There was gold everywhere, and in abundance. There were thousands of dollars, and the trappers had but to secure it to secure to themselves comfort and opulence for the rest of their days.
Teddy stood for several minutes in silence, and then he heaved a great sigh.
“Whin I was at home in ould Ireland, I had two pockets big enough to thrust in three or four of the goats that war always wandering about our farm. Ah! if I only had them pockets now!”
And he ruefully ran his hands as far down in his trowsers as they would go, and found they would not quite reach his knees.
“That’s all, and that ain’t half ’nough.”
But he did the best thing possible under the circumstances. He began gathering the precious nuggets, and continued the work until his capacious pockets would hold no more, and there was imminent risk of their bursting with their overload.
Then he filled his hands and began laboring toward the entrance.
It proved a labor indeed, for the specific gravity of this precious metal is very great, and it was all he could do to reach the entrance with his freight.
Here, as may be supposed, the trapper was anxiously awaiting him. The load was distributed between them, and they set out on their return. “Headquarters” were reached without any thing unusual occurring and there they awaited the coming of Black Tom.