CHAPTER XV
THE BIG HOLE
Hal Chester was very much in earnest. His eyes shone and he could not keep 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 where there'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 till we find the gold, can't we?"
"If we knowed—I mean if we knew where to dig," agreed Ted, after thinking about it. "But digging for gold isn't like digging for angle-worms to go fishing. You can dig them anywhere. But you've got to have a gold mine to dig for gold."
"Well, we'll start a mine," decided Hal. "That's what the miners do out West. I read about it in a book at the Home when I was crippled and couldn't walk much. The miners just start to dig, and if they don't find gold in one place they dig in another. That's what we'll do. We'll dig till we find the gold, then we'll have a gold mine."
"Oh, yes, let's do it!" cried Jan. "I'd love to have some gold to make a pair of bracelets for my doll."
"Pooh!" scoffed Ted, "if we get gold we aren't going to waste it on doll's bracelets! Are we, Hal?"
"Well, if Jan helps us dig she can have her share of the gold. That's what miners always do. They divide up the gold and each one takes his share. Of course Jan can do what she likes with hers."
"There, see, Mr. Smarty!" cried Jan to her brother. "I'll make my gold into doll's bracelets."
"Maybe you won't get any," objected Ted.
"Well, I'll help you dig, anyhow. I helped grandpa dig trenches around the tents so the rain water would run off, and I can help dig a gold mine. I know where the shovels are."
"Good!" cried Hal.
"We don't want any girls in this gold mine!" objected Ted, as his sister hurried off to where Grandpa Martin kept the shovels, hoes and other garden tools he used about the camp.
Usually Ted did not mind what game his sister played with him, but since Hal 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 very much, as my foot that used to be lame isn't all well yet. It used to be almost as strong as the other, but now it isn't. So you and Jan will have 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. Mostly Chinamen do the cooking in gold camps, but we haven't any, so we'll have to have a girl. She can be Jan."
"There's a Chinaman who washes shirts and collars in our town," remarked Ted. "Maybe we could get him to cook for us."
"No! What's the use when we've got Jan? Anyhow it'll be only make-believe cooking, and I don't guess that shirt-Chinaman would want to come here just for that. Anyhow we'd have to pay him and we haven't any 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 for his cooking every week, or every night maybe. We won't hare to pay Jan."
"That's so. Well, then I guess she can come. But we can get my mother or Nora 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 and things 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!" he called. "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. Seeing this, Hal hurried to help her and Ted followed. They got another shovel and a hoe and with these they started off toward the cave, about which Ted had told Hal.
"That'll be the place where the gold is," decided the visitor. "The tramps must have been looking for it there. We'll start our gold mine right near the cave."
"What about something to eat?" asked Ted, pausing as they started up the path 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. "Your mother or grandma might make us stay in camp. Did you tell them we were going 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 later and 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 start the 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 gold miner just like you two. If I can't be that I won't play, and I'll take my shovel right back! So there now!"
"Oh, you can be a gold miner too," Hal made haste to say. "But we've got to 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 I want to get enough for my doll's bracelets."
"That's all right," agreed Hal. It would not do to have Jan leave them right at the start.
If Mrs. Martin or grandpa saw the children starting out with hoe and shovels they probably thought the Curlytops were only going to dig fish worms, as they often did. Grandpa Martin was very fond of fishing, but he did not like to dig the bait. But Trouble was fretful that day, and his mother had to take care of him, so she did not pay much attention to Jan or Ted, feeling sure they would come to no harm.
So on the three children hurried toward the hole into which Ted had fallen just before they found the queer cave.
"This is just the place for a gold mine!" cried Hal when he looked at the ground around the big hole. "I guess some one must have started a mine 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. "We'll stay outside."
Hal was not very anxious, himself, to go into the dark hole, so they looked at the place where Ted had fallen through the loose leaves and talked about whether it would be better to start to make that hole larger or begin a new one. The children decided the last would be the best thing to do.
"We'll start a new mine of our own," said Hal. "I guess maybe somebody dug 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 with shovels and hoe, digging a hole that was large enough for all three of them to stand in. Hal said they didn't want to start by making too small a mine.
"If we've got to divide it into three parts we want each one's part big enough 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 children liked. So that in about half an hour they had really dug quite a deep hole. It was almost as easy digging as it is in the sand at the seashore, and if any of you have been there you know how soon, even if you use only a big clam shell for a shovel, you can make a hole deep enough for you and your playmates to stand up in.
"Do you see any gold yet?" asked Jan of the two boys, when they had dug down so that only the top parts of their bodies were out of the big hole.
"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 up our 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 ladder would 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 and sandwiches, Ted and Hal carried the small ladder, which was not very heavy, up to the big hole they had started. By putting one end of the ladder down inside, allowing it to slant up to the top of the hole, the children could easily get down in and climb up.
After they had eaten the things Jan got from Nora, they began digging again. The hole was soon so deep that the dirt which was shoveled and hoed away from the bottom and sides could no longer be tossed out by Ted and Jan.
"We've got to get a pail and hoist up the dirt," decided Hal. "That's what they do in gold mines. One of us must stay at the bottom and dig the 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 as well as they could. They found an old pail and part of a clothes-line for the rope, and the work at the "gold mine," as they called it, went on more merrily than before.
By this time the hole was really quite deep—so deep that Hal Chester could not see over the rim when he stood up straight on the bottom, and only 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 to let 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 can dig 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 children hastened down to the tent where Nora had supper waiting for them, and it had 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. "Are you 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," laughed Grandpa Martin, as he pulled his chair up to the well-filled table near which Nora stood ready to serve the meal.
The Curly tops and Hal had just a little idea that the grown folks would not like their plan of digging a gold mine, so nothing was said about it. Hal, Ted and Jan looked at one another when their plates were emptied, and then all three of them started once more back toward the big 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 be in 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 a while ago," said Grandpa Martin, and he pointed toward the path that led to the gold mine. But Trouble was not in sight now.
"He must have wandered off into the woods," said his mother. "I've kept him close by me all day, and he didn't like it. Trouble! William!" she called aloud. "Where are you?"
Ted and Jan looked at one another. Hal seemed startled. The same thought came to all three of them:
"Suppose Trouble had fallen down the big hole at the gold mine?"