B. B. B.
"B-B-B," repeated Mollie, as she read them. "I wonder what they stand for?"
"Base-ball-band," said Grace, quickly. "At least that's what Will would say if he were here."
"I wish some of the boyswerehere," remarked Betty, and again she gave a quick glance out across the bay.
"Why?" Amy wanted to know.
"Because those men might come back, and——"
"Do you think those men hid the box here?" asked Grace.
"That's exactly what I think," replied Betty, quickly. "Wouldn't that be an explanation of their strange conduct when they saw us?"
"How do you mean?" asked Amy.
"I mean I think those men had just hidden this box here in the sand. As they went away they saw us coming along. They were afraid we would find the box, or at least some of them were, and wanted to come back to dig it up again."
"And do you think that was why they quarreled among themselves?" demanded Mollie.
"I think so—yes. Doesn't it seem natural?" Betty asked.
"Well, of course you can make almost any theory fit when you don't know the facts," Mollie went on. "But how about the box having been washed up from the ocean, and buried in thesand naturally? That could have happened; couldn't it?"
"Oh, yes," assented Betty. "The box wasn't buried so deep but what it could have come about in a perfectly natural way. But when you stop to think how the men acted, and the fact that it was just about here their boat was, I think my idea is the best."
"Well, it certainly was from here they pushed off their boat," declared Grace, walking down toward the edge of the water. "See, there are the marks of the keel in the sand."
That was true enough, as all the girls could see. The black box had been buried in the sand directly back from the point where the men had made their departure.
"There's another thing, too," added Betty. "That stick Amy has."
The other girls looked at it, Amy herself regarding it with rather curious eyes.
"It was stuck in the sand near the box," Amy said. "I worked it loose, pulled it up, and used it as a shovel."
"Exactly what it might have been intended for," spoke Betty, who let a little note of exultation creep into her voice. "At least, that was one of the purposes for which it was intended."
"And what was the other?" Mollie asked, asshe put back a stray lock of her dark hair, for the wind had blown it about.
"As a mark," said Betty.
"A mark!" exclaimed Amy.
"Yes," went on Betty. "The men who hid the box put the stake in the sand so they could find their treasure again."
"Oh, then you are sure itistreasure," Mollie returned.
"Well, we might as well think that as anything else—until we get the box open and find it full of—sand!" declared Betty, laughing.
"Oh, let's open it now!" cried Grace, impulsively. "I'm just dying to see what's in it. Please let's open it now."
"Perhaps we have no right," objected Amy.
"Why, ofcoursewe have," insisted Grace, making "big eyes" at Amy. "We found it. Can't we open it, Betty?"
But there was a very good reason why the girls could not open the box—at least then and there.
"Locked!" exclaimed Betty, laconically, when she had tried the cover of the box.
"Oh, dear!" came petulantly from Grace. "Isn't that horrid!"
"Well, I suppose the men have a right to lock up their treasure," coolly remarked Betty, again vainly trying to raise the cover.
"You will have it that those men hid the box," said Amy, with a smile. "Also that it is treasure."
"I'm getting romantic—like Grace," commented the Little Captain.
Then, as they found that their efforts to open the box were vain, the girls looked at it more closely.
It was a black japanned box of tin, or, rather, light sheet iron, rather heavier than the usual box made for holding legal papers. It was such a receptacle as would be described, in England, as a "dispatch box." And in fact, the box didseem to be of some foreign make. It was not like the light tin affairs used locally to hold deeds, insurance policies and the like.
The cover fitted on tightly. This much was seen at a glance, and so well did it fit that it needed a second look to make sure which was the bottom and which the top, for there was no bulge or "shoulder" of the metal to indicate where the lid rested.
"It's water-tight, I'm sure," Mollie said, when the box had again been set upright. They decided that the top was that place where the initials "B. B. B." showed, half-obliterated, in white paint.
"Then it might have been washed ashore from some wreck," Amy said.
"Too heavy to float," was the answer of Mollie, as she again lifted it.
"But it could work up in a heavy wind or sea; that is, if it didn't go down too far from shore," Grace remarked. "But can't we get it open some way?"
"We might break it," Mollie observed. "Otherwise, I don't see how we can. It is a complicated lock, if I am any judge," and she looked at the front of the box. "Let me take that stake, Amy."
"Oh, no! Don't break it open!" expostulatedBetty. "We must try and see if we can't slip the lock, after we get it home. Papa has a lot of odd keys."
"But I don't see any lock!" exclaimed Grace.
"There it is," and Betty pushed to one side a round disk of metal that fitted over the keyhole.
Whether this was to keep out sand or water, the girls could not determine. It might even have been designed to hide the keyhole, but former use, or the battering which the box had received, had loosened and disclosed the metal slide, and Betty's quick eyes had discerned the object of it.
"It would take a peculiar key to open that," decided Mollie. "Mamma has a historic French jewel case home, and it has a lock something like that."
"Oh, suppose this contains—jewels!" cried Grace. "Wouldn't it be just—"
"Nonsense!" broke in Betty. "If the box contains anything at all it is probably papers of no value. My own opinion is that there's nothing in it, for it's too light. However, we'll take it home, and see what the boys say."
"You seem to have a great deal of faith in their opinion," laughed Mollie. "Ah, my dear!" and she put a finger on Betty's blushing cheek. "Methinks it is the opinion ofonecertain boy you want."
"Silly!" murmured Betty.
"Oh, don't mind us. A legal opinion would be most excellent to have," mocked Grace. "Now who is eating the chocolates?" she wanted to know.
