on, "that it is I
who have made this discovery: you cannot think what a pleasure it is to
a woman to contribute to the happiness and prosperity of the man she
loves. And, beside this, there is the satisfaction of knowing that, if
the wealth you have spoken of really lies buried here, and I have no
doubt whatever that it does, you will now be under no necessity for
following up a profession which must inevitably have involved long
separations from me. I am so happy, dearest, for I do not think I could
have endured that."

I was deeply affected by this and frequent other evidences of the warmth
and strength of Ella's attachment to me, and of the confiding frankness
with which she revealed it; and I believe most conscientiously that the
greatest gratification I derived from the discovery of the treasure
arose from a knowledge of the extended power it would bestow upon me to
contribute to her happiness.

Bob soon returned with a couple of shovels, and, springing ashore from
the canoe, he handed one to Winter, and began at once to ply the other
most vigorously himself, exclaiming as he did so:

"There you are, my lad: now fire away as hard as you like. There's only
a few feet of sand between us and gold enough to make all our fortin's a
dozen times over, so let's rouse it up and have a look at it, without
any more words."

The two men worked with a will, and soon stood in a good-sized hole,
about three feet deep, whilst the rest of us looked on at their labours
with the keenest interest. At length Winter's shovel struck upon
something hard, and he announced the fact with a joyous shout. Bob,
however, still continued working away without meeting with any
resistance. A few more strokes of Winter's shovel laid bare a small
patch of damp discoloured planking, a further proof, if we needed one,
of the truth of the story. Bob was still digging away as hard as ever.
Presently he ceased digging, and began shovelling the loose sand off a
piece of the deck or something else which he had got down to. This was
soon uncovered, and we then saw that it was a piece of _loose_ plank,
which he and Winter succeeded between them in raising, and underneath it
lay a dark hollow cavity. To work they both went once more, and in a
short time three more loose planks were so far uncovered as to permit of
their being removed.

This accomplished, it was found that we had been so fortunate as to hit,
at the first trial, upon the hole throu