tinny had been telling the motor boys some of his plans for operating the mine, the shaft of which he was pointing out to them, when the crack of the explosion followed by the voice of hang gow startled them all.

“he’s done it again!” cried mr. mallison, starting on a run, the more quickly to reach the rear of the cabin.

“sounds as though he’d done something serious!” exclaimed jerry. “come on, fellows!”

ned and bob followed, the former murmuring:

“i hope he isn’t hurt!”

the scene the boys beheld as they turned the corner of the cabin, or “shack,” as tinny called his place, was one at once to puzzle and alarm them. the chinese cook was dancing around on one leg, much excited and still crying shrilly in his cracked tones. scattered about were the remains of what seemed to be a campfire. near this was a tripod kettle, and, off to one side, was a blackened[108] and bent square tin can of about five gallon capacity.

“shut up, hang gow!” ordered tinny, not so much brutally as with well-intentioned meaning. “what’s the matter? are you hurt?”

“no hultie! no hultie!” jabbered the fellow. “much nice blid-nest soup alle samme blow up! oh, hi! oh, hi! oh, hi!”

he shouted this last at the very top of his voice, and the boys could not help laughing, for they saw that no great harm had been done. but they could not understand what had happened. however, tinny seemed to understand for he laughed and said:

“now, hang gow, you cut this out. i know you meant to give us a treat, but i’ve told you not to put gasoline on a fire to hurry it up. that’s what you did, didn’t you?”

“mebby alle samme use li’l bit gamsoheen!”

“um! i thought so! well, we’ll do without your birds’-nest soup now, hang gow. it’s lucky you aren’t made into chop suey yourself. now let this mess go and get the grub on the table!”

“all lite!” said the chinese dutifully, and then he ceased his lamenting and dancing and hurried into the cabin.

making sure that the scattered fire would burn itself out harmlessly, tinny chuckled again and remarked:

[109]

“i guess we’ll eat soon, boys, and you, especially, chunky. i seem to remember you had a great liking for chow.”

“i haven’t gotten over it yet!” laughed the fat lad.

“but what happened?” asked ned.

“oh, the same thing that’s happened before,” replied the mine owner. “hang gow once discovered that a few drops of gasoline on damp wood makes a fine blaze. i’ve cautioned and threatened him, but it hasn’t seemed to do much good. this is what probably happened. he is very fond of an oriental dish called birds’-nest soup. he gets the ingredients direct from china—they come by mail. it is a sort of gelatin compound. he’s given me some, but i can’t say i like it any more than i’d like shark fins. however, he thought he would be giving you boys a delicacy, so he started to make some birds’-nest soup without asking me. i’ve forbidden him to mess up my kitchen with his stuff, so he has to make it in a kettle over an open fire outside.

“he must have been doing that, and, as the fire didn’t burn quickly enough to suit him, he put on some gasoline. he must have found a little in the bottom of one of the cans—i have a small gasoline engine attached to a pump. hang gow probably put the nearly empty can, gasoline and all, on the fire and the explosion followed. luckily,[110] there couldn’t have been more than a few drops of gasoline in the tin or he’d have blown the shack down. i’ll have to lock up the gasoline after this.”

later the boys found that tinny’s explanation was the correct one. hang gow had had a narrow escape, and it made him a trifle nervous as he served the meal a little later. but the accident had not spoiled the meal, and chunky was in his element. the other boys, as well as professor snodgrass and bill cromley, seemed to have appetites almost equal to that of the fat lad, and for a time little was heard but the clatter of plates, knives, forks and spoons.

“too blad no got blid-nest soup,” murmured hang gow, as he brought in the dessert and coffee.

“hum, you and your birds’-nest soup!” exclaimed tinny, with a laugh. “too bad you weren’t blown to kingdom come! no more gas, hang gow!” he warned.

“all lite—no mlo gas,” agreed the chinese blandly.

it was night before the boys’ baggage and that of professor snodgrass had been brought up from livingston and the arrangements made for the sleeping of the party while at thunder mountain. there was considerable to do in order to get settled that had nothing to do with actual mining.

[111]

“we’ll take up that question in the morning,” said tinny. “i’ll let you inspect the place, look at specimens of the ore, read the report of the assay office, and then you can decide if you want to go into this with me. but first of all we’ll find out if this noddy nixon is going to bother us. you say he’s been on your trail?”

“yes, ever since we began to consider your offer,” answered jerry. “but how are you going to find out about him?”

“i’ll ask the fellows who brought up the baggage if they saw him and his two cronies hanging about the station.”

inquiry developed the fact that noddy had been a bit puzzled by the sudden disappearance of the motor boys’ party, though, undoubtedly, he must know they had reached thunder mountain.

“he and his crowd got a fellow to take them in and board them for a while,” reported the driver of the truck that had brought up the luggage.

“then we’ll have to reckon on noddy dogging us still,” suggested ned.

“i reckon so,” admitted jerry.

“let him dog!” exclaimed bob. “he daren’t come up here and try to get into your mine, dare he, tinny?”

