It was shortly after the noon hour when the saw made its way through the
fourth side of the square. In a hush of breathless expectation, they
lifted the piece of timber, prepared for--who could tell what wondrous
secret beneath it?
The space it left was absolutely empty of the slightest suggestion of
anything remarkable. It revealed the sandy soil of the embankment into
which the cave was dug, and nothing else whatever. The disgusted silence
that followed Doris was the first to break.
"Of course, something may be buried down here, but I doubt it awfully.
I'm sure we would have seen some sign of it, if this had been the right
corner. However, give me that trowel, Sally, and we'll dig down a way."
She dug for almost a foot into the damp sand, and finally gave it up.
"How could any one go on digging down in the space of only twenty-one
inches?" she exclaimed in despair. "If one were to dig at all, the
space ought to be much larger. No, this very plainly isn't the right
corner. Let's go outside and eat our lunch, and then, if we have any
courage left, we can come back and begin on another corner. Personally,
I feel as if I should scream, if I had to put my hand to that old saw
again!"
But a hearty luncheon and a half hour of idling in the sunlight above
ground after it, served to restore their courage and determination.
Sally was positive that the corner diagonally opposite was the one most
likely to yield results, and Doris was inclined to agree with her.
Genevieve, however, flatly refused to re-enter the cave so they were
forced to adopt the scheme of the morning, one remaining always outdoors
with her, as they did not dare let her roam around by herself. Sally
volunteered to take the first shift at the sawing, and after they had
measured off the twenty-one inch square in the opposite corner she set
to work, while Doris stayed outside with Genevieve.
Seated with a picture-book open on her lap, and with Genevieve cuddled
close by her side, she was suddenly startled by a muffled, excited cry
from within the cave. Obviously, something had happened. Springing up,
she hurried inside, Genevieve trailing after her. She beheld Sally
standing in the middle of the cave, candle in hand, dishevelled and
excited, pointing to the side of the cave near which she had been
working.
"Look, look!" she cried. "What did I tell you?" Doris looked, expecting
to see something about the floor in the corner to verify their surmises.
The sight that met her eyes was as different as possible from that.
A part of the wall of the cave, three feet in width and reaching from
top to bottom had opened and swung inward like a door on its hinges.
"What _is_ it?" she breathed in a tone of real awe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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