Betty did not answer. She bent over the black box, with its indefinable air of mystery, and the three queer letters on the top. She was, seemingly, trying to find a way to open it.
Finally she straightened up, looked once more across the bay and said:
"Well, let's take it to Edgemere."
"And let's hurry, too!" urged Amy.
"Hurry? Why?" asked Grace. "There's no more danger from the storm."
"No, but those men might come back, and, finding their treasure gone—oh, well, let's hurry," she finished.
"Don't make me nervous," begged Grace, with a glance over her shoulder. "Come along, Betty. I'm just dying to see what is in it. But I'm not so sure those men in the boat left it, and if they demand it don't you give it up to them."
"Oh, I should say not!" cried Mollie, bristling a bit. "Wefound the box. They'll have to prove ownership."
Betty tucked the box under her arm. No one disputed her right to carry it, for the other girlsdeferred to the Little Captain in matters of this sort.
"Won't the boys be surprised when they see it!" commented Amy.
"But listen!" cautioned Betty. "We mustn't pretend that we think there is anything in it. If we do, and there isn't, they'd have the laugh on us."
"Oh, of course," assented Grace. "We'll just say we found the box on the beach, and couldn't open it. The boys will be anxious enough to do that."
And, sure enough, when the girls reached the cottage, the boys being not far behind them, the latter were even more eager than Betty and her chums to have a look inside the mysterious iron case.
"Pry the cover off!" cried Will, when he and the others had briefly related their experience in saving their motor boat and sailing back in the other craft, while the girls gave their story bit by bit, from the sighting of the men in the boat, to the finding of the box. Only Betty said nothing about the faces at the window of the fisherman's hut.
"Pry the cover off!" cried Will. "An axe is the best thing to use!"
"Indeed not!" exclaimed Betty. "Let's see ifwe can't open it with a key. You have some odd ones; haven't you, Daddy?"
"Yes," assented Mr. Nelson, who was down at the shore for the week-end. "Betty, get them. You'll find them in that desk in the living room."
Betty's father had looked at the box on all sides, had shaken it, and had examined the lock through a reading glass.
"It sure is a find, all right!" declared Roy Anderson. "I wish I had been with you."
"Oh, if it's a treasure-trove, we'll all share, as they did in Treasure Island," declared Betty, who was almost a boy in her liking for adventure stories.
"Ahem!" exclaimed Allen Washburn, with an elaborate assumption of dignity. "Treasure, you know, is subject to the claim of the commonwealth, if the lawful heirs cannot be located. I must look up the law on that subject."
"More likely it's the spoil of pirates, and fair booty for whoever finds it!" declared Will. "I think I'm the proper one to take charge of this, representing as I do the United States Government, which takes precedence over any State commonwealth."
"Go on!" laughed Henry Blackford. "You'll be saying next that it's smugglers' booty, and you'll be asking us to pay a duty on it. Let'sopen the box and see what it is—maybe nothing but seaweed. I've heard of jokes being played before," and he looked at the girls meaningly.
"Oh,wedidn't hide it and then find it again," Amy assured him, so earnestly that the others laughed.
"Well, here goes for a try, anyhow," said Mr. Nelson.
With a bunch of assorted keys he tried one after another in the strange lock. Some keys would not even enter the aperture, while others turned uselessly around in it.
Betty's father used all he had without success, and then the boys were called on. They were not able to produce the Sesame to the japanned box, and Will's plan of using an axe was finding more favor when Allen produced a small key of peculiar make.
"Try this," he said. "It locks the switch on the motor boat, but it may fit. It looks as though it would."
And, to the surprise of them all, it did. As though it had been made for that lock, the little switch key slipped in. There was a click, a grinding sound, as the cover slipped on the sand-encrusted hinges, and the lid went back.
"Stung!" cried Roy, as nothing was seen but a slip of paper within the black interior.
Mr. Nelson lifted it out.
"I can't make anything of this," he said. "It's some sort of a note, written in cipher, I should judge. It is signed 'B. B. B.'"
"The same letters that are on top of the box," said Allen.
"Was there ever a pirate who had those initials?" asked Mollie, and the others laughed. "Well, there might have been," she went on. "I don't think it's so funny."
"Of course it isn't, dear," declared Betty. "I guess we're all a bit nervous. Is that all there is, Daddy?"
"Everything, my dear. The box is empty save for this bit of paper that doesn't make any sense."
"We must translate that at once, sir," said Allen. "If it is in cipher that's all the more evidence that it means something. I might have a try at that secret message, or whatever it is."
"Well, you're welcome to have a go at it," assented Mr. Nelson. "It may all be a joke, so don't take it too seriously."
"I'll not," agreed Allen.
He took the paper from Mr. Nelson's hand. The others looked over his shoulder at it.
"Oh, what do you suppose it means?" marveled Grace. "Do hurry and translate it, Allen."
For a moment the queer box itself was forgotten in the wonderment over the cipher. That it would prove a solution to the mystery, if such there was, and that it was not a joke, was believed by all. Even Allen, calm as he usually was, displayed some excitement. The girls themselves could not conceal their eagerness.
"How are you going to make sense out of that?" asked Roy, who did not like to spend much time over anything. "It's worse than Greek."
"Most ciphers are," agreed Allen. "The only way to translate it is to go at it with some sort of system. I'll need plenty of paper, and some pencils."
"I'll tell you what to do," said Mr. Nelson. "Make several copies of the cipher, and we can all work on it at once. It will be a sort of game."
