Coming near the bridge he was looking for a good place to leave the path and reach the road when he saw something half in the water and half on the ground that at once arrested his attention.
It seemed to be a rubber bag and was evidently heavy by its looks, the part on the ground being deep in the sand as if it had been thrown from the bridge.
At once it dawned upon him that here was an important discovery.
“I wonder if that is not some of the plunder stolen from the bank or from the station?” he thought to himself.
Some had advanced the theory that the robbers had not carried off all that they had stolen, some had said that the men had gone across the creek and then back and it at once occurred to Jack that they had not gone to the bridge for nothing and that here was something that they had gotten rid of at the time on account of the risk of being discovered with it and for which they meant to return at some convenient time.
Making his way down the bank, which at this point was quite steep, the boy rested on one knee, took hold of a stout sapling and tried to lift the bag half out of water.
It was quite heavy, as he had supposed and considerable of a tug was required to draw it out of the water and close to him.
This he accomplished, however, and then, using the sapling to aid him, he drew the bag farther up on the bank and then to the top where he put it down and started to open it.
There was a stout cord around the neck of the bag but this he loosened with some little trouble on account of its having been swollen and made tighter by the water.
Opening the bag he caught sight of a polished tin despatch or cash box, a bundle of letters, a package of bills and a thick envelope which probably contained postage stamps by its appearance.