They agreed that there would be no harm in trying this plan, though the boys' hopes were small. Dick and Jerry were uneasily conscious that they were "the sort of person" who would have thought that bottled message an excellent joke—to play on someone else!
So they stared. They even circled slowly round so that each part of the cave was examined with meticulous care by six pairs of eyes in turn. But it was all in vain; the cave only seemed to become more and more ordinary the longer they looked at it.
"There's not a place where you could hide a thimble," Prue said sadly, "let alone a treasure."
"What's that?" Grizzel called out suddenly, pointing to the broken bottles in the corner.
After all there had been a dark spot, and with the brightening daylight that dark spot had all at once lighted up, and there lay a bottle, the very twin of the one they had found in the sea, red sealing-wax and all. The boys made a dive for it, but Dick stopped abruptly and held back the others: "Grizzel saw it first, let her open it too," he said.
Grizzel advanced, and picking up the bottle held it to the light—yes, there was a message plainly to be seen.
"I think one of you had better break it open," she said; "I'd probably cut my fingers."
Hugh solemnly knocked off its head and drew out the paper. It was written in the same round, clear handwriting:
IF THE PERSON WHO FINDS THIS BOTTLE WILL ASK FOR MR. BROWN AT THE DUKE'S NOSE, HE WILL HEAR OF SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE.
"Why the dickens couldn't they have said that first shot?" Jerry exclaimed.