Explore "A Thousand Miles an Hour" by Herbert Strang on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THE actual construction of the machine was done by the skilled mechanics of the mine under the supervision of Heneky, and according to the plans carefully drawn by Derrick. While this practical work was going on there were times when Derrick would have been unemployed but for the necessity of carrying out Heneky's scheme for obtaining legal possession of the cave. He made several visits to the spot in company with Pedro and Bola, partly for the purpose of getting a supply of the crystals left by evaporation of the water from the pool, partly in order to prepare a large-scale map of the district. When this was finished, it was sent to La Paz with instructions to the Señora Alvarez's lawyer to deposit at the Office of Mines a formal claim in the name of Pedro Alvarez, with the alleged object of prospecting for minerals in the district covered by the map. The payment of a small initial fee on registration would secure their position if the land was Government property, and if there was no prior claim, a contingency that seemed unlikely.
The main road to La Paz being still blocked by the landslide, the messenger, a trusty native servant of the señora's, had to follow a roundabout route through the hills, and it was expected that a considerable time must elapse before he could return, bringing the official receipt and the stamped authorisation to work the specified district. This interval was utilised for making a more thorough examination of the cave. The spring that fed the pool had ceased to flow, and there seemed no possibility of tracing its source except by laboriously cutting away the solid rock on each side of the fissure, an operation that would have taken a longer time than Derrick cared to contemplate. From indications in the soil of the cave he came to the conclusion that the spring had flowed only for a short period, and it seemed likely that the fissure through which it entered the cave was itself a result of the earthquake which had shaken the country a few months before.