Now, as Curlie dug, her hopes rose and fell. So, too, did Curlie’s, for the success or failure of this enterprise meant much to him. True, his youthful employer had sworn to stand by him; but this did not remove from Curlie’s shoulders the responsibility of having allowed a priceless package to escape from the hands of the law and come into the possession of those who openly regard themselves as enemies of the Government he gladly served.
For a long time the shovel uncovered nothing. They were beginning to despair when at last it touched something hard.
A moment of furious digging and then they uncovered—not the parcel-post package, but something long and slim, done up in oilskin.
“That,” said Curlie in disgust, “may interest some one. It does not interest me.”
The girl took the trouble to unwrap it, but was hardly more impressed when she found it contained a very old and much tarnished telescope.
“Oh, well,” she sighed, replacing it in its oilcloth covering, “we’ll take it along. May interest father.”
“We may as well have a look at that thing over there,” said Curlie with a sigh. “I don’t know of anything more exciting to do just now.”
They made their way toward the Planetarium which in the light of day lost most of its mystery.
At their request the aged professor made the sun, moon, stars and planets do their little part in their artificial universe.
The Planetarium, as you doubtless know, consists for the most part of a great white dome. Inside this dome one may sit with comfort while a great bug-like affair made of steel and glass, winking and blinking through its scores of white eyes, reproduces for him the starry heavens and throws in the planets, the moon and the stars for good measure. It was in this dome that the boy and girl had strayed in their flight of the night before. They had chanced to arrive just as the professor was testing some new form of projector.
With the light of day outside, all this seemed rather commonplace. But when they showed the professor what they had found beneath the sand, he fairly sprang at them.
“It was stolen early last evening.” He took it from her as if afraid it would disappear again.
“This,” he said, handling it with real affection, “is one of the oldest telescopes in existence; perhaps the oldest. When you think how much the telescope has done to widen man’s knowledge of the universe, you will know how priceless it is.