ay--you see the bushes hide it completely. But
there is another and a larger opening at the other end--that's the one
we stumbled into in the first place."

The two men listened to his words attentively, and when he had finished
set about little explorations of their own.

"You say there is another opening at the farther side?" one of them
inquired, pausing in the act of pushing aside the bushes. "That probably
is the main one."

"I think so," Will agreed, "but they both lead to the same place."

Satisfied on this point, the two continued their investigations. They
disappeared within the cave and the young folks waited impatiently for
their reappearance.

"Do you suppose they will bring the bags out here?" asked Mollie
eagerly. "If they do, then we can really see what the things are like."

"I hope so," Amy stated. But Betty started to speak dreamily, saying:

"What will those poor old gypsies do when they come back and find the
place cleared out?"

"They'll probably all go to the penitentiary," said Frank calmly. "The
authorities will be on the lookout for them and they'll get caught all
right when they do come back."

"Oh!" said Grace, horror in her tone; for so far that side of the
question had not occurred to her. "It's terrible to think of sending
those poor things to jail."

"Well, but they have earned it," Allen argued. "They must have been
getting away with this thing for years."

"It's a wonder Aunt Elvira never suspected anything," said Mollie,
frankly puzzled. "Why, she didn't even mention the gypsies."

"Probably thought the story too old to tell," Roy suggested. "We
wouldn't have believed there was such a place on Pine Island ourselves
if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes."

"I suppose not," Mollie admitted, and then the sheriff and his deputy
emerged into the daylight once more and each brought with him a bag.

"Now we will find out how far their rascality has gone," one of the men,
the elder of the two, asserted. "Perhaps you don't know it," he added,
untying the fastenings of the first bag, "but you young people have done
the community a great service. People all over are complaining of
stolen property, and, although we have suspected the gypsies for some
time, so far we haven't been able to prove anything. However, this
discovery of yours changes things considerably. Ah, what have we here?"

The sun struck full upon the brilliant mass, making it glow and sparkle
like a jewel. There w