“'Here it is!' he said.
“I was following beside him, but I saw nothing to justify his words.
“'Why do you think the plates are buried here?' I said.
“'Look at the air bubbles comin' up, Governor,' he answered.”
Walker stopped, then he added:
“It's a thing which I did not know until that moment, but it's the truth. If hard-packed earth is dug up and repacked air gets into it, and if one pours water on the place air bubbles will come up.”
He did not go on, and I flung at him the big query in his story.
“And you found the plates there?”
“Yes, Sir Henry,” he replied, “in the false bottom of an old steamer trunk.”
“And the hobo got the money?”