He's after gold--that's what he is!"
"Oh!" gasped Jan, her eyes shining brightly.
"Oh!" exclaimed Ted. "Can't we stop him? This is grandpa's island. He
mustn't take grandpa's gold."
"There's only one way to stop him," said Hal quickly.
"How?" demanded Ted and Janet in the same breath.
"We'll have to dig for the gold ourselves! Come on, let's get some
shovels and well start right away. It must be up near the cave. Come
on! We'll dig for the gold ourselves!"
CHAPTER XV
THE BIG HOLE
Hal Chester was very much in earnest. His eyes shone and he could not
keep still. He fairly danced around Janet and Ted.
"Do you really think that tramp-man was looking for gold?" asked Ted.
"'Deed I do," declared Hal. "What else was he after?"
Neither Ted nor Janet could answer that.
"But how will we know where it is?" asked Janet. "We don't know where
there's any gold, and mother won't want us to go near that tramp-man."
"And I don't want to, either," answered Hal. "But we can dig down till
we find the gold, can't we?"
"If we knowed--I mean if we knew where to dig," agreed Ted, after
thinking about it. "But digging for gold isn't like digging for angle-
worms to go fishing. You can dig them anywhere. But you've got to have
a gold mine to dig for gold."
"Well, we'll start a mine," decided Hal. "That's what the miners do
out West.
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