"Bully boy!" snapped Lanky enthusiastically. "Hit her again, Frank! Put the pins up on the other alley and make a spare or a strike. Now go on and tell us how you know?"
"Here, fetch that lantern over, Charlie Gin Sing," Frank called out to the cook who had just appeared on the scene, understanding that all firing had stopped and that it was safe for him to venture abroad.
"Say, it does look mighty like the old bottle's been under the soil for ages, boys," agreed Zander, after a close scrutiny of the object. "Shake it, Frank, and see if you hear something gurgle."
"Nixey! Never a solitary gurgle!" gloated Lanky. "There's something else than liquid lightning inside that black bottle. Frank, knock the head off, or I'll explode, I'm that stuffed with curiosity."
Bang! went the bottle against the edge of the spade. As the glass flew in a shower a curled paper yellowed with age, fell to the ground. On this Frank pounced and straightened it out. Everybody crowded around, eager to see, and among them old Jerry Brime pushed his beak forward, to immediately cry out something that sent a thrill through the three boys.
CHAPTER VIII
STARTING FOR GOLD FORK
"By hokey!" Jerry ejaculated, mightily interested in the age-stained paper. "Sure I've seen thet thar figgerin', 'fore now! Yep! It seems like I kin' 'member ole Josh Kinney bottlin' the paper up wid a big grin an' askin' how it looked fur a drawin' prize. I done tole him it seemed to me a hen went an' crawled acrost the paper wid muddy feet!"