“Yes,” said Mark. “I should like to go with you, Buck, but I couldn’t. Whom should you choose?”
“Well, sir, I should like to have little Dan.”
“Yes, he’d be a capital companion; but—but—but—”
“Yes, sir; that’s it. Them buts are a t’r’ble bother sometimes. I know he couldn’t be spared, so I made up my mind for Bob Bacon. He’s a very good sort of chap, and one you can trust. I’d go to sleep if it was him,” and the man looked very fixedly at Mark and meaningly closed one eye. “He wouldn’t go to sleep and let the fire out, sir.”
Mark said nothing, but he returned Buck’s fixed look and did not close one eye.
“I say, Buck,” he said, “it will be a case of spade and shovel and billhook to-morrow.”
“Eh? Will it, sir?”
“Yes; the doctor says he won’t keep you men clearing up any more for the present, for he wants to begin digging in one of the likely places he had marked down, to see what we can find.”
“That’s right, sir. I am ready, and I know the others are, for we all talk about it a good deal, and as Dan says, seeing what thousands of people must have lived here they couldn’t help leaving something behind.”