three o'clock
and he grinned . `` Wal , if you 'll jest sot down an ' make y' urself easy for ` bout three hours , 'til we puts the finishin ' touches on this here dam , I should n't be none s ` prised if we was able tew show you somethin' of a discovery ourselves , '' and Ham pointed to the now nearly completed dam . Marshall at once became greatly interested , when Ham had explained to him what they hoped the dam would do for them ; and not only agreed to wait until the completion of the dam , but to help in its completion ; and , in a few minutes more , all were again at work , spurred to extraordinary exertions by the thought that a few short hours more would tell the story of their success or failure . Exactly at three o'clock , by Mr. Conroyal 's big silver watch , the last shovel of dirt and the last stone was thrown on the dam ; and , with cheers that echoed and reëchoed up and down the narrow gulch , our friends saw all the water of the little stream flowing into its new channel . `` Now get your pans and pails , and we 'll hustle the water out of the hole , so that we can get at the dirt , '' Mr. Conroyal cried excitedly , the moment it was seen that the dam was working perfectly and that the old bed of the stream below the dam was fast becoming dry . With another cheer , each grabbed up a pan or a pail , and all made a rush for the hole in the elbow of the now nearly drained bed of the stream , acting more like an excited troop of school boys than gray-haired and long-bearded men , as some of them were . The old bed of the stream was solid rock , worn smooth by the action of the water ; and , as Thure and Bud , in their anxiety to be the first to reach the hole , raced down this , Thure 's feet suddenly slipped on the wet rock and down he went , the gold-pan he was carrying flying from his hands and banging loudly as it slid for a short distance over the hard rock .