like that in a box in the sand?"

"No one would leave them there purposely, to lose them," said Allen.
"But I think we've stumbled on a bigger mystery here than we dreamed of.
I am sure these are diamonds!"

"I--I'm afraid to hope so," said Betty, with a little laugh.

"Well, it's easy to tell," Allen said. "There's a jeweler in town. He
probably doesn't handle many diamonds, but he ought to be able to tell a
real one from a false. Let's take one of the smaller stones and ask him
what he thinks."

"Oh, yes, let's find out--and as soon as we can!" cried Grace. "Isn't it
just--delicious!"

"Delicious!" scoffed Will. "You'd think she was speaking
of--chocolates!"

CHAPTER XIV

SEEKING CLUES

The first shock of the discovery over (and it was a shock to them all,
boys included), the young folks began to examine the stones more calmly.
They spoke of them as diamonds, and hoped they would prove to be stones
of value, and not mere imitations.

There were several of fairly large size, and others much smaller; some,
according to Allen, of only a sixteenth-karat in weight.

"But stones of even that small size may be very valuable if they are
pure and well cut," he said.

"And what would be the value of the largest ones?" asked Betty, for
there were one or two stones that Will was sure were three or four
karats in size.

"I'd be afraid to guess," Allen said. "We'd better have them valued."

The girls handled the stones, holding them on their fingers and trying
to imagine how they would look set in rings.

"Engagement rings?" asked Grace of Betty, who had suggested that.

"Silly! I didn't say anything of the kind!"

"Well, it isn't what you say, it's what you mean."

It did not seem they could look at the stones enough. Every specimen was
examined again and again, held up to the light, and turned this way and
that in the sun so that the sparkle might be increased.

"Well, I suppose we might as well put them away," said Betty, with a
sigh, after a while. "It's no use wishing----"

"Wishing what?" demanded Mollie, quickly.

"That they were ours."

"Ours! I don't see why they aren't!" exclaimed Grace, quickly. "Of
course Mollie and Amy dug them up, but----"

"Oh, don't hesitate on my account!" Mollie said, quickly. "If we share
at all we share alike, of course."

"That's sweet of you, Billy," returned Betty. "But I don't see how we
can keep them. The diamonds, if such they are, must belong----"