"Look here, fellows," he said to the others, "all of you saw the hole under this board that time we found the coin, the half of an old envelope with Mr. Dennison's name on it in faded writing, and that baby shoe; isn't it so?"
"Of course we did, Frank," assented Jerry; "and I want to make my solemn affidavit to the fact that there wasn't any gold cup lying there then."
"Will, you are just as positive about that as Jerry, of course?" continued Frank.
"Well, I should say I was!" came the prompt reply.
"And you too, Bluff?" Frank went on, evidently intending that there should not be a single dissenting voice in the group.
Bluff immediately lifted his hand, with the fingers stiffened as though he fancied himself on the witness stand.
"Give you my word for it, Frank; nothing doing," he asserted in his customary vigorous manner, that was usually very convincing.
"Gilbert came up to the scratch smiling, didn't he?" remarked Jerry; "and I take it he's going to turn out a pretty decent sort of a fellow."
"Queer, isn't it," Will was saying, "how chickens do come home to roost? When we stopped a little while on our way here, and pulled Gilbert up by the use of that wild grape-vine, none of us ever dreamed he'd be in a position to return the favor, and yet see what happened. What's that old proverb about the bread thrown to the fishes, or something like that?"
"You must mean 'bread cast upon the waters will come back again ere many days,'" explained Frank, smilingly.