CHAPTER XIII
THE DIAMOND 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 theylooked over the Little Captain's shoulder, as she sat there, holding theblack box, the false bottom of which had so unexpectedly opened beforetheir 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 justdiscovered it by accident. Of course when I found there was adifference in depth between the inside and the outside of the box Ibegan to suspect something. But I didn't dream of--this!"
She motioned to the white package in the secret compartment--a packageshe had not, as yet, touched.
"But how in the world did you come to discover it, Betty dear?" askedMollie, with wonder-distended eyes.
"It seemed to open itself," the Little Captain replied. "I just droppedthe end of the ruler in the box, and it sprang open."
"You must have touched the secret catch, or spring," was Allen'sopinion.
"Let's have a look!" proposed Will. "I always did want to see how one ofthose hidden mysteries worked. Pass it over, Betty!"
"Indeed, don't you do it!" cried Mollie. "Let's see, first, what is inthat package, Betty. You said it was a treasure; didn't you?"
"Well, that's what I said," admitted Betty. "But it will probably besome 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 itshiding place. It almost completely filled the space. There was arustling sound, showing that the paper had acquired no dampness by beingburied under the sand in the box.
"Put it on the table," suggested Allen, removing the box from Betty'slap. She turned to the table, near which she had been sitting, when herexperiment resulted so unexpectedly. On the soft cloth she laid thepaper 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 disclosedwhen those paper folds should be turned back.
"It looks just like--just like--pshaw! I know I've seen packages justlike that before, somewhere," said Will. "But I can't, for the life ofme, think where it was."
"Was it in a jeweler's window?" asked Amy, in a low voice, from whereshe stood beside him.
"That's it, little girl! You've struck it!" Will cried, and impulsivelyhe 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 tothe gaze of all, flashing in the sun which glinted in through an openwindow, lay a mass of sparkling stones. Thousands of points of lightseemed to reflect from them. They seemed to be a multitude of dewdropsshaken from the depths of some big rose, and dropped into the midst of arainbow.
"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 indiamonds!"
"Diamonds?" ejaculated Amy, and her voice was a questioning one.
Then there came a silence while they all looked at the flashing heap ofstones--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 itwith his fingers and laid it back. He did the same thing with twoothers.
"Well?" asked Will, at length. "What's the verdict?"
"I'm no expert, of course," Allen said, slowly, and he seemed to havedifficulty in breathing, "but I really think they are diamonds."
"Diamonds? All those?" cried Mollie. "Why, they must beworth--millions!"
They all laughed at that. It seemed a relief from the strain, and tobreak the spell that hung over them all.
"Hardly millions," spoke Allen, "but if they are really diamonds theywill 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 meseveral 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 jewelerlook at these right away."
"I knew I had seen paper like that before," Will said. "It's just thekind you see loose diamonds displayed in around holiday times injewelers' windows."
"That doesn't make these diamonds, just because they are in the properkind of paper," scoffed Roy. "I think they're only moonstones."
"Moonstones aren't that color at all," declared Henry. "They are sort ofa 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 ofdiamonds 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. Heprobably doesn't handle many diamonds, but he ought to be able to tell areal one from a false. Let's take one of the smaller stones and ask himwhat he thinks."
"Oh, yes, let's find out--and as soon as we can!" cried Grace. "Isn't itjust--delicious!"
"Delicious!" scoffed Will. "You'd think she was speakingof--chocolates!"
The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View; Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand Page 13