"And maybe he had good reason," said Tom. "Blent is without a doubt a pretty mean proposition."
"Just the same, the island is my father's," declared Ralph, with confidence. "He bought it, right enough."
"All right. But you think, Ruth, that perhaps it was in this buried cave that old Mr. Tilton hid his money box?"
"So Jerry said. It looks as though Jerry had been digging here——"
"Let's have another crack at it!" cried Tom, and went to work with the spade again.
In ten minutes he had scattered considerable earth and made the hole much larger. They held the lantern inside and saw that the floor of the other cavity was about on a level with the one in which they stood. Tom slid the old spade through the hole, and then went through himself.
"Come on! let's take a look," he said, reaching up for Ruth and the lantern.
"But this isn't finding a way out," complained Ralph. "What will the other folks say?"
"We'll find the opening later. We couldn't venture outside now, anyway. It is still storming, you can bet," declared the eager Tom.
Ruth's sharp eyes were peering here and there. The cavern they had entered was almost circular and had a dome-shaped roof. There were shelves all around several feet above the floor. Some of these ledges slanted inward toward the rock, and one could not see much of them.