And a fascinating game it proved. The possibility that the queer paper in the iron box mightcontain directions for finding some hidden treasure made it all the more alluring.
"There are any number of ciphers," Allen explained, when several copies had been made of the original. "The simplest is to change the letters of the alphabet about, using Z for A, and so on. Another simple one is to make figures stand for letters, as No. 1 is A, and so on. But those are so simple that only a schoolboy would use them."
"What are same of the more difficult ciphers?" asked Betty.
"Well, there are so many I don't know that I could explain them all. But the most simple of the difficult ones is the taking of a number of arbitrary signs or symbols to represent the letters of the alphabet. That is what was done in Poe's 'Gold Bug,' you remember. Unless the person has a copy of the list of signs and symbols it is very difficult to decipher that cipher, or decode it, as they say in government circles."
"Ahem!" exclaimed Will, with an important air, as all eyes were turned on him. "I ought to know something about that, but you see they haven't trusted me with the code book yet. Now then, Allen, how are we to go about this Chinese puzzle?"
"If I had that story of Poe's here, it wouldbe rather easier," Allen said. "As it is, we shall have to do a little preliminary work. To start off with we will take the letter E."
"Why E?" asked Roy.
"Because of all the letters in the ordinary use of English, that letter most frequently occurs," Allen answered. "In other words, if you take a written, or printed, page, and count up the letters, you will find that E is used most frequently."
"What is the next one?" asked Mollie. "Oh, isn't this fascinating, girls!"
"It will be more fascinating to discover the secret," Betty said.
"I don't know what letter is next in importance, or, rather frequency," Allen answered. "But we will each take a book and by counting the letters on a page we can find out."
"Some work!" groaned Roy. But they began it. Even Mr. and Mrs. Nelson were interested enough in the novel game to attempt it.
It took some little time, but at last Betty and Allen, who were working together, announced that they found A to be the next most predominating letter after E. And the others' search agreed with this. Then in order came o, i, d, h, n, and so on.
But they did not do that in one day, or even two, for they found it rather tiring to the eyes.So that it was not until three days after the finding of the box that Allen was ready with the ground-work of his cipher translation.
In the meanwhile the motor boat had been repaired and was ready for service. The weather had cleared, and in the intervals of working over the mysterious paper in the box the boys, escorted by the girls, went to the place where it had been found. The hole in the sand was just as they had left it.
"The men haven't come back to discover their loss," said Betty.
"Or, if they have, they are leaving the ground undisturbed with a view to getting a clue to the one who took the box," Allen said, with a look at Betty.
The next day a real attempt was made to decipher the code. As Allen had said, it was made up of several letters, numbers and arbitrary signs, some of them resembling Chinese characters in form.
"The thing to do," said Allen, "is to pick out the letter, number or sign that occurs most frequently. In other words, the predominating one. And that will be E, for E is the predominating letter in any communication. Now we'll begin."
They all had great hopes, but, alas! they were doomed to disappointment. For either Allen'ssystem was wrong, or else the cipher did not follow the plan of any of the well known ones. They succeeded in deciphering it, after a fashion, but the result was a meaningless jumble of words that told them nothing. The word "treasure" did not even occur; that is, according to the translation made by Allen.
"Well, I give up," he said, with a sigh of disappointment. "I sure thought I could make something of it, but I can't."
"Maybe Will could send it to some of his Secret Service friends," suggested Grace.
"Yes, I could do that," her brother assented. "Let's let the government experts take a crack at it, Allen."
"I'm willing," assented the young lawyer.
Betty was in a corner of the big sitting room, the bay window of which gave a beautiful view of the ocean. She had the queer box in her lap, and was turning it from side to side, now and then holding it to her ear and shaking it.
"What are you doing, Betty Nelson?" asked Grace, coming in from a walk to town.
"I was just listening to see if there was any hidden mechanism in this box," answered the Little Captain. "I wonder if there's a ruler anywhere about?" she went on.
She found a foot ruler, and with that beganmeasuring inside and outside the box, jotting down some figures on a piece of paper.
"What's this—a new way to work out the cipher I couldn't solve?" asked Allen, coming in.
"Don't talk to me for a minute, please," said Betty, puckering up her forehead.
She seemed to be adding and subtracting, and then she suddenly cried:
"I thought so! I thought so! It is the only way to account for the thickness of it."
"The thickness of what?" asked Allen.
"The bottom of that box!" went on Betty. "It has a false bottom. I'm sure of it. Look here! It is seven inches deep on the outside, and only five inches deep inside. Where are those two missing inches except in a false bottom?"
In her excitement Betty tapped on the inside of the bottom of the box with the ruler, and then a strange thing happened.
There was a clicking, springing sound, and the bottom of the iron box seemed to rise up in two parts, like the twin doors of a sidewalk elevator hatchway. The false bottom had been found, and as it swung up out of the way there was disclosed an opening in which lay a package wrapped in white tissue paper.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Betty, staring at the box "I—I've found it—the treasure!"
For a moment the others clustered around Betty like bees in a swarm, saying not a word. The girls could only gasp their astonishment as they looked over the Little Captain's shoulder, as she sat there, holding the black box, the false bottom of which had so unexpectedly opened before their eyes.
The boys were a little more demonstrative.
"How in the world did you do it, Bet?" asked Will.
"Did you know there was some trick about the box?" demanded Roy.
"She's been holding this back," declared Henry, nudging his sister Amy.
"And to think of all the time we wasted on that cipher!" observed Allen, reproachfully.
This seemed to galvanize Betty into speech.
