drill, he wrought with a feverish energy that amazed his mates, who
ascribed it all to an excusable but rather insane anxiety to test the
value of their mine in the mill. For their part they were very well
satisfied with the golden prospects, and quite content to 'go slow' in
the certain hope of early affluence.

The next important piece of news the Mercury had to offer referred to
Ephraim Shine, who had recovered consciousness in the gaol hospital but
was declared to be dying from an old ailment. Steps were to be taken to
secure his dying deposition. On the Saturday morning came the information
that Shine was dead, and with this came the full text of his
deposition--a complete confession, setting forth his crimes and those of
Joe Rogers without reservation, and completely exonerating Frank Hardy.
Rogers and Shine had been working together to rob the mine for two years.
Their apparent hostility was a blind to deceive the people. They had
conspired to fix the crime upon Frank at Rogers' suggestion, for the
reason that his vigilance was making it unsafe for the faceman to
continue his thefts, and because they hoped his conviction would arrest
the growing suspicions. Shine agreed, for these reasons, and because he
cherished a desire to marry Mrs. Haddon and found Hardy in the way. For a
long time the pair had been content with such gold as Rogers could hide
about his clothes, but his discovery of the big nugget, which he hid in
the drive, gave them the idea of attempting robbery on a large scale, and
for weeks Rogers had hidden such gold as he could lay his hands on in
holes in the muddy floor of the workings, to be carried away when
opportunity offered via the Red Hand laddershaft. That was to have been
their last venture together, and Shine had intended to induce Mrs. Haddon
to marry him, and then to take her away somewhere where he was unknown,
and where it would have been possible to sell the gold in small parcels
without exciting suspicion. Rogers had hidden the gold in Frank Hardy's