"The tablet!" yelled the boy. "Look! look!"
All rushed to his side and gazed in the direction that he pointed out. Sure enough, there on the very brink of the crack Menden had located, was a long, flat stone. At one end of the stone they saw that a rude cross had been carved. At the other end were the much sought-after initials, M. M. M.
"Hurrah! the treasure at last!" cried Dick, and felt like dancing a jig for joy.
"Where is the cedar box? I'm crazy to see how much it has in it!" put in Don.
"I guess we're all crazy for that," laughed Leander, his scare having been forgotten.
"It ought to be under the tablet," said Robert Menden. "Can the thing be lifted by hand?"
He examined the tablet, which rested on several rocks set in the form of a square, one side at the very opening just mentioned. The flat stone was a heavy affair, weighing all of six or seven hundred pounds.
"Ye can't budge thet by hand," said old Jacob, who was almost as excited as the rest. "It will take a block and fall, or a long lever, to do it."
"And we have neither!" groaned the Englishman.
They stared at each other blankly. What was to be done?