"
"I did," answered the young inventor, recollecting how he had
taken out some of the braces and inserted new ones, then painted
the interior of the compartment. "What is in the braces, anyhow?"
"The sparkler--a big diamond--in a hollow place in the wood,
kid!" exclaimed Happy Harry, blurting out the words. "I'm not
going to let Tod Boreck get away with it while we stay in jail."
"Take out all the braces that haven't been moved and have a look,"
suggested Mr. Sharp. Tom only had to remove two, those farthest
back, for all the others had, at one time or another, been changed
or taken away by the thief.
One of the blocks did not seem to have anything unusual about it,
but at the sight of the other Tom could not repress a cry. It was
the one that seemed to have had a hole bored in it and then
plugged up again. He remembered his father noticing it on the
occasion of overhauling the boat.
"The sparkler's in there," said the tramp as he saw the brace.
"Boreck was after it several times, but he never pulled out the
right one."
With his knife Tom dug out the putty that covered the round hole
in the block. No sooner had he done so than there rolled out into
his hand a white object. It was something done up in tissue
paper, and as he removed the wrapper, there was a flash in the
sunlight and a large, beautiful diamond was revealed.
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