"I didn't know a thing about it!" she declared, earnestly. "I just discovered it by accident. Ofcourse when I found there was a difference in depth between the inside and the outside of the box I began to suspect something. But I didn't dream of—this!"
She motioned to the white package in the secret compartment—a package she had not, as yet, touched.
"But how in the world did you come to discover it, Betty dear?" asked Mollie, with wonder-distended eyes.
"It seemed to open itself," the Little Captain replied. "I just dropped the end of the ruler in the box, and it sprang open."
"You must have touched the secret catch, or spring," was Allen's opinion.
"Let's have a look!" proposed Will. "I always did want to see how one of those hidden mysteries worked. Pass it over, Betty!"
"Indeed, don't you do it!" cried Mollie. "Let's see, first, what is in that package, Betty. You said it was a treasure; didn't you?"
"Well, that's what I said," admitted Betty. "But it will probably be some more meaningless cipher."
"Oh, do open it!" begged Grace. "I'm all on pins and needles——"
"Thinking it may be—chocolates!" teased her brother.
She aimed a futile blow at him, which he did not even dodge.
Betty reached in and lifted the white tissue-paper package from its hiding place. It almost completely filled the space. There was a rustling sound, showing that the paper had acquired no dampness by being buried under the sand in the box.
"Put it on the table," suggested Allen, removing the box from Betty's lap. She turned to the table, near which she had been sitting, when her experiment resulted so unexpectedly. On the soft cloth she laid the paper packet.
"Now don't breathe!" cautioned Mollie, "or the spell will be broken."
No one answered her. They were all too intent on what would be disclosed when those paper folds should be turned back.
"It looks just like—just like—pshaw! I know I've seen packages just like that before, somewhere," said Will. "But I can't, for the life of me, think where it was."
"Was it in a jeweler's window?" asked Amy, in a low voice, from where she stood beside him.
"That's it, little girl! You've struck it!" Will cried, and impulsively he held out his hand, which Amy clasped, blushing the while.
"What's that talk about a jeweler's?" asked Allen.
But no one answered him.
For, at that moment Betty had folded back the white paper, and there to the gaze of all, flashing in the sun which glinted in through an open window, lay a mass of sparkling stones. Thousands of points of light seemed to reflect from them. They seemed to be a multitude of dewdrops shaken from the depths of some big rose, and dropped into the midst of a rainbow.
"Oh!" cried Betty, shrinking back. "Oh!" She could say no more.
"Look!" whispered Grace, and her voice was hoarse.
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" gasped Will.
"Diamonds!" cried Allen. "Betty, you've discovered a fortune in diamonds!"
"Diamonds?" ejaculated Amy, and her voice was a questioning one.
Then there came a silence while they all looked at the flashing heap of stones—there really was a little heap of them.
"Can they really be diamonds?" asked Betty, finding her voice at last.
Allen reached over her shoulder and picked up one of the larger stones. He held it to the light, touched it to the tip of his tongue, rubbed it withhis fingers and laid it back. He did the same thing with two others.
"Well?" asked Will, at length. "What's the verdict?"
"I'm no expert, of course," Allen said, slowly, and he seemed to have difficulty in breathing, "but I really think they are diamonds."
"Diamonds? All those?" cried Mollie. "Why, they must be worth—millions!"
They all laughed at that. It seemed a relief from the strain, and to break the spell that hung over them all.
"Hardly millions," spoke Allen, "but if they are really diamonds they will run well up into the thousands."
"But are they really diamonds?" asked Betty.
"As I said, I'm no expert," Allen repeated, "but a jeweler once told me several ways of testing diamonds, and these answer to all those tests. Of course it wouldn't be safe to take my word. We should have a jeweler look at these right away."
"I knew I had seen paper like that before," Will said. "It's just the kind you see loose diamonds displayed in around holiday times in jewelers' windows."
"That doesn't make these diamonds, just because they are in the proper kind of paper,"scoffed Roy. "I think they're only moonstones."
"Moonstones aren't that color at all," declared Henry. "They are sort of a smoky shade."
"I guess Roy means rhinestones," said Amy, with a smile.
"That's it," he agreed. "They're only fakes. Who would leave a lot of diamonds like that in a box in the sand?"
"No one would leave them there purposely, to lose them," said Allen. "But I think we've stumbled on a bigger mystery here than we dreamed of. I am sure these are diamonds!"
"I—I'm afraid to hope so," said Betty, with a little laugh.
"Well, it's easy to tell," Allen said. "There's a jeweler in town. He probably doesn't handle many diamonds, but he ought to be able to tell a real one from a false. Let's take one of the smaller stones and ask him what he thinks."
"Oh, yes, let's find out—and as soon as we can!" cried Grace. "Isn't it just—delicious!"
"Delicious!" scoffed Will. "You'd think she was speaking of—chocolates!"
The first shock of the discovery over (and it was a shock to them all, boys included), the young folks began to examine the stones more calmly. They spoke of them as diamonds, and hoped they would prove to be stones of value, and not mere imitations.
There were several of fairly large size, and others much smaller; some, according to Allen, of only a sixteenth-karat in weight.
"But stones of even that small size may be very valuable if they are pure and well cut," he said.
"And what would be the value of the largest ones?" asked Betty, for there were one or two stones that Will was sure were three or four karats in size.
"I'd be afraid to guess," Allen said. "We'd better have them valued."
The girls handled the stones, holding them ontheir fingers and trying to imagine how they would look set in rings.
"Engagement rings?" asked Grace of Betty, who had suggested that.
