“Well, I reckon we’ll have to try the dynamite,” Bill declared. “Good thing you’ve got a good understanding, Gordon,” Rogers grinned. “What do you mean understanding?” Gordon demanded. “Why, what you’ve been standing on.” “Oh, Bill’s shoulders.” “That’s it.” “Well, the understanding is going to get wobbly if he sticks up there as long this time as he did the last,” Bill told them. Among other things they had purchased a couple of long drills and a hammer, and now Gordon, again perched on his brother’s broad shoulders, started the job of drilling a hole in the cliff. Of course he took advantage of the crack but, even so, it was slow work and he was obliged to stop several times to give the understanding a rest. Once Rogers insisted on taking his place but it was the first time he had ever served in that capacity and the result, as Gordon put it, wasn’t all that could be desired. “As a regular fellow you’re A number one,” he told him, “but as an understanding you’re a flat failure.” This opinion was expressed after Rogers had dumped him off three times. Bill again assumed the task and Rogers looked on with amazement to see how steadily he held him. It had seemed easy before he tried it but now he realized that it took a certain amount of skill. He felt a little better about it after Bill told him that he and Gordon had done a good bit of tumbling and that standing on one another’s shoulders was one of the best things they did. “I’ll give you some lessons sometime,” Bill promised. “I’m afraid I’m too old a dog to learn a new trick like that,” Rogers told him. “Jimminy, but this rock is hard,” Gordon grumbled as he jumped to the ground to give Bill a rest. “How much you got done?” Bill asked. “About half, I’d say.” “And you’ve been about an hour. Aren’t you getting hungry?” “I’ll say I am.” “And it’s only nine o’clock,” Bill laughed. “Is that all? I thought it was ’most noon. It is by my stomach anyhow.” “Nothing unusual about that,” Bill again laughed. “I’d like to know how that fellow ever got that rock up there,” Gordon said a few minutes later as they were again resting. “Very likely it wasn’t so high up at that time,” Rogers told him. “You know the shore line changes more or less and the sand may have washed away several feet here. Probably, if this is where the stuff is, that hole wasn’t more than a foot or two from the ground then.” “And I sure wish it wasn’t now,” Bill declared as he set himself once more. “Well, you haven’t got a thing on me,” Gordon told him as he swung up to his position. “Maybe not, but I’ve got something on myself all right,” Bill chuckled. Shortly before ten o’clock Gordon decided that he had drilled enough and that he was going to call it a job. By this time the tide had come in until the water was only a few feet from where they were standing and, after a short consultation, they decided to wait until afternoon before setting off the charge of dynamite.