“I’m satisfied now,” spoke up Ransome, “and I’m sure that the others are, after what Mr. Dunlop showed us this morning.”

“How soon do you begin operations?” Tom asked with interest.

“As soon as my men have talked it over and have concluded to put up the money, replied Mr. Dunlop.

“We’re ready, now—–­all of us,” Ransome broke in.

“Then,” said Mr. Dunlop, “the next step will be to get in touch with a satisfactory engineer.  You see, Mr. Reade, it’s either a tunneling or a boring claim.  We must either sink a shaft or drive a tunnel—–­whichever operation can be done at the least cost.  Either way will be expensive, and we must find out for a certainty which will be the cheaper.  There’s a lot of refractory rock in the slope yonder.  In the morning our party will get all the ore we can from the surface croppings, then start for Dugout, going from there to Carson City.  At Carson we hope to find an honest engineer and a capable metallurgist.”

“Then you haven’t engaged any engineer?” Reade asked, almost eagerly.

“Not yet.  There was no need, until we had satisfied the investors.”

“Perhaps Hazelton and I can make some deal with you, Mr. Dunlop,” Reade proposed.

“In what line?” inquired Dunlop.  “Are you miners—–­or machinists?”

“When we want to be really kind to ourselves,” smiled Tom, “we call ourselves engineers.”

“Mining engineers?” demanded Mr. Dunlop, gazing at the two youths in astonishment.

“No, sir.  Neither Hazelton nor myself ever handled a mine yet,” Tom answered.  “But we have done a lot of railroad work.”

“Railroad work isn’t mine digging,” objected Mr. Dunlop.

“I’m aware of that, sir,” Tom agreed.  “Yet boring is largely excavation work; so is tunneling.  We’ve had charge of considerable excavating in our services to railroads.”

“Very likely,” nodded Dunlop, reflectively.  But how about the assays for gold and silver?  Sometimes, when searching for drifts and runs of the metal we may need a dozen assays in a single week.”

“We have the furnace with us, sir; the assay balance and all the tools and chemicals that are used in an ordinary assay.”

“You have?” asked Mr. Dunlop.  “Then you must have come prepared to go into this line of work.”

“We thought it more than likely that we’d amuse ourselves along that line of work for a while,” Tom explained truthfully.  “Yet mining attracts us.  We’d stay here and go into the thing in earnest if we could make good enough terms with you.”

“Would seventy-five dollars a month for each of you be satisfactory?” asked Mr. Dunlop keenly.

“No, sir,” replied Reade with emphasis.  “Nor would we take a hundred and seventy-five dollars, either.  When I said that we would consider a good proposition I meant just that, sir.”

“Hm-m-m-m!” murmured Mr. Dunlop.  “I shall have to give this matter thought, and question you a good deal more on your qualifications.  I suppose you would be willing to let this matter remain open for a few days?”