engines, dragging long trains of ore-cars, rolled and rocked on
the uneven surface of the ground, and swung around corners with
warning screeches of their whistles. They could see, on peaks
outlined against the sky, the signal-men waving their red flags,
and then plunging down the mountain-side out of danger, as the
earth rumbled and shook and vomited out a shower of stones and
rubbish into the calm hot air. It was a spectacle of desperate
activity and puzzling to the uninitiated, for it seemed to be
scattered over an unlimited extent, with no head nor direction,
and with each man, or each group of men, working alone, like rag-
pickers on a heap of ashes.

After the first half-hour of curious interest Miss Langham
admitted to herself that she was disappointed. She confessed she
had hoped that Clay would explain the meaning of the mines to
her, and act as her escort over the mountains which he was
blowing into pieces.

But it was King, somewhat bored by the ceaseless noise and heat,
and her brother, incoherently enthusiastic, who rode at her side,
while Clay moved on in advance and seemed to have forgotten her
existence. She watched him pointing up at the openings in the
mountains and down at the ore-road, or stooping to pick up a
piece of ore from the ground in cowboy fashion, without
leaving his saddle, and pounding it on the pommel before he
passed it to the others. And, again, he would stand for minutes
at a time up to his boot-tops in the sliding waste, with his
bridle rein over his arm and his thumbs in his belt, listening to
what his lieutenants were saying, and glancing quickly from them
to Mr. Langham to see if he were following the technicalities of