It was impossible for Sackett to escape to the mountains without being seen for Jim could see all around the thicket, and if the man tried to slip from the other side and continue his flight Jim would surely spot him. And yet, his object in running into the brush also puzzled Jim. What could he gain by that? In a few minutes the others would come up and they would be able to charge him and take him prisoner. It seemed to Jim that there was some deep scheme in the head of the outlaw, and so he watched with all his senses alert, keeping well out of gunshot.
In this position Don and Ned found him when they galloped up a half hour later. Don fairly threw himself on his brother in his joy and Ned was equally enthusiastic. Jim was in rags but was a welcome sight to Don.
Jim explained the position of the outlaw in the thicket and they were undecided. No sound had come from the thicket all the time that Jim had been stationed there, and no one had left the place. Ned decided that they had better spread out and rush the cover.
“If we rush the woods on three sides we’ll have him,” he said. “He can’t shoot at all three of us at once, and we can fairly hurl ourselves into the place. By coming up on three different points we can prevent him from running out of one side of the thicket while we charge in another.”
“We must rush the thicket in a zigzag course,” Don put in. “If we don’t, we’re likely to be shot.”
Agreeing on a gunshot for signal purposes the three boys took up positions on three sides of the silent thicket and looked to their rifles. Each one could see the other and at last Ned discharged his gun. At top speed they bore down on the thicket, driving the horses in an irregular line.
To their astonishment there was no shot or sound from the thicket and they entered it together, to find it empty of life except for Sackett’s horse, which was quietly grazing close to the edge of the brush. The patch inclosed by trees was about twenty-five feet in diameter and was nothing more than a mere cluster of trees and bushes. The only thing to be seen, beside the horse, was a huge pile of stones. They jumped from the horses and looked at each other in perplexity.
“Now, where in the world did that man go?” demanded Ned, holding his rifle in instant readiness.
“You can search me!” answered Don, in bewilderment. “He’s not in the trees, is he?”
Ned looked quickly up and then shook his head. “No, there isn’t room enough in these trees for anyone to hide themselves. He must be in the place, because he certainly didn’t walk out while we were there.”
“He didn’t get away before you came, either,” Jim said. “I kept an eagle eye on the place, and he couldn’t have made it without my seeing him.”
“Well, he’s gone,” said Ned, walking to the horse and examining it. “Just vanished into thin air.”
Don was looking at the heap of stones. It was a high cairn, composed of stones which had been heaped there generations ago for some unknown reason, and moss had grown over the mound. Stones of a larger size made up the bottom and smaller stones lay above these. Near the base of it he found a straight slab with some Spanish lettering cut upon it.
“What is written on this stone?” he asked Ned. The young engineer bent over the stone, lighted a match and read the inscription.
“I can’t make it all out,” he replied, as the match expired in his hand. “But it seems to be the burial place of someone of importance. They had a custom once of taking a distinguished man and piling a cairn of stones over his grave. Sometimes the custom was for anyone who came past to add a stone to the pile and in that way it grew larger. This is one of those piles, and someone is buried down at the bottom of it.”
“All of which doesn’t bring us any nearer Mr. Sackett,” murmured Jim. “I’d give anything to know where that gentleman went to!”
“It just seems silly!” said Ned, impatiently. “You chase him in here and he simply disappears. That isn’t logical.”
“Look here!” cried Don, who had been moving around the pile of stones, and who was now on the other side. “Shouldn’t all of these stones be covered with moss?”
“I suppose so,” Ned replied. “Why.”
“Because they aren’t covered with moss on this side. The stones here are different than the others, and seem to be looser. Come here and give me a hand.”
The other two boys hastened to Don’s side and found that he was right. The stones to which he pointed had a brighter look than the others, and where the chinks and crevices of the other rocks had long since been stopped up by moss, these rocks were singularly free. Moreover, they were not well placed, and the boys were struck by the same idea.
“Ah, ha!” exclaimed Ned, as he began to tear away the upper stones. “I think I see a thing or two! Help me with these stones.”
The other two went to work with a will and soon the stones were pulled out and tossed to one side. To their intense satisfaction a large opening was revealed.
