Shortly after Curlie Carson and the college girl left the island, a storm arose; not a violent storm, but a storm nevertheless. Storms are ever changing the face of nature, not alone in the sky, but on the earth as well. This storm set the waters of the lake into motion. Waves, with increasing violence, beat on the sandy shore that lay close to the breakwaters on which Curlie and the girl had stood. Tiny particles of sand were loosened from the mass and thrown high in air. The north wind caught them. Like a kitten with a ball, it teased them, tossing them about. In time it had a million of these racing1 about at its will.
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But now one particle, tiring of the play, dropped into a shovel2 mark and stayed there. Others followed and soon there was no mark. Some lodged3 in a footprint and in time the footprint joined the shovel mark in oblivion.
When Curlie and the girl, still troubled over the fact that the mysterious package had not been found, and that Curlie was responsible for the loss, and still wondering what those men had meant to bury and if after all they had buried it, arrived at the spot where the men had labored4, they found it flat as a floor. Not a trace of any digging could be found.
“No one dug here,” said Grace Palmer in disgust. “We must have made a mistake.”
“No,” said Curlie, positively5. “This is the place. Back here in the rocks is a piece of driftwood with a nail in it. I scratched myself on the nail.
“Here,” he said with a laugh, “is the scratch, and there the nail.”
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“We will dig here,” he said a moment later.
There was no mistaking the cause of the pick-up in their heart beats as Curlie threw out the first shovelful6 of sand. The girl had stayed up until the wee hours, reading in her father’s library. She had found there a description of the crown jewels of Russia. Curiously7 enough, the thing that had interested her most was the description of a tiny train, made of platinum8 and set with diamonds, that was made to fit snugly9 in a large golden egg. This she knew was a perfect model of the one time private railway train of the Czar. “Only a plaything for a prince,” she told herself. “But what a plaything!”
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.
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For a long time the shovel uncovered nothing. They were beginning to despair when at last it touched something hard.
“At last!” Curlie breathed hard.
“If only it is!” The girl’s eyes shone.
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.”
He threw it down on the sand.
The girl took the trouble to unwrap it, but was hardly more impressed when she found it contained a very old and much tarnished10 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.”
182
They made their way toward the Planetarium11 which in the light of day lost most of its mystery.
At their request the aged12 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 dome13. Inside this dome one may sit with comfort while a great bug-like affair made of steel and glass, winking14 and blinking through its scores of white eyes, reproduces for him the starry15 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 projector16.
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.
“Where did you get that?” he demanded.
“In the sand.” Grace stared at him.
“What sand?”
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“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.
“And now,” he added, “since you have done me and this institution I serve a very great service, what can I do for you?”
“One little thing,” the girl smiled. “Find us the crown jewels of Russia. You’ll know them when you see them. There is a tiny platinum train set with diamonds that is kept in a golden egg.”
The professor stared at her as if he believed she had lost her senses. But when the full story was told over a cup of coffee in the professor’s study, he readily enrolled18 himself as one of that growing band who were pledged to unravel19 the mystery of the missing parcel.
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The human mind behaves in a strange manner at times. Here were a boy and a girl who had come to a man-made island to search for stolen treasure. They had happened upon men who were burying an ancient telescope, and had been frightened away.
Returning next day when they might have searched the whole island at their leisure, they unearthed20 the telescope, returned it to the custodian21, had their morning coffee, and went away.
The island with its grove22 of young cottonwoods, its many breakwaters, its drifting sands and its three shacks23 of driftwood built by men of strange names and no reputation, remained quite unsearched.
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1
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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2
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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3
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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4
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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5
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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6
shovelful
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| n．一铁铲 | |
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7
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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8
platinum
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| n.白金 | |
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9
snugly
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| adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地 | |
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10
tarnished
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| （通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏 | |
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11
planetarium
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| n.天文馆；天象仪 | |
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12
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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13
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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14
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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15
starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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16
projector
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| n.投影机，放映机，幻灯机 | |
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17
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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18
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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19
unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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20
unearthed
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| 出土的（考古） | |
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21
custodian
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| n.保管人，监护人；公共建筑看守 | |
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22
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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23
shacks
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| n.窝棚，简陋的小屋( shack的名词复数 ) | |
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