"That's the scheme," explained Seth, hastily but enthusiastically. "You and your friend will dig from this side. Jim and I will start work on the other. In that way we'll meet halfway and we're bound to find the gold. We can't miss it."
"Good gracious," thought Tom, "he's crazier than Jim, and that's saying a whole lot. What a pickle we are in!"
"Come, let's go to work!" cried Jim eagerly.
It was easy to be seen that with their golden dream before their eyes, mere physical labor had no terrors for these men. They would work till they dropped before they abandoned their task.
There was no help for it, and with the best grace they could Tom and Jack picked up their tools, jumped into the hole and began to work. The men watched them for a while.
"That's fine," applauded Jim; "that's the way to make the dirt fly. Keep that up and we shan't grudge you your share of the gold. There's enough under here to make a hundred people millionaires."
With that, Jim and the other man set off to the other side of the conical peak. As this was quite some distance off, it will be seen that they planned to dig a subway on quite an extensive plan. In fact, the idea would have never entered into the head of a normal being.
As they vanished Tom quit work and leaned on his shovel.
"Well, I'll be jiggered! This is a fine go, isn't it, Jack?"
Jack flung down his pick with a snort