the mast sticking out of water more than at
the ground at his feet when suddenly Jack noticed that he was right on the
edge of a hole just discernible in the tall grass.

He darted forward, and caught the boy's arm just as he was about to step
into this hole without seeing it, and pulled him back.

"Look out, Jesse W., or you'll go in!" he cried. "You don't know how deep
that place is nor where it will land you."

"H'm! I never noticed it. It does seem deep, doesn't it? I wonder how far
down it goes, and what's at the end? Water, do you suppose?"

"I don't know, I'm sure," said Jack, "but you might have had a bad fall,
my boy. You don't want to go star-gazing like that in strange places. You
never know what may be in the way. Always look where you are going."

"Yes, that's good advice, but I wonder if there is anything down there
anyhow? Do you suppose we could get down?"

"Possibly," returned Jack thoughtfully, "but I imagine it is a pretty good
job to get down there and a bigger one to get back, and nothing down there
anyhow."

"You can't tell without going down," said the younger boy wisely, as he
knelt on the edge of the hole, and looked down. "Have you got a pocket
light with you? We might tell something with that."

Jack parted the tall grass, and just then the sun shone out brightly, as
the breeze blew aside the branches, and a broad track of sunlight was let
into the hole.

"It does not go straight down," said Dick, who was now at Jack's side. "In
fact, I don't think it is as steep as the path we came up. We might go
down and investigate."

"Yes, but what would there be there when we got down?" asked the other
half impatiently. "We ran the risk of breaking a leg or an arm just for
the sake of exploring a hole in the ground, and get nothing out of it. If
there was anything there, now----"

"Yon don't know till you look, as Jesse W. just remarked, and there might
be something there after all. Some of Captain Kidd's treasure, for
instance."

"Nonsense! You are full of Captain Kidd's treasure, and so are half the
boys. You won't find anything down there, and you will have your trouble
for your pains."

"I'm going to look just for the fun of it, anyhow," said Dick, "although
it would be very convenient to have a light as J.W. suggests. Another time
we can bring one."

The sun shone more strongly into the hole, and Dick began to descend,
using a stout stick, which he had broken from a tree near at ha