Suddenly the boys heard two voices raised in what seemed to be an altercation of some kind. The sound appeared to come from behind a board fence a few feet away.
One of the speakers was evidently threatening, while the other was begging off from something that had been demanded of him.
“I tell you, I can’t,” the latter was saying. “I’ve already given you every cent of my allowance and I’ve borrowed from every friend I have in this town. You can’t get blood out of a stone. If gold dollars were selling for fifty cents, I couldn’t buy one.”
“I tell you, you must,” the other said fiercely. “I know well enough you can pawn something. You can get a few plunks on that ring and scarf-pin of yours. I’ve long ago put everything I had in hock. Come now, Sid,” and the voice became more wheedling in tone, “you know well enough this state of things won’t last long. The old man will take me back again and I’ll be rolling in money. Then I can pay back all you’ve let me have.”
197Fred and Teddy looked at each other with a conviction that flashed on both of them at the same moment.
“Where have I heard those dulcet tones before?” murmured Fred. “Either I’m going crazy or that’s Andy Shanks.”
“And the other is Sid Wilton,” replied Teddy. “Come to think of it, I heard he lived down this way somewhere. I wonder what all this gab is about.”
“It seems to me that Andy’s father has thrown him out to face life on his own hook,” conjectured Fred.
“And he doesn’t seem to be making a success of it,” judged Bill.
Just then the two debaters emerged from behind the fence and came face to face with their former schoolmates.
The former bully of Rally Hall and his crony started back, and for a moment were so nonplussed that they could do nothing but stare.
“How are you, Sid?” said Fred, breaking a silence that was beginning to be awkward.
Sid made a stammering reply.
Andy had flushed angrily at the sight of the boys and seemed about to indulge in his usual bluster, but a thought appeared to come to him suddenly that made him change his mind.
“How are you, fellows?” he asked, in a way that198was meant to be ingratiating, and holding out his hand.
The movement was so wholly unexpected that for an instant the boys hardly knew what to do. They all disliked him heartily, and the Rushton boys in particular had been bitterly wronged by him during their first year at Rally Hall. Still, it would have seemed ungracious to reject the proffered hand, so they took it under protest, mentally resolved to get away from him as soon as possible.
It was a different Andy from the one to whom they had been accustomed. He had formerly been expensively dressed, and had borne himself with the arrogance of the snob and the brutality of the bully. Now he was beginning to look shabby and his eyes had a furtive look very different from the insolent assurance that the boys remembered.
They exchanged a few commonplace remarks, and then, as Andy made no move toward following Sid, who had excused himself and gone on, Bill finally gave him a gentle hint.
“Well, so long, Andy,” he said. “We’ll have to be going.”
Then the motive for Andy’s sudden change of front became apparent.
“Wait just a minute,” he said rather sheepishly. “Will you fellows do me a favor and lend me a five spot? I’m stony broke–not a dime to bless myself with. You know the governor has gone199back on me. Says he won’t give me a red cent, and that I’ll have to learn to hoe my own row. I’m up against it for fair, and I know you fellows won’t mind lending me a little something. I’ll pay it back as soon as the old man comes across, which he’s bound to do sooner or later. What do you say?”
Fred, who remembered how the bully had tried to put on him the theft of some examination papers at Rally Hall, hesitated, but Teddy, who noticed how shabby and downcast Andy looked, intervened.
“I guess we might fix it up,” he ventured to say. “Just let me speak to the others for a minute.”
They had a short conference, as a result of which Teddy collected and handed over the five dollars that Andy desired.
Andy’s thanks were profuse, but after having tucked the money safely away in his pocket, something of his old surly manner returned. He took leave of his benefactors with scant ceremony, but the boys were so glad to get rid of him that they hardly noticed this.
“After all,” remarked Bill, as they watched Andy go down the street, “five dollars isn’t so much to pay for getting free from that bird. I’d be willing to lose a lot more than that if I could be sure of never seeing him again.”
The boys made their purchases and took their way to the place that Lester had in mind to eat200their lunch. They found themselves on a high sand dune, overgrown with coarse grass. It afforded an excellent view of the sea and also furnished a comfortable place to lean against.
