“Sure an there’s no danger of this pit iver cavin in,” said Pat, as he desisted from his efforts. “They made this pit strong enough to howld a iliphant, so they did--the worse for us.” “Well,” said Bart, “we’ll have to try every log that’s within reach.” “Sure an we ought to find some weak spot if we do, so we ought,” said Pat. Bart now inserted the pick between the logs just above the last one. “This is jist what we intinded to do whin we come down,” said Pat; “for weren’t we goin to thry to git to the money-hole?” Bart said nothing. The two boys now tugged away as before. But the result was the same, for this log was as firmly fixed, as tough, and as obdurate as the others. “Sure an it’s hard, so it is, that the very log we trusted our lives to should turrun out to be rotten, an all these logs here should be as sound an as strong as steel an iron, ivery mother’s son of thim. If we cud only find a rotten one, an pull it out of its place, we’d be able to git at the others aisy, and haul out all the rist of thim.” The boys now tried other logs, one after the other; but from all of them they met with the very same stubborn resistance. They had all been placed here evidently by men who worked comscientiously, and were determined to leave no weak spot exposed to the pressure of the earth. And, as was natural, that which had withstood so well the pressure of the surrounding soil, was easily able to withstand the puny efforts of a couple of boys. XV. _Pat and the Pick.--A dangerous Plan.--Undermining the very Foundation.--A terrible Risk.--Something like an Earthquake.--A Way opened.--They make an Ascent.--A sudden Stop.--The projecting Log.--The Pickaxe.--Who shall go down?--A new Descent.--The Watch of Bart.--Alarm.--A Call.--Silence.--Terror.--An Answer.--Fearful Intelligence.--The very worst.--The Drain.--The rising Waters.--The Pit flooded.--The impending Doom._ IN this way they went over all the logs, and at length reached the lowest layer of all. At this point, Pat’s superior dexterity with the pick enabled him to invent and to put in practice a plan which could not have been used before, or with any of the logs except these lowest ones. For beneath these was the earth, and Pat’s plan was the natural and simple one of digging this earth away, and so undermining the log that lay there. Pat worked nimbly and thoroughly, and as he loosened the soil, Bart scraped it away with his hands. Pat dug down to the depth of a foot all along, and then thrust the pick far in, scooping out the earth that lay on the other side of the log. In this way they succeeded in removing the earth that kept the log in its place, and at length they were able to detach it, and draw it forth.