Either wealth that would yield Squint a hundredfold for his purchase, or a sneer that would answer their offer to sell.

And each man gritted his teeth and said nothing.

But they worked on.
October gave up its fight.

The first day of November came, to find the chamber a wide, vacuous thing now, sheltering stone and refuse and two struggling men,--nothing more.

Fairchild ceased his labors and mopped his forehead, dripping from the heat engendered by frenzied labor; without the tunnel opening, the snow lay deep upon the mountain sides, for it had been more than a week since the first of the white blasts had scurried over the hills to begin the placid, cold enwrapment of the winter.