pailful--pailful?' yells William scornful.
'Barrelful--steam-enjine b'ilerful--

"'Well,' says I hastily, 'you was sayin' you had an idee?'

"'Oh, yes!' says he. 'It don't stand in reason they rounded up
every last bottle, so it occurred to me that if we hunted we might
make discoveries.'

"'Why, so we could!' I hollers loud and hearty, with more notion of
creatin' a diversion, however, than any rank faith in my havin' a
good time off what old man Davis overlooked. 'It'll be like
hide-and-go-seek of a Christmas Eve when we was kids, William.'

"So we scrimmaged round here and there till there was only one
closet in the cabin left.

"'I saved it till the last--it's the most likely,' says William.
'Shine a light on our departing hopes, Ezekiel.'

"He put his hand very careful toward the back. 'E. G. W., says
he,' 'my fingers have teched something cold and smooth, just like a
bottle--pull hard, Ezekiel.'

"I took a long breath and pulled hard.

"'It _is_ round,' says William Pemberton. 'It _is_ a bottle.'

"Nothin' could be heard but the beatin' of our hearts.