"But we don't even know that it is loot, Will," Betty protested. "We ought to make sure first."
"That's easy enough," Allen commented. "Besides I've been anxious to examine the contents of that bag for a long time. Now, I'd like to see anybody keep me from it!" and he rushed over to the other side of the cave and was opening one of the bags even as he spoke.
The others crowded close beside him as he knelt on the ground, taking advantage of the meager light from the cave mouth to examine its contents. What they did see literally made them gasp. Gold and silver and strings upon strings of beads—some very valuable, others less so—and trinkets of all sorts and descriptions.
"Say, those gypsies are experts!" Frank exclaimed, awe in his tone. "I think I'll go into the business."
The girls didn't even pretend to be shocked at this—they were too taken up with their own emotions—too excited to notice such trivial remarks.
"Oh, aren't they wonderful?" cried Amy, down on her knees before the bag, and running her fingers through the brilliant mass delightedly. "How do they ever get such things?"
"That's a funny question to ask," Grace remarked. "They steal them, of course."
"But what are we going to do?" asked Betty practically. "If all the bags contain things like these, this cave is a mighty valuable place. Oh, and to think that we were the ones to discover it!"
"Well, you people can stay here and guard the loot if you want to," said Will. "But I'm going over to the mainland to hunt up a couple of ancient sheriffs—I suppose they are ancient," he added whimsically. "In stories, you wouldn't recognize a sheriff without his whiskers."
"Never mind the whiskers," said Mollie impatiently. "The thing is, somebody has to stay and guard the cave or it will disappear the way it did the other time, and you will bring the authorities over here for nothing."