"Do you like being a cowboy, Tommy?" asked Enid as she spurred her horse to have a word with the boy.
"It's the best sport in the world, Enid. I wouldn't ask for nothing better."
Whether it was the long ride over the mountain, or something that the professor had eaten; that night he was a sick man.
"Go for Mrs. Patten," he gasped. "She knows what to do."
And the girls, hearing about it from Kit, soon followed her to the camp. They found the professor tossing uneasily on his cot, holding his head to try and stop the pain. Even after Ma Patten's treatment it was an hour before he quieted down.
The girls had been wandering about the camp and Bet suddenly exclaimed, "Come on girls, let's be sports and visit the site of our fondest hopes, and of our bitter disappointment."
"Aw, why rub it in?" said Kit with a shrug, as she followed Bet into the tunnel.
"I never even looked to see where that old chest came from, and I want to see," Bet let herself down into the hole. "I can't believe that anyone found the treasure, stole it, then sealed the tunnel up again. That doesn't spell sense, at all."
"I think those old Spaniards showed very little sense anyway," remarked
Kit. "Why didn't they hide their treasure in some easier place?"
Bet laughed. But at that moment her foot scraped against something hard. There was a metallic ring. Stooping she dug away the dirt and crumbled rock with her hands.