Walter’s Pride of the West gold mine was an old obsession he abandoned decades earlier at his wife’s request. She feared that its dangers would take him from her, and she wisely understood that Walter’s interest in the mine was a kind of mental illness. Walter brings Cloyd with him to reopen the mine, and the old man feels drawn once again into the excitement of gold fever. This nearly upends the work he’s done repairing his relationship with the boy. Walter realizes that he’s ensnared Cloyd in the project and lets the boy finish his quest to stand atop the tallest mountain in the area. Alone in the mine, Walter has nothing to hinder his mania and is seriously injured in a blast accident.

The mine is a test for both Walter and Cloyd. Walter passes the courage test when he returns to the tunnel for the risky—and, for him, nearly fatal—duty of disarming sticks of dynamite that failed to go off. For Cloyd, the hard, tedious mine work is a challenge to his patience and stamina, and Walter’s injury pushes Cloyd to the utmost level of performance as he strives to save his mentor. The mine, then, is a deep hole in the mountain that pulls them in and barely spits them out again.