r. Randolph to follow them, he
himself entering last.

The hole slanted downward for some ten feet, then, enlarging a little,
turned to the right and ran straight ahead for some thirty feet, still
slanting quite steeply downward, when it suddenly opened out into a
large chamber, worn by the action of water, apparently, out of the solid
rock.

In five minutes all our excited friends stood in this chamber or cave
and were staring wonderingly around them. They found themselves in a
room, some thirty feet long by twenty feet wide at the widest, with an
oval slanting roof, shaped something like the inverted quarter of an
egg-shell. The bottom of the cave was level and composed of a very
coarse gravel, mixed with little rounded chunks of a yellowish metal,
that glowed in the light of the candles like thousands of dull yellow
coals of fire.

In an instant everybody was down on their knees examining these chunks
of metal. For a couple of minutes no one spoke. Then Ham lifted his head
and looked slowly around him, as if he were trying to convince himself
that he was really awake.

"Gosh!" he said, in a voice hardly above a whisper. "It is gold!"

"It is gold!" and Mr. Conroyal looked up, his face white and his eyes
shining. "It is gold; and enough of it to make us all rich beyond our
fondest dreams. No wonder the miner called it the Cave of Gold."

[Illustration: "IT IS GOLD! IT IS GOLD! AND ENOUGH OF IT TO MAKE US ALL
RICH BEYOND OUR FONDEST DREAMS."]

"Gold! Gold! Now Ruth shall have her breastpin nugget and gold
necklace!" and Thure, with hands that trembled so that he could hardly
hold the candle, began an excited search for the largest chunk of gold
that he could find. In two minutes he had found one about the size and
the shape of a robin's egg. "The very thing!" he cried. "That will make
a magnificent breastpin," and he quickly picked it up and began
searching for the nuggets to go into the promised necklace.

During this time Bud was quickly gathering up the largest nuggets he
could find; for a similar purpose but for a different girl; and the
fingers of all the others were busy in the same exciting way.

For half an hour all forgot everything, but the shining pellets that
covered the bottom of the cave. Then Rex suddenly straightened up.

"Great Washington! I'm forgetting dad!" he exclaimed. "I must go to dad
at once," and he started for the hole that gave passageway to the outer
world.

Naturally Rex was