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.