There was not tobacco inside, but moss—old soft moss, tightly rammed down. It might well have contained a fisherman’s worms, but at the moment I didn’t think of that, or I might not have acted as I did. I shook it all out, with a jerk, into my lap. Dr. Firth caught his breath in a gasp and the children gave a shout.
There was more than moss. Hidden among it were things that glittered and sparkled in the sunlight—rough-cut rubies and emeralds and sapphires, and softly-gleaming turquoises that bore the scratches of the tool that had hewn them hurriedly from their setting. They twinkled at us, lying among the soft bronze-green of the moss: Dr. Firth’s stolen jewels! I sat and stared at them stupidly.
“You said they were magic!” shrilled Judy delightedly. “Oh, well done you, Miss Earle!”
“There should be more,” said Dr. Firth quietly. “Pack them up again, Doris, and let us see where you found them.”
We went over the edge in a body. There were two other little tobacco-tins in my hole, packed in the same way, stowed well under a rock. Half of it had broken away, and even then, only the smallest corner of the first tin had been visible—but for the lucky avalanche that Jack and I had brought down no one would ever have found that hiding-place, even if it had been years before the thief came back to remove his booty.
“I wouldn’t have seen it at all if he had left the paper wrapping on the tin,” I said. “It was the little gleam of metal that caught my eye.”
“That was a small detail of extra carefulness,” Dr. Firth said. “People have been tracked down before now by leaving something of which the purchase could be traced. He was a careful burglar, bless him!”
“He wasn’t so smart when he dropped his sixpence!” exulted Jack. “It was the sixpence that started you looking, Miss Earle.”
“It was. I was just turning away to look for a better place to get up when I saw it half under a stone.”
“You ought to keep that sixpence for luck,” said Judy solemnly. “Oh, Dr. Firth, are you going back to wave the jewels at the detectives? Do let us come too! I’d love to see their faces!”