“Got to have shovels then,” decided Sammy. “Well, I’ll go get ’em.”
He started up out of the cellar.
“I—I guess—maybe we’d better come with you,” said Tess, falteringly as she looked at the black depths stretching far, far into the rear of the cellar and thinking of the two men who had claimed to be from the water department. “Maybe you wouldn’t know the right kind of shovels to get, Sammy.”
“I’ll go, too,” said Dot. “Maybe I’d better leave my Alice-doll out in the sun,” she added, as they tramped back up the steps. “She might catch cold in the damp cellar.”
“All right,” agreed Tess, though it could be seen she had small sympathy, at least just now, with Dot’s doll.
Sammy found a shovel for himself in Uncle Rufus’ tool-house and the girls got two smaller ones that they at times used to play with. Thus equipped, they went back down cellar, not attracting the attention of Uncle Rufus or Linda or Mrs. MacCall.
“Well, now let’s dig,” suggested Sammy.
The cellar of the Corner House was not an up-to-date cement one, being, in fact, very old-fashioned and of dirt. But the dirt was packed hard with years of use, and it was no easy matter to dig in it. The children soon found this out.
“This isn’t any fun!” complained Dot, after a while.
“We have to do it!” insisted Tess. “All treasure hunting is hard work. Isn’t it, Sammy?”