"Silly! I didn't say anything of the kind!"
"Well, it isn't what you say, it's what you mean."
It did not seem they could look at the stones enough. Every specimen was examined again and again, held up to the light, and turned this way and that in the sun so that the sparkle might be increased.
"Well, I suppose we might as well put them away," said Betty, with a sigh, after a while. "It's no use wishing——"
"Wishing what?" demanded Mollie, quickly.
"That they were ours."
"Ours! I don't see why they aren't!" exclaimed Grace, quickly. "Of course Mollie and Amy dug them up, but——"
"Oh, don't hesitate on my account!" Mollie said, quickly. "If we share at all we share alike, of course."
"That's sweet of you, Billy," returned Betty. "But I don't see how we can keep them. The diamonds, if such they are, must belong——"
"Yes, whom do they belong to?" demanded Mollie. "If you mean the men we saw in theboat, I should say they didn't have any more right to them than we have. They were pirates if ever I saw any."
"Well, you never saw any pirates," remarked Betty, calmly. "But of course the men in the boat may have hidden the diamonds there."
"Do you think they knew they were in the box?" asked Amy.
"Well, whoever hid the box must have known it contained something of value," Betty declared. "They would hardly hide an empty box, and if they had found it locked they would have opened it to make sure there was nothing of value in it. Of course those men may only have been acting for others."
"But what are we to do?" asked Amy.
"We must try to find out to whom these diamonds belong," Betty said. "We'll have to watch the advertisements in the paper, and if we see none we'll advertise for ourselves. That's the law, I believe," and she looked at Allen.
"Yes, the finder of property must make all reasonable efforts to locate the owner," he said, "though of course he could claim compensation for such effort. I think the papers are our best chance for finding clues."
"Has there been a big diamond robbery lately?" asked Mollie.
"What has that to do with it?" Will wanted to know.
"Because I think these diamonds are the proceeds of some robbery," went on the girl. "As you say, the stones are wrapped in a paper just as though they had come from a jewelry store. It might be that those men broke into a store, took the diamonds and hid them in this secret part of the box, which one of them owned. They are probably from some big robbery in New York, or Boston, seeing we're nearer Boston than we are New York, up here."
"I don't remember any such robbery lately," Roy said, and he was a faithful reader of the newspapers. "But of course we've been pretty busy lately. I'll get some back numbers of the papers."
"Ha! What's going on now?" asked the voice of Mr. Nelson. He had come in from the station, having run up to Boston on business.
"Oh, Daddy!" cried Betty. "Such news! You'll never guess!"
"You've solved the cipher!" he hazarded.
"No. We didn't need to. We solved the mystery of the box, and look——"
She spread the sparkling stones out before him.
"Whew!" he whistled. "I should say thatwasnews. Where did you get those?"
"In a hidden compartment of the black box. I stumbled on the secret spring by accident when I was measuring it. Are they diamonds, Father?"
Anxiously the young people hung on Mr. Nelson's answer.
He laid aside the packages he had brought from Boston, and turned for a moment to greet his wife, who had come into the room. She had been told of the find as soon as it was discovered, and had been properly astonished.
"It takes the young folks to do things nowadays," he said, with a smile.
"Doesn't it?" she responded.
"But are they diamonds? That's what we want to know!" chanted Betty, her arms around her father's shoulders.
Mr. Nelson tested the stones much as Allen had done, but he went farther. From his pocket he produced a small but powerful magnifying glass. It was one he used, sometimes, in looking at samples of carpet at his office. He put one of the larger stones under the glass.
The young people hardly breathed while the test was going on. But the result was not announced at once, for Mr. Nelson took several of the sparkling stones, and subjected them to the scrutiny under the microscope.
"Well," he announced finally, "I should say they are diamonds, and pretty fine diamonds, too!"
The girls gave little squeals of delight.
"You were right, old man," spoke Henry to Allen, with a nod.
"Well, I wasn't sure, of course" began the young law student "but——"
"Of course I didn't look at all the stones," broke in Mr. Nelson, and the talk was instantly hushed to listen to him, "but I picked several out at random, and made sure of them. And it is fair to assume in a packet of stones like this that, if one is a diamond, the others are also."
"And how much are they worth?" asked Betty. She was not mercenary, but it did seem the most natural thing to ask.
"Well, it's hard to tell," her father replied. "At a rough guess I should say—oh, put it at fifty thousand dollars."
"Oh!" cried Mollie. "To think of it!"
"Catch me! I'm going to faint!" mocked Roy, leaning up against Will.
"Do you really think they are as valuable as that?" asked Amy, in a gentle voice.
"She helped find them, and she wants to reckon her share," said Mollie, who did not always make the most appropriate remarks.
"Nothing of the sort!" exclaimed Betty. "It's just the wonder of it all."
"I think fifty thousand dollars would be pretty close to the mark," said Mr. Nelson. "I once had to serve on a committee to value the contents of a jewelry store for an estate. I didn't know much about precious stones, but the others gave me some points, and I remember them. Of course I may be several thousands out of the way, but——"
"Oh, fifty thousand dollars is a nice enough sum—to dream about," Betty said, with a gurgling laugh. "It will do very well, Daddy dear."
"But isn't it the most wonderful thing, that we should find all those diamonds!" gasped Mollie.
"Who could have hidden them?" wondered Amy.
"That's what we've got to find out," put in Allen. "I suggested the newspapers," he went on to Mr. Nelson.
"And a good idea," that gentleman said.
