IN deep excitement they continued to dig in silence, and thus came gradually nearer to the object of their search. At last the loose earth was all thrown out, and only the old hardbound soil was left; while there, at the bottom of the cavity, lay exposed a portion of an iron surface, dented now and scratched by the blows which it had received. It was very rusty; the rust, in fact covered it in great scales, showing that it must have been buried there for many years. As yet only a few square inches of the surface were visible, and it was impossible to tell as yet what it was. But they all felt sure that it was an iron chest. Bruce now took his pickaxe, and began loosening the hard-bound earth that surrounded the hole. “It’s lucky it’s so near the surface,” said Bart. “I suppose he hadn’t time to bury it any deeper,” said Phil. “No,” said Arthur; “he must have been hurrying off, you know.” “Perhaps we won’t be able to lift it,” said Tom. “What’ll we do then?” “We’ll have to get Solomon and Captain Corbet,” said Phil. “For that matter,” said Bart, “we can rig up blocks and pulleys, and hoist it up. We’ll have to dig all around it, though.” “We may not have it done to-night.” “If it’s very heavy, we won’t.” “But we must.” “O, yes, it wouldn’t do to leave it till morning.” “Can’t we get lights?” “If we do get lights, we’d better postpone it till midnight.” “But we ought to do as much as we can by daylight.” “O, of course, while the daylight lasts, we’ll keep at it.” Bruce now laid down his pickaxe, and they went to work with their shovels, and at last the loose earth was thrown out once more. They had now uncovered what seemed like one side of the top of the box, and its edge was plainly apparent. The rest of it was still covered by the superincumbent soil. “That’s the edge of the box,” said Bart. “We didn’t hit it fair in the centre.” “It’s a good-sized box, too.” “And it’ll be awfully heavy.” “I wonder if it is much larger.” “We’d better uncover the rest of it, so as to see the size of it. There don’t seem to be any kind of rivets here, or anything of that sort.” “O, you can’t tell. It’s so covered with rust.” “Countersunk rivets on an iron plate would be quite concealed if they were all covered with scales of rust.” “Come, I’ll dig more on this side,” said Bruce, taking up his pickaxe again. A few blows directed against the other side served to loosen the earth there, and the eager boys soon threw it out, and laid bare more of the surface. Bruce worked away with his pickaxe at the same time. There was now room for only two to work. The others looked on with beating hearts. “Hallo!” cried Bruce, suddenly. “What?” asked Bart. “Why, the top’s loose!” “Loose! Hurrah! We can lift it off then, and get into the box.” Bruce said nothing, but stooped down. Bart, who had been digging, stooped down, too. The other boys crowded around.