Desmond laughed in turn; they had had their laugh and he had his laugh,
as he said:

"Here is what I found."

The lad produced the little nugget he had picked up and then Creedon
laughed, and said:

"By George! that is the bit of gold I lost, and I had a good hunt for
it."

Our hero had been impressed by Creedon's statement that he had examined
every nook and corner in the mountain, and yet he did feel a sort of
hankering notion that he could find the gold, and he said:

"I want to explore again."

"All right; it can do no harm, but I will relinquish all claim now to
any gold that you may find in this cave."

"I'll take you at your word," said Desmond.

Of course the youth had no real hope of ever finding any gold, but it is
a known fact that such finds have been made, and sometimes the skeletons
of the owners have been found bleaching beside their gold.




CHAPTER V.