When Dick reached the surface he found Hardy, McKnight, and Peterson
standing apart from the crowd, with elate faces, talking earnestly.

'She's a rich dyke,' McKnight was saying, 'an' she'll go plumb down to
any depth. We must get the pegs in at once, an' apply fer a lease. She
just misses Silver Stream ground, an' the ole Red Hand is forfeit long
ago. Boys, it's a fortune fer us.'

'Remember Phil Doon's a shareholder, too; his father's got to be in it,'
said Dick.

'To be sure, lad, to be sure; all honest an' fair to the boy pioneers.'

Dick felt little enthusiasm about the Mount of Gold just then, for the
loss of the bag of stolen gold troubled him sorely. He feared that
Detective Downy regarded him as a liar and a cheat.

CHAPTER XX.

After coming up Downy examined the opening in the rock critically.

'Do you think a man might have made his way through that hole before you
broke the edges down?' he asked Harry.

'Well, yes, with some crowding I think he might've.'

'Yet the boy said he had to squeeze his way through. Did you notice if
the opening had been enlarged recently? Were there indications of recent
breakages?'