"Let me have the pick, then."
"No, you hold the lantern and let me use the pick. I'm the biggest."
Splash! The first big stone disappeared in the water. Another splash and the second followed. But prying them loose was no easy job and they did not follow one after the other in the rapid succession the boys would have liked. In less than half an hour they decided that an enormous lot of work had been done in the effort to bury the treasure.
"We think this is pretty hard work getting these stones loose and pitching 'em down in the water," said Apple, reflectively, "but think of carrying all of 'em in from outside to build this."
"Perhaps there were more than two to do it," said Glen.
"Of course there were," said the more romantic Apple, his imagination stirred by the picture. "There was a small army of them. I can imagine I see them coming in here in a long procession each carrying his load, giving way to the next, and slipping away quietly in the gloom."
"Perhaps they didn't do that way at all," said Glen, the practical. "If you swing your lantern away up you can see that this cave has high ledges running away back. Perhaps they managed to get rock from some of those ledges."
"Perhaps they did. But it was hard work, anyway, and it's hard work breaking it up. But if we can just manage to do this just by our two selves, and then go back to the fellows and tell 'em we've found the treasure—"
"Say, that will be fine," agreed Glen.
Suddenly there was a splash at the entrance. "Hush!" said Glen. "Somebody's coming."