‘Hello, be-e-low there!’

Jacker’s character had undergone a rapid change; he was now quite an innocent and law-abiding person, a working shareholder in the Mount of Gold Quartz-mining Company.

‘On top!’ answered a cautious voice from the depths.

’Look up—­man on!

And now, having observed the formalities, Jacker continued his descent, and in a few moments dropped from the primitive ladder and found a footing on a few planks thrown from one drive to another, across what was really an old shaft.  At his back was a drive running into darkness; before him was a small irregular excavation lit with a single candle, and sitting in this, dressed, or, more correctly, undressed, like miners at their work, were Dick Haddon and Ted McKnight.

Jacker threw his bundle on the floor of the drive.

‘Crib,’ he said carelessly; and then, after examining the face of the excavation:  ’S’pose we ain’t likely to cut the lode this shift, Dick?

Dick shook his head thoughtfully.

‘No,’ he said.  ‘Allowin’ for the underlay, we should strike her about fifteen feet in.’

The other boys had now joined their mates.  Each on his way down had gravely followed the example of Jacker, who was supposed to be the boss of the incoming shift.  As the fathers labour their sons play, and for months these boys had been digging in this old mine, off and on, with enthralling mystery.  The excavation in which Dick and Ted were seated represented the joint labour of the members of the Mount of Gold Quartz-mining Company, though the very existence of the mine was unknown to a single soul outside the juvenile syndicate.

On the surface all signs of the shaft had long since been obliterated.  The quarrymen blasting into the side of the hill years back had made a small opening into the disused pit at some distance from the top, and this opening was accidentally discovered by Dick and Jacker one day during a hunt for a wounded rabbit.  Investigation proved the mine to be of no great depth, and, thanks to the pumps of the Silver Stream, as dry as a bone.  A company of reliable small boys was formed with exceeding caution and a fine observance of rule and precedent; for Dick Haddon did nothing by halves, and forgot nothing that might give an air of reality to the creations of his exuberant fancy.

The original intention of the Mount of Gold Quartz-mining Company was to strike a reef five yards wide, composed entirely of gold, and to overwhelm its various parents with contrition on account of past lambastings by making them suddenly rich beyond the dreams of Oriental avarice.  Time had served to dim the ardour of its hopes in this direction; but the mine was still an enticing enterprise when exciting novelties in the way of adventure were wanting, and would always be a hiding-place in which a youthful fugitive from injustice might defy all authority so long as the members of the Company remained true to their oath.  Now that oath was quite the most solemn and impressive thing of the kind that Dick Haddon and Phil Doon had been able to discover after consulting the highest literary authorities.