Page:The Eight-Oared Victors.djvu/67

Rh "Well, maybe it is," admitted Sid, "but kindly translate. It's too deep for us."

"Look here," went on Frank. "That jeweler saw us at the wreck; didn't he?"

"No question about that," admitted Tom.

"And we helped him look around. We were here first; and we said we didn't see anything of the stuff."

"No question about that," admitted Sid, following Tom's lead.

"And now here we go and find the empty box—it has every appearance of having been forced open by human hands. We take it to Mr. Farson, and say—'Here's your box, Mr. Jeweler; but it's empty—that's just how we found it, honest it is!' Say, wouldn't he smell a rat right away, and think we had the stuff?"

"No question about that," declared Phil. "That ends it! Frank is right, we'll have to keep mum about this for our own sakes, though I don't like it. It makes us look guilty."

"Not a bit of it," declared Frank, stoutly. "It gives us a chance to find out who the guilty party is."

"Who do you suppose it is?" asked Tom.

"I haven't the least idea," answered the California lad, quickly. "Someone may have been on the island before we were, and found, and rifled, the box; or that person may have come