“The Macklin treasure!  We’ve found it!” cried Betty, beginning to dig like an excited terrier.  “Help me hunt, Bob!  It must be Mrs. Macklin’s treasure, mustn’t it?”

“Looks that way,” admitted Bob.

As he spoke he drew something from under the shadow of the rock that settled the question immediately.  Something that sparkled and glittered and slipped through his cold red fingers like glass.

“The emeralds!” breathed Betty.  “Oh, Bob, aren’t they beautiful!”

“Look, Betty!  That slab was forced outward not long ago.  Before that this treasure was concealed in a narrow crack between the two rocks.  That’s why no one was able to find it when the search was made soon after the loss!  Isn’t it great that we have found it?”

In a frenzy now, they dug, and when there seemed to be nothing more hidden under the accumulation of dirt and leaves, the two stared at each other in delighted amazement.  At their feet lay little jewel bags containing the pearls of which Norma had talked, the rose topazes, the dozen cameos.  Magnificent diamonds sparkled in a rusty case, ear-rings and rings lay in a little heap, and a handful of uncut stones was wrapped in a bit of chamois skin.  Solid silver pitchers and goblets and trays, sadly battered by being flung against the rocks, lay just as they had fallen until Bob and Betty had uncovered the leaves which, had so long covered them.

“How are we going to get it out of here?” asked Betty, when they had satisfied themselves there was nothing left undiscovered.

“That’s the pressing question,” confessed Bob.  “Incidentally, we have to get ourselves out, too.  I think we’d better walk on a bit, and look for some trail out.  One lucky thing, no one will take the treasure while we’re scouting.”

“Where do you suppose that goes to?” said Betty, when they had been tramping about five minutes.

She pointed to a rocky formation that led off into the side of the chasm.  It was evidently the mouth of a cave.

“I don’t know, of course,” admitted Bob.  “But I think we had better take a chance and follow it.  It will be dark, but so will the chasm in another half hour.  I’ll go first and you come after me.”

It was inky black in the cave, and there was no assurance that it would lead them anywhere and every prospect that they would have to retrace their steps.  He was careful to hint nothing of this to Betty, however, and she, on her part, determinedly stifled any complaint of weariness that rose to her lips.

It was an experience they both remembered all their lives—­that slow, halting groping through the winding cavern, where the rocky walls narrowed or widened without warning and the roof rose to great heights or dropped so low they must crawl on hands and knees.  The thought of the found treasure sustained them and gave them courage to keep on.

“I see a light!” cried Bob after what seemed to Betty hours of this.  “Betty, I do believe we’ve come to an opening!”