nudging his sister Amy.

"And to think of all the time we wasted on that cipher!" observed Allen,
reproachfully.

This seemed to galvanize Betty into speech.

"I didn't know a thing about it!" she declared, earnestly. "I just
discovered it by accident. Of course when I found there was a
difference in depth between the inside and the outside of the box I
began to suspect something. But I didn't dream of--this!"

She motioned to the white package in the secret compartment--a package
she had not, as yet, touched.

"But how in the world did you come to discover it, Betty dear?" asked
Mollie, with wonder-distended eyes.

"It seemed to open itself," the Little Captain replied. "I just dropped
the end of the ruler in the box, and it sprang open."

"You must have touched the secret catch, or spring," was Allen's
opinion.

"Let's have a look!" proposed Will. "I always did want to see how one of
those hidden mysteries worked. Pass it over, Betty!"

"Indeed, don't you do it!" cried Mollie. "Let's see, first, what is in
that package, Betty. You said it was a treasure; didn't you?"

"Well, that's what I said," admitted Betty. "But it will probably be
some more meaningless cipher."

"Oh, do open it!" begged Grace. "I'm all on pins and needles----"

"Thinking it may be--chocolates!" teased her brother.

She aimed a futile blow at him, which he did not even dodge.

Betty reached in and lifted the white tissue-paper package from its
hiding place. It almost completely filled the space. There was a
rustling sound, showing that the paper had acquired no dampness by being
buried under the sand in the box.

"Put it on the table," suggested Allen, removing the box from Betty's
lap. She turned to the table, near which she had been sitting, when her
experiment resulted so unexpectedly. On the soft cloth she laid the
paper packet.

"Now don't breathe!" cautioned Mollie, "or the spell will be broken."

No one answered her. They were all too intent on what would be disclosed
when those paper folds should be turned back.

"It looks just like--just like--pshaw! I know I've seen packages just
like that before, somewhere," said Will. "But I can't, for the life of
me, think where it was."

"Was it in a jeweler's window?" asked Amy, in a low voice, from where
she stood beside him.

"That's it, little girl! You've struck it!" Will cried, and impulsively
he held out his hand, which Amy clasped, blushing the while.

"What's that