CHAPTER XXIV
DIGGING FOR SALT
Early the next morning Mr. Vanter went to the spring-glade, and startedthe two men at work, sinking the shaft, which they had to abandon sosuddenly the day before. The surveyor decided on going straight down,instead of in at a slant, which he had at first believed best. Roger andAdrian watched the operations with interest, as did a throng of people,who were not disturbed as they gathered about the spot. The good newshad gone all over Cardiff, and there was not a person, excepting theplotters, but what rejoiced at Mr. Kimball's fortune in saving his land.
The digging progressed slowly, as only a small shaft was to be sunk, andbut one man could work in it at a time. For three anxious days the laborwent on, the hole in the ground becoming deeper and deeper. The manwhose turn it was to go into the excavation was below the level of thesurface now. Mr. Kimball, and all his family, as well as the neighbors,were wondering whether or not salt would be struck in sufficientquantities to make the venture pay. If not, it would have been betterhad Mr. Kimball accepted the offer of Mr. Ranquist. Two days more ofdigging would tell the story. And those two days were filled withanxious uneasiness on the part of all in the farmhouse. The work went onearly and late, and Mr. Kimball neglected all but the most necessary ofhis duties to watch the progress.
The sinking of the shaft was done in rather a primitive fashion. A hole,almost like that dug for a well, was started, and, when the bottom gotso far below the surface that the earth could no longer be tossed out,the men rigged up a windlass and rope, on the end of which was a largebucket, into which the dirt was placed to be hauled up and dumped.
It happened on Wednesday, just a week after the day when the farm wassaved, that the men had dug down about thirty feet. Toward the close ofthe afternoon Roger and Adrian, who were constantly at the mine, hadstrolled away, and were up in the woods, looking for signs of foxes,which were plentiful that year. They were sitting on a log, idly tossingstones at an old stump, when Adrian suddenly called: "Hark!"
They both listened intently. A faint cry came to them.
"Sounds like some one hollering," said Roger.
"It is!" exclaimed Adrian. "And it's down by the salt mine. Maybethey've struck the white crystals. Let's hurry up and see."
Together they started off. As they came nearer the sounds were louder,and then, they seemed to be, not shouts of delight at the discovery ofsomething long wished for, but, rather, cries of distress.
"Some one's hurt!" said Roger, increasing his pace.
The boys had reached the edge of the spring-glade now, and could see themouth of the shaft. But there was no one near it, not even the usualcrowd of curious people, Mr. Vanter and Mr. Kimball had, for the timebeing, gone away, so the scene was deserted. Neither of the two workmen,one of whom should have been at the windlass, was to be noticed.
"There's been an accident!" exclaimed Adrian.
"I guess the man's fallen down the shaft," said Roger, referring to themissing laborer. "That's it," he added excitedly. "They're both downthere! Hear 'em calling?"
And, sure enough, that was where the cries for help came from. The boysran and peered down into the depths of the hole. For a moment, becauseof the darkness, they could make out nothing. Then, as their eyes becameused to the blackness, they observed, dimly, two figures, at the bottomof the deep excavation. And the figures were those of the two workmen,who seemed to be struggling in desperation. Every now and then wouldcome a terrified cry from one of them:
"Help! Help! Help!"
"What shall we do?" shouted Adrian, almost trembling in the excitement.
"We must get them out!" exclaimed Roger. "Let's call to them, to let 'emknow we're on hand."
"Hello! Hello!" yelled Adrian down the shaft. "Hello! What's the matter?What shall we do to help you?"
"Wind up--the--rope! Turn the--windlass!" came faintly from below.
"That's it!" cried Roger, as he seized the crank. "Turn, Ade! Turn!"
The two boys worked the windlass, straining in desperation. It taxedtheir strength to the utmost, for the weight at the other end of therope was very heavy. Roger was the first to realize that, in their fear,both men were clinging to the cable, and trying to be brought to thesurface at the same time.
"Stop turning," said Roger to Adrian. Then the boys fastened thewindlass by the catch at the side of the cog wheel, put there for thepurpose. Next, Roger leaned over and shouted down:
"One on the rope at a time! We can't haul you both up together!"
"All right!" came the answer from the black depths. "Jim'll try itfirst."
There was a perceptible slacking of the rope, and then Roger and Adrianbegan winding up the windlass again. This time it was much easier toturn the handle. As the strands of the cable coiled over the drum, footby foot, they brought up, into the light of day, first the head, thenthe body of one of the laborers. His face showed the terror he felt, andthe boys noticed, with great surprise, that he was dripping wet.
"Hurry!" called Jim. "Tom's down there yet. Lower the rope."
He unfastened it, from where he had looped it beneath his arms, andtossed it dangling into the hole. It ran out quickly over the drum.There came a cry from below to indicate that Tom had the end. Then,giving him time to adjust it, Jim began to turn quickly, replacing theboys, and soon the other workman was brought up. He too was soaking wet.
