"Why?" Amy wanted to know.
"Because those men might come back, and——"
"Do you think those men hid the box here?" asked Grace.
"That's exactly what I think," replied Betty, quickly. "Wouldn't that be an explanation of their strange conduct when they saw us?"
"How do you mean?" asked Amy.
"I mean I think those men had just hidden this box here in the sand. As they went away they saw us coming along. They were afraid we would find the box, or at least some of them were, and wanted to come back to dig it up again."
"And do you think that was why they quarreled among themselves?" demanded Mollie.
"I think so—yes. Doesn't it seem natural?" Betty asked.
"Well, of course you can make almost any theory fit when you don't know the facts," Mollie went on. "But how about the box having been washed up from the ocean, and buried in the sand naturally? That could have happened; couldn't it?"
"Oh, yes," assented Betty. "The box wasn't buried so deep but what it could have come about in a perfectly natural way. But when you stop to think how the men acted, and the fact that it was just about here their boat was, I think my idea is the best."