"So did I," added Mr. Baxter.
"I was beginning to get discouraged myself," admitted Fred. "How much do you suppose is there, Mr. Baxter?"
"There must be half a million," said Jerry.
"Nonsense," answered his father. "No such good luck as that. Still, it is a tidy little fortune. Let me see if I can calculate it."
He weighed in his hands the different bags, counted them and began to figure in his head.
"There are forty bags," he said, "and I calculate that each one weighs about eight pounds. That would give us about three hundred pounds of gold."
"Three hundred pounds of gold!" repeated Fred, in an awe-struck voice. "How much is that worth?"
"Well, if it's pure gold, such as these nuggets are, it is worth in the neighborhood of twenty dollars an ounce."
"How many ounces have we?" asked Jerry.
"Well, of course gold is weighed by Troy measure, which goes twelve ounces to the pound, but I have calculated this gold by the standard of sixteen ounces to the pound, and, in three hundred pounds there are forty-eight hundred ounces."