to say, "we must get the earth away from
it."

He scooped up handful after handful, and David, sitting on his heels,
watched the operations with deep solemnity. He could see a bit of this
mysterious object now, and presently he remarked:

"I believe it's only a bit of broken china."

"Nonsense!" said Ambrose hoarsely. His face was scarlet; he could
hardly speak. Ghosts, robbers, and all other terrors forgotten, his
whole soul was bent on unearthing this long-dreamed-of treasure.

"I can feel it," he said at last. "I can get my fingers round it. But
it sticks fast."

"Take my knife," said David, producing a stout weapon from his pocket.

Ambrose gently eased away the earth round the unknown object. Trembling
with triumph he extracted it from its bed and raised it on high:

"Broken china indeed!" he exclaimed scornfully.

It was a small earthenware crock of quaint shape with two very tiny
handles or ears, and so incrusted with mould that only here and there
you could see that it was of a deep-red colour. The top was covered by
a lid.

Ambrose laid it on the grass between himself and David, and both the
boys surveyed it with awe. They had really made a discovery in
Rumborough Camp!

"Do you suppose it's Roman?" said David at last, drawing a long breath
and speaking very softly.

"What else should it be?" said Ambrose. He scraped away some of the
earth clinging to the jar, touching it reverently as though it were a
sacred object. "It's just as Roman as it can be. Look at the shape!"

"It's something like the pot Miss Unity sent us the honey in last
summer," said David, with his eyes fixed on the crock.

"Nonsense!" said Ambrose sharply. "I tell you it's an antique. Why, I
saw rows and rows like it in the museum at Nearminster. How stupid you
are!" He spoke with some heat. David, on his side, did not like to be
treated with scorn, which he felt he had not deserved.

"_I_ found it," he said quietly, "_I_ was digging."

"I got it out," said Ambrose, still bending over the treasure.

"You'd have given up digging without me," persisted David. "It's just
as much mine as yours."

"Well, anyhow, we settled to go halves in all we found," said Ambrose,
"and you wouldn't have known it was valuable without me. A honey-pot
indeed!"

He laughed jeeringly.

David was becoming more and more hurt in his mind. He sat looking
sulkily at the antique, and when Ambrose laughed he had half a mind to
ta