Explore "The Mystery of the Barranca" by Herman Whitaker on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Done -- at last!"
Sprawled on the flat of his back, with his curly head propped on his hands and his lime-eaten boots spread at a comfortable angle, Billy gazed upon their completed labor. The "well" -- into which the liquid copper matte would presently be flowing -- crucible, slag spout, blast pipes, or tuyeres, and canvas blowers, even the inclined way that led up to the platform over the loading trap, all were finished, and from the solid bed to the tip top of the brick chimney shaft Billy's vision embraced it all. Including the tons of charcoal that Caliban had burned and brought in from the woods, and the piles of ore which Seyd and Calixto had broken into smelting size with "spalling" hammers, all stood ready for the match that Seyd scratched while echoing Billy's observation.