Marshall at once became greatly interested, when Ham had explained to him what they hoped the dam would do for them; and not only agreed to wait until the completion of the dam, but to help in its completion; and, in a few minutes more, all were again at work, spurred to extraordinary exertions by the thought that a few short hours more would tell the story of their success or failure.
CHAPTER XIX
SOME EXCITING MOMENTS
Exactly at three o'clock, by Mr. Conroyal's big silver watch, the last shovel of dirt and the last stone was thrown on the dam; and, with cheers that echoed and reëchoed up and down the narrow gulch, our friends saw all the water of the little stream flowing into its new channel.
"Now get your pans and pails, and we'll hustle the water out of the hole, so that we can get at the dirt," Mr. Conroyal cried excitedly, the moment it was seen that the dam was working perfectly and that the old bed of the stream below the dam was fast becoming dry.
With another cheer, each grabbed up a pan or a pail, and all made a rush for the hole in the elbow of the now nearly drained bed of the stream, acting more like an excited troop of school boys than gray-haired and long-bearded men, as some of them were.
The old bed of the stream was solid rock, worn smooth by the action of the water; and, as Thure and Bud, in their anxiety to be the first to reach the hole, raced down this, Thure's feet suddenly slipped on the wet rock and down he went, the gold-pan he was carrying flying from his hands and banging loudly as it slid for a short distance over the hard rock. He jumped quickly to his feet, fortunately unhurt, and bent hastily to pick up the pan. As he lifted the pan, which had been stopped by a bit of rock that projected a couple of inches above the level of the bed, his eyes caught a bright gleam that came from the upper side of the projecting rock.
For an instant Thure stared wildly at the shining bit of metal lodged against the rock; and then, with a yell that brought everybody to a halt, he dropped the pan and grabbed the bit of metal.
"Gold! Gold!" he shouted excitedly, as he held up between the thumb and finger of his right hand the bit of metal he had picked up, which was about the size and something the shape of his thumb.