“This is great!” exclaimed Ross. “Let’s get out that grub and pitch in. I could eat a barrel full of brass tacks and never know I had eaten anything.”
“I guess you wouldn’t know anything very long,” laughed Lester, as he proceeded to lay out the provisions.
The eatables vanished with surprising speed, and after the first sharp edge of their hunger had worn off, the conversation turned, as it usually did these days, to their quest for the missing treasure.
A brisk breeze was blowing in from the ocean and the brittle sand grass kept up a constant rustling. This sound served admirably to cover the approach of a stealthy figure that had followed the boys at a distance ever since they had left Bartanet. This figure crept closer and closer to the sand dune, until only a projecting hump concealed it from the five boys on the seaward side.
As it attained this position of vantage, Teddy was addressing a remark to Ross.
“Haven’t you lost a bit of your confidence yet, Ross?” he queried.
“Not a particle,” affirmed Ross stoutly. “We’ll find that treasure, sooner or later, if it ever was201actually hidden in the neighborhood of Bartanet Shoals.”
“You bet we will!” declared Fred, “even if we have to import a steam shovel to dig up the whole territory.”
“I hope it will be soon,” interposed Bill. “It’ll be us for Rally Hall, you know, before long, and then what chance will we have?”
“Keep a stiff upper lip,” counseled Lester. “We’ve just begun to fight.”
During the conversation the eavesdropper had lain quietly and listened with the closest attention. Now he edged away cautiously, and when he had reached a sufficient distance rose to his feet and hurried back in the direction of Bartanet.
The boys light-heartedly got into their boat and rowed back to the lighthouse without the slightest suspicion that almost all they had said had been overheard by Andy Shanks.
That rascal hastened back to town, his brain awhirl with dreams of sudden riches. He had heard enough to know that there was treasure buried in or around Bartanet, and he also knew that the boys whom he held in hatred were in search of it. What joy to steal the riches from them and thus gain the twofold advantage of thwarting them and at the same time putting himself in a position to indulge those vices in which he delighted!
Before Andy had gone far, he met one of the202village youths whose acquaintance he had recently made. Unfortunately for Andy, this young fellow, who was named Morton, had a strong liking for practical jokes, and after Andy, with his usual boastfulness, had thrown out sly hints about knowing how to “pick up all the money that he wanted,” Morton scented a chance to make a victim.
As Andy was very vague regarding the sources from which he expected to get his wealth, Morton did not hesitate to impart to Andy the slighting opinion that he was “talking through his hat.”
“Not much I’m not,” retorted Andy, stung by the imputation. “I tell you I know there’s oodles of money buried somewhere around here and what’s more, if you’ll help me to find it, I’ll let you in for a share of it.”
His acquaintance, seeing that Andy was in earnest, quickly formed a plan to have some fun at the other’s expense.
“Well, seeing you’re so certain of it, Iwillhelp you, then!” he exclaimed. “Shake hands on the bargain.”
Morton gravely extended his hand and Andy shook it.
“Let’s see, now,” said the town youth, pretending to be racking his memory, “whereabouts could that money be hid? It’s probably in some old shack or cave somewhere. Say!” he shouted as though struck by an idea, “I’ll wager I know the identical place where it’s stowed away. Come to think of it, I’m sure I do.”
“Where? Where?” questioned Andy eagerly.
“Well, I know you’re on the square and won’t give me the double cross,” replied Morton, “so I don’t mind telling you what I know.
“There was an old fellow partly tipsy one winter night, who told me a long yarn about knowing where there was a mint of money hidden away. I didn’t pay any attention to him then, because I thought he was just raving, the way those people often do. But now I come to think of it, I remember his speaking of an old hut that was almost buried in a sand dune close to the water. Let’s see204now, where is there an old shack that answers to that description?”
Morton pretended to meditate deeply, while Andy waited breathlessly for him to continue.
“I have it!” exclaimed Morton abruptly. “It’s the place old Totten used to have on the beach just north of Bartanet. He kept very close to himself, but he always seemed to have slathers of money. He died two or three years ago, and since then the sand has nearly rolled over his shack. I’ll venture to say that if we dug there we’d find money enough to make us both rich for the rest of our lives.”
