“There!” he said. “That does me good! I’ve wanted to smash ’em ever since those smarties came and nailed ’em up.” CHAPTER XV BEN CHOOSES A PROFESSION Within the Works they found everything, with the exception of the amalgam which Syd had taken, exactly as they had left it. Mundon was particularly pleased to find the “jigger” undisturbed. “Here’s the slag I mean, Ben. I’ve dreamt about that there identical lump fur three nights runnin’.” Mundon pointed to the rugged top of a lava-like bowlder, which reared itself from a corner of the earthen floor. “I guess you’re right about the metals there are in it,” said Ben; “but it might be an aerolite for all I know.” “What’s that? Say it again.” “An aerolite? It’s the lump of metal they find when a meteor falls and it’s unlike anything found on this earth.” “O, a fallin’ star. I knew a man who wrote some poetry about one that fell in Australia. He called it ‘stardust,’ but I s’pose a hard-as-nails professor would call it--by the name that you do.” While speaking, Mundon was surveying the ground. “I’ve got a scheme, Ben, to grade all this stuff ’cordin’ to its value.” “How do mean?” “Why we’ve had ’sperience enough to see that’d be the best way to economize our time and labor. We’ll assay it and grade it till we know ’bout where we stand.” “It’ll be an awful lot of work to do it.” “Yes, it’ll be tejus, but it’ll pay better in the end. We’ll--if you say so, Ben, ’course it’s your own business; but I’m jest tellin’ you how I’d do if ’twere mine--we’ll sep’rate the stuff ’cordin’ to size first, and then ’cordin’ to value.” “It’s a good plan. Don’t defer to me any more--you idiot! It makes me feel so mean when you do it. You know as well as I do that I don’t know the first thing about this business.” “You’re the boss, Ben,” Mundon laconically replied. “I don’t doubt that the slag and muck and all the rest of it are valuable,” said Ben; “but the chimney--our golden chimney--is the thing we’re sure of now. Maybe the day’s cleanup ’ll be more, or maybe it’ll be less, but we know it’ll be gold!” “You’re right--we’ve tested that and we’re sure of it. But we mustn’t despise the rest, on that account. Now, here’s where the roaster stood--it must hev stood here, ’cause it couldn’t hev stood any place else. Well, I’m goin’ to sink a shaft here.” Mundon stooped as he spoke, and with his pocket-knife he dug a small hole, from which he unearthed several small lumps of metal. “Just as I thought,” he said as he weighed them in his hand,--“lead ore that’ll assay heavy in silver.” “Then, there are those dumps,--made when the furnaces were put in, you thought. We haven’t touched those yet.” “You mean outside, where the old fence stood?” “Yes. Why, just look here.” Ben drew Mundon outside the gates to where some mounds rose from the beach. “It’s my opinion that this board that’s nailed on the fence here, opposite these heaps, was put here to mark them.”