"I'm glad I'm not fat," said Tom. "If I was I'd be winded sure."
"I think we'd better keep quiet as soon as we reach the vicinity of the holes," cautioned Dick.
Half an hour of hard climbing brought the boys to the vicinity where they had first fallen into the holes leading to the cave, and then they advanced cautiously and in almost absolute silence. They stopped to listen several times, but heard nothing but the calls of some birds and the trickling of water over the rocks.
Arriving at the top of the hole from where the dirt and stones had been thrown, they gazed around with interest. Where the soil was soft they could see the footprints of shoes much larger than those they themselves wore.
"Here is his trail, going away," said Dick, after a close examination.
"There is your tin box!" cried Sam, pointing to the object, still dangling from a distant tree.
"Wait till I see what is in it," answered his big brother. "It won't take but a minute or two."
"Beware of holes!" cautioned Tom.
Feeling his way through the brushwood, Dick approached the dangling tin box. It was a small affair and now hung open. He felt certain in his mind that when he had seen it before it had been closed.
The box proved to be empty and Dick was, somehow, disappointed. He glanced on the ground and saw a number of bits of paper, some old looking and some new. He picked up some of the bits and saw they had been written on in pencil, but the words or parts of words were undecipherable.