“By jinks! but I believe you’re right,” blurted out Andy with an avaricious glitter in his shifty eyes. “Let’s go there to-night and see if we can find it.”
“Oh, we won’t be able to go to-night,” protested Morton. “We’ll have to get picks and shovels, and we’ll have to do it so quietly that nobody will catch on. And I can’t do it to-morrow night, either,” he continued, as though just recalling something. “I’ve got an engagement that I can’t break. But I’ll make it the night after that, if you’re willing.”
“Sure!” assented Andy. “That suits me fine.”
But there was a reluctance to look into Morton’s eyes as Andy spoke, that convinced the joker that his plans would work out as he expected. He205knew Andy Shanks pretty well, and he was sure that Andy would not wait till the appointed time to hunt for the treasure. He guessed that Andy would endeavor to cheat him out of his share of the fictitious treasure by getting in before the time agreed upon. And he made no mistake in reckoning on the mean nature of Andy Shanks.
The two arranged the details of the expedition, such as securing shovels and picks and candles. Then they parted, after Morton had exacted an oath of secrecy from the other.
The latter was no sooner left to himself, however, than he began revolving in his mind plans to outwit the friend, who, he thought, had confided in him so completely.
“It’s a lucky thing for me,” thought Andy, “that he can’t be there to-morrow night. I’ll get a pick and shovel somewhere and beat him to it. If he’s such a fool as to tell all he knows, he deserves to lose his share.”
In the meantime, Morton was hugging himself in anticipation. He confided the matter to a few of his friends, who were delighted at the chance of playing a joke on Shanks, who was anything but popular in the town. All volunteered to help Morton, and having secured an old trunk, they armed themselves with spades and sallied forth in the direction of Totten’s old shack.
After shoveling the sand away from before the206door, they entered and started to “plant the treasure,” as one of them expressed it. They dug a hole four feet deep and wide enough to contain the trunk. Then they filled the trunk with sand and lowered it into the excavation. This done, they filled the hole up again, replaced the rotting boards that formed the floor and surveyed the completed job with satisfaction.
“I guess that will keep him busy for a while,” remarked Morton, “especially as he won’t know where to look and will have to dig the whole place up, more or less. It’s going to be more fun than a circus.”
“But we want to see him while he’s at it,” objected one of his followers. “How are we going to manage it?”
“That’s so,” agreed Morton. “Guess we’ll have to clear the sand away from the little window there.”
The lads set to work with a will and soon had enough of the sand shoveled away to permit a clear view of the interior of the shack. This accomplished, they closed the door and heaped sand against it, leaving everything as they had found it.
“Well,” declared Morton, “that was considerable work, but it will be worth it. We’ll hustle back to town now and tell the other fellows that everything’s all right. Then we’ll have nothing to207do but wait for the fun. I’m as sure as I am that I’m alive that that sneak will try to circumvent me. I could see it in his eye.”
Andy spent a restless night, his mind busied with plans to get the best of Morton. He rose early the next morning and roamed restlessly about town. The great problem confronting him was how to get the pick and shovel without Morton’s getting wind of it. He finally concluded that it would be taking too much of a risk to buy the implements in the village, so he made a trip to a town five miles distant and got the necessary tools.
Night came at last, and the sneak sallied forth and set out for the old cabin, the location of which Morton had been careful to give to him. Throwing down his tools, Andy carefully reconnoitred the surroundings. The jokers had done their work so carefully that he saw nothing amiss, and after satisfying himself that the coast was clear, he started digging in the sand in front of the door.
It did not take him long to gain an entrance, and after getting in he lit two of his candles and took a careful survey of the surroundings. There was nothing in sight to give him a clue. The sole furniture consisted of an old table and a couple of rickety chairs.
Somewhat at a loss where to begin, Andy finally started sounding the rough planking of the floor. When he came to the place where the planks had208been ripped up the preceding evening, he saw that they were loose and resolved to take a chance there. He removed the boards, took off his coat and began to dig in earnest.
He made rapid progress at first, but soon his muscles, flabby and unused to such strenuous exercise, began to protest and he was forced to take a breathing spell.
