noon
They listened with keen interest to the account of the find made by Randy , and were quite willing to take a hand at prospecting that locality the next day . Eight o'clock found all hard at work . While the captain and Earl washed , the others went into the opening of the cliff and brought out all that remained of the dirt and loose stones . There was not a great deal , and shortly after noon every shovelful was heaped up close to the artificial pool of water Dr. Barwaithe had constructed . While the washing continued , Foster Portney examined the sides and the bottom of the opening , and then moved forward through a tangled mass of brushwood and tundra until he came to the bed of a second gulch a hundred feet distance from the first . `` There is nothing more in the pocket , '' he declared . `` And if there is any more gold , it is either in that gulch or this , and I am half inclined to think it is over there , although we may as well prospect this gulch thoroughly first . ''