CHAPTER IV
They managed to get the cylinder up on the scaffolding and to insert one end in the opening gouged in the outer shell. Slow but steady progress toward penetrating the gummy mass was achieved by imparting a rotary motion to the pipe section. By mid-morning, Marlin had rigged up a crude leverage device of timbers, on the principle of a pipe wrench, which expedited the process of screwing the cylinder into the interior.
From time to time it was necessary to shovel out the accumulation of ooze. DuChane called Marlin's attention to a dead field mouse in one of the shovel loads.
"No calves?" queried Marlin.
"Not yet, but you can't tell."
By nightfall they had made definite progress. The pipe was buried at least two feet in the sphere. Tired and not a little out of sorts, they returned to the cookshack. "Me, I'm through," growled McGruder. "I'm hittin' the trail first thing tomorrow—and what's more, sis, you're comin' with me," he stared at Sally.
"That's what you think!" she responded disdainfully.
But a plentiful breakfast, or perhaps curiosity, altered the detective's plans. When operations were resumed, he showed up tardily to take a hand.
By mid-afternoon, they had succeeded in screwing the pipe some four and a half feet into the interior, when an obstacle was encountered.