“And you want to cut us in on the hard digging?” War joked.
“That’s the general idea,” Ken grinned. “Get busy! I’ll post myself down by the road to watch for that car driver. He’s not likely to show up here at this time of day, but it’s well to be alert.”
“If you see anyone coming, whistle twice,” Jack advised.
“Okay. If you hit anything interesting, give the same signal. I want to be on hand when the chest of gold is raised.”
“Gold,” War murmured with relish. “Pieces of eight! Say, wouldn’t it be swell if we would dig up money! We could make that trip to Colombia!”
“Oh, be your age!” Jack scoffed. “If money has been buried here, just remember it belongs to someone else. Not us. Here, give me that spade.”
“Not much,” War insisted, starting to dig. “This is my pleasure.”
For ten minutes, the Explorers clustered about as their chum dug steadily. The ground was relatively soft, encouraging them to believe that it had been disturbed not many weeks earlier.
“Careful!” Jack suddenly warned War. “You’ve struck something.”
He bent down to examine the metal object which protruded. It appeared to be the handle to a kettle or other heavy container. However, it was so deeply embedded, that even with Bob’s help, he could not raise it.