grinning. "Still, I live in hopes. Found one that's got a cross on the
shell. Might be that's another mark to tell how the old hermit inside has
taken to hatching out a pearl."

"Well, let's make one more try of, say half an hour," proposed Max.

"All right," agreed the other. "It's getting a little tiresome, I tell you.
And I cut my toe on a sharp shell. Sing out when the time's up, Max. Here
goes to try along that point. Looks promising there."

"Yes, because some sort of a bar sets out from the shore. I'll head that
way, too, only covering different ground."

Max kept up the good work until the time limit had been reached. By then
the two boys had about all the load they cared to carry over the trail to
the camp.

"Hope nobody holds us up on the way, and makes us hand over all we've got,"
suggested Bandy-legs. "Not that he'd get much out of me, because
thirty-seven cents is about the limit of my fortune now; but I'm thinking
of them pearls you carry, Max."

"I've still left the coin purse pinned on the inside of my shirt," remarked
Max; "so the chances are he wouldn't be apt to find it on me."

They finished dressing, and, throwing the partly filled gunny sacks over
their shoulders, started back along the trail for camp, Max in the lead.
"Huh!" remarked Bandy-legs, as he trotted along at the heels of his
companion, "the fun about all this thing is the uncertainty of it. Ain't
that so, Max?"