g beautiful about it, at all," snapped Bet. "If it
had been filled with treasure, then I could admire it."

Colonel Baxter laughed. But the girls at that moment could see nothing
to be happy about. Their faces were serious and troubled. It was not
alone for themselves that they had wanted the treasure. They had
planned on being able to help the professor, to make it possible for
Alicia to go to the famous specialist and be cured.

"Guard the chest well," continued Colonel Baxter. "It's valuable!"

"But there is no bullion or jewels!" Enid expressed her disappointment
with a frown.

"And no doubloons or louis d'or!" said Kit. "And I did want to see
one."

But Shirley laughed. "Come on, girls, what's the use of fretting over
a treasure that didn't exist. Let's be satisfied with the old chest
and call it a summer. For the rest of the time we'll complete our
study of rope throwing and bronco busting."

"Yes, we can do that--but where's the romance?" sighed Bet. "The
treasure had all the romance of the old days in the west. I did want
it to come true."

"Why, Bet Baxter!" exclaimed Kit Patten. "You say you've had no
romance! What do you call it when you stand off a couple of western
bad men, and recapture the tunnel all by yourself?"

"Did you do that, Bet?" asked her father, turning on his daughter with
a frown.

"Please don't think I intended to keep it from you, Dad. I was waiting
until we went back to Lynnwood," Bet answered penitently.

Her father laughed. "Oh, Bet, girl, when will you learn to be
cautious? And when are you going to grow up and be ladylike?"

"Not yet, Dad. There will be time enough to grow up when I get to be
thirty. Until then, I want to be just a girl and have lots of fun and
adventure."

"You seem to be getting your wish, as you always do," Enid said as she
tried to pat Bet's tousled locks into place.

"I didn't get my wish this time. Far from it. I wished for heaps of
treasure, and I get nothing but a brass-bound chest."

Tommy Sharpe was gazing at the mud-crusted box with interest and
suddenly burst out; "Say, Judge, if Kie Wicks gets an idea that the
chest is worth more than a dollar and a half, he'll try to take it away
from the girls. Don't you think we'd better take it back to the ranch?"

"You're right, Tommy. It may not be what we planned for, but just the
same, the professor and the girls put up a fight for it and it belongs
to them."

"And I love