“Now what?” asked Frank in wonderment.  “Is he thirsty?”

“I don’t think so,” replied Arnold.  “I believe he’s going after something to stimulate the shovelers.  They look as if they were getting a little winded.  See them slacken down.”

Wyckoff returned shortly carrying a jug.  This he passed down to the men in the pit.  Eagerly they reached for the jug, draining great draughts of its contents as they paused briefly.

With renewed vigor the work was again taken up.

“If this keeps up,” declared Arnold fretfully, “those fellows will have all the coin in a minute and not leave any for us.”

“Keep your temper,” Jack cautioned.  “Something may happen—­”

The lad was interrupted by a blinding flash, followed by a roar as if one of the old Spanish cannons had exploded beside them.

A shower of sand fell over the boys concealed behind the clump of palmettos.  Instinctively they all drew closer their fellows.

The ground shook beneath them while all around it seemed to be raining sand.  As they looked at the spot again they could make out but two figures standing.  Wyckoff and Lopez were on opposite sides of the pit.  The negroes were nowhere to be seen.

Wyckoff’s face was cut and bleeding while Lopez seemed to have had his clothing bodily torn from the upper part of his body.

“What do you know about that?” queried Jack.  “What was it?”

“An earthquake,” suggested Charley, “or a volcano.”

“Volcano nothing,” stoutly corrected Arnold.  “That was the dynamite that Wyckoff planted on the Fortuna in Pascagoula and Jack stumbled over it and brought it here and we planted it a moment ago.”

“I shouldn’t wonder if you’re right,” agreed Harrison.  “It must be that one of the negroes struck it just right with his shovel.”

“But where are the negroes?” asked Frank.

“I can’t see a one.  How many were there in the first place?”

“Six,” answered Tom.  “I counted ’em.  One was put out of the way by the villain Lopez.  That left five in the pit.”

“I wonder where they are now,” speculated Harry.  “They have gone out of sight anyhow.  Maybe they’re all killed.”

“If they are, I wonder just how much we’ll be at fault,” Jack mused soberly.  “I think we should have warned them that we had put the dynamite there,” he added thoughtfully.

His words had a depressing effect upon the whole party.  They felt keenly the possible responsibility for the death of the five men who had been striving to earn an honest dollar by hard work.  Seeing the effect his expression was having upon his comrades, Jack endeavored to correct it, but the boys were all very sober.

Rowdy, who had been trying to make himself very small indeed, now emerged from his hiding place again to join the watchers.

“I wonder if the explosion has enlarged the hole any,” Tom ventured.  “If it has it may make the work lots easier for us.”