,
diamonds, and other precious stones, all in their rough state just as
they had been unearthed from the mine, but all without exception of
extraordinary size. At first the fortunate finders were not greatly
impressed at the sight of these stones, for neither of them quite knew
what they were--though they judged them to be valuable from the
circumstance that they had been deemed worthy of a place in the same
receptacle with the pearls--and it was only the gleam of the diamonds
which at last awakened in their minds a suspicion that the stones were
really precious. When at length, however, this suspicion fairly dawned
upon them Ned positively gasped for breath.

"Why," he exclaimed, "we are _rich_! rich beyond the power of
computation. There must be at least a hundred magnificent fortunes in
this veritable cave of Aladdin; and now all that we have to do is to
give those ruffians the slip, when I will find means to return here and
recover all this treasure. Now," he went on, "I'll tell you what we
will do. We will divide the contents of this box into two about equal
portions, one of which we will convey from time to time on board the
ship, whilst the other shall remain here; and in this way I think we may
make reasonably sure of securing one half of the gems whatever happens.
The gold we must leave, I think, as too cumbersome to be dealt with
under our present circumstances, but the dresses you certainly _shall_
have. Now, slip those pearls into your pocket, and I will take as many
of the diamonds and what not as I can stow away, after which I think we
had better see about getting back to the ship."

"But," interposed Sibylla, "have we any right to touch these things?
Surely they must belong to some one?"

"I have not the slightest idea who was the former rightful owner of all
this property," replied Ned, laughing; "but, whoever he was, he has been
dust and ashes ages ago, and so too have the rovers who, I expect,
brought them to this out-of-the-way place and hid them in this cave.
Why, by the look alone of the things, the arms especially, they must
have been here at least hundreds of years! There is no doubt a deeply
interesting story attaching to this hoard, but what it is we shall
probably never know. Of one thing, however, you may rest assured, and
that is that we, as the finders, have a better right to everything in
this cave than anyone now living."

The reasonableness of this argument satisfied even Siby