e we had dug. The water would flow over it again in a few hours,
and who would ever suspect the man who went away laden with wealth?"

The next moment, though, I had driven away the base thoughts, and was
leaning against the rock above me.

"Tom," I said, "I'm faint; go and fetch the spirits."

"I will that, Mas'r Harry," he whispered, "for I don't know how it is,
I'm feeling rather queer myself. It's this stuff, I think. I've got
hold of one of these little tiles, and one can't see it, but it feels
yaller."

Tom passed another plate into my hands, when running my fingers over it
my heart beat more rapidly, for I could feel an embossed surface that
told of cunning work, and I longed intensely to get a light and examine
what we had found though I knew such a proceeding would be folly.

In a few minutes Tom was back, and a draught from the bottle we had
brought revived us, so that we quickly cleared out the wet sand and
water that kept filtering in, and then as fast as we could grope drew
out plate after plate and placed them in one of the coffee-bags Tom had
brought.

We did not need telling that it was gold. The sonorous ring told that
as plate touched plate. The darkness, as I said, was intense. But I
could almost fancy that a bright yellow phosphorescent halo was spread
around each plate as we drew it from its sandy bed.

"But suppose, Mas'r Harry, as it's only brass?" whispered Tom suddenly.

"Brass, Tom? No, it's gold--rich, yellow gold; and now who dares say
I'm a beggar?"

"Not me, Mas'r Harry. But I won't believe it's gold till I've seen it
by daylight. 'Tain't lead, or it wouldn't ring. 'Tain't iron, for it
will cut. I've been trying it."

"Hush, Tom!" I said hoarsely. "Work--work! or it will be day, and we
shall be discovered."

As I spoke I bent down into the hole to drag out what felt like a vase,
but all beaten in and flattened. Then another, and four or five
curiously shaped vessels.

"Fetch another bag, Tom," I whispered; for the one we now had felt
heavy, and I wanted them to be portable.

"Wait a bit, Mas'r Harry," whispered Tom. "Here's a rum un here--big as
a table top. Lend a hand, will you."

Both trembling with excitement we toiled and strained, and at last
extricated a great flat circular plate that seemed to weigh forty or
fifty pounds, and stood it against the rock.

And now in the wild thirst I forgot all about bags or concealment as we
kept scraping out the sa