“That looks like the front door, sure enough,” said Harvey.
They looked within the drawer, but there was no sign of occupancy there.
“We’ll take the drawer completely out,” said Henry Burns. “I don’t believe we did that, before. Perhaps it doesn’t fill the entire space.”
“All right, I’ll take the other one out, too,” responded Harvey. “We’ll look behind both.”
He drew the drawer out and set it down on the cabin floor. Henry Burns pulled out the drawer he had been examining, and set it down on top of the other. Then, as he glanced at them by the light of the candle which he held, he said, abruptly:
“Look there, Jack. We’ve found it. As sure as you live, this drawer is six or seven inches shorter than the other. There’s a chamber behind it. Say, you don’t suppose—”
Henry Burns did not conclude his sentence. Instead, he got down on hands and knees, held the candle under the berth, and peered within. As he did so, he uttered a cry of triumph.
“Here, Jack, look inside,” he said, hastily, withdrawing his head, and handing the candle to his companion.
Harvey ducked his head, and peered within.
What he saw, in the chamber behind the space taken up by the drawer, was a little boxlike object, fastened in some manner to the under side of the bottom of the locker.