The prospect of a long session of talk began to fade out in Kirby’s mind.
“But Naida, whatever is there about this fragment of gold to startle you as it does?”
By this time all of the thirty-odd other girls had come flocking about them, and all were staring at the cylinder as fascinatedly as Naida.
“Do you see what he has there?” Naida finally asked, ignoring Kirby in her continued excitement.
“Do we see?” answered the girl she had addressed. “Naida, surely it is the carving which was lost!”
Naida was quivering with feeling now.
“Do you realize what it means to our cause that it should have been returned to us in this way?”
The girl to whom she had spoken, and the others, simply looked at her, but in one face after another presently dawned awe and joy.
Kirby stood still, puzzled and interested, until at last Naida was recovered enough to speak to him.