the tea and bread-and-butter, that any one found time to regret the
golden treasure which had been left scattered on the floor of the
underground passage, and which, indeed, no one had thought of till
now, since the moment when Cyril burnt his fingers at the flame of
the last match.

'What owls and goats we were!' said Robert. 'Look how we've always
wanted treasure--and now--'

'Never mind,' said Anthea, trying as usual to make the best of it.
'We'll go back again and get it all, and then we'll give everybody
presents.'

More than a quarter of an hour passed most agreeably in arranging
what presents should be given to whom, and, when the claims of
generosity had been satisfied, the talk ran for fifty minutes on
what they would buy for themselves.

It was Cyril who broke in on Robert's almost too technical account
of the motor-car on which he meant to go to and from school--

'There!' he said. 'Dry up. It's no good. We can't ever go back.
We don't know where it is.'

'Don't YOU know?' Jane asked the Phoenix, wistfully.

'Not in the least,' the Phoenix replied, in a tone of amiable
regret.

'Then we've lost the treasure,' said Cyril. And they had.