“Just as we thought, the opening of a tunnel!” exclaimed Don.
No sooner were the words out of Don’s mouth than a burst of flame came from the interior of the cairn and a shot whistled uncomfortably close to their heads. They made all haste to retreat, Ned dragging Jim aside somewhat roughly.
“He’s in there, all right,” said Jim, grimly.
“Yes, there must be a regular hiding place in there,” responded Ned. “The question is: how are we going to get him out? We certainly can’t rush him in there.”
“We can starve him out,” suggested Don.
“That will take too long,” said Ned. “However, if there isn’t anything else to do, we’ll do that.”
“I have another plan,” put in Jim. “We’ll smoke him out!”
“Smoke him out!” echoed Don and Ned.
“Sure, why not? I doubt if there is any other outlet to that cairn, except maybe some small air-hole, so we can easily smoke him out. Let’s gather some of this green wood and set it afire.”
Keeping a vigilant lookout toward the mouth of the uncovered tunnel so as to guard against a sudden dash or shot the three boys gathered some fairly green wood, with which they mixed some dry dead wood, and after piling it near the mouth of the tunnel, pushed it into place with the butts of their guns. They knew that the tunnel was straight and not wide enough to allow the penned outlaw to fire on them unless they stood directly before the opening, so they took excellent care to keep out of range. When the wood was piled Ned leaned cautiously forward and lighted the pile.
The dry wood caught fire and blazed up, touching the green wood and causing it to smoke. The boys stood with guns in readiness to fire a shot into the entrance of the cave if the bandit tried to make a thrust at the fire with a view to scattering it. The flames mounted higher, causing a heavy pall of smoke from the green wood.
“Take off your hats and fan it down the opening,” said Ned, suiting the words by the action. All three of the boys fanned the smoke vigorously, causing it to go into the tunnel.
They did not have long to wait for results. After a few moments they heard a violent coughing and then at last Sackett staggered out into the opening, still coughing and wiping his streaming eyes. Before he could use the gun which he held in his hands they were upon him and had disarmed him.
“Well, Squint Sackett,” said Ned, grimly, as they bound his hands with a piece of rope which was on his own horse. “We have you at last.”
The bandit replied by a fit of coughing that made him red in the face. Seeing that he was quite safe Don scattered the fire and stamped it out. The quest was now over and the bay pirate securely bound.
“You kids’ll pay for this!” the man said, hoarsely. “You can’t prove anything against me!”
“No, not at all,” said Don cheerfully. “Just stealing, breaking into a ranch, kidnapping, and a few other trifles. I guess we can put you where you belong this time. It was an unlucky day for you when you decided to attack Professor Scott.”
“Suppose we take a look through this cairn and see what it looks like before we go?” suggested Jim.
“All right,” agreed Ned. “But first we’ll tie this slippery gentleman up. He mustn’t be allowed to get away again.”
Sackett was tied to a convenient tree and then the boys made a torch of a dry stick of wood. With this in hand Ned took the lead and they entered the mouth of the tunnel, bending low to keep from scraping their heads on the roof of the passage. They went down on a slight slope for a distance of about four feet and then came to a single cave-like room hollowed out under the rocks.
“I see the whole business now,” remarked Ned, as they peered about the little cave. “This place was evidently some pirate’s den years ago, and in some way Sackett learned of it. You can see that the place was built for no other purpose, and the slab outside is a plain blind.”
Ned was right in what he said. Some forgotten pirate had purposely built the cairn retreat for a refuge in time of storm, when the law was hunting him along the coast. The room was large enough to contain a blanket and a low table that had evidently been constructed in the place. Overhead there was a concealed opening between the rocks, so that air could get into the place and the inmates could breathe. Once inside it was an easy matter to place the rocks before the opening in such a way that no one except a careful observer would ever discover it.
“It is a pretty clever hiding place,” remarked Don. “Anyone would have one chance in a hundred of finding it. I only stumbled across it because I was curious about the whole mound.”
“It pretty nearly stood Sackett in mighty good stead,” Jim said.
