Part 13 (2/2)
”I think all that large sloping bank covered with bushes and brambles came out of the mine some time, father,” said the boy. ”It seems to have been all raised up round about the mouth there.”
”Eh? You think so?”
”Yes, father; and as the pieces thrown out grew higher, they seem to have built up the mouth of the mine with big blocks to keep the stones from rolling in. I noticed that when I was being let down. The ferns have taken root in the joints. Lower down, fifteen or twenty feet, the hole seems to have been cut through the solid rock.”
”Humph! you kept your eyes open, then?”
Crossing the wall where the lane ran along by the side of the Colonel's property, they turned homeward, and in a few minutes Gwyn caught sight of Joe Jollivet's cap gliding in and out among the furze bushes, as he made his way in the direction of his own house, apparently not intending to be seen. But a few hundred yards farther along the lane there was some one who evidently did intend to be seen, in the shape of Sam Hardock, who rose from where he was sitting on a grey-lichened block, and touched his hat.
”That's a nice specimen you've got there, Master Pendarve,” he said, eyeing the block the boy carried.
”It's a very heavy one, Sam,” replied Gwyn; and his father strode on, but stopped short and turned back frowning, unable, in spite of his annoyance, to restrain his curiosity.
”Here, you Hardock,” he cried, tapping the block his son carried, with his cane. ”What is it? What stone do you call that?”
”Quartz, sir,” said the man, examining the piece, ”and a very fine specimen.”
”Eh? Good for breaking up to repair the roads with, eh?”
”No, sir; bad for that; soon go to powder. But it would be fine to crush and smelt.”
”Eh? What for?”
”What for, sir?” said the man with a laugh; ”why, that bit o' stone's half tin. I dunno where you got it, o' course; but if it came from the spoil bank of that old mine, it just proves what I thought.”
”Tin? Are you sure?”
”Sure, sir? Yes,” said the man, laughing. ”I ought to know tin when I see it. If it comes out of the old Ydoll mine, you've only got to set men at work to go down and blast it out, sir, and in a very short time you'll be a rich man.”
”Come along, Gwyn,” said the Colonel, hastily; ”it's time we got back.
Hang the fellow!” he muttered, ”he has given me the mining fever, and badly, too, I fear.”
CHAPTER NINE.
DOCTOR JOE.
”Oh, dear! Oh, dear! What a life! what a state of misery to be in!”
”Shall I turn the pillow over, father?” said Joe to Major Jollivet, who was lying on the couch drawn before the window, so that he could have a good view of the sea.
”No,” shouted the Major, whose face was contracted by pain; and he s.h.i.+vered as he spoke although his forehead was covered with perspiration. ”Why do you want to worry me by turning the pillow?”
”Because it will be nice and cool on the other side.”
”Get out. Be off with you directly, sir. Can't you see I'm s.h.i.+vering with cold? Oh, dear: who would have jungle fever?”
”I wouldn't father,” said the boy; and in spite of the words just spoken, he softly thrust his arm under his father's neck, raised his head, and then turned and punched the pillow, smoothed it, and let the Major's head down again.
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