"Nor mine," added Bob. "I am mighty glad I gave up whaling and took to gold hunting, I can tell you!"
"We haven't got to the end of it yet," added Mark. "That cavern may prove to be more than a bonanza. We must be careful how we stake out our claim."
It was nightfall by the time they reached the cavern once more. They brought Darling with them and all of their possessions. It was no new thing for gold hunters to leave a camp suddenly, so their departure from the gulch created no surprise.
"Got tired of stayin' here, I suppose," said one old miner. "Wall, I'm gittin' a leetle tired o' it myself."
It was decided to establish a camp to the north of the landslide, a distance of four hundred feet from the cavern. Here was a pleasant patch of timber and a spring of clear mountain water. They soon had the tent raised, and Si and Bob built a rude cooking place of stones. Then they cut some firewood, and sat down to the best meal they had had in two days.
"We can afford a spread, after the find we have made," said Mark.
It was decided to bury their nuggets and gold dust at the rear of the tent. An extra deep hole was made, and they covered it with a flat stone and over it placed a bit of a tree trunk that did for a bench.
"Fifty thousand dollars in that hole," said Si. "We want to watch it."
"We can see the tent from the cave," said Maybe Dixon. "So it will be an easy matter to keep an eye that way while we are working."
Maybe Dixon had found two small nuggets worth at least a hundred dollars each. He had also washed out some of the sand and gotten several ounces of almost pure gold. Everything on hand went into the hole before it was filled up with dirt and covered with the tree trunk.