Ruth sprang to her feet in a moment. "I'll let you have plenty for the little ones," she said, with trembling lips. "Now eat your supper, and enjoy it if you can." And she ran off into the pantry and quickly returned with a small basket full of food, which she placed by his side. "That ain't for me?" he questioned. "For you to take home to your mother and the children." He laid down his knife and fork and rose to his feet. "I'd like to go home at once, if you don't mind?" he said brokenly. "But you haven't half finished your supper." "I'd like to eat it with the little ones and mother, if you wouldn't mind?" "By all means, if you would rather," Ruth said, smiling through unshed tears. "I should feel happier," he said; and he emptied his plate into the basket. Ralph went and opened the door for him, and watched him as he hurried away into the darkness. He came back after a few minutes, and sat down; but neither he nor Ruth spoke again for some time. It was Ralph who at length broke the silence. "He may be a long way from being a hero," he said, "but he has a lot of goodness in him. I shall never think hardly of him any more." Ruth did not reply for a long time, then she said, "I am glad Brewer is to begin prospecting for you." "Yes?" he questioned. "I can't explain myself," she answered, "but it seems a right kind of beginning, and I think God's blessing will be upon it." "We will hope so, at any rate. Yes, we will hope so." And then silence fell again. CHAPTER XXXV FAILURE OR FORTUNE Farmer Jenkins was grimly contemptuous. He hated miners. "They were always messing up things," sinking pits, covering the hillsides with heaps of rubbish, erecting noisy and unsightly machinery, cutting watercourses through fruitful fields, breaking down fences, and, generally speaking, destroying the peace and quietness of a neighbourhood. He told Ralph to his face that he considered he was a fool. "Possibly you are right, Mr. Jenkins," Ralph said, with a laugh. "Ay, and you'll laugh t'other side of your face afore you've done with it." "You think so?" "It don't require no thinking over. Yer father sunk all his bit of money in this place, in bringing it under cultivation; and now you're throwing your bit of money after his, and other folks' to boot, in undoin' all he did, and turning the place into a desert again." "But suppose the real wealth of this place is under the surface, Mr. Jenkins?" "Suppose the sky falls. I tell 'ee there ain't no wealth except what grows. However, 'tain't no business of mine. If folks like to make fools of their selves and throw away their bit of money, that's their own look-out." And Farmer Jenkins spat on the ground and departed. Jim Brewer pulled off his coat, and set to work at a point indicated by Ralph to sink a pit. That was the beginning of what Ruth laughingly called "Great St. Goram Mine," with an emphasis on the word "great."