Had he chanced to glance at the little window, his labors might have come to a premature conclusion. Grouped outside were Morton and his friends, almost bursting with smothered laughter. The sight of Andy, whose antipathy to work was well known, sweating away over the hardest kind of labor, amused them immensely.
Wholly unconscious of the amusement he was providing, Andy resumed his task and worked with such good will that it was not long before his spade struck on the edge of the buried trunk. He uttered a shout of delight and scattered the remaining sand in every direction. Before long he had uncovered the top of the trunk. This he tried to lift out of the hole. Finding it too heavy for this, however, and not able to restrain his impatience to see what it contained, he seized the pickax and smashed in the top.
His chagrin may be imagined when instead of the treasure he expected he found that the trunk was filled with sand. On top of this was a sheet209of paper which Morton had placed there the previous evening. It contained one word done in heavy capitals:
STUNG!
STUNG!
For a few moments Andy gazed stupidly, unable for the time to understand that he had been made the victim of a hoax. While this was slowly dawning upon him, the door burst open and, with a yell of laughter, the crowd rushed into the hut.
Andy jumped as though he had been shot, and, scrambling out of the hole, stood with open mouth facing the laughing boys. His surprised and discomfited attitude was so ludicrous that their laughter increased tenfold and they fairly shrieked.
“Wh-what’s the big idea, anyway?” gasped Andy at last. “How did you fellows come to be here?”
“Well, you see,” replied Morton, sobering down a little, “I counted on your doing the crooked thing and I wasn’t mistaken.”
“I’ll get even with you some day,” growled Andy. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”
“Since you ask me, I must admit I cherish some such idea,” admitted Morton, his eyes twinkling. “The fellows from the city don’t always know everything, you understand.”
“You’ll live to be sorry for this trick,” blustered Andy. “You just see if you don’t.”
210He made his way to the door and passed out amid another burst of merriment from those who had witnessed his discomfiture, leaving his implements lying where he had thrown them.
An account of the affair spread quickly over the village and life for Andy became so unbearable that before another twenty-four hours he left the town.
In the natural course of events the story came to the ears of the boys at the lighthouse.
“I’d have given something to be there,” declared Bill. “It must have been worth a year’s allowance to see his face when all those fellows gave him the laugh. He thinks such a lot of himself that it must have been a bitter pill to swallow.”
“Let alone his not finding what he went after,” put in Fred. “It hit him in his pride and his pocketbook, and they’re both sensitive spots with Andy.”
“But how do you suppose he got wind of our being in search of treasure?” queried Teddy.
“I was wondering at that,” replied Lester, “and the only way I could figure it out is that he must have followed us the day we were at Bartanet, and heard what we were talking about when we were eating.”
“Well,” concluded Fred, “he couldn’t have got anything of real value from what we said, or he wouldn’t have gone digging in old Totten’s shack.211But it’s up to us to put a padlock on our lips when there’s any chance of being overheard. We may not be so lucky the next time.”
“Only one week more now before we have to go back to Rally Hall,” sighed Teddy one morning, just after they had risen from the breakfast table.
“And nothing done yet in the way of finding that chest of gold,” groaned Fred.
“It’s now or never,” declared Lester with decision.
“I’m afraid it’s never, then,” put in Bill, the skeptical. “Here for days we’ve been blistering our hands and breaking our backs, to say nothing of racking what brains we have, and we’re no nearer finding it than we were at the beginning.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” protested Fred. “We’ve at least explored a lot of places where there were no signs of the peculiar trees and rock shown in that map that Ross told us about. That leaves just so many fewer places to waste our time on, and makes it more likely that the next will be the right one.”
“Not much nourishment in that,” persisted Bill. “I’ll admit that we’ve found plenty of places where the goldisn’t, but that doesn’t get us anywhere.213And we’ll be gray-headed before we can explore the whole coast of Maine.”
“Oh, stop your grouching, you old sinner,” exhorted Teddy, clapping him on the back. “This is like football or baseball. The game isn’t over till after the last minute of play.”
“That’s the talk,” cried Lester emphatically. “If we go down, we’ll do it with the guns shotted and the band playing and the flag flying.”