They left the cairn and went back to the thicket, to find the outlaw tugging frantically at his bonds, but when he saw them he sullenly ceased and became quiet. They untied him from the tree, leaving his hands tied, however, and helped him mount his horse. Then they left the thicket and started back for the ranch of the senorita.
Three miles from the ranch they were joined by the professor, the captain and Terry, who had become anxious because of their long absence and who had mounted and set out to find them. The meeting between the reunited friends was warm and they were glad to see that the author of all their troubles was taken at last.
“Well, Sackett,” said the professor, with a twinkle in his eyes. “It is certainly time that we took you. You had your inning at taking most of us and now it is our turn.”
“You won’t keep me long,” snarled the man.
“No, we won’t,” struck in Captain Blow. “But the big house with the bars will hold on to you for a good long time, my bucko!”
“Who are you?” demanded the bay pirate. “I never did anything to you!”
“No, but your friend Captain Ryan took a couple of my sailors with him when he sailed on his last voyage. He’s taking another sail right now, down to San Francisco to the jail.”
“Tryin’ to be funny, aren’t you?” retorted the river pirate.
“All of your gang is in custody, Sackett,” said Professor Scott, quietly.
They went back to the ranch, to find the senorita taking care of four wounded men, all of whom had slight wounds in the legs or shoulders. The overseer was one of them and he pleaded for mercy with the boys. Jim and Terry were undecided but Captain Blow and the professor were not.
“Can’t let these fellows go, any of ’em,” said the old captain. “He would have left you two boys’ bodies out there in the desert without thinking about it, according to Terry’s story, so you can’t let him go. Maybe he wouldn’t ever turn up to harm you again, but he’s a potential murderer and he’s better off behind bars.”
It was now late at night and the whole party accepted the invitation to remain at the ranch until morning, at which time they were to take the prisoners to Quito and see that they were taken from there to San Francisco. The night passed without incident and in the morning the whole party, with the wounded men in a wagon which belonged to the senorita, started for the sea coast.
The journey to Quito was a long one and all of them did not make it. The professor dropped off at the Scott ranch and the others kept on with the cargo of dangerous rascals. In due time they reached the town, made out the proper papers, and then waited two days for a government boat to come and take the prisoners away. When this was done they went back to the Scott ranch.
Subsequently Sackett, who was wanted for many types of crime, was placed behind the bars for the rest of his life and his crew of men each received all that was coming to them from their lives of dishonesty. The river pirates and bay pirate gang, of which Ryan and his crew formed the main branch, was broken up once and for all, and it was a good many years before any of them ever became free again.
Captain Blow left a message at Quito for his mate and then joined the party that was going home. He had been invited to go with them on their gold hunt and was eager to do so. But this time all stories had been told and the boys in particular were impatient to go and dig for it.
“Well, now we’ll go have a look at that Spanish gold,” said the captain, as they started on the return trip. “And I want to have a look at that ship moored in the sand for so long! They say some of those old-timers were pretty good sailors, but I don’t think much of a skipper who runs his windjammer under the ground!”
The sun had barely raised above the horizon on the following day before the ranch echoed to the preparations for the treasure hunt. The boys had slept poorly, looking forward eagerly to the time when they should be in close contact with the long buried ship in the desert sands. With hurry and bustle and good-natured shouts they prepared to set out.
Now that their minds had been relieved of all anxiety concerning Sackett and his gang their spirits soared as only those of the young adventurous can. They had spent a jolly evening around the fireplace on the previous day, talking, planning and laughing over some of Captain Blow’s humorous stories. It was late before they sought their beds, and the professor had been compelled to curb some of their animal vigor.
Jim had stood at the foot of his bed, surrounded by Ned, Don and Terry. Captain Blow and Professor Scott were preparing for bed in another room at the time. There had been some pillow throwing and now Jim was acting a part.
“This is the way Terry kicked the gun out of the overseer’s hand,” he said. He was in his pajamas at the time and the other boys were also ready for bed. Jim loosed a vigorous kick in front of him, but his enthusiasm proved his undoing. The force caused him to lose his balance, and amidst the shouts of delight of his companions he thumped to the floor, knocking the wind out of himself.
