"I see now where our boulder barricade dropped to," he said; "but I can see also that they can never move our present obstruction in the same way, the big blocks outside will stick them, no matter how they try."
Emu Bill now tried to find his speech. "How in thunder is we to account for the rock prizing open wi' us at first?" said he. "I can't understand this here concern yet, I can't."
Bob pointed downwards to where the wall of the pit was deeply scarred and dented.
"Likely enough the weight caught in the side," he said, "and so eased off the tension considerably."
Mackay, who had been keenly scrutinizing the rope and the stout bar in the stone to which it was connected, now lifted his head.
"The rope is made o' a grass which doesn't grow on our side o' the mountain, boys," he said; "but the bar is fashioned out o' a metal which is known to all of us, though we've never managed to possess it in sufficient quantities to throw away on a job like this, where simple iron would be far stronger and better in every way."
"Why!" exclaimed Emu Bill. "You doesn't mean to say that they've stuck a chunk o' gold in that there stone, does ye?"
"I just do," answered Mackay, wearily. "Now, I think we'd better get out and think over things for a bit. Two or three shocks o' that sort would just about destroy my nervous system altogether."
"But you ain't goin' to leave that bonanza in the rock, surely?" cried the Shadow. "Let me get one tug at it, boss, I'll pretty soon yank it out, I'll——"
But here his companions gently but firmly led him away.