Part 12 (1/2)
However, it was not very long before they reached her side, and she was able to explain the situation A few ht the boys back, and the question beca perilously near the horizon, and once it dropped behind the sea, darkness would fall rapidly and the rocks be really unsafe, especially as the tide was now cohtfully early in thebefore breakfast nobody is likely to find that treasure in the next ten hours or so”
With many backward looks they resumed their homeward trek It was hard luck to have to leave the treasure when, perhaps, they had almost found it, but Maetting ho Papa, it was quite possible that to- French verbs andbuttonholes
The children slept soundly all night in their funny little bunks
Early in the ure slipped into the boys' room and shook first one boy and then another by the shoulders dick and Jerry woke up after a few grunts; Hugh as usual was a sleepy-head
”Leave hiet him up-- you'll see”
”Tell him to come by Gobbler's Hollow,” ordered Grizzel; ”you'll find us there Don't stop to wash”
When the boys were half-way across the sandhills, they saw a thin colu the low scrubby trees, and a reeted their unducal noses--a sirls reat on grub” He reat on it hi it was concerned Certainly dick and Jerry were very pleased to know that they had not to wait until half-past eight for breakfast, for the fresh sea air had given theirls in Gobbler's Hollow--appropriately so naipsy fire The inevitable billy- can hung froled with the s bread, which Prudence buttered with a lavish hand, and Grizzel was shelling hard-boiled eggs
”I call this top-hole,” dick announced, as he squatted down on the sand and took his tin ed to be allowed to make the tea as she had seen Grizzel make it before ”It will buck us up no end and et on; so when breakfast was done they pushed the s and knives into the hollow of a bush, which Grizzel explained was their storerooirls would coet to the cave as quickly as possible They had two clear hours before them in which to make their search
The tide was at its lowest, and there was a broad stretch of wet sand between the sandhills and the sea Wide shallow pools of water had been left behind by the receding waves, while here and there lay long heavy drifts of seaweed, shi+ning darkly in the early rays of the , their eyes fixed on the flagstaff hut As they drew nearer they left the sea and steered for the cave, the entrance to which was plain enough now that they knehere to look for it
”It's such a conspicuous sort of cave,” Hugh said, ”I don't see how anyone couldtreasure unless it is buried very deep”
Caves have always a certain amount of mystery about the a cave as one could find It did not burrow very far back into the cliff side, and what there was of it was open to the daylight and contained no lurking dark corners The walls were rough and rocky but not high; the roof was, as Jerry said, nothing particular, and the floor was of shi+ngle and rather wet, as if the sea, now so far away, had paid it a visit not so very long ago But, as the rocks and stones before the entrance were dry, it was obviously not the tide which had washed the floor
”It h said; ”let's taste and see--” he stooped as he spoke and scooped up a handful of water, which he put to his lips
”Thought so; it's quite fresh and sweet--that's rather a find--jolly useful for picnics, it will save us carting water about--by jinks!”
he exclai round at the others with an expression of blank dismay; ”do you suppose _that's_ ere to find to our advantage?”
They all stared hard at the shi+ning wet stones, through which the trickle of water was now plainly discernable Then they stared round the cave again There did not seem to be a place where treasure _could_ be hidden Moreover, there were traces of a not very reipsy fire, one or two crumpled-up balls of paper, some broken bottles!
”That's it,” said Jerry at last ”It was probably the people who had that picnic--those broken bottles are the same as the one we found
They played cock-shy with theht it would be a lark to chuck one into the sea What a jolly old sell!”
”We've had a nicecertainly _will_ be an advantage e've got used to it not being a sewing-s”
”I sohtfully, still staring about her ”There is so about the way that paper is written; it doesn't look like the writing of the sort of person who plays that kind of joke--and of course it would be meant for a joke Let's all stand quite still in a circle back to back, and each stare hard all over the bit of cave that con of soreed that there would be no harh the boys' hopes were small dick and Jerry were uneasily conscious that they were ”the sort of person” ould have thought that bottled e an excellent joke--to play on someone else!
So they stared They even circled slowly round so that each part of the cave was examined with meticulous care by six pairs of eyes in turn But it was all in vain; the cave only seeer they looked at it
”There's not a place where you could hide a thimble,” Prue said sadly, ”let alone a treasure”
”What's that?” Grizzel called out suddenly, pointing to the broken bottles in the corner