“That was some kick!” exclaimed Don, laughing. “No wonder the poor overseer lost his gun! If the kick had that much force I bet the gun sailed clear into the ocean!”
“I protest,” put in Terry, solemnly. “I never cut such a wild figure as that! Your imagination is running away with you, Jimmie, my boy!”
“Somebody else had better start running away!” puffed Jim, in huge disgust. “Just wait until I get up!”
Once up he bore down on the grinning Terry and bowled him onto the bed. Don reached for his foot, but received a hearty thrust in the stomach from the foot, which Jim declared he had tickled. Don then jumped on the wiggling chums and Ned stood laughing. But in a minute he too was drawn into hostilities. He attempted to pile pillows on the warring factions, who promptly turned upon him, and the four young men were soon engaged in a frantic tussle that overturned one bed and mussed them up royally.
Such was the scene that greeted the eyes of Captain Blow and Professor Scott as they hastily entered the room. The professor opened his mouth to protest, but the captain, his gray eyes snapping with mischief, whispered something to him. The professor smiled and nodded and they ran forward, the professor seizing the ankles of Terry, who happened to be on top of the pile, while Blow grasped his shoulders.
“Heave aloft!” bellowed the captain, and in concert they heaved.
To his astonishment Terry felt himself lifted bodily from the struggling mass and tossed through the air, to land with a bounce on the bed. Ned Scott followed and Jim followed him. Don, seeing what was in the wind, made a frantic scramble to get under the bed, but to the delight of the watching boys he was switched from under by the active captain and treated to a ride through the air. When he had finally landed with a thud on the bed the two older men promptly sat on him.
“Now,” said the professor, with mock severity. “What is the meaning of all this?”
“Jim was illustrating something,” replied Terry, gravely. “And we helped him out!”
“By jumping tinder!” cried the captain. “I don’t know what in time you could have been illustrating! Showing your affection for each other, likely!”
“What ever it was,” said the professor. “I suggest that you stop it. We want to make an early start in the morning and you can save some of that energy for digging sand. From the noise we heard we thought that Sackett had returned and was trying to carry one or all of you off. Who upset the bed?”
“All of us,” said Don, truthfully.
“I don’t doubt it. Well, to bed now, and calm down a bit.”
Now, on the morning of the hunt, the boys impatiently ate their breakfast and placed blankets and provisions on the horses. There was no telling how long they would linger around the sunken galleon, and they wanted to be sure that it would not be necessary to cut the visit short because of a lack of provisions. It had been decided to take the mestizo along with them and leave only the cook at home. When all arrangements had been made they started briskly off.
The day was bright and somewhat cool and they made rapid progress, the boys in their eagerness keeping always ahead of their elders. The older men wisely held them in check, realizing that there was a long journey in front of them and not wishing to run the risk of tiring out before they got there. They halted once for a meal and then pushed on, not stopping for a nap in the afternoon, since it was not hot enough to do so, and just as evening drew on they topped a small hill and looked down on the valley in which Jim and Terry had so nearly lost their life.
“There is the wreck!” shouted Jim, pointing to the corner of the galleon which they had uncovered. “Looks as though no one had been near it, all right.”
No one had apparently been near the place, for there were no traces of footmarks in the sand other than those left by the two boys and the treacherous overseer. They rode down the incline and picketed the horses, hastening at once to the few feet of deck uncovered. The professor gazed at the uncovered rail in rapture.
“By George, this is wonderful!” he exclaimed, his face glowing with the enthusiasm of the scholar. “Just think, after reading a story like that, to run across the very ship on which it happened! I hope we can uncover the whole ship!”
“Ned,” asked Don. “Where was that piece of wreckage found, the piece that first gave the idea of a sunken galleon?”
“About three miles north of here,” replied the engineer. “I guess I see what you are getting at. You think that the piece was washed out of the creek that used to be here, and was found, after it drifted down shore?”
“Yes,” nodded Don. “Don’t you think so?”
