I think you have waited too long.

If you had gone on thinking about nothing but the lode, it would have done you harm." "Did it harm my father ?" "Yes," said Thirlwell quietly, and Agatha dared ask nothing more.
Besides she knew that he would not tell her much.
"Now," he went on, "I have owned my fault; but you're rather taking it for granted that my object was altogether unselfish.

After all, the law only gives you so much frontage on the vein, and there's nothing to prevent my staking off a claim on the rest." "That is so," said Agatha.

"But the paper states that my father claimed the edge of the cliff, where, for a time, the ore could be easily worked.

As your block would lie farther back, you would have to sink a shaft and drive a tunnel.