing was planted right in front of where Dolph Gage"s crew were hidden. By the way, Jim, where is Alf?"
"All the information I"ve got wouldn"t send you two feet in the right direction," the guide reported gruffly.
"And where are our tents and the other stuff?" Harry demanded.
"Gage"s crew couldn"t get far with them in the time they"ve had.
Shall we hustle after our property?"
"Yes," nodded Tom.
"At the momentary risk of being shot to pieces," added Mr. Dunlop, dryly.
"Those little chances go with being involved in a Nevada mining dispute, don"t they?" queried Reade.
"Where can we begin to look?" Harry pressed. "Let"s scurry about a bit. Surely men can"t get away with tents without leaving some trail."
Within two minutes they had the trail. Marks were discovered that plainly had been made by dragging canvas and guy-ropes along over the ground.
"We"ll find our stuff soon," predicted Tom, striding along over a rough trail. "The scoundrels didn"t have a team, and they wouldn"t take the stuff far without other transportation than their own backs.
h.e.l.lo! What"s in there?"
Tom had detected some motions in a clump of brush.
"Look out!" warned Jim Ferrers, bringing his rifle to "ready."
But Tom darted straight into the brush.
"Then this is where you are?" demanded Tom dryly. He glanced down at the cowering form of Alf Drew.