"I might have known it." She laughed to herself, but she did not say why, and Casey was afraid to ask.
He could remember so many incidents in his past that he would not want the little woman to know about, and he was afraid that it might be one of them at which she was laughing.
She formed the habit of coming up to the tunnel every day, with Babe chattering along beside her, swinging herself on her mother's hand.

At first she said whimsically that she had found it best to keep an eye on her miners, as if that explained her coming.

But she always had something good to eat or drink.

Once she brought a small bucket of hot chocolate, which Casey gulped down heroically and smacked his lips afterwards.

Casey hated chocolate, too, so I think you may take it for granted that by then he was a goner.
He used to smoke his pipe and watch the little woman and Babe go "high-grading" along the tunnel wall.