expect to find?"

"I don't know that I expected to find anything," answered Chetwood
Belding. "But I'll show you what I _did_ find," and he drew from his
pocket an old knife and placed it in Lance's hand.

The latter turned it over, and whistled under his breath. "I ought to
know this old toad-stabber," he said. "Broken corkscrew--yes; small
blade broken short off, too. Why, Chet, that's Short and Long's knife!"

"That's right."

"And you mean to say you picked it up in the cavern?"

"Right in that place where somebody had been camping," declared his
chum. "But don't say anything about it. We can't do anything toward
finding him with all these girls about. But, later----"

"You bet!" agreed Lance.

So the boys rather hurried the departure of the crowd for the place
where the boats had been left, and where they had lunched. The walk
through the cove did not take long, and the party, happy and laughing,
crowded out upon the shore of the cove in front of the subterranean
passage.

Instantly one of the twins drew the attention of all by uttering a
startled little scream.

"What's the matter with you--er--Sister?" demanded the other Lockwood
girl, with a chuckle.

"That wasn't the man we saw with Tony!" declared the girl who had cried
out.

"What man?"

"The pirate," said the twin.

"How do you know?" demanded Laura, laughing.

"For I just saw him again. And he couldn't have gotten through the cave
ahead of us."

"There are prowlers about," declared Chet to Lance.

"What sort of a looking man, Miss Lockwood?" demanded Lance.

"Oh, he's all bushy black whiskers and hair. I only saw the upper part
of his body again. He dodged down behind that boulder yonder."

"Say! the other cave opening is over there," cried Bobby Hargrew.

"And that's a fact," admitted Chet.

"Let's see if the boats are all right," cried Lance, starting on a run
for the landing.

"And the rest of the lunch, dear boy!" cried Prettyman Sweet, following
him. "Weally, if that has been stolen it is a calamity."

CHAPTER XIV

THE NEW SHELL

The calamity had occurred!

Soulful were the wails of Purt Sweet. Not a crumb of food left in the
girls' hampers when the party set out through the cave for the middle of
Cavern Island was now left to appease Mr. Sweet's appetite.

"The lone pirate has done his fell work, sure enough," Laura Belding
declared. "And how hungry he must have been, Nellie! He took that pie
you made that