After that he put a kettle of beans on to boil, filled the stove with pinon sticks and closed the drafts.

He armed himself with the two loaded pieces of dynamite from the cupboard, filled his pockets with such other things as he thought he might need, and went prospecting on his own account.
At the portal of the tunnel he stopped and listened for the ping-g, ping-g of a single-jack striking steadily upon steel.

But the tunnel was silent, the ore car uptilted at the end of its track on the dump.
Yet the three men were supposedly at work in the mine, had talked at breakfast about wanting to show a certain footage when the boss returned, and of needing to hurry.
Casey went into the tunnel, listening and going silently; sounds travel far in underground workings.

At the mouth of the first right-hand drift he stopped again and listened.

This, if he would believe Joe, was the drift where the bad ground had caused the accident to Joe and his partner whose leg had been broken.