“I surely do,” assented Ned, stepping down onto the deck of the buried galleon. “Is this the hatchway?”
Terry lifted the hatch, which they had replaced when they had left the galleon with the Mexican. “Yes, and here is the flight of stairs. Did anyone bring a flashlight?”
“I have one,” said the professor, producing it from his saddle bag. “Let’s be very careful about going down those stairs.”
It was now dark and the flashlight was needed. The professor flashed the beam of light down the stairs and went first, treading with infinite care, but the steps were apparently solid. The others, with the exception of the mestizo, who would not trust himself in a place which looked so much like a trap, followed the savant down into the hold of the ancient ship.
“There is the treasure chest,” said Jim, and the professor swung the beam of light on the mouldering chest. Don lifted the lid and the gold was revealed.
They fingered it and found that it consisted of coins of various degrees. The professor did not recognize any of them except some pieces of eight.
“Sorry I didn’t study up on ancient coins,” murmured the teacher. “However, I’m pretty sure that there is quite a fortune here.”
“No doubt there is a substantial treasure further down in the sand,” suggested Ned.
“Yes,” the professor agreed. “Cups and plate silver and perhaps other things. The sailors didn’t carry anything away with them, expecting to return and gather it all on some other occasion, I presume.” He turned his light from side to side. “The hold here was filled with water, and all above deck must have been burned. We won’t find much of anything until we get down under the sand.”
After some more looking around they went outside and made camp close to the wreck, the boys again hacking firewood from the remains of the galleon. They ate supper and then sat around the fire discussing plans and waiting for the morrow and daylight.
“It is going to be quite a job digging into that sand,” observed the captain. “In the first place, it’s mighty wet.”
“Yes,” said the professor. “I’m very much afraid it is too much of a job for us to attempt. It will take a whole crew to dig down into those ruins, and a regular excavating gang will be the ones to do it. However, we can look around and see what we can pick up ourselves, and then later see to it that the right sort of a company goes to work on the job.”
“We’ll have to make a legal claim to it, won’t we?” asked Jim.
Ned nodded. “That will have to be our first job. If we don’t anybody who comes along will be able to take it right out of our hands. It is much the same as discovering a gold mine, only in this case the gold is already refined and cast for us.”
“I can’t wait until morning!” said the impatient Terry.
“I’m glad you said that,” the professor spoke seriously. “I want you boys to promise me that you won’t go on the wreck at any time during the night or in the morning before we are all awake and ready to tackle it. We have had quite a bit of trouble so far and we want to avoid any more, certainly any that may turn out to be more serious than any we have had. I don’t believe that there are any ghosts or goblins on the thing that will hurt you, but we had better not do anything that we’ll regret.”
“I for one won’t,” Terry promised. “I remember what that dragon says in the old manuscript!”
The others promised, and after some further talk they all went to sleep and remained asleep until daylight. After a hasty breakfast they went to the wreck once more.
“Fine day we have for our treasure hunting party,” remarked Don, as they went down the hatchway.
It was indeed a fine day, with a clear blue sky and a bright sun. Once down in the hold, however, all light and warmth was shut out, except for a single shaft that came in from the open hatchway.
“Now,” said the professor, who was the leader. “We aren’t going to be able to do much with this proposition, but I suggest that we at least dig out this room. It wouldn’t be of any use to dig down into the main hold of the galleon, for it would take us months and it would be dangerous work. Before anything like that is done all sand would have to be cleared away from the sides of the ship.”
The room in which they stood, and which held the chest of gold, was about fourteen feet square. With small trench shovels brought from the ranch they went to work on the moist sand, digging it out and by a system of relays throwing it out on the deck. Don stood on a wide step where the sand was deposited by Ned, the professor and Jim, and shovelled it up to the hatch, where Terry and Blow threw it to one side. They worked on with a will, and although it soon became hard work no one complained.
It was soon found that the chest of gold had been upon a table at the time of the sinking of the galleon, for they had scarcely begun their work before they struck the top of the table. It was soon uncovered and proved to be a massive affair of black wood. It was about four feet high, and when they had cleared away the sand down to the bottom they found solid flooring.
