CHAPTER XV
THE BIG HOLE
Hal Chester was very much in earnest. His eyes shone and he could notkeep still. He fairly danced around Janet and Ted.
"Do you really think that tramp-man was looking for gold?" asked Ted.
"'Deed I do," declared Hal. "What else was he after?"
Neither Ted nor Janet could answer that.
"But how will we know where it is?" asked Janet. "We don't know wherethere's any gold, and mother won't want us to go near that tramp-man."
"And I don't want to, either," answered Hal. "But we can dig down tillwe find the gold, can't we?"
"If we knowed--I mean if we knew where to dig," agreed Ted, afterthinking about it. "But digging for gold isn't like digging forangle-worms to go fishing. You can dig them anywhere. But you've got tohave a gold mine to dig for gold."
"Well, we'll start a mine," decided Hal. "That's what the miners do outWest. I read about it in a book at the Home when I was crippled andcouldn't walk much. The miners just start to dig, and if they don't findgold in one place they dig in another. That's what we'll do. We'll digtill we find the gold, then well have a gold mine."
"Oh, yes, let's do it!" cried Jan. "I'd love to have some gold to make apair of bracelets for my doll."
"Pooh!" scoffed Ted, "if we get gold we aren't going to waste it ondoll's bracelets! Are we, Hal?"
"Well, if Jan helps us dig she can have her share of the gold. That'swhat miners always do. They divide up the gold and each one takes hisshare. Of course Jan can do what she likes with hers."
"There, see, Mr. Smarty!" cried Jan to her brother. "I'll make my goldinto doll's bracelets."
"Maybe you won't get any," objected Ted.
"Well, I'll help you dig, anyhow. I helped grandpa dig trenches aroundthe tents so the rain water would run off, and I can help dig a goldmine. I know where the shovels are."
"Good!" cried Hal.
"We don't want any girls in this gold mine!" objected Ted, as his sisterhurried off to where Grandpa Martin kept the shovels, hoes and othergarden tools he used about the camp.
Usually Ted did not mind what game his sister played with him, but sinceHal had spoken of gold the little Curlytop boy had acted differently.
"We don't want girls in the gold mine," repeated Ted.
"Course we do!" laughed Hal. "Jan's a strong digger, and I can't do verymuch, as my foot that used to be lame isn't all well yet. It used to bealmost as strong as the other, but now it isn't. So you and Jan willhave to do most of the digging, though I can shovel away the dirt.Anyhow they always have girls or women in gold camps, you know."
"They do?" cried Ted.
"Of course! They do the cooking where there aren't any Chinamen. MostlyChinamen do the cooking in gold camps, but we haven't any, so we'llhave to have a girl. She can be Jan."
"There's a Chinaman who washes shirts and collars in our town," remarkedTed. "Maybe we could get him to cook for us."
"No! What's the use when we've got Jan? Anyhow it'll be onlymake-believe cooking, and I don't guess that shirt-Chinaman would wantto come here just for that. Anyhow we'd have to pay him and we haven'tany money."
"We'll get some out of the gold mine," Ted answered.
"Well, maybe we won't find any gold for a week or so."
"Does it take as long as that?"
"Oh, yes. Sometimes longer. And that Chinaman would want to be paid forhis cooking every week, or every night maybe. We won't have to pay Jan."
"That's so. Well, then I guess she can come. But we can get my mother orNora to make us sandwiches and we won't have to cook much of anything."
"That's what I thought, Teddy. But we can let Jan set the table andthings like that when she isn't digging. She'll help a lot."
"Yes, she's almost as strong as I am," agreed Ted. "Hurry up, Jan!" hecalled. "Got those shovels yet?"
"Yes, but I can't carry 'em all. You must help. Come on!"
Jan was walking back toward the boys, dragging two heavy shovels. Seeingthis, Hal hurried to help her and Ted followed. They got another shoveland a hoe and with these they started off toward the cave, about whichTed had told Hal.
"That'll be the place where the gold is," decided the visitor. "Thetramps must have been looking for it there. We'll start our gold mineright near the cave."
"What about something to eat?" asked Ted, pausing as they started up thepath that led to the hole out of which the cave opened.
"That's so. We ought to have something. I'm getting hungry now,"remarked Jan, though it was not long since they had had a meal.
"So'm I," announced Ted.
"Better not stop to go back for anything to eat now," decided Hal. "Yourmother or grandma might make us stay in camp. Did you tell them we weregoing to dig for gold, Jan?"
"No. I didn't see any of them when I got the shovels."
"Well then, we'll go on up to the cave. One of us can come back laterand get something to eat. They call it 'grub' in the books."
"Call what grub?" Ted asked.
"Stuff the miners eat. We'll send Jan back for the grub after we startthe gold mine. You're going to be the cook," Hal informed Ted's sister.
"I am not!" she cried, dropping her shovel. "I'm going to be a goldminer just like you two. If I can't be that I won't play, and I'll takemy shovel right back! So there now!"
"Oh, you can be a gold miner too," Hal made haste to say. "But we've gotto have a cook--they always do in a gold camp."
"Well, I'll be a cook when I'm not digging gold," agreed Jan. "But Iwant to get enough for my doll's bracelets."
"That's all right," agreed Hal. It would not do to have Jan leave themright at the start.
If Mrs. Martin or grandpa saw the children starting out with hoe andshovels they probably thought the Curlytops were only going to dig fishworms, as they often did. Grandpa Martin was very fond of fishing, buthe did not like to dig the bait. But Trouble was fretful that day, andhis mother had to take care of him, so she did not pay much attention toJan or Ted, feeling sure they would come to no harm.
