They began at last to be weary of the monotonous voyaging, and were glad, one morning, on ascending the banks, to see a change of scenery. The reedy swamps were replaced by rich grassy slopes, where tall trees and bright creeping blossoms, the fragrant golden flower of the Acacia and the balmy odor from various trees of the Eucalyptus kind, encouraged them to hope that they might find a retreat in such a pleasant region.
"Halloo!" cried Wilkins. "Just all on ye step here, and take a good look at this here tree. We're not the first white folks as has had a look round hereabout. As sure as you're there, Mr. Arthur, there's a catch, as they call 't, under this same tree. Look ye, I kenned it all as soon as ever I set eyes on that there criss-cross, cut wi' an honest steel blade, I'se warrant it; and says I to mysel', our own folks has been here, and we'll just try a bit at their diggings; that's wi' yer leave, Mr. Arthur."
Arthur hesitated; he certainly neither wished to commit, nor to connive at, a robbery; but he considered some information worth knowing might be found in the cache. He therefore sent to the canoes for shells, spades, and knives; and all the young men began to dig with as much earnestness and anxiety as if they had been the gold-diggers in the south of the country.
"If we were to find a great nugget of gold," said Gerald.
"I would rather find a good saw," said Jack.
"Or an iron kettle," suggested Margaret.
"I should like a telescope," said Hugh.
"Now, nurse, what will you have?" asked Arthur.
"Well then, Mr. Arthur, honey, if I must speak," answered nurse, "I would say a barrel of flour; but just as God pleases."
"I feel it! I feel it!" cried Gerald, flinging away his knife in his ecstasy. "It is something hard."