ther or not
they had discovered the treasure cave.

Tom went down, and Dick and Sam came after him. The bottom of the hole
was rough. On one side was another opening, leading to what certainly
looked like a cave of considerable extent.

"Drop down the lantern," called Dick, and Captain Barforth did so. With
the lantern lit Dick crawled into the side opening and his brothers
followed.

"This is certainly a cave," said Tom. "But whether it is the right one
or not remains to be seen."

"It must be a part of the original cave, Tom," answered Dick. "Because
it is in the spot covered by the other. But it may not be the part that
contained the treasure."

They crawled around, over the rough rocks and fallen dirt. It was a
dangerous proceeding, for they did not know but what some stones might
fall at any moment and crush them.

Suddenly Tom and Sam uttered the single exclamation:

"Look!"

Dick looked and then he, too, gave a cry. From under the edge of a rock
they saw one end of a heavy wooden chest. A part of the side was split
away and through the hole they saw a quantity of gold money!

CHAPTER XXX

HOMEWARD BOUND--CONCLUSION

"The treasure!"

The boys uttered the cry together and it thrilled those at the top of
the opening as nothing else could have done.

"What's that?" cried Mr. Rover.

"We have found one of the chests," answered Dick.

"And it's full of gold pieces!" added Sam and Tom in a breath.

"Then this is the treasure cave after all," said Captain Barforth. "I
must say you are in luck."

"I'd like to go down and have a look," put in Songbird eagerly.

All wanted to look, and in the end they came down one after another by
way of the rope. The rock on the chest was lifted away and the strong
box was dragged forth into the light. Sure enough, it was filled with
gold, just as Bahama Bill had said it would be.

"Bahama Bill said there were three chests," said Mr. Rover, after the
excitement of finding so much wealth had somewhat subsided. "Do you see
anything of the other two?"

"Not yet--but they must be somewhere near," answered his oldest son.

Regardless of the danger of falling rocks, they commenced to dig around
where the chest had been uncovered. They soon found a second chest,
which contained more gold in leather bags, and also a quantity of
jewelry and precious stones. Then, when they were almost ready to give
up work for the day, they discovered the third chest, smashed fl