THE BOYS MAKE A DISCOVERY

The boys had landed at a spot that was particularly inviting in appearance, and they stopped for several minutes to take in the natural beauty surrounding them.  There were tall and stately palms, backed up by other trees, trailing vines of great length, and numerous gorgeous flowers.  A sweet scent filled the air, and from the woods in the center of the isle came the song of tropical birds.

“What a fine camping place!” murmured Sam.  “A fellow could spend several weeks here and have lots of fun, bathing and boating, and hunting birds, and fishing,” and his brothers agreed with him.

Yet the beauty of Treasure Isle was soon forgotten in their anxiety to locate the cave.  They had a general idea that it was in the center of the horseshoe curve, and that center was quite a distance from where they had been brought ashore.

“The best we can do is to tramp along the water’s edge,” said Dick.  “Then when we reach the center we can go inland.”

“We haven’t over an hour,” replied his youngest brother.  “By that time it will be too dark to do much more.  And we’ll have to find some suitable place to camp for the night.”

“Oh, we can camp anywhere,” cried Tom.  “It’s good enough—­just for one night.”

They began to trudge along the edge of the horseshoe curve, over smooth sand.  But this did not last, and presently they came to a muddy flat and went down to their ankles.  Dick was ahead and he cried to the others.

“Stop!  It’s not fit to walk here!”

“Why, it’s like a bog!” declared Sam, after testing it.

“We’ll have to go inland a distance,” said Tom.  “Come on,” and he turned back and struck out for the palms and bushes beyond.

It was then that the Rover boys began to realize what was before them.  Scarcely had they penetrated the interior for fifty yards when they found themselves in a perfect network of trailing vines.  Then, after having pulled and cut their way through for fifty yards more, they came to a spot that was rocky and covered with a tangle of thorny bushes.

“Wow!” ejaculated Tom, after scratching his hand and his leg.  “This is something prime, I must confess!”

“What I call hunting a treasure with a vengeance,” added Dick, dryly.

“I move we go back,” came from Sam.  “We seem to be stuck in more ways than one.”

“Perhaps it is better traveling just beyond,” declared Dick.  “I am not going to turn back just yet anyway.”

He took the lead, breaking down the thorny bushes as best he could, and Sam and Tom followed closely in his footsteps.  It was rather dark among the bushes and almost before the three knew it they had fallen headlong into a hollow.

“Well, I never!”

“This is coming down in a hurry!”

“Is this the treasure cave?”

Such were the exclamations of the three lads as they picked themselves up out of the dirt, which, fortunately for them, was soft and yielding.  Nobody had been hurt, for which they were thankful.