rafters, and, going to the broad chimney, kicked the half-dead embers
into a sudden resentful blaze. He then opened a rude cupboard, and,
without looking around, called, "Ruth!"

The second speaker turned his head from the open doorway where he was
leaning, as if listening to something in the darkness, and answered
abstractedly,--

"Rand!"

"I don't believe you have touched grub to-day!"

Ruth grunted out some indifferent reply.

"Thar hezen't been a slice cut off that bacon since I left," continued
Rand, bringing a side of bacon and some biscuits from the cupboard, and
applying himself to the discussion of them at the table. "You're gettin'
off yer feet, Ruth. What's up?"

Ruth replied by taking an uninvited seat beside him, and resting his
chin on the palms of his hands. He did not eat, but simply transferred
his inattention from the door to the table.

"You're workin' too many hours in the shaft," continued Rand. "You're
always up to some such d--n fool business when I'm not yer."

"I dipped a little west to-day," Ruth went on, without heeding the
brotherly remonstrance, "and struck quartz and pyrites."

"Thet's you!--allers dippin' west or east for quartz and the color,