“Where’s B. C.?” asked Tommie suddenly.
“Hunting away still,” replied George.
“What’s in that bundle?”
“Oh, the bundle—why it’s the boodle; the greasers must have dug it up, for we found it in the sack on the mule.”
“The jewels!”
“Yep.”
“My!” said Tommie, her eyes wide and the colour coming to her cheeks. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She seized on it.
“I’ll help,” said Hank, “you’ll dirty your fingers with the string.”
“Bother my fingers.”
She had the string off and then, unwrapping the oilskin cover, came on sack cloth. Opening this unskilfully the whole contents shot out on her knees and the sand. Diamond rings, ten silver spoons, a diamond necklace, blazing, huge and vulgar, a diamond hair ornament like a tiara, a ring set with rubies, another with emeralds, a woman’s wrist watch set with diamonds, and a silver pepper pot. Twenty or thirty thousand dollars’ worth of plunder, at least, and shouting with individuality. One could see the fat woman who once wore the necklace and tiara, almost; no wonder that the pirates had determined to give them a year to cool amidst the sands of the Bay of Whales.