"It does look as though we were blocked, Ruthie," said Tom, with less confidence.
"Then we'll have to go back and try the other passage," returned the girl, choking a little.
"See here!" cried Tom, suddenly. "Somebody's been digging here. That's where all this stuff comes from, underfoot."
"Where?" asked the others, crowding forward to look closer. Tom set down the lantern and picked up a broken spade. There was a cavity in the wall of this pocket-like passage. With a flourish Tom dug the broken blade of the spade into the gritty earth.
"This is what Jerry wanted that mattock for, I bet!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, dear, me! do you believe so?" cried Ruth. "Then, right here, is where he thought he might find his uncle's treasure box."
"Ho, ho!" ejaculated Ralph. "That old hunter was just as crazy as he could be—father says so."
"Well, that wouldn't keep him from having money; would it?—and might be a very good reason for his burying it."
"And the papers he declared would prove his title to a part of this island," Ruth hastened to add.
That didn't please Ralph any too well. "My father owns the island, and don't you forget it!" he declared.