It was not to be wondered at that the lads were all assailed at times by the doubt and discouragement that troubled Bill acutely that morning. They had taken advantage of every day when the sea permitted, and, as Teddy phrased it, had “raked the coast fore and aft.” Their main reliance had been the map that had appeared in the story of the old sailor to Ross, and the first thing they did after entering any bay or cove was to look about them for the clump of two and three trees, with the big rock standing at the right. Once or twice they had found conditions that nearly answered this description, and they had dug and hunted near by, wherever the lay of the land held out any hope of success.
In the absence of anything better, this supposed map was their strongest clue. Yet even this was only supposition. It might not have been anything more than the fanciful sketch of an idle sailor. Or if it indeed were a map of any given locality, it214might not refer in the slightest degree to the robbery by the crew of the smuggler.
The knowledge that this might be so had at times a paralyzing effect on the boys. They felt the lack of solid ground beneath their feet. Like the coffin of Mahomet, they were as though suspended between earth and sky.
Still, it was the only clue they had, and there was something in the make-up of these sturdy young Americans that made them desperately unwilling to confess defeat. It was the “die-in-the-last-ditch” spirit that has made America great. Even Bill, although he relieved himself sometimes by grumbling, would not really have given up the search and when the pinch came he dug and hunted as eagerly as the rest.
This morning, they had arranged to set off for a final cruise that might take up all the remaining time of their vacation, which was now drawing rapidly to a close. Their party was complete, with the exception of Ross. He had gone up to Oakland to spend a few days with his mother, who had arrived from Canada, but he had arranged to meet the boys that day at a point agreed on, about fifteen miles up the coast.
As their cruise was expected to be longer than usual, it took them some time before they had everything on board theArieland were ready to cast off from the little pier below the lighthouse.
215“Well,” said Mr. Lee, who had come down to see them off, “good-by, boys, and luck go with you.”
“Watch us come back with that chest of gold,” called out Teddy gaily.
“I’ll be watching, all right,” grinned the lighthouse keeper, “and I have a sort of hunch that you boys will get there this time. You certainly have earned it, if you do lay your hands on it.”
“And that’s no merry jest, either,” remarked Bill, as he looked at the callous spots on his hands.
“Bill wasn’t made to work,” scoffed Teddy. “He’s made to sit on the box and crack the whip, while we common trash pull and strain in the shafts.”
“Not much,” retorted Bill. “I’m no mule driver.”
“It’s a touching picture, that of Teddy pulling and straining, isn’t it?” laughed Lester, as he pointed to that young gentleman slumped down comfortably in the stern.
With jest and banter, the morning wore away. The day was serene and beautiful, with not a cloud obscuring the sky, while there was just enough wind to make their progress steady and rapid. Almost before they knew it, they had reached the point agreed upon with Ross, and soon after descried theSleuthcoming down to meet them.
They hailed Ross cordially, and his beaming face showed how deep and warm was his feeling for216the boys, whom he already seemed to have known for years rather than weeks.
“Some smart navigators, we are, to meet just where we arranged to!” laughed Lester.
“We’re the real thing in the way of sailor men,” assented Ross, throwing out his chest.
“Listen to the mutual admiration society,” jibed the irrepressible Teddy. “Blushing violets aren’t in it with them. Here you let my modest worth pass unnoticed, while you’re handing bouquets to each other. But that’s the way it is in this world. It’s nerve and gall that counts. Now if I––”
But his eloquent peroration was spoiled by a hasty shift to escape a life preserver that Lester hurled at his head, missing him by an inch.
“You’d better let me have Teddy aboard theSleuth,” laughed Ross. “Then if the engine gives out, I’ll start Teddy wagging his tongue. That will furnish power enough.”
“Not a bit of it,” replied Lester. “I want him here, in case the wind gives out.”
“It’s evident that I’m the most important person here, anyway,” retorted Teddy. “Neither one of you seems to be willing to get along without me.”
“Seven cities claimed Homer, you know,” said Bill sarcastically.
“Yes,” said Teddy complacently, “he and I are in the same class.”
217Ross turned his boat around, and the two craft went along side by side.