From time to time they changed positions so as to give each one a chance to work inside the buried galleon and also to get a chance at the sunlight. The person who relayed the sand on the stairs had the hardest job, as he was compelled to stoop down, scoop the sand, straighten up and throw it out of the hatch. Don was not sorry to give up his post and get out on the deck, and later on to get down into the old hold.
When Don got downstairs the room had been almost completely excavated and some more treasure had been found. Several bars of solid silver had been uncovered in one corner and even the walls held relics, in the shape of several old muskets and knives, along with a rusted sword. There were two heavy chairs in the room also, which were both overturned, probably by the force of the shock when the galleon ran aground.
They stopped at dinner time to eat, all of them being profoundly grateful for the respite. The room in which they had been working was now almost empty and they decided to do a little more work and then take the gold and as much silver as they could carry and go back to the ranch, there to put in motion the necessary machinery to make the treasure theirs. Accordingly, as soon as the noon meal was finished, they went back to work.
“Better not do much more excavating,” warned Captain Blow. “That pile of wet sand on the deck is getting pretty heavy.”
They finished excavating that room, finding nothing more of importance and then held a parley. There was a door in one side of the room and they were in doubt as to whether to open it. The professor feared that something might happen if they did, but the others disagreed with him, so the door was finally chopped open.
It came out of its frame with a rush, disclosing nothing but a blank wall of sand. Some portion of the deck, as yet under sand, had evidently been ripped off or had burned off, and in that manner the ship had filled completely, much as a paper boat that a child buries in the sand. They picked at the wall of sand before them, but it was solid and they gave it up.
“I guess this will be as much as we’ll want to do,” the professor announced. “The rest of the job is for a regular crew of excavators, and moreover, must be undertaken scientifically. We’ll be satisfied to go back with what we have and lay claim to the rest of it in the right way.”
“Are you thinking of starting tonight?” asked Terry, looking at his watch. “It is five o’clock now!”
“Is it that late?” cried Captain Blow. “By thunder mighty! this day zipped right by!”
“Yes, it is that late,” retorted the professor, consulting his own watch. “We’ve been so busy and interested that we haven’t kept track of the time. No, we won’t start back tonight. We’ll stay in camp and start early in the morning!”
“All right, suppose we get back,” suggested the captain. “The bottom of my stomach is sunk lower than this fishing smack!”
They went up the stairs, Ned and Don stopping to examine one of the musty guns that was on the wall. The others stepped off of the deck and onto the sand, and seeing that the two boys were not with them, the professor called out: “Come on, boys, back to camp.”
“We’re coming!” Don replied, as he started up the stairs, with Ned a step or two back of him. Don had just thrust his head out of the hatchway when there came a warning shout from Terry.
“Hurry up!” he yelled. “The sand is sliding!”
The wet sand which they had piled up during the day suddenly slid down the hill with gathering force. Don sprang forward quickly, but was too late. The sand hit the deck of the galleon, there was a dull report and a sucking sensation, and then the whole room which they had excavated caved in. The deck, rotting and weakened, gave way under the descending weight of the wet and dry sand, and went through with a roar. Don and Ned disappeared from sight, buried alive in the wreck of the galleon!
The party on the shore stared dumbly for one minute, appalled by the horror of the tragedy, and then Captain Blow leaped forward.
“Come on and dig!” he cried. “If we don’t dig like fury they’ll smother to death!”
As the others followed him the intrepid captain leaped down on the heap of sand where the boys had last been seen and began to dig frantically. The sand was loose and he sank down in it, but he dug without heeding his own peril, and the others helped him. Don’s hand speedily worked loose from the sand and they caught hold of it.
“Work right around his arm,” cried the captain. “Be careful not to hit his head with your shovels.”
The scene was one of wildest confusion. By digging with furious energy they got Don’s head free and only just in time. He was purple and fairly clawed for air. They attempted to drag him loose, but failed. He pushed the sand from his mouth and spoke urgently.
“Get Ned!” he gasped. “He’s down around my knees, somewhere!”