“no, he can’t trespass on leftover if i know it.”

[112]

“what’s leftover?” jerry wanted to know.

“it’s what i call the mine,” explained mallison. “it was part of a claim left over when some prospectors divided their holdings. it wasn’t considered of much value, and i got it cheap. so i called it leftover. then i discovered a new vein that no one had suspected. i needed help to work it, and that’s why i sent for you boys. but we’ll go into all that in the morning. i hope you’ll like leftover.”

the boys did. when they looked about the next day after a restful night of sleep they were more favorably impressed with the place than they had been before. as might have been expected, professor snodgrass soon after breakfast started out to gather specimens. the boys, with tinny and bill cromley, went to the mine.

“don’t get lost!” called mallison to the professor.

“oh, i can find my way back,” he asserted.

leftover mine had not really been worked at all. the former owners had driven in a short tunnel. tinny had started another, in which he had soon come upon richer signs than the former owners had discovered. it was to his tunnel that the prospector took the boys.

samples of ore were shown them, together with the official report of the government assay office.

“now i want you to make any independent investigation[113] you like,” concluded tinny. “don’t be influenced by me. make up your minds in your own way. i’m going off down the trail for an hour or two and let you have the place to yourselves. when i come back you can tell me what you decide.”

the boys realized this splendid spirit on the part of their former officer, and they were not long in making up their minds. they knew something of mining, for they had been interested in it before, and they remembered some of the pointers given them by jim nestor.

then, too, they could ask the advice of bill cromley, who was a practical miner.

“it’s a mighty good prospect,” cromley said. “of course, it ain’t a bonanza, or anything like that, nor a get-rich-quick mine. but it will pay good dividends and the stuff isn’t hard to get out. go in, is my advice.”

“that’s what i say!” exclaimed ned. “it looks good to me!”

“same here,” echoed bob and jerry.

as their parents had left the matter to the boys, it was then and there voted to form a partnership with tinny mallison. he was so informed when he came back two hours later.

“well, boys,” he said, “i’m glad to hear it. i didn’t have much doubt, for i knew what leftover was. now we’ll start in and make things hum!”

[114]

it was necessary to arrange for the financing of the project, but that had been planned before the boys left cresville, so there was little more to do. also it was necessary to hire men to do the actual labor of getting out the ore. this would take some time, but tinny agreed to look after this.

“meanwhile, you boys can take a holiday and get rested after your trip,” he said. “roam about the place. there’s lots to see that will interest you and professor snodgrass. bill and i will get a gang of men up here, and we’ll soon begin taking out the ore. what do you say that we make bill foreman?”

this suited the lads, and the old miner was glad to be given the position. he was eager to work and he knew mining from several angles.

“if only noddy nixon doesn’t try any of his funny stuff,” murmured ned.

“if he starts anything i’ll tell him where he can get off!” cried jerry. “and jack pender and dolt haven with him! i’m not going to stand for any nonsense from them!”

“i don’t believe they’ll come up here,” suggested bob. “what they’re after is the treasure chest of blue rock.”

“we’ll have a go at that ourselves,” said jerry.

but when tinny heard this he paused in his busy preparations long enough to say:

[115]

“don’t count on that, boys. it’s only a fairy tale.”

“no it isn’t!” thought bill cromley, but he kept this opinion to himself.

it would be a week before actual work could be begun in the mine, and, meanwhile, professor snodgrass wandered here and there gathering wonderful specimens and, at the same time, gaining in health.

one day, about a week after they had reached leftover, ned proposed to his chums:

“let’s go to echo canyon.”

“where’s that?” asked bob.

“it’s a gulch about five miles from here, so one of the new miners told me, where the echoes sound just as if some one were talking to you. he says it’s a great place.”

“know how to get there?” jerry wanted to know.

“i think so.”

“all right, let’s go.”

“and—well, now—maybe we’d better take some sandwiches along,” proposed bob diffidently.

“go to it, fat boy!” laughed jerry, and soon bob was in the kitchen with hang gow.

after one or two false turns the motor boys at last reached the vicinity of echo canyon. then they made their way into it and, to their[116] delight and surprise, found the reputation of the place had not over-stated its wonders. the manner in which the shouts, and even the whispers, of the boys came back to them seemed weird. it was as though some mysterious spirit was concealed in the nooks and crannies of the small canyon, mocking them.

“well, this sure is a great place!” exclaimed ned, when they were tired of experimenting with their voices and the echo.

“yes, let’s get out in the open and eat,” added bob. “it’s too dark and gloomy in here.”

his companions agreed with him on both proposals, and they walked along, as they imagined, the way they had come in. but they had taken a wrong turn, or several of them, and after about half an hour of tramping ned suddenly exclaimed:

“fellows, we’re on the wrong trail!”

“what do you mean?” asked bob.

“i mean we aren’t getting out of this place. we’re wandering around in a circle. here we are back at the same place we started from—the place i picked up that queer bit of red rock. look! there’s where i kicked it loose! fellows, we’re lost!”