"I shouldn't wonder if you're right," agreed Harrison. "It must be that one of the negroes struck it just right with his shovel."
"But where are the negroes?" asked Frank.
"I can't see a one. How many were there in the first place?"
"Six," answered Tom. "I counted 'em. One was put out of the way by the villain Lopez. That left five in the pit."
"I wonder where they are now," speculated Harry. "They have gone out of sight anyhow. Maybe they're all killed."
"If they are, I wonder just how much we'll be at fault," Jack mused soberly. "I think we should have warned them that we had put the dynamite there," he added thoughtfully.
His words had a depressing effect upon the whole party. They felt keenly the possible responsibility for the death of the five men who had been striving to earn an honest dollar by hard work. Seeing the effect his expression was having upon his comrades, Jack endeavored to correct it, but the boys were all very sober.
Rowdy, who had been trying to make himself very small indeed, now emerged from his hiding place again to join the watchers.
"I wonder if the explosion has enlarged the hole any," Tom ventured. "If it has it may make the work lots easier for us."
"You speak as if we were going to be next on the program," Arnold laughed quietly. "Don't be too sure. Things may slip."