CHAPTER XII

HARD WORK

“Anybody hurt?” Bill shouted as he leaned over the side of the cockpit.

“All right here,” Rogers cried as he slowly got to his feet.

“Same here,” Gordon declared. “But I wouldn’t want to do that for a steady diet.”

“We were lucky,” Bill told them.

“I call it skill,” Gordon grinned.

“Well, take it all round, I guess we got out of a bad fix rather handily,” Rogers told them.

“But, boy, I thought it was all up with you when I saw you coming down out there,” Gordon said and Bill saw that there were tears in his eyes.

“You thought I had lost control?” he asked.

“Sure did.”

“How did you think of it?” Rogers asked him.

“Of changing the cell?”

“Yes, of changing the cell.”

“Seems to me it was a natural thing to think of under the circumstances,” Bill told them, “But, to tell the truth, I didn’t think of it until I was up pretty high. I went up hoping that I’d strike a wind in the other direction. But I didn’t. The higher I got the harder the wind seemed to be blowing and it was carrying me right out to sea. So I did the only thing there was to do.”

“But suppose——” Gordon began, but Bill interrupted.

“No use in supposing. There wasn’t one chance in a hundred that I couldn’t do it.”

“But you didn’t have much room to spare,” Rogers reminded him.

“Well, a miss is as good as a mile, you know and all’s well that ends well, so let’s not worry any more about it,” Bill smiled.

“No, let’s get dinner,” Gordon added.

“You aren’t hungry?” Bill laughed.

“I’m always hungry.”

“Don’t I know it?”

“A body’d think you never got hungry,” Gordon declared as he started gathering wood for the fire.

“I guess I usually manage to put away my share,” Bill laughed.

“I suppose we’ll have to take a trip over to the other island after dinner,” Rogers suggested a few minutes later.

“Think we better wait till to-morrow?” Bill asked.

“What for?” Gordon demanded. “We’ve got to go so why not to-day?”

“Guess we might’s well,” Bill said putting some potatoes in the pot.

“You know what I’d like for dinner?” Gordon asked.

“That’s easy, square tails,” Bill laughed.

“What’s a square tail?” Rogers asked.

“Bill, he doesn’t know what a square tail is.”

“Gee, I guess I’m in wrong now,” Rogers grinned.

“But no harm done,” Bill assured him. “A square tail is a trout, one of the kind that have colored spots on them.”

“Is there any other kind?” Rogers asked.

“Sure there is. There’s a kind that we call a crotchtail that have no spots. Some call them togue.”

“They’re the lazy fellows,” Gordon explained. “You have to fish down deep for them and it’s about as exciting to catch one as it is to hook a good big sucker. They won’t fight, but they’re mighty good eating, just the same.”

“Some time I’m coming up to Maine and go fishing with you,” Rogers promised.

“And we’ll show you some fishing that is fishing,” Gordon told him. “Get a five pound square tail on a five ounce rod and, oh boy, ain’t we got fun.”

“An eight pounder is better,” Bill added.

“Too large for a beginner though,” Gordon insisted.

“Perhaps you’re right about that,” Bill smiled. “I reckon we’ll have to start him on the little fellows.”

“Kid me all you want to, but I’m coming just the same,” Rogers assured them.

“And you’ll be as welcome as flowers in May,” Gordon told him.

As soon as they had cleaned up after the meal they started for Honolulu after the implements they needed and had no difficulty in finding what they wanted. It was time to get supper when they got back and they decided not to visit the cliffs until the following day.

“Seems to me that about all we do is to get meals,” Bill growled as he started the fire.

“Too bad we haven’t a cook along,” Gordon told him.

“What’s the matter with the one we’ve got?” Rogers wanted to know.

“Oh, he’s all right,” Gordon grinned, “Only if we had a regular cook we wouldn’t have to take so much time from our work.”

“Well, we have to wait on the tide anyhow, so what’s the odds?” Rogers said.

“I didn’t think of that,” Gordon declared. “Guess we might’s well let the old one stay on.”

“Maybe he’ll go on a strike first thing you know,” Bill broke in.

“Don’t mention anything so serious as that,” Rogers laughed.

“Just think,” Gordon remarked as they were sitting by the fire a couple of hours later, “to-morrow at this time we may have the job all cleaned up and be ready to start for home.”

“And then again we may not,” Gordon reminded him. “Something tells me it isn’t going to be so easy.”

