“There is a reason,” went on the stout lad. “I want to find the nuggets as soon as we can, because our food supply is running low, and I know Mr. Brill won’t want to leave here until we get the last of the sixty nuggets. So the quicker we find them the sooner we can leave, and get stocked up again. We can’t get anything to eat here.”
“That’s right,” agreed Ned. “But I had no idea our stock was so low. We must have eaten a lot.”
“You mean Bob must have,” put in Jerry.
“Look here!” cried the stout lad; “I didn’t eat any more than the rest of you—that is, not much more,” he added, quickly. “But our food is fast going down. Maybe we didn’t calculate right. Anyhow we’ve been here longer than we thought we would. Now I don’t want to starve, so I decided that I’d put in all the time I could on locating these nuggets. That’s why I got up so early.”
“I knew there was eating in it somewhere or other,” declared Jerry, with a nod of his head.
“Oh, yes, you knew a lot, you did!” retorted Bob. “Always casting it up to me. I wish——”
“Say, cut it out, you fellows,” advised Ned. “If it’s as Chunky says, I don’t want to waste any time, either. Let’s get busy.”
“I thought you’d get sense,” murmured Bob.
Together they hunted along the course of the flood, separating so as to cover as much ground as possible. But that early-morning search was unavailing. The light gradually became better, the golden sun, flooding down into the valley; but even the bright rays did not reveal any of the yellow nuggets amid the rocks and stones.
“I guess it’s going to take longer than we thought,” remarked Bob, gloomily.