Pilchar’ Will performs a surgical operation; which is followed by a wet walk home.
While Arthur had been amusing himself by fishing, with the result just told, his father had penetrated into the cave, closely followed by Dick, Will, and lastly by Josh.
“I’ll see fair for ’em anyhow,” Josh said; and wetting his hands once more, he followed the dancing light, closing up directly after Will.
“Shall we find anything here, father?” said Dick as his eyes wandered over the dimly-seen masses of rugged rock above his head.
“Perhaps,” said his father—“perhaps not. I want to find traces of some good vein of ore; I don’t care what, so long as it is well worth working. Of course this place has been thoroughly explored before,—at least I should expect so,—but changes are always taking place. Rock shells off in time; great pieces fall and lay bare treasures that have never before been seen.”
“Treasures, father?” cried Dick eagerly.
“Yes, treasures. Not buried treasures—Spanish doubloons or ingots, my boy, but nature’s own treasures. We may as well hunt in all sorts of places, for I mean to find something worth working before I have done.”
“I say, father, isn’t it all stuff and nonsense about anything living in a cave like this?”
“What—of the hobgoblin kind, Dick?”
“Yes, father.”