talk about a jeweler's?" asked Allen.

But no one answered him.

For, at that moment Betty had folded back the white paper, and there to
the gaze of all, flashing in the sun which glinted in through an open
window, lay a mass of sparkling stones. Thousands of points of light
seemed to reflect from them. They seemed to be a multitude of dewdrops
shaken from the depths of some big rose, and dropped into the midst of a
rainbow.

"Oh!" cried Betty, shrinking back. "Oh!" She could say no more.

"Look!" whispered Grace, and her voice was hoarse.

"Well, I'll be jiggered!" gasped Will.

"Diamonds!" cried Allen. "Betty, you've discovered a fortune in
diamonds!"

"Diamonds?" ejaculated Amy, and her voice was a questioning one.

Then there came a silence while they all looked at the flashing heap of
stones--there really was a little heap of them.

"Can they really be diamonds?" asked Betty, finding her voice at last.

Allen reached over her shoulder and picked up one of the larger stones.
He held it to the light, touched it to the tip of his tongue, rubbed it
with his fingers and laid it back. He did the same thing with two
others.

"Well?" asked Will, at length. "What's the verdict?"

"I'm no expert, of course," Allen said, slowly, and he seemed to have
difficulty in breathing, "but I really think they are diamonds."

"Diamonds? All those?" cried Mollie. "Why, they must be
worth--millions!"

They all laughed at that. It seemed a relief from the strain, and to
break the spell that hung over them all.

"Hardly millions," spoke Allen, "but if they are really diamonds they
will run well up into the thousands."

"But are they really diamonds?" asked Betty.

"As I said, I'm no expert," Allen repeated, "but a jeweler once told me
several ways of testing diamonds, and these answer to all those tests.
Of course it wouldn't be safe to take my word. We should have a jeweler
look at these right away."

"I knew I had seen paper like that before," Will said. "It's just the
kind you see loose diamonds displayed in around holiday times in
jewelers' windows."

"That doesn't make these diamonds, just because they are in the proper
kind of paper," scoffed Roy. "I think they're only moonstones."

"Moonstones aren't that color at all," declared Henry. "They are sort of
a smoky shade."

"I guess Roy means rhinestones," said Amy, with a smile.

"That's it," he agreed. "They're only fakes. Who would leave a lot of
diamonds