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By shrewd ed an expedition to the Silent Sam mine The property itself was of no particular interest The attractive feature was a descent in ore buckets froe of a precipitous cliff, to the mill in the valley below This was made by means of heavy cables to which the buckets were suspended After Jack had explained how the men rode back and forth by this means between the mill and the mine India was seized with the inspiration he had hoped for

"Let's go down in the buckets, dear people"

Lady Farquhar protested and was overruled by a chorus of votes The ave permission for her flock to make the trip if they desired

They rode on horseback to theno atteht up the rear with the captain The Westerner, answering the questions of his cousin, was at his debonair best Occasionally there drifted back to the couple in the rear frag of the time he had been a mule skinner in New Mexico, of how he had ridden , and of frontier days at Toh his explanations to liven the drawl of the Southwest, which went so ith the brown lean face beneath the pinched-in felt hat and the well-packed vigor of thea sample'?" India wanted to know after one of his stories

"You just pound so-driver of a herd in a round-up"

Moya heard no more She turned her attention resolutely to her companion and tried to detach her ht as well have tried to keep her heart fro

After they had arrived at the e of the disposition of the party Verinder and Joyce were sent up in the first bucket When this was halfway up to the mine the cable stopped to let another couple enter a bucket Joyce, fifty feet up in the air, waved her hand to those below

"You next, India," ordered her cousin

The young woman stepped into the bucket "I'm 'fraid," she announced promptly

"No need to be Captain, your turn"

The eyes of the two uessed instantly that the other had arranged this so as to get a few minutes alone with Moya He took a place beside his sister immediately