"Good gracious, Poll! You're not going on _now_, are you?" "Of course! The gold won't melt away, but we've got to close up any opening into outdoors, you know." "Let's go back and tell the girls and then finish the tunnel work," pleaded Eleanor. "How silly to worm a way back for the sake of showing off the ore. No, let's do this thing up and then go back to stay for the night. If we don't close up any aperture, a wild beast may crawl through, then what good will the gold do us if we are dead?" "Sensible as ever! Even gold can't turn your head!" said Eleanor, starting for the narrow place opposite the tunnel they came from. "Funny, isn't it, that this cave should be here just as if it was an inflated bubble in a glass-blower's tube?" said Polly. "I'll reserve my opinion till I see the end of the tube!" said Eleanor, waiting for Polly to creep into the opening. After considerable twisting and crawling, Polly first, with her torch, and Eleanor second, they suddenly felt a current of fresh air. "Oh! Oh, thank goodness!" gasped Polly. "I shoved the torch ahead! I'd have fallen headlong into this abyss." "What is it, Poll?" "A pit ever so wide, and I can't see how deep it goes down. It's right in the tunnel ground, cutting off all further investigations." "It'll cut off investigations of a wild beast, too, won't it?" asked Eleanor with relief in her tones. "Of course--there isn't a chance of anything coming in this way. I can hear water rushing, too, way down at the bottom, and the wind blows up from this pit, so there must be an opening down there where the subterranean river rushes out." "Maybe this tunnel was a river, once, and emptied down into that pit," ventured Eleanor. "I don't care if it was! I'm anxious to go back and eat, now that we know the worst," replied Polly. "We won't need both torches now, Poll, so drop yours in the pit and see how deep it may be," suggested Eleanor. "All right, but for pity's sake don't let yours go out!" Polly waited to steady the flame and then dropped the torch. It fell straight down and flared up showing the rocky sides of the pit, then suddenly it "sh-isshed" in water and all was dark once more. The girls then wormed their way back to the gold cave (as they termed it) and sought for nuggets in the dust and dirt of ages that covered the rocky floor. Eleanor found a few pieces the size of walnuts and Polly secured a handful of small bits. "How can we tie them up if we have to crawl back?" asked Eleanor. "Got a handkerchief?" "No, I gave it to Bob out of meanness," laughed Eleanor. "Hum! Well, we might put them in our middy blouses, only we take a chance of losing them in squirming back through that tunnel," remarked Polly. "I've heard of folks smuggling things in their shoes." "I have it! Take off our shoes and put the nuggets in, then tie the shoe-strings tightly about the top and fasten them about our necks!" exclaimed Polly.