Neither Hazelton nor myself ever handled a mine yet," Tom answered.

"But we have done a lot of railroad work." "Railroad work isn't mine digging," objected Mr.Dunlop.
"I'm aware of that, sir," Tom agreed.

"Yet boring is largely excavation work; so is tunneling.

We've had charge of considerable excavating in our services to railroads." "Very likely," nodded Dunlop, reflectively.

But how about the assays for gold and silver?
Sometimes, when searching for drifts and runs of the metal we may need a dozen assays in a single week." "We have the furnace with us, sir; the assay balance and all the tools and chemicals that are used in an ordinary assay." "You have ?" asked Mr.Dunlop.