“The sea’s like a mill pond to-day,” remarked Fred. “How different from the day of the storm, when we watched it from the observation room. Do you remember what your father said?”
“Not especially,” answered Lester. “What particular thing do you mean?”
“Why, when he prophesied that many a good ship would lay her bones on a reef or beach before the storm was over.”
“I suppose he was anxious,” answered Lester gravely, “but I haven’t heard of any ship’s being wrecked on this particular strip of the coast during this storm. The worst time we’ve had around here, as far as I can remember, was about three years ago. That storm kept up for three days and three nights, and when it was over there were at least a dozen wrecks, just on the coast of Maine.
“By the way,” he went on, as a sudden thought struck him, “we’ll have to pass one of those wrecks a few miles from here. It’s a schooner that went ashore in the storm. There’s part of the hull left, and, if you like, we’ll run in and look it over.”
“Was the crew saved?” asked Fred.
“Every soul aboard was drowned,” Lester answered soberly. “They were swept overboard before the life-saving crew could get to them. The masts went over the side, and the hull was driven218so hard and deep into the sand that it has been there ever since.”
A half hour more passed, and then Lester gave a twist to the tiller and turned theArielinshore.
“There’s the wreck,” he said in response to Fred’s look of inquiry, as he pointed to a dark object near the beach. “We’ll just run in and look her over. But we won’t be able to stay more than a few minutes, for this is to be one of our busy days.”
“Look,” cried Teddy suddenly, pointing at right angles to the course they were pursuing.
“What is it?” came from his companions.
“It’s a shark,” cried Teddy excitedly. “Perhaps it’s the mate of the one we caught the other day. Have you your harpoon along, Lester?”
“No,” replied Lester, as he, with the others, watched the ominous black fin just showing above the surface; “and I haven’t the shark hook, either. It’s just as well anyway, because we can’t afford the time to-day to look after that fellow.”
“I suppose you’re right,” sighed Teddy, reluctantly abandoning his idea, “but I sure would like to add to my collection of shark’s teeth.”
“Wait till we find the chest, and you’ll have money enough to buy a shark and keep him as a pet,” suggested Bill.
“And feed him out of your hand,” grinned Ross.
As they drew near the shore, the wreck of the abandoned schooner came clearly into view. It was a dismal spectacle. There was nothing visible above the main deck, not even stumps. The masts220had been snapped close to their butts, showing the terrific fury of the gale that had severed them almost as neatly as though done by a razor. There were several yawning rents in the side through which the water poured and retreated. It was evident that the hold must be entirely flooded. The bow was deeply imbedded in the sand, and there was only a slight perceptible motion of the stern, as it swayed and lifted in obedience to the surge of the waves.
The ship seemed at a casual glance to be about eighty feet in length. The beam was comparatively narrow, and the long graceful lines falling away from the bow showed that she had been built for speed. She was of the greyhound type, and this fact only emphasized her present forlorn condition.
Despite the dilapidated condition of the lower part of the hull, the upper part and the deck itself seemed to be fairly solid.
“Good timber in that old boat,” muttered Lester, as they came close, “or she’d have broken up into kindling wood long ago.”
“How are you going to get aboard?” asked Bill.
“By way of the stern, I guess,” Lester replied, as he measured distances. “Of course it would be easier to get over the bow, but we’d have to go pretty close inshore for that, and I don’t know just how deep it is there. I don’t want to take any chances with theAriel.”
221Fred shortened sail, and they ran in cautiously under the stern. The planks were weatherbeaten, but there were still some vestiges of paint on the upper part, and the boys could clearly make out the name of the unfortunate boat to have been theAlbatross.
“Poor oldAlbatross,” murmured Fred. “Her wings are broken, sure enough.”
“She’ll never fly again,” added Bill.
They put the fenders over the side to avoid scraping, and Lester tossed a coil of rope over a butt that rose at the end of the stern. He held the ends, while Teddy shinned up like a monkey and fastened it more securely. Then Fred and Bill went up, while Lester stayed below to look after the safety of his craft.
“Aren’t you fellows coming along?” asked Fred, looking down over the stern.
