Before the
wild echoes had rung through the vault, the hysterical girls were
tearing at the hard walls, trying in vain to dislodge a nugget.
"Oh, why did I leave that ax in the pannier!" wailed Polly.
"Isn't it always that way--when you need a thing!" exclaimed Eleanor.
In her haste to reach a fragment that looked easy to break off, Polly
dropped the torch. She stooped to pick it up again and saw a nugget of
the ore on the ground, half-covered with dirt.
"I've got a piece! Oh, Nolla, look! LOOK!" shouted Polly, holding aloft
her treasure.
Eleanor ran over and both girls examined the chunk of yellow streaked
and studded rock.
"Polly, it really looks like gold," ventured Eleanor, awed.
"And it's red-gold, too, like Old Man Montresor's nuggets," added
Polly.
At the mention of the gold-seeker, both girls looked at each other and
the same thought flashed to both of them at once.
"Maybe it is!" breathed Polly.
"Oh, Poll, hold the torch down near the ground so I can find a chunk,
won't you?" beseeched Eleanor, now anxious to find a nugget for
herself.
"There, Nolla--see over by the hole! A little piece for you."
Eleanor ran over and found it to be smaller than the one Polly found,
but there was more metal in the nugget. They examined it closely and
decided that the shining metal must be gold.
"I'm so excited that I feel as if wheels were turning all inside of
me--do you?" laughed Eleanor, hugging her nugget to her heart.
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