“Another hunch?” Rogers smiled.

“Maybe,” Bill smiled back.

“Don’t you think we’ve found it?” Gordon asked.

“Maybe and maybe not. I’ll tell you what I think after we get that stone out,” Bill told him.

“Huh, anyone can tell then,” Gordon told him.

“But no one can tell a thing about it till then. Of course we can guess and if you want mine you can have it.”

“Shoot.”

“Well, I guess it’s the place and that we’ll find the platinum.”

“That goes here too,” Rogers added.

“But it doesn’t mean anything?” Gordon asked looking from one to the other.

“Nary thing,” Bill assured him.

“Well, I’ve got a hunch that your guess is right so I’m going to bed and sleep on that idea,” Gordon told them as he got to his feet.

“Hope you don’t have any nightmares,” Bill told him as he too got up and stretched. “Reckon I’ll turn in too.”

“And here’s where I make it unanimous,” Rogers added as he threw a big junk of wood on the fire.

“How do you suppose that hole got there?” Gordon asked after they were all rolled in their blankets.

“Probably an ant dug it,” Bill told him.

“Thanks, I just wanted to know,” Gordon replied.

“No trouble,” Bill assured him.

“I’ve got a theory.”

“So have I.”

“What’s yours?”

“That I’m going to sleep if you’ll let me.”

“Go to it,” Gordon snapped.

They were up with the sun the next morning and breakfast was over and the dishes washed long before the usual time. No one said a word about the work of the day until they were ready to start. Then Gordon asked:

“How about leaving the plane here this time and walking?”

“Did you hear what I heard?” Bill asked looking at Rogers.

“You think your ears fooled you?”

“Well, strange things happen but I never thought I’d hear the kid suggest a thing like that.”

“Come, cut out the comedy. Anybody’d think that I never walked. Are we going to take the plane or are we going to walk?” Gordon demanded.

“We’re going to walk,” Bill told him.

“Right, that’s all I wanted to know.”

“We found the plane somewhat in the way yesterday and——”

“No excuses are necessary,” Gordon interrupted. “Didn’t I suggest leaving it here? Come on.”

They divided up the load they were to take with them and set off in high spirits. Gordon was especially elated over the prospect of an early and successful termination to their quest and insisted that they were going to find the platinum that very morning.

“It’s fine to be young and hopeful,” Bill told him, “But I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high if I were you.”

“Well, I don’t believe in hanging crape all the time.”

“Neither do I, but——”

“All right, let’s talk about something else,” Gordon interrupted. “Think we’re going to have a hard winter?”

“Tell you later about that,” Bill laughed.

The tide was at its lowest point when they reached the place and there was a space of about a hundred feet between the cliffs and the water.

“We’ve got about five hours,” Rogers said as he dumped his load on the sand.

“One’ll be enough,” Gordon assured him.

“Here’s hoping,” Bill added. “Now, how are we going at it? We ought to have brought along a short ladder. Think you can manage it on my shoulders?”

“Of course I can,” Gordon replied. “Steve, you hand me the bar when I get up. All right, let’s go.”

But it was not the easy task he had thought it would be. He was in a difficult position in which to use the crowbar although he had little difficulty in inserting the end in the crack. But, pull and tug as he might, the rock would not budge.

“Guess it’s stuck in there harder than I thought,” he panted after several attempts.

“And you aren’t getting any lighter all the time,” Bill reminded him.

“The fellow that put that rock in there sure did know his pebbles,” Gordon declared as he jumped to the ground. “It’s no use trying that any longer.”

“It’s funny what holds it,” Rogers said.

“Maybe it’s sort of rusted,” Gordon grinned. “It’s been there a long time, you know.”

“Well, I reckon we’ll have to try the dynamite,” Bill declared.

“Good thing you’ve got a good understanding, Gordon,” Rogers grinned.

“What do you mean understanding?” Gordon demanded.

“Why, what you’ve been standing on.”

“Oh, Bill’s shoulders.”

“That’s it.”

“Well, the understanding is going to get wobbly if he sticks up there as long this time as he did the last,” Bill told them.

Among other things they had purchased a couple of long drills and a hammer, and now Gordon, again perched on his brother’s broad shoulders, started the job of drilling a hole in the cliff. Of course he took advantage of the crack but, even so, it was slow work and he was obliged to stop several times to give the understanding a rest. Once Rogers insisted on taking his place but it was the first time he had ever served in that capacity and the result, as Gordon put it, wasn’t all that could be desired.