So on the three children hurried toward the hole into which Ted hadfallen just before they found the queer cave.
"This is just the place for a gold mine!" cried Hal when he looked atthe ground around the big hole. "I guess some one must have started amine here once before."
"It does look so," agreed Ted.
"Let's go into the cave," proposed the visitor.
"No, grandpa told us we must never go in without him," objected Jan."It's all right to stay outside here and dig, but we mustn't go inside.The tramps might be in there."
"That's right," chimed in Ted. "Well stay outside."
Hal was not very anxious, himself, to go into the dark hole, so theylooked at the place where Ted had fallen through the loose leaves andtalked about whether it would be better to start to make that holelarger or begin a new one. The children decided the last would be thebest thing to do.
"We'll start a new mine of our own," said Hal. "I guess maybe somebodydug there and couldn't find any gold. So we'll start a new mine."
This suited the Curlytops and they soon began making the dirt fly withshovels and hoe, digging a hole that was large enough for all three ofthem to stand in. Hal said they didn't want to start by making too smalla mine.
"If we've got to divide it into three parts we want each one's part bigenough to see," he said, and Ted and Jan agreed to this.
The ground was of sand and very easy to dig. There were no big rocks,only a few small stones, and of course this was just what the childrenliked. So that in about half an hour they had really dug quite a deephole. It was almost as easy digging as it is in the sand at theseashore, and if any of you have been there you know how soon, even ifyou use only a big clam shell for a shovel, you can make a hole deepenough for you and your playmates to stand up in.
"Do you see any gold yet?" asked Jan of the two boys, when they had dugdown so that only the top parts of their bodies were out of the bighole.
r /> "No, not yet. But we'll come to it pretty soon," Hal said.
"Say, how're we going to get up when the hole gets too deep?" asked Ted."We ought to have a ladder or something."
"There's a ladder in camp," answered Jan. "Grandpa had it when he put upour real rope swing. Don't you remember, Ted?"
"Yes, that's right. We'd better get it if we're going any deeper, Hal,"he added.
"Course we're going deeper. Gold mines are real deep. I guess the ladderwould be a good thing."
"Then we'll go for it. Jan, you can come and get us something to eat,too. I'm awful hungry."
"So'm I," said Hal.
While Jan was in the tent-kitchen begging Nora for some cookies andsandwiches, Ted and Hal carried the small ladder, which was not veryheavy, up to the big hole they had started. By putting one end of theladder down inside, allowing it to slant up to the top of the hole, thechildren could easily get down in and climb up.
After they had eaten the things Jan got from Nora, they began diggingagain. The hole was soon so deep that the dirt which was shoveled andhoed away from the bottom and sides could no longer be tossed out by Tedand Jan.
"We've got to get a pail and hoist up the dirt," decided Hal. "That'swhat they do in gold mines. One of us must stay at the bottom and digthe dirt and fill the pail, and the other pull it up by a rope."
"We'll take turns," said Teddy.
"And I want to help, too!" cried Jan, so the boys agreed to let her,especially as they had seen that she could dig and toss dirt almost aswell as they could. They found an old pail and part of a clothes-linefor the rope, and the work at the "gold mine," as they called it, wenton more merrily than before.
By this time the hole was really quite deep--so deep that Hal Chestercould not see over the rim when he stood up straight on the bottom, andonly by using the ladder could the children get down and up.
"We ought to find gold pretty soon now," said Hal, as he climbed up tolet Ted take a turn at going down in the hole and digging.
Just then from the camp they heard the sound of the supper bell.
"Come on!" called Ted, not waiting to go down into the big hole. "We candig some more after supper and to-morrow. I'm hungry!"
"So'm I," agreed Hal.
Leaving their shovels and the hoe on the pile of dirt, the childrenhastened down to the tent where Nora had supper waiting for them, and ithad a most delicious smell.
"Where have you children been?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"Oh, havin' fun," answered Ted.
"Don't forget your 'g,' Curlytop," warned his mother with a laugh. "Areyou hungry, Hal?"
"Indeed I am! This island is a good place for getting hungry."
"And this is a good place to be stopped from getting hungry," laughedGrandpa Martin, as he pulled his chair up to the well-filled table nearwhich Nora stood ready to serve the meal.
The Curlytops and Hal had just a little idea that the grown folks wouldnot like their plan of digging a gold mine, so nothing was said aboutit. Hal, Ted and Jan looked at one another when their plates wereemptied, and then all three of them started once more back toward thebig hole.
"Where are you going?" asked Mother Martin.
"We----" began Jan, then stopped.
"Oh, we--we're playing a game," answered Ted. It was a sort of game.
"Can't you take Trouble with you? You haven't looked after him to-day,"went on Mrs. Martin, "and I want to help Nora. Take Trouble with you."
"All right," agreed Ted, though he thought perhaps Baby William might bein the way at the gold mine.
"Where is he?" asked Jan.
They looked around for the little fellow. He was not in sight.
"He got down from the table and was playing over there on the path awhile ago," said Grandpa Martin, and he pointed toward the path that ledto the gold mine. But Trouble was not in sight now.
"He must have wandered off into the woods," said his mother. "I've kepthim close by me all day, and he didn't like it. Trouble! William!" shecalled aloud. "Where are you?"
Ted and Jan looked at one another. Hal seemed startled. The same thoughtcame to all three of them:
"Suppose Trouble had fallen down the big hole at the gold mine?"