“Sugar? What sugar?” said Ned, staring.
“Well, the gold amongst the three sugar-loaf mountains shown on the chart.”
“I only wish we could find it,” said Chris.
“Well, have patience, and the more patience you use up the more you’ll want. We shan’t find the gold without.”
“But I’m like Ned,” said Chris thoughtfully; “I think as he does, that it does seem wonderful that there should be such a lot of regularly useless land in the world. Look at this: as far as we can see it’s so salt and dry that nothing will grow. Stones and sand, and sand and stones, and all of no use at all.”
“Who says so?” said Griggs coolly.
“Why, I do; you heard me.”
“Yes, you say so, but what do you know about it? You say it’s of no use because it’s of no use to you; but you know nothing at all about what may be underneath all this sand and stone.”
“Nothing at all; not even water,” cried Chris.
“You don’t know. There may be gold or silver or lead, tin or copper, or some of those minerals that chemists and such folk use. I don’t like to hear you grumble, my lad, about things when you’ve only just looked and not tried. What about precious stones—diamonds and rubies?”