“I guess not,” replied Lester. “I’ve seen lots of wrecks in my time, and I want to make sure that theArieldoesn’t make another.”
“How about you, Ross?” inquired Teddy.
“I’ll stay and keep Lester company,” Ross answered, as he brought theSleutha little closer. “You can tell us what you see, which can’t be much, I suppose, after all this time.”
After a little more friendly urging, the others acquiesced in the arrangement and went forward, cautiously testing each plank before they set their222feet down, for fear it might give way under them.
A certain feeling of eeriness settled down upon them. Living men, hearty, boisterous, vigorous men, full of the joy of life, had trodden these planks when the vessel was in her prime and winging her way over the seas as swiftly as the gull whose name she bore. Now the hungry waves had swallowed them, and the subdued chanting of the water along her side might well be their requiem.
Instinctively the boys drew closer together, and their voices lowered almost to a whisper.
“Makes you feel kind of creepy, doesn’t it?” remarked Bill.
“It sure does,” answered Teddy. “I shouldn’t care to sleep here over night.”
“You wouldn’t do much sleeping,” affirmed Fred. “You’d be expecting every minute to see something standing at the foot of your bed.”
But these first fancies could not long endure in the flood of sunlight that beat upon the schooner, and the boys soon recovered their normal confidence. They went through the captain’s cabin and two others that had evidently been set apart for the mates. Except one or two sodden mattresses and a huddled bunch of mouldy bed coverings, there was nothing of the slightest value. Whatever there had been at the time of the wreck had either been washed overboard or taken possession223of by the authorities, shortly after the wreck occurred.
“Nothing more to see here,” declared Bill, after a brief look around. “I guess we’d better join the other fellows now. Lester’ll be anxious to get going.”
“Right-o,” acceded Fred. “Let’s get a move on.”
But something, he did not know what, moved Teddy to stay a little longer.
“You fellows go back and unfasten the rope,” he suggested, “and I’ll be with you in a minute.”
They went slowly back to the stern and started to untie the rope, bantering meanwhile with Lester and Ross, who were getting restive.
Teddy ran forward toward the bow and looked into the gloomy depths of the forecastle. He could see that the floor was solid, but it was some inches deep in water. He hesitated only a moment and then leaped lightly down.
Three minutes later, Fred and Bill were startled to see Teddy running toward them, his face as white as chalk and his eyes blazing with excitement.
“What’s the matter?” they cried in alarm, leaping to their feet.
Teddy tried to speak, but for a moment no words came.
“The m-m-map!” he stuttered at last. “It’s in the f-forecastle!”
224“The map?” repeated Bill blankly.
A light sprang into Fred’s eyes.
“Do you mean the map that the sailor carved?” he demanded, clutching his brother’s arm with a force like a vise.
Teddy nodded, still a prey to his tremendous agitation.
“But how can it be?” asked Fred wildly. “This isn’t theRanger.”
“How do you know it isn’t?” cried Bill, catching the contagion. “Her name was changed, you remember.”
“What are you fellows chinning about up there?” demanded Lester, with a touch of impatience in his voice.
“Lester!” called Fred. “Scrape the paint off the name on the stern there, and see if you can make out anything underneath.”
Lester took out his claspknife and scraped vigorously.
“There has been something else there,” he announced after a moment, “but I can’t fully make it out. I can see a couple of R’s––”
“That’s it,” shouted Fred jubilantly. “It’s the oldRanger. Come aboard, you fellows. Lively, now. Don’t mind about the boats. They’re safe enough for a few minutes.”
A moment more, and those on board were joined by Ross and Lester, as breathless and excited as225themselves, for the meaning of Teddy’s discovery had dawned upon them.
They all raced to the forecastle and tumbled in pell mell.
With a finger that he vainly tried to keep steady, Teddy pointed to a rough tracing on the wall at the left side of the forecastle.
It took a moment to accustom their eyes to the dim light of the place, then their vision cleared and the boys could make out the details of a map similar to the one which the old sailor had described to Ross.
