But, finally, in a pause, Nina said, "Jack,
tell Uncle Sandro what father sent you over to do. Or is it a secret?"
Derby looked toward Sansevero as though measuring the man. "It is no
great secret--but I would rather it was not spoken of yet."
"My ears are deaf, and my tongue is dumb." Sansevero put his hand over
his ear, his mouth, and finally his heart.
"I have come over to buy, or to lease--at all events, to work--sulphur
mines."
As though an electric current had been turned on, Sansevero sat up
straight, and his levity vanished. "To work sulphur mines! Will you tell
me more? I have a particular reason for wanting to know."
Derby answered willingly. "I can give you a general idea. I was forced
into inventing a new method of mining on account of the quicksands,
which are found all through our mines at home. Taking a suggestion from
the oil wells, I bored just such a well down into the sulphur beds.
Ordinarily the sulphur is brought up in powder or rock form, and refined
in vats on the surface, so that not only do the miners have to go down
into the sulphurous heat, but the caldrons in which the sulphur is
refined give out gases that are unendurable to human throats and lungs.
In our mines, the sulphur is now refined sixty or a hundred feet below
the surface of the ground, and pours out in an already purified state,
at the top of the well.
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