The professor’s face was white and he silently kneeled beside Don’s head and dug with all his strength. Terry and Jim held the slippery sand back as the two men shovelled it away, and in a few seconds, which seemed like hours to them, one of Ned’s shoulders was uncovered. Dropping their shovels the men wormed their hands beneath his armpit and tore him loose from the sand.
“Here, water, senor,” said Yappi, appearing beside them with a canteen.
Ned was blue and unconscious, and they were forced to dig the sand from his nose and mouth before he could catch his breath. When he had become conscious he drank some water, and Don followed his example. They both were free to breathe but were still buried and sinking, for the sand was sifting down into the room below.
“This fight has only just begun,” said the captain, grimly. “We’ve got to get them out of here as fast as we can.”
Then began a spirited battle between the men and the sand, the human beings putting every ounce of strength into the battle to keep their companions from being engulfed again and the sand exerting its power to entomb them once more, with a persistence that was perfectly amazing. The muscles of the friends ached, for they were tired from the events of the day, but they knew it was a race of life and death. They dug ceaselessly, throwing sand as far away as possible, baffled and maddened by the steady stream of the soil that returned to the charge.
It grew steadily darker and at last the captain, who had assumed charge of the rescue operations spoke briefly to the professor. “Tell your man to light a big fire,” he commanded.
When this was done they labored on, and after an hour had gone by they were down as far as the boys’ waists. They were working in a hollow that had been made even more of a hole than normally by the collapse of the deck, and so the sand proved to be a persistent foe. As fast as they threw it up it slid back, and there was no way to keep it up.
“Now,” said the captain, briskly. “Tell your man to back the horses down here, throw out a hawser, grapple onto those lads, and tow ’em out!”
When this had been put into the kind of language that Yappi could understand he quickly ran the horses into position, threw out a rope, and it was passed under Don’s armpits. Yappi sprang into the saddle gave the horse the pressure of his heels, his hand steady to check him at moment’s notice.
The rope tightened, and the boys pushed Don’s body, with the result that he was hauled out of the treacherous hole. Nothing was said at the time, and Don made all haste to scramble to safety, shaken by his experience. It was now an easier task to get at Ned, for the freeing of Don had left a bigger hole, and they tied him up securely. This time the horse strained, the boy gritted his teeth as the rope cut into his body, and the others pushed with a will. With a final rush he came up and out of the hole.
“Hurrah!” shouted the captain, dropping his shovel. “The battle is won, mates! By tunket, let’s get out of here.”
They made haste to leave the place and then had a happy reunion. The professor’s lips moved as he pressed Ned to him and Jim’s eyes were not steady when he hugged Don. Terry addressed the remains of the wreck, while the mestizo patted the head of the horse.
“Pretty smart, you old mud scow!” the red-headed boy said. “That was the dragon’s last stroke, and he nearly made good on it.”
They were all glad enough to rest that night around the campfire. The muscles of the party were stiff and sore, and Don and Ned declared that their bodies ached from head to foot.
“Got enough sand in me to build a new bunkhouse at the ranch,” Ned, declared.
They told their sensations as the wall of sand closed over them, sensations by no means pleasant. Smothering in sand was not an enviable means of ending one’s life, according to Ned, who had been closest to it. Don had felt that he had a good chance for his life, for he had been near the surface, but his chief worriment had been for his friend, whom he knew to be lower down.
“All things considered, I rather think we earned that treasure,” the professor remarked, and the others agreed with him heartily.
Yappi could not be persuaded to go near the place again. He was firm in the belief that an evil spirit had tried to punish them for meddling with the gold of dead men. During the time they had needed his help he had been brave enough, but now that there was nothing to fear he was more frightened than he had ever been. More than all the others, he looked forward to going home in the morning.
They slept the sleep of the utterly exhausted that night and were late in getting up on the following day. When all their things were packed and the treasure which they had taken placed on the horses they left the place and started for the ranch.
“That place isn’t the best place in the world for us,” laughed Don, as they paused on a rise and looked around. “Jim and Terry were nearly killed near there and then Ned and I got a sand bath. That guardian dragon doesn’t appear to like young men!”