“As a regular fellow you’re A number one,” he told him, “but as an understanding you’re a flat failure.”

This opinion was expressed after Rogers had dumped him off three times. Bill again assumed the task and Rogers looked on with amazement to see how steadily he held him. It had seemed easy before he tried it but now he realized that it took a certain amount of skill. He felt a little better about it after Bill told him that he and Gordon had done a good bit of tumbling and that standing on one another’s shoulders was one of the best things they did.

“I’ll give you some lessons sometime,” Bill promised.

“I’m afraid I’m too old a dog to learn a new trick like that,” Rogers told him.

“Jimminy, but this rock is hard,” Gordon grumbled as he jumped to the ground to give Bill a rest.

“How much you got done?” Bill asked.

“About half, I’d say.”

“And you’ve been about an hour. Aren’t you getting hungry?”

“I’ll say I am.”

“And it’s only nine o’clock,” Bill laughed.

“Is that all? I thought it was ’most noon. It is by my stomach anyhow.”

“Nothing unusual about that,” Bill again laughed.

“I’d like to know how that fellow ever got that rock up there,” Gordon said a few minutes later as they were again resting.

“Very likely it wasn’t so high up at that time,” Rogers told him. “You know the shore line changes more or less and the sand may have washed away several feet here. Probably, if this is where the stuff is, that hole wasn’t more than a foot or two from the ground then.”

“And I sure wish it wasn’t now,” Bill declared as he set himself once more.

“Well, you haven’t got a thing on me,” Gordon told him as he swung up to his position.

“Maybe not, but I’ve got something on myself all right,” Bill chuckled.

Shortly before ten o’clock Gordon decided that he had drilled enough and that he was going to call it a job. By this time the tide had come in until the water was only a few feet from where they were standing and, after a short consultation, they decided to wait until afternoon before setting off the charge of dynamite.

“We’ve got to go before long anyhow if we’re going to get back without wading and no knowing what we’re going to get in to when we blow it,” Rogers told him. “Anyhow, there’s no great hurry about it and we’d better wait till we have plenty of time. By three o’clock this afternoon we can come back and work till dark if we want to.”

“Guess you’re right as usual,” Gordon grinned, “But I sure am in a hurry to shoot off that charge. It’ll be just our luck if some fellow comes along and swipes that hole I’ve drilled.”

“I guess the hole’ll be safe,” Bill told him as he began picking up their tools.

“Well, let’s hurry back and——”

“Get dinner,” Rogers finished.

“How’d you know that was what I was going to say?” Gordon demanded as they started off on the return trip.

“Ask him something sensible,” Bill broke in.

“Pardon me, but it was Steve I asked,” Gordon told him.

“My mistake,” Bill laughed.

“Well, I’m pretty good at guessing,” Rogers explained.

“A wizard, I’d say,” Gordon grinned.

“I agree with you,” Bill laughed. “It’s the last thing I’d have thought of.”

“Smarty.”

“You bet.”

But by the time dinner was ready they all confessed that they were half starved, and a little later Rogers declared that they had eaten enough for a dozen ordinary men.

“Now there’s nothing to do but twiddle our thumbs till the tide goes out,” Gordon grumbled after the dishes were washed.

“It might be worse,” Rogers told him.

“Such as what?” Gordon demanded.

“Well, someone might steal the hole.”

“Which would be a catastrophe,” Bill declared.

“For your shoulders?” Gordon asked.

“You said something.”

“Well, I guess it’s about time to start,” Gordon suggested a while later.

“It’s only one o’clock,” Bill laughed.

“Get out with your kidding,” Gordon told him pulling his watch from his pocket. “Why, what’s the matter with this watch? It’s stopped. No it hasn’t either,” he said, holding it to his ear.

“What time have you got?” Bill asked him.

“Five minutes to one.”

“Which is just one minute too fast.”

“Is that right, Steve?”

“Just right by my time,” Rogers told him.

“Can you beat it?” Gordon sighed as he returned the watch to his pocket.

“We should have brought a checker board along,” Bill said.

“I wish to goodness we had,” Gordon told him. “Think I’ll read a bit if you fellows don’t mind.”

“Go to it,” Rogers told him.