CHAPTER XIV
SEEKING CLUES
The first shock of the discovery over (and it was a shock to them all,boys included), the young folks began to examine the stones more calmly.They spoke of them as diamonds, and hoped they would prove to be stonesof value, and not mere imitations.
There were several of fairly large size, and others much smaller; some,according to Allen, of only a sixteenth-karat in weight.
"But stones of even that small size may be very valuable if they arepure and well cut," he said.
"And what would be the value of the largest ones?" asked Betty, forthere were one or two stones that Will was sure were three or fourkarats in size.
"I'd be afraid to guess," Allen said. "We'd better have them valued."
The girls handled the stones, holding them on their fingers and tryingto imagine how they would look set in rings.
"Engagement rings?" asked Grace of Betty, who had suggested that.
"Silly! I didn't say anything of the kind!"
"Well, it isn't what you say, it's what you mean."
It did not seem they could look at the stones enough. Every specimen wasexamined again and again, held up to the light, and turned this way andthat in the sun so that the sparkle might be increased.
"Well, I suppose we might as well put them away," said Betty, with asigh, after a while. "It's no use wishing----"
"Wishing what?" demanded Mollie, quickly.
"That they were ours."
"Ours! I don't see why they aren't!" exclaimed Grace, quickly. "Ofcourse Mollie and Amy dug them up, but----"
"Oh, don't hesitate on my account!" Mollie said, quickly. "If we shareat all we share alike, of course."
"That's sweet of you, Billy," returned Betty. "But I don't see how wecan keep them. The diamonds, if such they are, must belong----"
"Yes, whom do they belong to?" demanded Mollie. "If you mean the men wesaw in the boat, I should say they didn't have any more right to themthan we have. They were pirates if ever I saw any."
"Well, you never saw any pirates," remarked Betty, calmly. "But ofcourse the men in the boat may have hidden the diamonds there."
"Do you think they knew they were in the box?" asked Amy.
"Well, whoever hid the box must have known it contained something ofvalue," Betty declared. "They would hardly hide an empty box, and ifthey had found it locked they would have opened it to make sure therewas nothing of value in it. Of course those men may only have beenacting for others."
"But what are we to do?" asked Amy.
"We must try to find out to whom these diamonds belong," Betty said."We'll have to watch the advertisements in the paper, and if we see nonewe'll advertise for ourselves. That's the law, I believe," and shelooked at Allen.
"Yes, the finder of property must make all reasonable efforts to locatethe owner," he said, "though of course he could claim compensation forsuch effort. I think the papers are our best chance for finding clues."
"Has there been a big diamond robbery lately?" asked Mollie.
"What has that to do with it?" Will wanted to know.
"Because I think these diamonds are the proceeds of some robbery," wenton the girl. "As you say, the stones are wrapped in a paper just asthough they had come from a jewelry store. It might be that those menbroke into a store, took the diamonds and hid them in this secret partof the box, which one of them owned. They are probably from some bigrobbery in New York, or Boston, seeing we're nearer Boston than we areNew York, up here."
"I don't remember any such robbery lately," Roy said, and he was afaithful reader of the newspapers. "But of course we've been pretty busylately. I'll get some back numbers of the papers."
"Ha! What's going on now?" asked the voice of Mr. Nelson. He had come infrom the station, having run up to Boston on business.
"Oh, Daddy!" cried Betty. "Such news! You'll never guess!"
"You've solved the cipher!" he hazarded.
"No. We didn't need to. We solved the mystery of the box, and look----"
She spread the sparkling stones out before him.
"Whew!" he whistled. "I should say that _was_ news. Where did you getthose?"
"In a hidden compartment of the black box. I stumbled on the secretspring by accident when I was measuring it. Are they diamonds, Father?"
Anxiously the young people hung on Mr. Nelson's answer.
He laid aside the packages he had brought from Boston, and turned for amoment to greet his wife, who had come into the room. She had been toldof the find as soon as it was discovered, and had been properlyastonished.
"It takes the young folks to do things nowadays," he said, with a smile.
"Doesn't it?" she responded.
"But are they diamonds? That's what we want to know!" chanted Betty, herarms around her father's shoulders.
Mr. Nelson tested the stones much as Allen had done, but he wentfarther. From his pocket he produced a small but powerful magnifyingglass. It was one he used, sometimes, in looking at samples of carpet athis office. He put one of the larger stones under the glass.
The young people hardly breathed while the test was going on. But theresult was not announced at once, for Mr. Nelson took several of thesparkling stones, and subjected them to the scrutiny under themicroscope.
"Well," he announced finally, "I should say they are diamonds, andpretty fine diamonds, too!"
The girls gave little squeals of delight.
"You were right, old man," spoke Henry to Allen, with a nod.
"Well, I wasn't sure, of course" began the young law student "but----"
"Of course I didn't look at all the stones," broke in Mr. Nelson, andthe talk was instantly hushed to listen to him, "but I picked severalout at random, and made sure of them. And it is fair to assume in apacket of stones like this that, if one is a diamond, the others arealso."
"And how much are they worth?" asked Betty. She was not mercenary, butit did seem the most natural thing to ask.
"Well, it's hard to tell," her father replied. "At a rough guess Ishould say--oh, put it at fifty thousand dollars."
"Oh!" cried Mollie. "To think of it!"
"Catch me! I'm going to faint!" mocked Roy, leaning up against Will.
"Do you really think they are as valuable as that?" asked Amy, in agentle voice.
"She helped find them, and she wants to reckon her share," said Mollie,who did not always make the most appropriate remarks.
"Nothing of the sort!" exclaimed Betty. "It's just the wonder of itall."
"I think fifty thousand dollars would be pretty close to the mark," saidMr. Nelson. "I once had to serve on a committee to value the contents ofa jewelry store for an estate. I didn't know much about precious stones,but the others gave me some points, and I remember them. Of course I maybe several thousands out of the way, but----"
"Oh, fifty thousand dollars is a nice enough sum--to dream about," Bettysaid, with a gurgling laugh. "It will do very well, Daddy dear."
"But isn't it the most wonderful thing, that we should find all thosediamonds!" gasped Mollie.
"Who could have hidden them?" wondered Amy.
"That's what we've got to find out," put in Allen. "I suggested thenewspapers," he went on to Mr. Nelson.
"And a good idea," that gentleman said.
"Oh, Betty. Let's look at the box, and see how the wonderful falsebottom fitted in," proposed Mollie. "I think it was the most perfectlygorgeous thing how you happened to discover it."
"And that's just how it was--a happening," the Little Captain remarked."Oh, but if those men in the boat should discover that we have thosediamonds, and come for them," and Betty glanced nervously over hershoulder.
"Ha! Let them deal with _me_!" exclaimed Will, as he displayed hisSecret Service badge. "I'll attend to the--pirates!"
"I thought your specialty was--smugglers," voiced Allen, with a chuckle.
"Smugglers or pirates, it is all one to me!" Will declaimed, struttingabout.
"Oh, but----"
began Betty.
"Well, what?" Will asked. "Think I'm afraid?"
"No--oh, no. I was thinking of something else."
And to Betty came a vision of those glowering faces in the window of thefisherman's hut on the beach.
The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View; Or, The Box That Was Found in the Sand Page 14
