There were enough pans and pails to keep a constant stream of them passing up and down the line; and, as everybody, under the spur of the thought of what might lie hidden there in that hole, worked with feverish haste, the water was speedily lowered, until after an hour of as hard and tiresome work as was ever done by men, the bottom of the hole was laid bare. "We'll dig a hole first off right in th' center of th' hole plumb down to bed-rock," declared Ham, as he passed out the last pailful of water. "Then, if thar's any gold here, we'll strike it shore. Throw me a shovel!" Ham's face was flushed and his eyes were sparkling with excitement; for now the great moment was near, the moment that would tell whether or not all their labor had been in vain, whether or not they were to find the expected gold. "Here! Here!" and Thure caught up a shovel and rushed to Ham; and almost collided with Bud, who, shovel in hand, was also rushing to Ham. "Let us help you dig! Let us help you dig!" cried both boys, almost beside themselves with excitement. "Now, jest hold y'ur hosses an' git out of here. This is men's work," and Ham good-naturedly thrust the two boys aside, caught up a shovel, and began throwing up the moist sand and gravel like an animated steam shovel. The hole was partly filled with coarse sand and gravel; and, since gold is so heavy that it will sink down through sand and gravel until it comes to something more solid, all this had to be thrown off before they could hope to come to pay-dirt, which is usually a thin layer of gravel or clay lying on top of the bed-rock. Ham was now digging down to this bed-rock; and, when he reached it, he would throw a few shovels of the dirt directly on its top into a gold-pan, and then a few minutes' washing of the dirt in the pan would show whether or not they had struck gold. The hole he was digging was not large enough for more than one man to work in it at a time, consequently the others formed a circle around Ham and watched his progress with faces feverish with excitement, any one of them ready the moment Ham tired to seize a shovel and jump into the hole in his place. But the shoveling was not hard and the sturdy muscles of Ham did not tire. In the excitement of these thrilling minutes nobody saw anything but Ham, nobody heard anything but the push of his shovel through the moist gravel and the thud of the dirt as it fell on top of the ground. It is doubtful if a cannon fired within a rod of them, would have made one of them jump. Hence it is not to be wondered at that none of them saw the black clouds gathering about the tops of the mountains to the northeast and swiftly sweeping down toward them, nor heard the peals of distant thunder, sounding louder and nearer with the passing of each minute. The gold-fever was hot in their blood; and they were deaf and blind to all but the digging man.