“No matter. I went far enough to make sure this ground hadn’t been disturbed in a hundred years,” declared Rother. “It was as hard as flint. If any box had ever been buried there the ground would show some sign of it, and it doesn’t. I think we’re fooled, if you asked me,” he concluded.
“Well, perhaps it was all a fairy story,” assented Luke. “But we’ll have a try at it.”
“To-night?” asked Ruth, for she saw Luke take up a spade.
“To-night—yes. There is no time like the present. And since your visitors, Ruth, seem to like the work we’ll let them do it,” and Luke handed the implement to Rother and motioned to him to begin.
“Maybe this is only fair. I reckon we did give you a lot of trouble,” said the tramp. “But we won’t find anything—not if we dig all night.”
And he was right. Though he and his companion turned up the earth in many parts of the cellar, working at each point of the star as an indicator, nothing was found.
It was nearly morning when Ruth gave the word to stop. But no one was weary, unless it was the tramps who had been made to do most of the labor.
“Well, I guess it was all a hoax,” said Agnes, with a sigh that had in it something of disappointment. “I think your toper friend was romancing.”
“I’m sure of it,” declared Rother. “He fooled us all right, as might have been expected from an old soak. Well, if you’ll let us go, we’ll clear out and not bother you again. We thought there was gold in the cellar; but, well, there just isn’t.”
“What do you say, Ruth, shall we let them go?” asked Luke.