little wind was rapidly drying the
dampness. The wind even dried some of the sand on the box, and scattered
it in a little rattling shower on a bit of paper on the beach.

The girls did not seem to know what to say. Betty looked back from her
glance across the bay, in the direction of the now unseen boat, in time
to notice Mollie, ever neat, wiping her damp hands on her pocket
handkerchief. Amy was looking at the queerly-carved stick which had
served her as a shovel to dig in the sand.

"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Grace. "Isn't it wonderful! It really is a box!"

"Yes, it's certainly _that_, all right!" added the more practical
Mollie.

"And if it should contain treasure!" went on Grace, rather at a loss
because her chocolates were all gone.

"Old Tin-Back should have found this," commented Mollie.

"Or the boys," spoke Betty. "I wish they were here."

"The idea!" exploded Mollie. "As if we didn't know what to do as well as
though the boys were here to tell us. That isn't our Little Captain; is
it, girls?" she asked the others.

"Oh, I only meant about the legal end of it," said Betty, quickly.

"Oh, I see! She just wants--Allen!" remarked Grace.

"No, it isn't that at all!" Betty cried, quickly. "But you know there
are certain rules about things found at sea, or near the sea. For
instance, if this is above the high-water mark it might be, the property
of whoever owns the land back there."

"Well, it's above high-water mark all right," declared Amy. "Though I
think in a heavy blow or at a high tide the water might come up here.
But we can't go by rules now; can we, Betty?"

"Oh, I suppose not."

"I'm going to take the box home with us," Mollie declared. "It may have
been washed ashore from some ship, and there may be nothing in it
but----"

"Tobacco!" exclaimed Grace with a laugh.

"Tobacco?" questioned the others in a chorus.

"It looks just like a tobacco box," the chocolate-loving girl went on.
"But perhaps it isn't."

"Of course it isn't!" declared Mollie.

"I'm sure it contains treasure," said Amy. "Oh, if it should! Wouldn't
the old lobsterman be surprised?"

"Well, he wouldn't be the only one to be surprised," spoke Mollie.

"I think we would ourselves," added Betty, with a laugh. "Now, girls,
let's see what we really have found."

With a bunch of seaweed Mollie brushed from the box the sand that clung
to it. Then the outdoor girls gathered around the case as it rested on
the log.

"Look!" ex