“O, that’ll keep till we’re through with the chimney. You see, a good deal works through the cracks now, and we kin make a thorough clean-up afterwards. I b’lieve there’s lots of copper as well as gold and silver in that slag under the old wharf.” “You do?” “I’m ’most as certain of it as I am of the chimney. If we make as much as the opium brought, I s’pose you’ll be satisfied?” “That would be good enough.” “Queer them smuggler fellers never showed up, ain’t it? The more I think of it the more certain I am that that was what the burglar was after.” “But we couldn’t find any traces of the drug.” “Mebbe he got it before we run out. Well, most likely some one of those Government chaps warned ’em not to come here while the watch was bein’ kept up. There’s gen’rally some one gits wind of such a plan in time to make fools of the rest. I s’pose the temptation to be tricky is too much for ’em.” “Yes. And I suppose there are many temptations to a man in such a position.” “Bless you! I guess there is! There’s lots of men who’d be square enough, if they was let alone; but put ’em in a place where there’s a chance to cheat and some one to show ’em the way, and they don’t need no coaxin’. Did you suspicion any of ’em in partic’lar?” “Well,” Ben hesitated, “it’s an awful mean thing to say about a man when you’ve got no proof,”--he dropped his voice,--“but you know I didn’t like the man who was put in charge of the case.” “What’s his name?” “Cutter. I couldn’t help feeling that he wasn’t straight. He didn’t seem sincere.” “He wasn’t ’round here at all, was he?” “No. But there wasn’t any need of his coming. He just stays in the office and directs others. How easily he could warn the men who stowed away the stuff here not to come after it!” “They made me mad with their suspicions!” Mundon exclaimed. “I should think that ’sperience would have taught ’em to suspect one of theirselves sooner than us. ’Twas only one man as showed any suspicions outright, and like as not he was one of the rogues himself. I was half a mind to tell him so once, but I knowed ’twouldn’t do no good.” “Not a bit,” Ben agreed; “and it might do harm.” “Mining’s a curious business. It’s the only business on earth, though, where you ain’t cuttin’ the ground away from under some other man’s feet. You’re just a-gettin’ somethin’ that everybody wants and needs, and, consequently, everybody’s glad you’re gettin’ it. It’s a gamble, and that’s why it’s so thunderin’ fascinatin’. There’s one drawback, though; it makes a man distrustful of his kind,--I s’pose ’cause it’s so mighty easy to get fooled. An old miner doesn’t b’lieve in any one but just himself--from principle. It’s astonishin’, how completely he kin pin his faith to rocks, and how he balks when it comes to tryin’ it on human nature.” “Father wasn’t much so,” remarked Ben; “but he was an exception, I suppose.” “He wasn’t rich, was he?”