Then, the necessary permission having been granted, he hurried back to the mine and into the drift, there to find the last of the muck being scraped away from beneath the site of the cave-in.

Fairchild paid off.

Then he turned to the foreman.
"How many of these men are game to take a chance ?" "Pretty near all of 'em--if there 's any kind of a gamble to it." "There 's a lot of gamble.

I 've got just twenty dollars in my pocket--enough to pay each man one dollar apiece for a night's work if my hunch doesn't pan out.

If it does pan, the wages are twenty dollars a day for three days, with everybody, including myself, working like hell! Who's game ?" The answer came in unison.