Ham and Mr. Conroyal pulled them out; and then Ham thrust his big body into the opening--he could just squeeze in--and began cautiously working his way forward. It was not a venture for an excited boy to make, the entrance into that black hole without a light. In about five minutes Ham came backing hurriedly out. "Who's got th' candles?" he cried excitedly. "Thar sart'in is a cave in thar; but it is as dark as the bottomless pit. We must have lights before we can enter. Give me a candle." "Here, here they are!" and Mr. Conroyal who in the excitement of the moment had forgotten the package of a couple of dozen candles he had tied up and slung over his back just before climbing the tree that morning, quickly swung the package down on a rock in front of him and cut the strings. Ham caught up one of the candles, and, hurriedly lighting it, again crawled into the hole, holding the candle out in front of him. Thure and Bud both caught up candles and lighting them, looked imploringly at their fathers. Both men nodded, and the boys dove into the hole; but this time separately. "The rest of us had better wait outside until we hear from Ham and the boys," Mr. Conroyal said, staring anxiously into the hole. For perhaps ten minutes, although to the anxious and excited watchers outside it seemed more like an hour, not a sound came from the hole into whose black depths the three men had vanished. Even the lights of their candles had disappeared. Then, suddenly, the excited voice of Thure was heard, booming out through the hole. "It's the cave, the Cave of Gold!" he cried exultantly, his voice trembling with excitement. "Come in, all of you. There is room for all. I will hold my candle so that you can see." "Here, Dickson, you go first, and, Mollie, you follow right behind him," and Mr. Conroyal pushed Mr. and Mrs. Dickson excitedly toward the cave opening, and motioned Rex and Dill and Mr. Randolph to follow them, he himself entering last. The hole slanted downward for some ten feet, then, enlarging a little, turned to the right and ran straight ahead for some thirty feet, still slanting quite steeply downward, when it suddenly opened out into a large chamber, worn by the action of water, apparently, out of the solid rock. In five minutes all our excited friends stood in this chamber or cave and were staring wonderingly around them. They found themselves in a room, some thirty feet long by twenty feet wide at the widest, with an oval slanting roof, shaped something like the inverted quarter of an egg-shell. The bottom of the cave was level and composed of a very coarse gravel, mixed with little rounded chunks of a yellowish metal, that glowed in the light of the candles like thousands of dull yellow coals of fire.