“There’s the white star, surely enough!” exclaimed Agnes, when they had all seen it.
“You started to dig just beneath it, is that it?” Luke asked the two men.
“Yes, that’s what we understood we were to do,” remarked Rother.
“But so far—” began Meggs, when Neale with a cry interrupted and demanded:
“You fellows haven’t found the gold and hidden it somewhere else, have you?”
“Found the gold? Not much! If we had we wouldn’t be coming back at the risk—well, we wouldn’t have come back and be caught as we are if we had the coin,” answered Rother.
“As a matter of fact, we hadn’t finished digging when you saw us,” went on Meggs.
“But I don’t think we will find it, not if we dig down to China,” went on his partner.
“Why not?” asked Hal, quickly.
“You haven’t dug far enough to find out. You’ve only scratched the surface here,” said Neale as he looked where the earth had been turned up.