They found it hard to get to sleep, but nature would not be denied and they did sleep at last, to be awakened at the first sign of dawn.
They made a hasty breakfast and then got out their picks and spades, of which they had brought enough along for each member of the party. There was no shirking or holding back. They were like so many young hounds eager to slip from the leash when the signal should be given.
“Suppose we divide the space within easy reach from the shore into five separate sections,” suggested 236 Fred. “Each of us can take one and go over it a foot at a time, as though he were looking for a needle that he had dropped. If there’s any opening that might lead to a cave or any place where the ground’s heaped up as if something had been buried there, then we’ll all go to that spot and dig.”
But half the morning spent in this way showed nothing that was at all unusual.
“Nothing doing on the first try, but we can’t expect to win the game in the first inning,” said Fred cheerily. “Now, what’s next?”
“I tell you what,” suggested Teddy. “Perhaps these trees have something to do with it. Isn’t it natural to think that if they buried it in the earth at all, they’d do it somewhere on a line between the two clumps? Let’s draw a straight line from one clump to the other and dig along that line.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Lester approvingly. “But instead of starting at one end and digging up every foot of the way, what’s the matter with dividing it into lengths of ten spaces each and digging at those points? Wouldn’t the minds of those men work in that way? Instead of choosing distances of seven feet, nineteen feet, twenty-three feet, wouldn’t they first think of ten, twenty, thirty and so on? It’s the simplest way, and they were rough, simple-minded men.”
“Lester, you’re a dandy,” laughed Bill. “We’ll 237 have you elected a professor at Rally Hall for the first vacancy.”
But though the plan was good, it yielded no results up to the time the boys stopped work at noon to eat and rest.
They were not depressed, but it was only natural that their failure should have taken some of the fine edge off their first elation. Into the mind of each had crept the hint of the smuggler that the gold was not buried, but hidden. They did not accept this as conclusive, but it helped somewhat to dampen their enthusiasm.