"We must go to history for that," replied the doctor, "and the only people I can suggest would be the Phoenicians; but I may be quite wrong, for gold has been searched for and used by most ancient people.--Allow me, Sir James;" and he took back the piece of cement and with the point of his knife picked out a little rivet, which he tried with a sharp blade. "Yes," he said; "pure gold. You see it's quite soft. Why, I can cut it almost as easily as a piece of lead. Here's another little rivet. I should say this has been a piece cut off a length of gold wire." "But what would they want such little bits as that for?" asked Dean. "For the purpose I name, as rivets, to fasten down gold plates. There are more and more of them here--and look at this corner where the cement has broken. Here's a scrap of thin hammered plate of gold. Why, boys, we have come to the place where our little friend yonder must have obtained his gold wire ornaments." "But it isn't likely," said Mark, "that we should come by chance and dig down in the right place." "No, I don't think this can be the right place, but I do think that we have come to the ruins where this precious metal is found." "But that means," said Mark, now speaking excitedly, "that we have come to a place where there must be quantities of such things." "I think so too," said the doctor. "We have certainly made a very curious discovery--one which may help us to find out who the people were who raised these walls. What do you say, Sir James? Should we be satisfied with what we have found, or leave it all for to-day?" "I will go by what the boys say," said Sir James. "What do you think, boys?" "Oh, go on!" cried the lads together, and as they spoke Mark caught sight of the pigmy leaning forward as if to draw his big companion's attention to what was going on. "Go on, then, doctor," cried Sir James. "Well, then," said the doctor, "what I should like to do now would be to bore right through this cement--tamp it, as the mining people call it-- then ram in the contents of a couple or three cartridges and fire them with a fuse." "You mean and blow the floor to pieces?" "Exactly," said the doctor. "It will save a great deal of time and labour, and show us whether it is worth while continuing our researches here." "Oh, go on, then," cried Mark. Bob Bacon set to work the next minute tamping a hole diagonally down from where the large piece of cement had been taken out. The doctor had been under the expectation that they were nearly through the cement floor, but the iron bar was driven down lower and lower, re-pounding the granite into dust, which was fished out by means of a cleaning rod, till the hole was about eighteen inches deep, measuring from the surface of the floor. Then gunpowder was put in and rammed down pretty hard, and the question arose, What was to be done for a fuse? "Here, I can soon manage that, gentlemen," said Dan the handy. "I want a drop of water."