“Old Dick’s gold!” said Bob, raising two of the loose boards. There really was a deep, dark hole underneath.
“There is—there is something there!” Alice cried excitedly.
Indeed the hole was by no means empty. Bob could dimly see something like a pasteboard box, and he lifted it out and opened it. It contained two dozen pearl-handled pocket-knives, each wrapped in tissue paper as it had come from the factory. Reaching down again, Bob brought up an unopened box of cigars.
Joe and Carl, who had been nailing frames just outside, were attracted by Alice’s scream, and rushed in. They all gazed at the find incredulously. Sam too came up behind and stared over their shoulders, his eyes widening at the sight of the buried treasure.
“How on earth did these things get here?” Carl ejaculated.
“Just guess!” returned Bob, with a glance at Joe.
He dived again into the dark hole. Two more boxes of cigars followed the first, then a large case of rifle cartridges, a ham in its canvas wrapping, and a box of cheap jewelry. As the litter accumulated the bee-keepers looked at one another with increasing amazement.
“We must get to the bottom of this!” Bob exclaimed, and he got bodily into the hole and began to throw the contents out upon the floor.
There was a heavy, unopened wooden box, marked to contain two dozen cans of salmon, two sides of bacon, a little damp and moldy, a bolt of muslin, and a box of new revolvers.
“Whoop-ee!” shouted Sam, unable to contain himself. “Ain’t dis de best yet? We-all kin start a store! Glory! Mr. Joe, dis here Old Dick’s cabin is shore ’nuff one lucky place!”