Eleanor thrust up her torch also, and both girls pivoted around, forgetting about wild beasts and the errand they came upon. After blinking at the bright yellow gleams for a time, Polly turned and stared at Eleanor. "What is it?" "I'm sure I don't know, Nolla. It looks like copper." "Polly! If it's copper, then we're rich!" Both girls rushed over to examine the metallic gleams at close range, and Polly frowned as a thought entered her mind. Eleanor turned and looked about to be sure no one could hear, and then whispered: "Polly, it looks like gold! Can it be real GOLD!" The girls stared at each other and then burst out into a simultaneous laugh. But it was excitement, not mirth, that occasioned it. 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. "It's sort of a dizzy and squeamish feeling, isn't it?" explained Polly, looking at her companion. Then for the first time since they emerged from the tunnel, she noticed the face. "Oh, Nolla! If you could but see yourself! Just like a negro, but streaky where you smudged the torch smoke from your eyes." "You're no 'bleached blonde' either, Poll!" laughed Eleanor, rubbing her sleeve across her face and looking at the soot in amusement. "But mine can't be as black as yours, 'cause you got all the smoke from both torches." "Never mind now; if this is gold we can afford to have the tunnel and cave wired with electricity at once," laughed the excited girl. "Well, let's finish our hunt in the tunnel and then find some more nuggets for Anne and Barbara. They'll want a share, you know," suggested Polly.