“But what makes you think there is treasure in our cellar?” asked Ruth.
“Because,” was all Tess or Dot would say.
As for Sammy, he only pointed to the girls. This was a case of shifting the blame, it seemed.
By degrees, however, it was drawn out of the trio how Tess had put this and that together, and had, in a way, added what she had overheard concerning the Chinaman and the two tramps. Thus she had arrived at the decision that there must be a store of gold in the cellar of the Corner House. She had then taken Dot and Sammy into her confidence.
“And we dug and dug, but we didn’t find any,” reported Tess. “We were in the back part of the cellar, where it’s awfully dark, when we heard a noise. We ran and we knocked down something that fell on the swinging shelf, and that fell down and——”
“It’s a mercy you weren’t all cut by the broken glass jars!” exclaimed Ruth. “I suppose the cellar’s a sight!” she sighed.
“Oh, it isn’t so bad as if the jars had been filled with fruit,” chuckled Luke. “There’s a lot of broken glass, it’s true, but glass jars are cheap. It might have been worse.”
“Indeed, yes, if the children had been hurt,” agreed Ruth.
A close inspection showed no damage beyond what soap and water would remedy. Then, as the household settled down to a more normal state of existence, preparations were made for getting supper, and more details of the searching expedition of Tess, Dot and Sammy were drawn out while the storm raged.
“What sort of noise was it you heard that made you run? You said you knocked down something that broke the swinging shelf, didn’t you?” asked Ruth, when Mrs. MacCall and Linda were preparing the evening meal.