"Oh, how should I know?
Personally I am not interested in such things." "But have you gone as much as a whole week drilling and blasting through blank rock ?" Tom pressed.
"A week?
No; not for two days.

Of that I am certain.

But why do you ask all this, Senor Tomaso ?" "In order that I may better understand the nature of the mine," Reade responded.

"I want to know what the chances are, as based on the record of the mine to date.

Of course, Don Luis, you know what it means, often, when pay ore fails to come out of a streak, and a solid wall of blank rock is encountered." By "blank rock" Tom meant rock that did not contain a promising or paying amount of metal in the ore.
"What it means ?" Montez asked.