“Maybe he doesn’t object to the professor and me,” observed the captain, with a broad smile. “We both have beards and are more nearly his age!”
The journey back to the ranch was made without incident and they were glad to arrive. After remaining there for a day the professor and the captain took the treasure and set out with it to the coast, there to go to San Diego and claim legal right to it. The boys accompanied them to Quito, where Blow’s own schooner, which was fortunately lying at anchor, took them to their destination. The boys left them in the town and returned to the ranch.
There they passed several happy days, riding, visiting the mines, going once or twice to visit the senorita, and generally having a good time. Ned went several times to the senorita’s and Terry wisely nodded his head.
“Big doings pretty soon,” he observed, wisely.
“What do you mean?” asked Don. They were out near the barn and Ned was not with them.
“Wait and see. The young man is going over the hill quite frequently now, and you wait and see if something exciting doesn’t happen.”
“Getting married isn’t exciting,” said Jim.
“Don’t know, my boy,” drawled Terry, trying to throw a lasso. “Never been that way, myself! Look at that for a throw, will you! Aimed it at the fence post and got the corner of the barn!”
When the professor and the captain returned they reported success. Their claim was legal and they had authority to recruit a gang of men to excavate the ancient ship.
“That’s the end of the phantom galleon,” observed Don. “It won’t be a phantom any more.”
“You pretty nearly joined the phantoms yourself,” Jim reminded him.
Terry’s surmise regarding the state of affairs at the Mercedes ranch turned out to be correct. In a few days Ned announced that they were to be married.
“There is no use in allowing her to stay over there and try to run that little ranch all by herself,” he said, as they sat in the living room one night. “So we are going to combine and form one big ranch, after we are married. That will end all of her troubles about getting help and overseers.”
“I see,” said Terry, dryly. “You are doing it so as to help her run her ranch. Funny way to get married.”
Ned made a pass at him and the red-headed boy dodged. The professor smiled.
“That’s the easiest way of saying it,” he said. “Ned wouldn’t want you to suspect that he loves the young lady!”
“Ned spoke about her difficulty in getting an overseer,” remarked Don. “Another way to look at it is that Ned himself is getting an overseer!”
“Yes, he’ll have to behave himself now,” said the captain, as they all laughed at Ned’s red face.
In the days that followed an excavating crew came down from San Francisco and went to work on the wreck of the galleon. In a remarkably short time it was unearthed and systematically cleaned out. A treasure estimated in value at something like fifty thousand dollars was found in the wreck, a treasure that consisted of gold and silver plate, gold coins, silver coins and several gold chains. There was also some silk, but it had been spoiled. The wreck itself, when uncovered, showed that it had been burned to the water’s edge before being covered with the sands of the plains.
“Well, when that is all divided, up, we’ll have plenty, each one of us,” said the professor.
“At last my mother will get a few of the things in life that she has really needed,” said Terry, to whom the fortune meant most.
Not long after that there was a simple wedding in the Scott ranch. A minister came to the ranch from Quito and Ned and the senorita were married in the living room of the ranch which was now to be her home. Ned was quietly happy and the senorita brilliantly so. All the lonely years of living alone were now over, and she looked forward to a life of happiness with the American boy whose simple manliness had always appealed to her. Don was Ned’s best man.
“By golly,” said Terry, when it was all over. “If getting married makes you feel as happy as Ned and his lady friend looked, I think I’ll try it!”
“That’ll be fine, Terry,” responded Jim. “By the way, who is the lady?”
“What?” asked the red-headed boy, blankly.
“Who is the lady that will look so happy when you marry her?” Jim answered.
“Gee, I don’t know!” was the reply. “You have to have a lady friend, don’t you? I hadn’t thought of that!”
“You had better give it some thought,” retorted Don. “Most people have one when they get married.”
After a few more days the boys prepared to return home, along with the professor, who was eager to return to his classes in school. The boys were looking forward to their second year at Woodcrest, to the study and the sports of the coming season. Captain Blow left them a few days earlier, expressing his pleasure at having met them once more.