"You were up there with MacFarlane, weren't you?--
when he went to look over the ground of the Maryland Mining
Company where he is to cut the horizontal shaft?" Jack nodded. "So
I heard. Well, it may interest you to learn that some of our
Mukton people own the property. It was I who sent MacFarlane up,
really, although he may not know it."
"That was very kind of you, sir," rejoined Jack, without a trace
of either gratitude or surprise.
"Well, I'm glad you think so. Some of our directors also own a
block of that new road MacFarlane is finishing. They wouldn't hire
anybody else after they had gone up to Corklesville and had seen
how he did his work, so I had the secretary of the company write
MacFarlane, and that's how it came about."
Jack nodded and waited; his uncle's drift was not yet apparent.
"Well, what I wanted to see you about, Jack, is this:" here he
settled his fat back into the chair. "All the ore in that section
of the county,--so our experts say, dips to the east. They've
located the vein and they think a horizontal shaft and gravity
will get the stuff to tide water much cheaper than a vertical
shaft and hoist.
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