"Did you expect to find this?" asked George in amazement.
"No; this is a surprise to me as it is to you."
"Then why did you make that remark?"
"Because I believe that this box contains treasure of untold value. I should have been surprised if it weighed very much."
"Could it not have contained treasure if it had been heavy?" asked Harry.
John laughed, a peculiar exultant chuckle, as he responded: "Not the kind of treasure I have had in contemplation."
The box was turned over and over. There was not the sign of any lid, or crack which showed the cover or means of opening it. "We must take this out and open it at our leisure," remarked John, "but before doing so it would be well to examine the other outlets to this chamber, if it has any."
The chamber was found, on measurement, to be thirty feet in diameter, and the vaulted ceiling fully thirty feet high, singularly uniform in the domed formation, and not rough or jagged like the ceiling of the other chamber which they had just left.
The walls were absolutely solid on all sides, the only entrance being by way of the narrow little passageway through which they had come. Harry picked up the box, and swung it up to his shoulder, and, John leading the way, they filed out and passed[p. 124] through the chamber, quickly making their way to the opening through which they first entered the cave.
Within an hour they were back in the village, and found Muro there awaiting their arrival. "We have found their trail, and they have not gone to the upper cave. They are heading straight for the tribe in the northern end of the island."