Howard R. Garis

“ Baby William had, somehow, found his way to the "gold mine," and pretending the pile of sand was a mountain had led Nicknack up it. Then had come the slide down into the big hole which Hal and the Curlytops had dug. If it had not been for Mr. Sander appearing when he did, poor Nicknack might have died.
"But, Trouble. You must never, never, never go away again alone with Nicknack!" warned Mother Martin. "Never! Do you hear?"
"Me won't!" promised the little fellow.
"And you children mustn't dig any more deep holes," said Grandpa Martin. ”

“ He had had his supper before the Curlytops and Hal came from their digging.
"There's the pile of dirt," called back Ted, who was running on ahead. He pointed to the mound of yellow sand that he, Hal and Jan had dug out of the hole.
"And some one is there, digging!" cried Jan. "Oh, maybe it's Trouble!"
"I only hope he hasn't fallen in and hurt himself!" murmured Mrs. Martin.
By this time Grandpa Martin and Hal had caught up to the others. They could all see some one making the dirt fly on top of the yellow mound of sand at one side of the big hole. ”

“ It's got a ladder in it, our gold mine hole has, and maybe Trouble could climb out on that,"
"If it's a hole deep enough for a ladder, I'm afraid he couldn't," said Grandpa Martin. "You children must have dug a pretty big hole."
"We wanted to find the gold," explained Hal.
"What gold?"
"The gold the tramps are looking for here on Star Island. Ted told me about them, and I suppose they were after gold. We want to find it first."
"There isn't any gold here, and you mustn't dig holes so deep that Trouble—or anyone else—would wander off and fall into them," said Mr. Martin. ”