two o'clock in the morning
Not without difficulty were the necessary things conveyed to the abandoned mine back of the old Wiley claim . Their course lay along the bottom of a dry creek , over a ridge , and so to the shaft half-way down the side of a hill . A second trip had to be made to bring the gas tube . It was two o'clock in the morning when Manuel stood at the foot of the four-hundred-foot hole and signaled up that the air was good . Talbot lowered the tools to him , and the gas container , and lastly went down himself . As already stated , Talbot had explored the underground workings of the mine not eighteen months before . Picking out the main tunnel and keeping a close watch for rattlers with electric torches , the two men went cautiously ahead .