s in the trees. I heard 'em lots of times. But
we'll go out. I guess maybe that was a loose stone that fell down and
made the first noise. But we don't want any to fall on our heads. Come
on!" called Hal.

Together he and Ted led Janet back to the mouth of the cave, where they
could see the sunshine. And even Hal, who was not so frightened as the
Curlytops had been, was glad to get out.

"It's too bad we couldn't find the blue gold-stones," he said. "But
maybe the tramps didn't hide them there, anyhow. We'll look around some
more."

"Let's eat," suggested Ted. "I'm hungry, and I've got a lot of cookies
in my pockets."

So they sat down on a stone in a shady place not far from the cave and
ate the things Nora had given Ted. They then got a drink from a bubbling
spring not far away, and pretended they were on a picnic.

Ted's muddy stocking had dried by this time, and he and Jan, using
sticks, scraped most of the dirt off.

"Now we'd better be going home," Jan suggested after a bit. "There isn't
any fun here."

"Yes, we might as well go," agreed Hal. "And I'll tell you what let's
do!"

"What?" demanded Ted.

"Let's look in the place where Trouble found those blue stones and see
if we can find any more."

"Oh, yes, let's!" cried Janet. She was happy again, now that she was out
in the bright sunshine.

The children remembered where Baby William had found the pretty rocks
from which he had made his castle, but when they reached the place not a
one was to be had, though they searched all about.

"I guess Trouble took them all," said Janet. "I remember now, I helped
him look for more and we couldn't find any."

"Well, maybe there'll be some more somewhere else," suggested Hal
hopefully. "Let's look."

So they looked, wandering about in the woods not far from camp, until
they heard Nora ringing the bell for dinner.

"Well, where have you children been?" asked Mrs. Martin as they came
trooping up to the tent, tired, hungry and dirty.

"Oh, we've been looking for gold," explained Ted, but he did not say
they had visited the cave, where they had been told not to go.

"You didn't dig any more deep holes, did you?" asked his grandfather.

"No, sir," answered Ted.

After dinner Ted asked Hal why he didn't speak of having Grandpa Martin
go to the cave with the big lantern.

"I thought you were going to do that," he said to Hal.

"Well, I was. But maybe we can find some more of the blue stones for
ourselves