[“You hold the flashlight, Jane,” said Mary Louise. “While I make the slit.”]
The operation was not so easy, for the leather was tough, but Mary Louise always kept her knife as sharp as a boy’s, and she succeeded at last in making an opening.
Excitedly both girls peered into the bag, and Jane reached her hand into its depths. She drew it out again with an expression of disappointment.
“An old Turkish towel!” she exclaimed in dismay.
But Mary Louise’s search proved more fruitful. Her hand came upon a bulky paper wad, encircled by a rubber band. She drew her hand out quickly and flashed the light upon her find.
It was a fat roll of money!
The girls gazed at her discovery in speechless joy. It seemed more like a dream than reality: one of those strange dreams where you find money everywhere, in all sorts of queer, dark places.
“Hide it in your sweater, Mary Lou!” whispered Jane. “Now let’s make tracks for home.”
Her companion concealed it carefully and then took another look into the satchel to make sure that none of the gold was there. She even inserted the flashlight into the bag, to confirm her belief. But there was nothing more.
Both girls got to their feet, Jane with the satchel still in her hands.