“Oh, umph! Let me see. Were not your companions drowned when the lake returned that time?”
“They were.”
“But you—how did you escape?”
Dooley told his story. Then he asked sharply:
“But how did you get here? You have not been here ever since?”
“Hardly,” replied Nicodemus, quietly. “I have come here for the same purpose as yourself, for the buried gold.”
“Ah!”
The two men gazed at each other. In that moment antagonism was uppermost.
“I suppose that gold belongs to whomever can recover it.”
“Certainly not!” replied Nicodemus.