“No,” David declared, “I believe it would have been next to impossible for him to have got away with it, even if he hid it close by on the island. From the way the blood on Roy’s face was caked, and the color of it, I don’t believe it had been an hour after the shooting when we got here.”
“If you’re right about that,” Billy averred, “it makes the probability of my reasoning a certainty.”
“I’m pretty sure,” David answered. “I’ve seen bullet-holes enough to be pretty sure.”
“Why, then,” Saxe exclaimed, briskly, and there was new confidence in his voice, “it seems to me that we’re just where we were--with the gold still to find. In the first place, we must make sure that it isn’t still here in this pit, and, if it isn’t, we must go ahead with the search of the cavern, until we find out where it is.”
Billy emitted a rumbling chuckle, as Saxe leaped down into the pit, and raised a pickaxe.
“My dear boy,” the sage cried, in bantering compliment, “for once you have reasoned simply and precisely. Bravo!”
Not much time was required to make evident the fact that there could be nothing of value concealed in the pit. The litter was readily penetrated, and revealed beneath it solid rock, undisturbed since first set there by the processes of primeval ages. The discovery was a source of relief, rather than of disappointment, and Saxe, doubtless encouraged by the tribute accorded to his reasoning powers by Billy Walker, called attention to the fact that the amount of loose matter in the pit was far from being sufficient to have concealed any great bulk of gold. It was, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the treasure had never been buried in this place.
“You advance by leaps and bounds,” he declared.
Exploration of the continuance of the passage was speedily effected, as it narrowed immediately beyond the pit, and came to a definite end within ten yards. Thereupon, the four retraced their steps, inspecting with care every inch of the way, until they reached the break that formed a communication between the two tunnels. It was decided now that the party should divide, Billy and David keeping on in this passage, while Saxe and the boatman crossed into the other, there to follow its length under the lake.