“Then if you and Helen invested, it would enable your friends to carry on, and perhaps qualify you for a director’s post?”

“Yes.  I shall invest, but don’t know that I’d be justified in using Helen’s money yet.  However, suppose you come up and look at the mine.  The journey’s not so rough now we have broken the trail and put up rest-shacks at the camps.”

“Thanks,” said Allott.  “I hoped you were going to ask me.”

They started in a few days and Allott spent a week at the mine.  On the evening before he left, he sat talking with Thirlwell in the shack.  The frost was arctic outside, but the night was calm, and the corner they occupied by the red-hot stove was comfortable.

“What about Helen’s money?” Allott asked.  “I’m not a miner, but the assay reports look remarkably good, and I imagine you’ll get over your engineering troubles.”

“The financial troubles are the worst,” Thirlwell rejoined.

“Then why not take the money?”

Thirlwell pondered.  It was his duty to help Agatha, and Mrs. Allott’s offer, by making this easier, would enable him to earn the girl’s gratitude.  He meant to invest his share of the legacy, but felt that he ought not to risk his relative’s capital for his private gain.

“I’ll know better how we stand when we get the new machines to work.  Then, if I think it’s pretty safe, I’ll buy some shares for Helen.”

“Very well,” said Allott.  “I’ll open an account for you at the Bank of Montreal, and Helen will give you legal power to act for her.  This will enable you to command her proxy if you want to vote at a shareholders’ meeting.  If you don’t use the money, she will get better interest than in England.”

Thirlwell thanked him and Allott began to talk about something else.

The latter left the mine next morning and when he had gone Thirlwell occupied himself in strenuous and often dangerous work.  He felt he had to some extent misled Agatha and Strange.  Expenses had outrun his calculations and he had encountered obstacles he had not foreseen.  More money would soon be needed, and he must get results that would encourage its subscription and warrant his using Mrs. Allott’s capital.

Sometimes the adit roof came down and sometimes the sides crushed in; the inclination of the vein was irregular and the dip was often awkwardly steep.  Then the pines about the mine were small and damaged by wind and forest-fires.  It was difficult to find timber that would bear a heavy strain, and Thirlwell walked long distances in the stinging frost to look for proper logs, and now and then camped with his choppers behind a snowbank.  For all that, he made progress, and as he pushed on the adit his confidence in the vein grew stronger.  Expenses were heavy, but the ore would pay for all.

He grew thin and rather haggard.  Sleeping in the snow one night with half-dried moccasins, he found his foot frozen when he awoke, and the dead part galled.  He limped as he went about the mine, and soon afterwards his hand was nipped by a machine and the wound would not heal.  He held on, however; meeting his troubles cheerfully and encouraging his men, and the ore-dump began to grow.