There was no room for the others to participate, even if they had felt inclined to help. They stood watching curiously as Marlin and Eli broke through the crust. This was the easiest part of the undertaking. From a depth of two or three inches below the surface, the substance was a sticky, rubbery mass, which inexorably flowed back to fill the gap made by each blow of pick or crowbar. "You ain't gettin' nowhere," volunteered Link, peering through his hair. Eli paused long enough to glare at him. "What would you suggest?" he demanded, then scathingly added, "Loafer!" "If you had something you could push through. A pipe--or--or something." The scientist dropped his pick. "Is it out of the mouths of fools and nit-wits I must get ideas!" he exploded. "Come!" The rest following, he picked his way over scaffolding, rocks, and heaps of construction material. He stopped, frowningly studying a section of drain pipe some two feet across and five feet long. "We will try this," he decided. CHAPTER IV They managed to get the cylinder up on the scaffolding and to insert one end in the opening gouged in the outer shell. Slow but steady progress toward penetrating the gummy mass was achieved by imparting a rotary motion to the pipe section. By mid-morning, Marlin had rigged up a crude leverage device of timbers, on the principle of a pipe wrench, which expedited the process of screwing the cylinder into the interior. From time to time it was necessary to shovel out the accumulation of ooze. DuChane called Marlin's attention to a dead field mouse in one of the shovel loads. "No calves?" queried Marlin. "Not yet, but you can't tell." By nightfall they had made definite progress. The pipe was buried at least two feet in the sphere. Tired and not a little out of sorts, they returned to the cookshack. "Me, I'm through," growled McGruder. "I'm hittin' the trail first thing tomorrow--and what's more, sis, you're comin' with me," he stared at Sally. "That's what you think!" she responded disdainfully. But a plentiful breakfast, or perhaps curiosity, altered the detective's plans. When operations were resumed, he showed up tardily to take a hand. By mid-afternoon, they had succeeded in screwing the pipe some four and a half feet into the interior, when an obstacle was encountered. Marlin straightened his weary back. "Dig the stuff out," he instructed. "We've struck the shell--I hope." When the message was relayed to Eli that the shell had been reached, he came plunging through the tunnel. "Do nothing till I come!" he shouted from the ledge above. With utter disregard for safety, he hurtled down the slope and drew up panting on the platform. "We will cut through," he announced. "It needs a small man." He looked at Link appraisingly. "Can you handle a blowtorch?" When the slinky one was safely at work under Marlin's direction, Eli impatiently herded the others away.