They found a small lock on the box, much rusted and without a key. With rocks they finally succeeded in smashing the lock. Then they pried back the lid of the box. A sheet of what had once evidently been perfectly good leather met their gaze. The sailor thrust this aside and then dove both hands into the box, bringing up a mass of old and much tarnished coins.
“Pirates’ gold!” he exclaimed, excitedly. “Doubloons! Hundreds of them! We’ve got the pirates’ gold at last!”
CHAPTER XXX
WHAT THE BOX CONTAINED—CONCLUSION
“Look at the gold!”
“I wonder what it’s worth?”
“Those sailors told the truth, after all!”
Such were some of the exclamations made by the Rover boys as they gazed at the contents of the chest pulled out of the rocky hole before them.
But if they were excited, Ira Small was more so, and for a few minutes the boys thought the old tar would go crazy. Again and again he dove his hands into the chest, to bring up the coins and let them fall back with a merry clink.
“I knowed we’d find it!” he cried. “Now I’ll be a rich man fur life!” And then he added quickly to the boys: “But you’re to have your share of it, lads. One-half of whatever is here goes to Jack an’ the rest of you.”