"Oh, Betty. Let's look at the box, and see how the wonderful false bottom fitted in," proposed Mollie. "I think it was the most perfectly gorgeous thing how you happened to discover it."
"And that's just how it was—a happening,"the Little Captain remarked. "Oh, but if those men in the boat should discover that we have those diamonds, and come for them," and Betty glanced nervously over her shoulder.
"Ha! Let them deal withme!" exclaimed Will, as he displayed his Secret Service badge. "I'll attend to the—pirates!"
"I thought your specialty was—smugglers," voiced Allen, with a chuckle.
"Smugglers or pirates, it is all one to me!" Will declaimed, strutting about.
"Oh, but——" began Betty.
"Well, what?" Will asked. "Think I'm afraid?"
"No—oh, no. I was thinking of something else."
And to Betty came a vision of those glowering faces in the window of the fisherman's hut on the beach.
The diamonds were wrapped again in their protective covering of tissue paper. The girls could hardly take their eyes off them as Mr. Nelson put them in his pocketbook.
"Oh, it doesn't seem—real," sighed Betty, with a long breath.
"No, itislike some fairy story," agreed Mollie. "And to think the box has been in the house two or three days, and we never knew what a treasure it contained."
"Because of that secret compartment," suggested Amy. "Wasn't it just wonderful?"
That same false bottom of the tin box was interesting the boys more, just then, than were the diamonds themselves. Will, Allen, Roy and Henry gathered around the queer jewel casket.
"There, it's shut!" exclaimed Will, as a click proclaimed that he had pushed the two folding leaves of sheet iron back into place.
"You'd never know but that that was the real bottom," said Roy.
"Let's see if we can open it again," proposed Allen.
The boys tried, pushing here and there. But the bottom did not fly up as it had done for Betty.
"Say, what magical charm, or 'Open Sesame,' did you use on this?" asked Allen, after vainly trying. "We can't make it work, Bet."
"I don't know," she answered. "I just simply jabbed it with the ruler, that's all."
"Well, then, please 'jab' again," pleaded Will.
Obligingly Betty took the piece of wood, and began poking about in the bottom of the tin box. For some time she was as unsuccessful as the boys had been.
"I don't believe I can do it again," she said, puckering her forehead in an attempt to remember. "Let's see, I satthisway, and I held itthatway."
"Did you have your fingers crossed?" asked Roy, laughing.
"What had that to do with it?" demanded Betty. But before Roy could answer she uttered a cry, for, as she was moving the ruler about on the bottom of the box, there was that sudden click and spring again, and the false bottomsprang out of the way, disclosing the place where the diamonds had been.
"How did you do it Betty?" asked Allen, and then it was seen that the ruler had pressed on a tiny plate in the corner of the box, a plate so well hidden that only the most careful scrutiny revealed it.
Once it was seen, however, the trick was easy to work. The cover was snapped into place again, and as soon as the ruler, or for that matter, the tip of one's finger, pressed on the little plate, the hiding place was disclosed.
The boys and girls "played" the trick over and over again, until it was an easy matter to do it.
"This is more fun than the cipher," said Allen, taking a copy of it from his pocket.
"Going to have another go at it?" asked Will.
"Yes. It might be a clue to the owner of the diamonds."
"That's so," agreed the other. "I would like to know to whom they belong."
"I suppose diamonds are smuggled once in a while; aren't they?" asked Allen.
"Indeed they are," Will answered. "That's what Uncle Sam has to guard against more than anything else. They are so easy to hide, and it doesn't take many of them to represent a wholelot of money. But then the government has the system down pretty fine, and it isn't often that anything gets away. You see as soon as any purchase of stones on the other side is made, word is sent to the officials here—that is, any purchase of any large amount, such as this."
"Then you don't think those diamonds were smuggled?" asked Allen.
"Not for a minute!" declared Will. "They're the proceeds of some robbery, all right. I'm sure of that. Smugglers don't work the game that way—bury the stuff in the sand. It's a robbery!"
"Well, perhaps you're right," assented Allen, as he bent over the cipher.
"I'll have another go at that with you," said Will, as he looked over his copy.
But the further efforts of the boys, and the girls, too, to decipher the code, were unavailing. The queer paper held fast to its mystery, if indeed mystery it concealed. It did not give it up as had the box with the secret bottom.
The day when the diamonds were discovered was an exciting one, and the excitement had not calmed down when evening came. Mr. Nelson had taken charge of the precious stones, and it had been decided not to say anything about them, even to the servants in the house.
"And I don't believe I'd take one to the village jeweler," was the opinion of Betty's father. "As a matter of fact, I don't believe he would be any better judge of the stones than I am, and he certainly would talk about them."
"That's right," Mollie agreed. "The folks here want to know what you had for breakfast and what you're going to eat for luncheon and dinner. I suppose they can't help it."
"No, the natives haven't much to do," affirmed Betty, "except to talk about the summer cottagers. But we'll keep quiet about the diamonds, at least down here."
"If the natives only knew what we know!" exclaimed Grace. "Think of having dug up buried treasure from the sand!"
"Poor Old Tin-Back would be heartbroken if he ever heard of it," said Amy, gently. "All his life he has dreamed of finding treasure, or ambergris or something, and here we come along and take it right from under his eyes."
"Poor old man," sighed Betty. "He is a dear, and so honest. He brought some crabs to-day, hard ones, for the shedders aren't around yet. And he was so careful to have every one alive. He held them up for me to see them wiggle."
"I can't bear them!" exclaimed Grace, making a wry face.
"You mean uncooked," observed Mollie. "Inotice you take your share when the salad is passed."
