"Your father went to sleep," he said to George.
"Tim, don't lick me like that!
And George, I went in— and a bit of the box dropped on the floor— and it woke him up!"
"Golly!" said George.
"What happened?"
"I crouched down behind his chair till he went to sleep again," said Julian.
"Then I fled.
Now— let's see what's in here.
I don't believe your father's even tried to see!"
He hadn't.
The tin lining was intact.
It had rusted with the years of lying in the wet, and the lid was so tightly fitted down that it was almost impossible to move it.
But once George began to work at it with her pocket-knife, scraping away the rust, it began to loosen— and in about a quarter-of-an-hour it came off!
The children bent eagerly over it.
Inside lay some old papers and a book of some kind with a black cover.
Nothing else at all.
No bar of gold. No treasure.
Everyone felt a little bit disappointed.
"It's all quite dry," said Julian, surprised.
"Not a bit damp.
The tin lining kept everything perfect."
He picked up the book and opened it.
"It's a diary your great-great-great-grandfather kept of the ship's voyages," he said.
"I can hardly read the writing.
It's so small and funny."
George picked up one of the papers.
It was made of thick parchment, quite yellow with age.
She spread it out on the sand and looked at it.
The others glanced at it too, but they couldn't make out what it was at all.
It seemed to be a kind of map.
"Perhaps it's a map of some place he had to go to," said Julian.
But suddenly George's hands began to shake as she held the map, and her eyes gleamed brilliantly as she looked up at the others. She opened her mouth but didn't speak.
"What's the matter?" said Julian, curiously.
"What's up?
Have you lost your tongue?"
George shook her head and then began to speak with a rush.
"Julian!
Do you know what this is?
It's a map of my old castle— of Kirrin Castle— when it wasn't a ruin.
And it shows the dungeons!
And look— just look what's written in this corner of the dungeons!"
She put a trembling finger on one part of the map.
The others leaned over to see what it was— and, printed in old-fashioned letters was a curious word.
INGOTS
"Ingots!" said Anne, puzzled.
"What does that mean?
I've never heard that word before."
But the two boys had.
"Ingots!" cried Dick.
"Why— that must be the bars of gold.