If you dig in the sandy cave, take the scarab, dig again (to get yourself killed), and then return to the cave to dig again, you get the following sequence of messages:
>DIG IN SAND WITH SHOVEL
You seem to be digging a hole here.
>AGAIN
The hole is getting deeper, but that's about it.
>AGAIN
You are surrounded by a wall of sand on all sides.
>AGAIN
There's no reason to be digging here.
>AGAIN
The hole collapses, smothering you.
**** You have died ****
The "There is no reason to be digging here.", while technically correct, is probably not the intended message here. You get it because the scarab is no longer there, so nothing special happens in SAND-FUNCTION at that point. The "There's no reason to be digging here." message is then printed by V-DIG, and is the same message you get when you type nonsense like "DIG IN WATER WITH SHOVEL".
<ROUTINE SAND-FUNCTION ()
<COND (<AND <VERB? DIG> <==? ,PRSI ,SHOVEL>>
<SETG BEACH-DIG <+ 1 ,BEACH-DIG>>
<COND (<G? ,BEACH-DIG 3>
<SETG BEACH-DIG -1>
<AND <IN? ,SCARAB ,HERE> <FSET ,SCARAB ,INVISIBLE>>
<JIGS-UP "The hole collapses, smothering you.">)
(<EQUAL? ,BEACH-DIG 3>
<COND (<FSET? ,SCARAB ,INVISIBLE>
<TELL
"You can see a scarab here in the sand." CR>
<THIS-IS-IT ,SCARAB>
<FCLEAR ,SCARAB ,INVISIBLE>)>)
(T
<TELL <GET ,BDIGS ,BEACH-DIG> CR>)>)>>
<GLOBAL BDIGS
<TABLE (PURE) "You seem to be digging a hole here."
"The hole is getting deeper, but that's about it."
"You are surrounded by a wall of sand on all sides.">>
If you dig in the sandy cave, take the scarab, dig again (to get yourself killed), and then return to the cave to dig again, you get the following sequence of messages:
The "There is no reason to be digging here.", while technically correct, is probably not the intended message here. You get it because the scarab is no longer there, so nothing special happens in
SAND-FUNCTIONat that point. The "There's no reason to be digging here." message is then printed byV-DIG, and is the same message you get when you type nonsense like "DIG IN WATER WITH SHOVEL".