Then with a grinding noise the ancient lock gave way and the cover slipped off. The boys gave a wild cry and sank to their knees beside the open chest. They couldn't speak. They could hardly think. They knelt there, bathing their hands in a wealth of golden coins and sparkling gems, a treasure that had defied the years under the sea, the old pirate's treasure come to life and glittering as brightly as it had on that day so long ago when the ship had sunk with the loss of all her crew.
If the boys had seemed crazy when Phil had emptied the little black bag of coins and gems before them, bringing them the first word of the treasure, they were ten times worse now.
They laughed, they danced, they shouted to one another. Steve scandalized Bimbo by seizing the black boy about the waist and whirling him madly about the cave, ending up in a gyrating mass of arms and legs as they slipped and landed on the floor together.
Even Jack Benton acted for a little while as though he had "gone loco." It was a long time before they could pull themselves together enough to open the other two chests.
When they finally came around to it, Dick grabbed the chisel--with which they had pried off the cover of the first chest--from Phil's hand, going to work on the second chest himself.
"You're getting stingy," he said, in reply to Phil's look of surprise. "You opened the first chest. Now it's my turn."
"Why care who opens it," retorted Phil, "as long as it gets opened. Only, hurry up, you old snail, or I may be tempted to give you some help, anyway."
As a matter of fact it did take some time to get the cover off for Dick was so excited his hands trembled and he seemed to lack his usual amount of strength.
However, although the impatient boys offered insistently to help him, he kept them off, offering to "lay them out" with the chisel if they got too "fresh."
At last the cover gave and they found themselves staring fascinated into a chest whose contents seemed at first glance to fully equal in value the contents of the first one.
Without stopping for a closer look, they opened the third box, Steve officiating this time and Tom grumbling because there wasn't a fourth chest--to which Phil replied that if Tom would wait till the next day he would try to oblige him--and this one also, was heaped to the brim with shining gold pieces, interspersed with jewels of rare beauty and value.