"What's what?"
The young girl's head and her lover's were bent together over the empty box. Sandys' fingers were feeling about inside it.
"Is this a dent in the leather, or is there something concealed beneath it?"
What Sandys referred to was sufficiently obvious. The bottom of the box was flat, except in one corner, where a slight protuberance suggested, as Sandys said, the possibility of there being something concealed beneath. Miss Crampton, already excited by her father's gift, at once took it for granted that it was the case.
"How lovely!" she exclaimed. She clapped her hands. "I do believe there's a secret hiding-place."
If there was, it threatened to baffle our efforts at discovery. We all tried our hands at finding, it, but tried in vain. Crampton gave it up.
"I'll have the case examined by an expert. He'll soon be able to find your secret hiding-place, though, mind you, I don't say that there is one."
There was an exclamation from young Sandys.
"Don't you? Then you'd be safe if you did, because there is!"
Miss Crampton looked eagerly over his shoulder.