d. 'I've got a half-sovereign of my own. I'll
give you that.'

'Lawk!' said Gustus. 'Why the blue monkeys couldn't you say so? Come
on.'

He pulled Edward out of bed by the leg, hurried his clothes on anyhow,
and half-dragged, half-coaxed him through the window and down by the ivy
and the chicken-house roof.

They stood face to face in the sloping garden and Edward's teeth
chattered. Gustus caught him by his hand, and led him away.

At the other end of the shrubbery, where the rockery was, Gustus stooped
and dragged out a big clinker--then another, and another. There was a
hole like a big rabbit-hole. If Edward had really been a white rabbit it
would just have fitted him.

'I'll go first,' said Gustus, and went, head-foremost. 'Come on,' he
said, hollowly, from inside. And Edward, too, went. It was dreadful
crawling into that damp hole in the dark. As his head got through the
hole he saw that it led to a cave, and below him stood a dark figure.
The lantern was on the ground.

'Come on,' said Gustus, 'I'll catch you if you fall.'

With a rush and a scramble Edward got in.

'It's caves,' said Gustus. 'A chap I know that goes about the country
bottoming cane-chairs, 'e told me about it. And I nosed about and found
he lived here. So then I thought what a go. So now we'll put your
half-shiner down and look at it, and we'll have a gold-mine, and you can
pretend to find it.'

'Halves!' said Edward, briefly and firmly.

'You're a man,' said Gustus. 'Now, then!' He led the way through a maze
of chalk caves till they came to a convenient spot, which he had marked.
And now Edward emptied his pockets on the sand--he had brought all the
contents of his money-box, and there was more silver than gold, and more
copper than either, and more odd rubbish than there was anything else.
You know what a boy's pockets are like. Stones and putty, and
slate-pencils and marbles--I urge in excuse that Edward was a very
little boy--a bit of plasticine, one or two bits of wood.

'No time to sort 'em,' said Gustus, and, putting the lantern in a
suitable position, he got out the glass and began to look through it at
the tumbled heap.

And the heap began to grow. It grew out sideways till it touched the
walls of the recess, and outwards till it touched the top of the recess,
and then it slowly worked out into the big cave and came nearer and
nearer to the boys. Everything grew--stones, putty, money, wood,
plasticine.

Edward patted th