Philip was touched. If he had had money enough to buy three days' "grub"

he would have accepted the generous offer, but as it was, he could not

consent to be less magnanimous than the men, and so he declined in a

manly speech; shook hands all around and resumed his solitary

communings.

The men went back to the tunnel and "put in a parting blast for luck"

anyhow. They did a full day's work and then took their leave. They

called at his cabin and gave him good-bye, but were not able to tell him

their day's effort had given things a mere promising look.

The next day Philip sold all the tools but two or three sets; he also

sold one of the now deserted cabins as old, lumber, together with its

domestic wares; and made up his mind that he would buy, provisions with

the trifle of money thus gained and continue his work alone. About the

middle of the after noon he put on his roughest clothes and went to the

tunnel. He lit a candle and groped his way in. Presently he heard the

sound of a pick or a drill, and wondered, what it meant. A spark of light

now appeared in the far end of the tunnel, and when he arrived there he

found the man Tim at work. Tim said:

"I'm to have a job in the Golden Brier mine by and by--in a week or ten

days--and I'm going to work here till then. A man might as well be at

some thing, and besides I consider that I owe you what you paid me when I

was laid up."

666

The Gilded Age