"I tell you, that was a narrow squeak!" exclaimed Tom, removing therope.
"You're right," chimed in Jim. "As close as I ever want."
"Did you fall in a well?" asked Roger, wondering why the men were sodamp.
"Indeed we did, my boy," answered Tom. "And it was a salt well, of thesaltiest water I ever tasted. Pah! My mouth is full of it yet."
"Then there isn't any salt mine down there," went on Roger in adisappointed tone, his interest in that matter overshadowing, for amoment, his joy at having helped save the men.
"Nary a bit of a salt mine," said Tom. "But I'll back the salt lake downthere, against most anything outside of Utah. Hey, Jim?"
"That's right," assented his companion, wiping the salt water from hiseyes.
"How did it happen?" asked Adrian.
"Now you're talkin'," said Tom. "We were diggin' away, or rather I was,and Jim was up above. I'd got about as deep as where Mr. Vanter said weought to strike rock salt, and I was givin' some hearty blows with mypick, when, all on a sudden, the pick goes through with a pop, jestlike when you stick a pin in one of them red balloons you buy at thecircus. First thing I knew I was up to my neck in water saltier 'n' anyever tasted. Wow! But I didn't know what I'd struck, the Atlantic Oceanor the Dead Sea."
"I guess it was a little of both," interposed Jim.
"Right you are, Jim. Well, as it happened I landed right on a ledge ofrock, or I might have gone on clean through to China," resumed Tom. "Assoon as I got my wind I sung out to Jim. All the while I was holdin' onto a projectin' stone in the side of the shaft. When I yelled to Jim Iwanted him to lower the rope to me. But he got excited, or somethingand, after he had unwound it, and lowered it, he shinned down ithimself, hand over hand. Then before he could stop himself he was in thewater with me, both of us as wet as drowned rats, at the bottom of ashaft thirty feet deep. We could just make out to find room on thenarrow ledge, or we'd both been in the bottomless pit. We tried to climbup the rope, but, not bein' sailors or circus fellows, we didn't makeout worth a cent. So we both began to yell as hard as we could,and--well, you know the rest. My! Oh! But it's glad we are that you boyscame along when you did, or we'd both be fairly pickled away in brinefor the winter. How about it, Jim?"
"That's what," said Jim, heartily, wringing about a quart of salt waterfrom his coat.
"But I can't understand how the brine got down there," said Roger. "Mr.Vanter expected to strike rock salt, and the white crystals I brought upwere certainly solid enough. I can't see why there should be salt water,unless there's a spring of fresh water that has become brine fromdissolving the rock salt. I mus
t hurry to tell Mr. Vanter."
The boys and men went toward the farmhouse together. On the way they metMr. Vanter, who was much surprised when he heard what had happened. Hehurried to the mine to make sure of it. The men went back with him, notminding the wetting, for the day was warm. Though they tried to deterhim, Mr. Vanter insisted on being lowered down the shaft. The boys, whohad also come back, were a little apprehensive, when they saw theirfriend the surveyor disappear down the black hole, but they were soonreassured when they heard his cheery voice shouting from the depths thathe was all right, and that he had found a place to stand. In a fewminutes he signalled to be drawn up, and, when he reached the surface helooked delighted, instead of disappointed, as the boys had expected.
"Is the salt mine a failure?" asked Roger, anxiously.
"The salt mine is," said Mr. Vanter.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Roger and Adrian together.
"But the salt spring is the biggest kind of a success," added Mr.Vanter, smiling. "In fact, we've struck the same conditions that existbeneath the city of Syracuse. Instead of mining for salt we shall haveto pump for it, which is cheaper and better. Boys, I can see big thingsin this for you. A pipe line can be run out to Syracuse, andtransportation charges will be saved. Tom, that last pick stroke ofyours was a mighty lucky one."
"I didn't think so at the time," remarked Tom, as he saw the white saltcrystals appearing on his clothes, now that the sun was evaporating thewater.
"Hurrah for the Kimball Salt Spring!" cried Adrian, throwing his hathigh in the air, and Roger joined in heartily, turning a summersault toshow how glad he felt.
"Now to test the brine," said Mr. Vanter, as he sent the men for a pumpand the necessary pipes. "But I have no doubt, from the fact that thegeneral character of this valley is the same from here to Syracuse, thatwe have a fine quality of solution. You have struck it rich, Mr.Kimball," he went on, as the farmer approached, all excitement over thenews. "We haven't a mine for you, but we have something better," and hetold him what had taken place.
"Wa'al, I knowed suthin' good 'd come outen what seemed dark prospectsat fust," said the old farmer, calling to mind the bad news of the lossof his money in the railroad shares, and the mortgage foreclosure. "Iknowed suthin' good 'd come, 'n' it's all along a' Roger here. I sha'n'tforgit it, nuther," he added, and Roger, fearing some one was going topraise him in public, hurried to the house.