"Oh, well, that's different," Grace returned.
"What are you going to do with the diamonds?" asked Betty of her father, when they were gathered around the sitting room table, after supper.
"I haven't fully decided," he said. "I want to make some inquiries in Boston, first, as to whether or not there has been a robbery."
"That's what I'll do, too," said Will.
"When are you going to Boston?" asked his sister. "First I heard about that."
"I'm going up in the morning," her brother answered. "I received word to report at the office. There's something that needs my attention. Ahem! Uncle Sam can't get along without me, it seems."
"Nothing like patting yourself on the back," Grace said.
"Just for that you sha'n't have any of—these!" and Will drew from his pocket a box that unmistakably held candy.
"Oh, Will. I didn't mean it!" Grace cried. "Of course you're of value to the government. What are they—those new bitter-sweets?"
"That's for you to ask, and Amy to know," said Will, as he passed Amy the confections.
"Oh, thank you!" she said, blushing furiously.
"Amy Blackford. What I know about you!" mocked Mollie.
"Oh, I'm going to share them, of course."
"Oh, of course!" chanted Grace. "How nice."
"Well, it will keep her still for a while, at least," sighed Will.
"Whom do you mean?" demanded Mollie, catching him by the ear.
"Ouch! Let go! I meant my sister—of course. A fellow wouldn't dare talk that way about anyone but his sister," confessed Will.
Merrily they discussed the finding of the diamonds, and what disposition might be made of them. The strange actions of the men in the boat, too, came in for a share of attention. The girls were quite sure the men had hidden the box in the sand, though whether or not they knew of the valuable contents was a question.
"Well, they'll look in vain for it now," declared Betty. "We have it," and she glanced at the now empty receptacle.
"Better put it away," suggested her father. "If the servants see it they may ask awkward questions."
"I'll keep it in my room," said Betty.
"And I'll have another go at this cipher to-morrow," Allen said. "I have a new idea for solving it."
"I thought you were going to take us girls out in the boat to-morrow," objected Mollie.
"So I am. But I can be working on this between times."
"Sorry I can't be with you," Will said.
"Then you are really going to run up to Boston?" asked Mr. Nelson.
"Yes, sir, I have to go, if I want to keep this new position."
"Well, I'd advise you to do so, then. Go up with me on the express in the morning."
"Thank you, I will."
"And if you hear anything about the diamonds, don't wait to come back and tell us, write—no, telegraph!" urged Betty.
"It wouldn't be wise to wire," her father objected. "There is no great rush. I will make some inquiries myself."
"And where will you leave the diamonds, meanwhile?"
"Down here, of course. I'm not going to carry them around with me—too valuable," and Mr. Nelson patted his pocket.
"I'll take the box to my room, and lock it in my trunk," Betty said.
The evening wore on. It was one of beautifulmoonlight, and the party of young people went out on the beach to have a marshmallow roast over a drift-wood fire.
"The sea sparkles—just like diamonds," said Mollie, as they turned to go back to the cottage, when the little frolic had ended.
"Hush!" cautioned Betty. "Some one might hear you," and she looked out over the bay as though she might catch a glimpse of the rough men in the boat.
"You have diamonds on the brain," chided Grace.
The cottage became quiet. Only dim night lights burned. Betty had taken to her room the queer box, which had given up part of its secret. Her father had the diamonds with him.
It was Grace who gave the alarm. Awakening at she knew not what hour, and feeling the need of a drink of water, she donned a dressing gown and found her slippers. As she went through the hall to the bathroom, she saw a dark figure, unmistakably that of a man, gliding down the corridor. Under his arm was the black box, and in one hand was held a tissue paper packet.
"The diamonds!" screamed Grace, her voice shrilling out in the night. "Burglars are after the diamonds!"
The whole house was roused in an instant. Lights gleamed in various rooms, and from the quarter where the maids slept came shrill screams that matched those of Grace herself. Hoarse shouts came from the rooms of the boys.
But the affair had a most unexpected ending. For the man at whose back Grace was gazing horror-stricken, turned at her sudden shout, and his face betrayed almost as much astonishment, not to say fear, as the countenance of the girl showed.
And then Grace noticed that the man was attired in a bath robe, the pattern of which was strangely familiar to her. She noticed this even before she looked at his face recognizingly, and beheld her host, Mr. Nelson.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Grace, weakly, and she had to lean against the wall for support, for she was trembling.
"What—what's the matter?" asked Betty's father. "Are you ill, Grace?"
"No, but I—I thought you—oh, I thought——"
Out into the hall poured the others of Edgemere Cottage, attired in a nondescript collection of garments hastily donned. Will, in his bath robe, had his collar and tie in his hand, though it is doubtful if he wore an article of dress to which it could be attached. From the servants' rooms came frantic demands to know if the house were on fire.
"No, it's all right!" called Mr. Nelson. "Go back to bed, all of you!"
"But what's it all about?" asked Betty. "What is the matter?"
"Oh, I guess it's my fault," Grace said. "I got up to get a drink, and I saw your father going down the hall, with the box and the package of diamonds, and I thought—I thought he was a——"
"Burglar! Is that what you thought me?" demanded Mr. Nelson, as a smile crept over his face.
"Ye—yes," faltered Grace. "I know it was silly of me—dreadfully silly, but I—I——"
"It's all right, my dear. I don't blame you a bit!" comforted Betty, her arms around the shrinking figure of Grace. "Go on back, you boys!" she commanded the others. "Our—our hair isn't fit to be seen!" and the boys retired,snickering. No girl likes to be looked at in a dressing gown, when suddenly aroused from sleep. And one's hair doesn't appear half so becoming in that state as it does even under a bathing cap.
