'I'd say you didn't know what you were talking about, Ginger, my boy.'

'But if I took you down the shaft an' showed you the reef, an' showed you
stone with gold stickin' in it--suppose I done that, how then?'

'Where is this reef?' asked Harry, becoming impressed by the boy's
earnestness.

'Tellin's!'

'But didn't you come to tell me?'

'Come to tell you we'd found it, an' to ask what to do, so's no one can
jump it. We want it took up on a proper lease, all right fer me an' the
rest o' the fellers, an' we'll let you stand in.'

'I can't take up a lease unless I know where the reef is, can I?'

'Well, it ain't far from the Bed Rand.'

'Nonsense, Dick! The bottom must be over three hundred feet deep there.
You couldn't cut a reef any shallower than that.'

'On'y we have.'

Harry sat for a moment lost in thought. He had suddenly recalled old talk
about mysterious indications of a shallow reef in that locality, a reef
the existence of which would have been in open opposition to mining
traditions, and contrary to all locally known theories of scientific