"There's gold in 'em!" whispered Hal, more excited than ever now. "There's gold in those blue stones, and the tramps know it. That's what they've been looking for, and when Trouble had 'em all in a nice pile made into a playhouse, the tramps came along in the night and took 'em away."
"Oh, do you s'pose it could happen that way, really?" asked Jan, her eyes big with wonder.
"Course it could!" said Hal, growing more excited all the while. "I remember now, gold doesn't always look yellow when you find it, the way it does in a watch or a ring. Sometimes gold is inside stones and they have to melt 'em in the fire to get the gold out. My nurse at the Crippled Home read me about it. And there was gold in the blue stones. That's why the tramps came and got 'em—I mean them," and he corrected himself. "They told me not to say 'em,'" he added with a smile.
"Do you really think the blue stones had gold in 'em—them?" asked
Ted.
"Yes, I do! Else why would the tramps want them? They came last night and took Trouble's castle—every stone, and now they've hid the gold away."
"Where?" asked Jan, as excited as the boys.
"I think it must be up in the cave," went on Hal. "If we could only go there and look we could find it too. Let's go."
"Maybe mother wouldn't let us." suggested Ted.
"We don't have to tell her," said Jan.
"I don't mean to do anything bad, nor have you," went on Hal. "But wouldn't it be great if we could go up to the cave, without anybody knowing it, and get the gold? Then your mother would be glad, and your grandpa, too."