Part 32 (2/2)
”You're right,” chimed in Jim. ”As close as I ever want.”
”Did you fall in a well?” asked Roger, wondering why the men were so damp.
”Indeed we did, my boy,” answered Tom. ”And it was a salt well, of the saltiest water I ever tasted. Pah! My mouth is full of it yet.”
”Then there isn't any salt mine down there,” went on Roger in a disappointed tone, his interest in that matter overshadowing, for a moment, his joy at having helped save the men.
”Nary a bit of a salt mine,” said Tom. ”But I'll back the salt lake down there, against most anything outside of Utah. Hey, Jim?”
”That's right,” a.s.sented his companion, wiping the salt water from his eyes.
”How did it happen?” asked Adrian.
”Now you're talkin',” said Tom. ”We were diggin' away, or rather I was, and Jim was up above. I'd got about as deep as where Mr. Vanter said we ought to strike rock salt, and I was givin' some hearty blows with my pick, when, all on a sudden, the pick goes through with a pop, jest like when you stick a pin in one of them red balloons you buy at the circus. First thing I knew I was up to my neck in water saltier 'n' any ever tasted. Wow! But I didn't know what I'd struck, the Atlantic Ocean or the Dead Sea.”
”I guess it was a little of both,” interposed Jim.
”Right you are, Jim. Well, as it happened I landed right on a ledge of rock, or I might have gone on clean through to China,” resumed Tom. ”As soon as I got my wind I sung out to Jim. All the while I was holdin' on to a projectin' stone in the side of the shaft. When I yelled to Jim I wanted him to lower the rope to me. But he got excited, or something and, after he had unwound it, and lowered it, he s.h.i.+nned down it himself, hand over hand. Then before he could stop himself he was in the water with me, both of us as wet as drowned rats, at the bottom of a shaft thirty feet deep. We could just make out to find room on the narrow ledge, or we'd both been in the bottomless pit. We tried to climb up the rope, but, not bein' sailors or circus fellows, we didn't make out worth a cent. So we both began to yell as hard as we could, and--well, you know the rest. My! Oh! But it's glad we are that you boys came along when you did, or we'd both be fairly pickled away in brine for the winter. How about it, Jim?”
”That's what,” said Jim, heartily, wringing about a quart of salt water from his coat.
”But I can't understand how the brine got down there,” said Roger. ”Mr.
Vanter expected to strike rock salt, and the white crystals I brought up were certainly solid enough. I can't see why there should be salt water, unless there's a spring of fresh water that has become brine from dissolving the rock salt. I must hurry to tell Mr. Vanter.”
The boys and men went toward the farmhouse together. On the way they met Mr. Vanter, who was much surprised when he heard what had happened. He hurried to the mine to make sure of it. The men went back with him, not minding the wetting, for the day was warm. Though they tried to deter him, Mr. Vanter insisted on being lowered down the shaft. The boys, who had also come back, were a little apprehensive, when they saw their friend the surveyor disappear down the black hole, but they were soon rea.s.sured when they heard his cheery voice shouting from the depths that he was all right, and that he had found a place to stand. In a few minutes he signalled to be drawn up, and, when he reached the surface he looked delighted, instead of disappointed, as the boys had expected.
”Is the salt mine a failure?” asked Roger, anxiously.
”The salt mine is,” said Mr. Vanter.
”Oh, dear!” exclaimed Roger and Adrian together.
”But the salt spring is the biggest kind of a success,” added Mr.
Vanter, smiling. ”In fact, we've struck the same conditions that exist beneath the city of Syracuse. Instead of mining for salt we shall have to pump for it, which is cheaper and better. Boys, I can see big things in this for you. A pipe line can be run out to Syracuse, and transportation charges will be saved. Tom, that last pick stroke of yours was a mighty lucky one.”
”I didn't think so at the time,” remarked Tom, as he saw the white salt crystals appearing on his clothes, now that the sun was evaporating the water.
”Hurrah for the Kimball Salt Spring!” cried Adrian, throwing his hat high in the air, and Roger joined in heartily, turning a summersault to show how glad he felt.
”Now to test the brine,” said Mr. Vanter, as he sent the men for a pump and the necessary pipes. ”But I have no doubt, from the fact that the general character of this valley is the same from here to Syracuse, that we have a fine quality of solution. You have struck it rich, Mr.
Kimball,” he went on, as the farmer approached, all excitement over the news. ”We haven't a mine for you, but we have something better,” and he told him what had taken place.
”Wa'al, I knowed suthin' good 'd come outen what seemed dark prospects at fust,” said the old farmer, calling to mind the bad news of the loss of his money in the railroad shares, and the mortgage foreclosure. ”I knowed suthin' good 'd come, 'n' it's all along a' Roger here. I sha'n't forgit it, nuther,” he added, and Roger, fearing some one was going to praise him in public, hurried to the house.
CHAPTER XXV
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