are very strong."

And sure enough, it did not take her more than a moment to make an
opening and thrust her hand into it. What she found there she drew out
and laid in Leslie's lap, while the two girls gasped simultaneously at
the singular object they had discovered.

To begin with, it was encrusted with sand and corroded by the contact of
salt air and seawater. But when they had brushed off the sand and
polished it as well as they could with the burlap bag, it stood forth in
something of its original appearance--a small box or casket of some heavy
metal, either bronze or copper, completely covered with elaborate
carving. It was about six inches long, three wide, and two in height. It
stood on four legs, and, upon examination, the carving proved to be the
body of a winged serpent of some kind, completely encircling the box, the
head projecting over the front edge where the lock or fastening of the
cover would be. The legs of the receptacle were the creature's claws. The
carving was remarkably fine and delicate in workmanship.

"My gracious!" breathed Phyllis. "Did you ever see anything so strange!
What can it be?"

"And isn't it beautiful!" added Leslie. "What can that queer creature be
that's carved on it? Looks to me like the pictures of dragons that we
used to have in fairy-story books."

"That's just what it is! You've hit it! I couldn't think what it was at
first--it's so wound around the box!" cried Phyllis. "But this thing is
certainly a box of some kind, and there must be some opening to it and
probably something in it. Let's try now to get it open."

But that was easier said than done. Try as they would, they could find no
way of opening the casket. The dragon's head came down over the lock or
clasp, and there was no vestige of keyhole or catch or spring. And so
intricate was the carving, that there was not even any crack or crevice
where the lid fitted down over the body of the box into which they could
insert Phyllis's penknife blade to pry it open by force. The casket and
its contents was a baffling mystery, and the wicked looking little dragon
seemed to guard the secret with positive glee, so malicious was its
expression!

Phyllis at last threw down her knife in disgust and rattled the box
impatiently. "Something bumps around in there!" she declared. "I can hear
it distinctly, but I don't believe we'll ever be able to get at it. I
never saw such a queer affair! Let's try to break it with an ax. Hav