"But what does it all mean?" asked Mrs. Nelson, who had waited to put on something smarter than a dressing sack before venturing out into the hall.
"Grace thought papa was a burglar," explained Betty.
"Well—that is, I didn't exactly——" protestingly began Grace.
"Did you have a nightmare?" asked Mrs. Nelson. "I'm afraid the diamond excitement was too much for you. A little bromide, perhaps, or some——"
"Oh, she doesn't need that," Betty said as the boys "made themselves small" around a corner, that they might hear the explanation, if unseen. "She really did think papa was taking the diamonds."
"Why, he is!" cried Mrs. Nelson, as she caught sight of the objects her husband carried—the mysterious box and the packet of precious stones. "What are you doing with them?" she asked.
"I was putting them in a safer place," he explained. "Perhaps it was foolish of me, but, after I had brought them to my room, I got to thinking it was rather careless to leave them about so. It wasn't so much the fear of thieves as it was of fire. You know diamonds can't stand much fire."
"Oh, if they should be melted before we know who owns them!" gasped Mrs. Nelson.
"So when I found I couldn't sleep, for thinking of them," went on Betty's father, "I made up my mind to hide them in a different place. Perhaps it was foolish of me, but I couldn't help it. I'm as bad as some of the girls, I guess," and he glanced at Betty and her chums, who now, with flushed cheeks and looking pretty enough for any number of boys to gaze upon, even if their hair was a bit awry, stood grouped in the hall.
"So I got up," resumed Mr. Nelson, "took the diamonds from the bureau drawer where I had placed them, and started to take them down cellar. I——"
"Down cellar!" cried Betty. "What a place to hide diamonds—in the cellar!"
"It's the safest all-around place," her father said. "I don't believe any burglars would be able to find them where I was going to put them, and in case of fire the diamonds would be inlittle danger. Of course they might be buried under a lot of rubbish, but they wouldn't go up in puffs of smoke.
"So I got up as quietly as I could, and took the diamonds, intending to go down cellar with them, hoping I would disturb no one."
"But where did you get the box?" asked Betty. "That was in my room, Daddy."
"I know. I went in and took it out."
"And I never awakened?"
"No."
"A fine guard for the diamonds," mocked Will from around the corner of the hall.
"Go to bed—you boys!" commanded Betty.
"I thought I would take the box, too," Mr. Nelson resumed. "It forms one of the clues, and I didn't want anything to happen to that. So I decided to take that, put the diamonds in the secret bottom, and hide all down cellar. Only Grace rather upset my plans."
"I—I'm so sorry," said the thirsty one, contritely.
"Don't you be!" returned Betty. "You're as good as a watch dog. To think ofmenever waking when papa came in my room."
"I was glad you didn't," he said. "I hoped to have it all go off quietly, and tell you in the morning. But as long as you know it now Imight as well proceed. I'll go on down cellar and hide them."
"And don't forget to tell us where you put them," Betty urged. "If you go away in the morning, we'll want to know where to run to get them in case the house does catch fire."
"Oh, don't suggest such a thing!" begged her mother.
Mr. Nelson laughed and went on down cellar, coming back soon to tell the waiting ones that he had found a little niche in the wall, near the chimney, and had put the diamonds in the box there. Then the house quieted down again.
Will and Mr. Nelson left on an early train for Boston, both promising to do all they could to learn the secret of the mysterious package of diamonds.
"And now what shall we girls do?" asked Betty, after breakfast.
"What do the boys want to do?" queried Mollie. "Perhaps you may have some plans for us."
"Sorry, ladies," Allen said, "but our boat is on a strike again, and we'll have to have it fixed. It isn't much, though, and we can go out this afternoon."
"Then we'll go down on the beach for a while," proposed Betty. "It's lovely this morning. We'll go in bathing just before luncheon, and then, after a little sleep, we'll be ready to have the boys amuse us."
"Sounds nice, to hear them tell us," commented Roy with a laugh.
And this plan was followed. When the boys went off in the motor boat, the ignition system of which was not working to their satisfaction, the girls strolled down to the shore, walking along it.
"Let's go as far as the place we found the diamonds," proposed Amy.
"Think you might find some more?" asked Betty, with a smile.
"No such luck. But I thought perhaps we might see——"
"Those men again? No, thank you!" cried Grace.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mollie. "The beach is free, and it is broad daylight. Come along."
So they strolled along the sand, stopping now and then to pick up a pretty shell or pebble. Out in the bay was the fleet ofclammingboats, little schooners from which the grappling rakes were thrown overboard, and allowed to drag along the bottom with the motion of the craft, to be hauled up now and then, and emptied of their shelly catch.
On the other side of the point of land the ocean beat restlessly on the beach.
"Here's the place," exclaimed Betty, at length, as they came to the log where they had sat when Mollie and Amy dug up the box of diamonds.
"It doesn't look as though they had come back and searched in vain for the treasure," said Betty.
There was no evidence in the sand, that was certain. The girls looked about a bit, and then strolled on. Before they knew it they found themselves in front of the lone hut where, from the odor that hung in the air, and the evidence of nets and boats about, it was evident a fisherman dwelt.
As the girls came opposite this, the door opened and a woman, with a hard, cruel face, peered out.
"Ah, little missies!" she croaked, "it's a fine morning for a walk, but you must be tired. Won't you come in and rest?" And she leered up into their faces.