He called over another man and they turned the cask damaged end up. Broughton stepped over to the charge hand and asked him to check the tally for a few seconds while he examined the injury. As he was returning across the half-dozen yards to join the foreman, his eye fell on the little heap of sawdust that had fallen out of the crack, and the glitter of some bright object showing through it caught his attention. He stooped and picked it up. His amazement as he looked at it may be imagined, for it was a sovereign! He glanced quickly round. Only Harkness of all the men present had seen it. ‘Turn the ’eap over, sir,’ said the foreman, evidently as surprised as the younger man, ‘see if there are any more.’ Broughton sifted the sawdust through his fingers, and his astonishment was not lessened when he discovered two others hidden in the little pile. He gazed at the three gold coins lying in his palm. As he did so Harkness gave a smothered exclamation and, stooping rapidly, picked something out from between two of the boards of the hold’s bottom. ‘Another, by gum!’ cried the foreman in low tones, ‘and another!’ He bent down again and lifted a second object from behind where the cask was standing. ‘Blest if it ain’t a blooming gold mine we’ve struck.’ Broughton put the five sovereigns in his pocket, as he and Harkness unostentatiously scrutinised the deck. They searched carefully, but found no other coins. ‘Did you drop them when I dragged you back?’ asked Harkness. ‘I? No, I wish I had, but I had no gold about me.’ ‘Some of the other chaps must ’ave then. Maybe Peters or Wilson. Both jumped just at this place.’ ‘Well, don’t say anything for a moment. I believe they came out of the cask.’ ‘Out o’ the cask? Why, sir, ’oo would send sovereigns in a cask?’ ‘No one, I should have said; but how would they get among the sawdust if they didn’t come out through the crack with it?’ ‘That’s so,’ said Harkness thoughtfully, continuing, ‘I tell you, Mr. Broughton, you say the word and I’ll open that crack a bit more and we’ll ’ave a look into the cask.’ The clerk recognised that this would be irregular, but his curiosity was keenly aroused and he hesitated. ‘I’ll do it without leaving any mark that won’t be put down to the fall,’ continued the tempter, and Broughton fell. ‘I think we should know,’ he replied. ‘This gold may have been stolen and inquiries should be made.’ The foreman smiled and disappeared, returning with a hammer and cold chisel. The broken piece at the end of the stave was entirely separated from the remainder by the crack, but was held in position by one of the iron rings. This piece Harkness with some difficulty drove upwards, thus widening the crack. As he did so, a little shower of sawdust fell out and the astonishment of the two men was not lessened when with it came a number of sovereigns, which went rolling here and there over the planks.