Here the floor of the cavity was not of rock. It was plain to be
seen by the light of the lantern that the horse had stood in here
and stamped and dug the dirt up with his sharp hoofs.
In a hole that he had thus excavated Grace had seen an object that
glistened in the lamplight. "See here," she repeated. "What do you
suppose this can be?"
Walter was too busy watching the horse to attend to her. But the
other girls came. Nan dropped down on her knees beside the smaller
girl. Almost immediately she cried out:
"It is! Oh! Look!"
"Good," said Bess, crowding closer. "I don't know what it is, but I
am looking. Mercy me, Nan Sherwood! what is that?"
"A silver candlestick," said Nan in a hushed tone. "Girls, we have
found the Mexican treasure!"
Breakfast was entirely forgotten after that. The coffee boiled over
back in the big cave, and when Tom thought of it, there was only a
little extract of Mocha in the bottom of the burned-black pot!
They brought the spades into play again. They unearthed a cavity in
the floor of the passage into which had been heaped haphazard a
mass of silver and gold ornaments, vases, bags of jewelry, church
plate, and of money in quantity to make them all go half mad with
delight. Such a treasure-trove none of them had really believed
existed.
They were hours in becoming calm enough to decide what should be
done. Then Frank was sent off on the swiftest pony to the ranch
house to report to Rhoda's father, and to bring back a wagon in
which to carry away the heavier ornaments and vessels that Lobarto
had stolen from the churches in his own country.
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