"Oh, dear!" came petulantly from Grace. "Isn't that horrid!"
"Well, I suppose the men have a right to lock up their treasure," coolly remarked Betty, again vainly trying to raise the cover.
"You will have it that those men hid the box," said Amy, with a smile. "Also that it is treasure."
"I'm getting romantic—like Grace," commented the Little Captain.
Then, as they found that their efforts to open the box were vain, the girls looked at it more closely.
It was a black japanned box of tin, or, rather, light sheet iron, rather heavier than the usual box made for holding legal papers. It was such a receptacle as would be described, in England, as a "dispatch box." And in fact, the box did seem to be of some foreign make. It was not like the light tin affairs used locally to hold deeds, insurance policies and the like.
The cover fitted on tightly. This much was seen at a glance, and so well did it fit that it needed a second look to make sure which was the bottom and which the top, for there was no bulge or "shoulder" of the metal to indicate where the lid rested.
"It's water-tight, I'm sure," Mollie said, when the box had again been set upright. They decided that the top was that place where the initials "B. B. B." showed, half-obliterated, in white paint.
"Then it might have been washed ashore from some wreck," Amy said.
"Too heavy to float," was the answer of Mollie, as she again lifted it.