Bet swung the hammer with vigor, bringing it down on the drill with a force that seemed impossible from her slender arms.
"Go it, Bet. You'll get there yet," shouted Joy.
Bet was soon worn out and the girls took turns and had the joy of finishing one hole to the required depth for setting the charge.
The professor was bending over the tracings on the rock. He had forgotten all about the location work that had to be done. While the arrow pointed southwesterly and showed the direction in which to look, it pointed over a deserted country that stretched for miles into Mexico.
"If there is anything thrilling about this, I'd like to be shown," pouted Joy. And in sheer boredom she got up, walked to a rocky ledge and scrambled up the steep face of it.
Enid and Shirley, who were watching the professor studying the markings on the rock, heard a cry of surprise from Joy, but before they could turn toward her, they saw her falling, clutching wildly at the ledges in an attempt to save herself.
Joy had turned her head to speak to her friends and had missed her footing. As she touched the ground, her ankle bent under her and she fell with a groan.
Bet ran to her help. "Speak, Joy, speak to me," we said shaking the girl. Joy's face was deathly white but her eyes fluttered open and seeing Bet she cried hysterically:
"I found it! I found it!"
"Found what, Joy? What did you find?"