204 Three Young Crusoe s 



"Henry, take a look at this, will you?" he said 

 breathlessly. "I found it in the water pipe." 



Henry took the small, irregular lump in his hand 

 and examined it carefully. "That's a gold nugget, 

 William; I've seen some like it in the museum. 

 You're a lucky boy!" 



When Edna had seen the shining nugget and had 

 properly expressed her congratulations, all three 

 started off for the water pipe. In front of each par- 

 tition in the bamboo, they found little nests of gold- 

 en grains, which, being very heavy, had settled there 

 as the sand was washed along. 



It was an exciting, happy time for the young ad- 

 venturers. Thev had been attracted bv manv 

 things in their brief lives, but never before by the 

 lure of yellow gold. Money meant so much to them 

 if they could only get back home, and all of them 

 expected to get back some time. 



When they reached the end of the pipe in the gar- 

 den, the sand simply glistened with shining grains, 

 and they had passed there every day without seeing 

 them! They scooped up the sand and carried it 

 back three or four lengths of pipe and put it in the 

 water so that the gold would be caught by the par- 

 titions as before. 



Every few days after that, the pipe was examined 



