“Don’t think of shooting,” panted Tom, darting forward and laying a hand on the rifle barrel to spoil the guide’s aim.  “Jim, it isn’t sportsmanlike to shoot a fleeing enemy in the back!  Fight fair and square, Jim—–­if you must fight.”

There was much in this to appeal to the guide’s sense of honor and fair play.  Though scowled, he lowered the rifle.

“Tom, you everlasting joker, what happened?” demanded Harry Hazelton.

“You saw for yourself, didn’t you?” retorted Reade.

“Yes; but-----”

“Are you so little of an engineer that you don’t know a mine when you see one, Harry?”

“But how did that mine come to be there?”

“I planted it.”

“When?”

“Today, when you started on your ride.”

“Oh!”

“You see, Harry, I was pondering away over mining problems this morning.  As you had the only horse, that was all that there was left for me to do.  Now, you must have noticed that most of the outcropping rock around here is of a very refractory kind?”

“Yes,” nodded Hazelton.

“Then, of course, you realize that for at least a hundred feet down in the mine the rock that would be found would be the same.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“So, Harry, I was figuring on a way to blast ore rock out whenever we should find refractory stuff down a shaft or in the galleries or tunnels of a mine.”

“Fine, isn’t it?” retorted Hazelton.  “A great scheme!  You blast out the rock and the force of the explosion shoots all the fine particle of gold into the walls of the mine—–­just the way you’d pepper a tree with birdshot!”

Mr. Dunlop had drawn close and now stood smiling broadly.

“That appears to be one on you, Reade,” suggested the mine promoter.

“That’s what I want to find out,” returned Tom soberly; “whether I’m a discoverer, or just a plain fool.”

“What do you think about it?”

“Let’s go and look at the ledge, and then I can tell you, sir,” Reade answered, striding forward.

“Look out!” cautioned Joe Timmins.  “Those hyenas will shoot.  They’ll be sore over the trick you played on them, and they’ll be hiding waiting for a chance for a shot.”

“Oh, bother the hyenas,” Tom retorted, impatiently.  “I’m out for business today.  Coming, Mr. Dunlop?” The mine operator showed signs of hanging back.

Harry promptly joined his chum at what was left of the little ledge.  After a few moments Mr. Dunlop, seeing that no shots were fired, stepped over there also, followed by his nephew.  Jim Ferrers climbed a tree, holding his rifle and keeping his eyes open for a shot, while Timmins threw himself behind a rock, watching in the direction that the four men had taken.

“This looks even better than I had expected,” Tom explained, his eyes glowing as he held up fragments of rock.  “You see, the dynamite charge was a low-power one.  It just splintered the rock.  There wasn’t so very much driving force to the explosion.  Another time I could make the force even lower.”