Page:Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers.djvu/160

150 "We'd be glad to find some," retorted the lad. At that moment Mr. Parker began breaking off bits of rock with a small geologist's hammer which he carried. The men with the guns looked at him.

"So you think you'll find gold up here?"" asked the one who had first spoken.

"Is there any?" inquired Tom, trying to make his voice sound eager.

"Nary a bit, strangers," was the answer, and the two men laughed heartily. "Now, we don't want to seem harsh," went on the man who seemed to be the spokesman, "but you'd better get away from here. This is private ground, and dangerous too—how'd you ever get up the trail—we heard it was destroyed."

"There is still a narrow path," said Mr. Jenks. "We came up that—the lightning and landslide haven't left much of it, though."

Mr. Parker looked quickly up from the rocks at which he was tapping with his small hammer.

"You have terrific lightning up here," he said. "I am much interested in it, from a scientific standpoint. I predict that some day the entire mountain will be destroyed by a blast from the sky."

"I hope it won't be right away," spoke one of the men. "Now I guess you folks had better