"Oh, Johnnie! You mean thing!" exclaimed the girl. "You promised—"
"You'll have a chance to dig," he laughed. "We couldn't begin to bring all of it; we merely took the jewels and the deeds and what money our clothes would hold. The rest—"
"Wait! WAIT!" Branch wailed, clapping his hand to his head. "'Merely the jewels and the deeds and what money our clothes would hold?' Bullets! Why, one suit of clothes will hold all the money in the world! Am I dreaming? 'Money!' I haven't seen a bona-fide dollar since I put on long pants. What does money look like? Is it round or—?"
Johnnie produced from his pocket a handful of coins.
Branch's eyes bulged, he touched a gold piece respectfully, weighed it carefully, then pressed it to his lips. He rubbed it against his cheeks and in his hair; he placed it between his teeth and bit it.
"It's REAL!" he cried. "Now let me look at the jewels."
"Rosa has them. She's wearing them on her back. Hunched backs are lucky, you know; hers is worth a fortune."
"Why, this beats the Arabian Nights!" Norine gasped.
"It beats—" Branch paused, then wagged his head warningly at the girl. "I don't believe a word of it and you mustn't. Johnnie read this story on his yachting-trip. It couldn't happen. In the first place there isn't any more money in the world; mints have quit coining it. Why, if I wrote such a yarn—"
"It IS almost unbelievable," Johnnie acknowledged. "I found Aladdin's cave, but"—his face paled and he stirred uneasily—"it was nearly the death of all of us. I'll have to tell you the whole story now; I've only told you the half."