"It's Thure and Bud! It's dad and the rest!" they shouted, as they ran.
In a few minutes the racing boys—for the two horsemen were Thure and Bud—and the running girls met.
The boys jumped from their saddles, and, the next instant, they were in the arms of the girls.
"We found it! We found it!" shouted Thure, a moment later, dancing up and down with excitement. "We found the Cave of Gold! And here," and he thrust one of his hands into his pocket, "is your breastpin nugget!" and he handed the big gold nugget he had found to Ruth. "And here is your necklace of gold nuggets!" and he threw over the happy girl's head and around her neck a long string of gold nuggets that he had strung on a deer sinew, during the homeward journey.
Bud, during this time, had been going through the same delightful performance with Iola.
That was the most wonderful night in the history of the Conroyal and the Randolph households!
First, of course, after the greetings were over, the gold had to be taken off the horses and carried into the house and piled up in the center of the floor of the big room; and then, with all of the two families and all of the friends who took part in the search for the Cave of Gold, not forgetting you may be sure Mr. and Mrs. Dickson, seated in a circle around the piled-up bags of gold, the story of the adventures of Thure and Bud and the finding of the dead miner's marvelous Cave of Gold had to be told.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" sighed Iola happily, when, at last, the tale was ended. "It is just like a story out of a book; and I wouldn't believe it at all, if I couldn't see the gold piled up right in front of me. Now," and her eyes looked wonderingly at the bags of gold, "how much is all that gold worth? Is it worth a Hundred Thousand Dollars?" and her eyes grew big with the thought of the enormous wealth that lay within touch of her hand.
"I reckon it is," laughed Mr. Conroyal. "But, supposing we see just about how much it is worth. Thure, you and Bud go and get the big scales, and we will weigh it."
In a few minutes the two boys returned, carrying between them a small platform scales, capable of weighing a few hundred pounds at a time, and set it down by the side of the pile of bags of gold.