There were two clumps, one consisting of two and the other of three trees, at a little distance in from the beach. To the right was a huge rock that rose like some giant sentinel and seemed to mark the entrance to a bay or cove. A series of waving lines appeared to indicate the water, and a more heavily shaded part was evidently meant to denote the land. There was no artistic element in the drawing, but just then the boys would not have exchanged the rough scrawl of that knife blade for a painting by Titian or Raphael.
“Glory, hallelujah!” shouted Teddy, who had by this time recovered his power of speech.
“Eureka!” cried Lester.
227“We’ve found it,” translated Fred.
“Joy!” exulted Bill, his habitual caution swept away in the flood of his excitement.
Ross alone said nothing, though his trembling hands and moistened eyes betrayed the depth of his emotion. To the Rally Hall boys this meant a tremendous step forward, they hoped, toward the achievement of their ambition. It meant all that, too, to Ross, but it meant much more. He was on the spot where his father had been foully assaulted and brought to his death. Somewhere in this ship there had been the scuffling of feet and the thud of a deadly weapon, as his father had fought for his property and his life.
The other boys were quick to recognize his feeling, and with the true courtesy that marked them, they strove to restrain their exultation for a time, and to talk among themselves until Ross should have had time to get a grip on himself.
Bill, as usual, was the first to put a brake on their optimism and subdue their enthusiasm by questioning cautiously the real value of their discovery.
“It’s splendid, of course,” he ventured to suggest, “but, after all, what does it give us that we didn’t already know? To be sure, it shows that the sailor was telling the truth. But there doesn’t seem to be anything in the map that he hadn’t already described.”
228“That’s so,” admitted Teddy, his enthusiasm a little dampened.
“Don’t be too sure that there’s nothing else,” said Fred. “It’s so dark in here that we can’t see anything but the rough outlines. Who has some matches?”
“Here you are,” replied Lester, producing an oilskin pouch from an inside pocket.
Fred struck one, and as it flared up, five eager pairs of eyes scanned the wall in front.
But while it brought into greater distinctness the main features that they had already seen, the map seemed to reveal nothing more and there was a general sigh of disappointment.
“Why didn’t that fellow go a little further while he was about it?” groaned Teddy.
“If he had only told us not only what it looked like, but where it was,” mourned Lester.
“It’s maddening to get so close and yet miss the one thing that would clear it all up,” complained Bill.
“I can understand now how Tom Bixby felt, when Dick was just on the point of telling him where the gold was hidden,” said Lester.
“I’m not giving it up yet,” declared Fred with determination, “and I’ll not, until I have used up every match we have with us. Even after that, I’ll get a torch somewhere and keep on looking.”
But several more matches struck in quick succession229were of no more value than the first, and the boys’ hearts went down.
Just as the fifth match was burning low, Bill gave utterance to a sharp exclamation.
“I saw something down in the corner that time,” he declared. “It looked like figures of some kind.”
The boys had a deep belief in Bill’s sharp eyes, and it was with renewed hope that Fred struck another of the precious matches and held it with fingers that trembled.
“I was right!” exulted Bill. “See there,” and he pointed to some scarcely legible marks in the lower right-hand corner.
“They’re figures, all right,” he confirmed. “I can make out a ‘four’ and a ‘seven’ and, yes, a ‘six.’ But they’re very faint and I can’t make sense of them.”
“Try again, Bill,” begged Teddy.
“Wait a minute,” cried Ross. “I’ve got a small magnifying glass in the cabin of theSleuth. I’ll get it in a second.”
“That’s the stuff!” gloated Fred. “Now, we’ll make it out, sure.”
It was less than two minutes, but it seemed a long time to the impatient boys before Ross dropped into the forecastle, holding a small but powerful convex glass.
Bill snatched it eagerly and held it in front of the faintly outlined figures.
230“All over but the shouting!” he jubilated. “Take them down, you fellows, while I read them aloud to you.”
Three pencils were all the boys could muster, but these fairly leaped from their pockets.
“I don’t know what they mean,” was Bill’s prelude, “but here they are. Forty-four, then a space, then thirty-two. That’s what’s on the first line. Then under that is another lot, sixty-seven, then a space, then forty-one.”
“Hurrah!” yelled Lester, jumping up and clicking his heels together. “Latitude! Longitude! We’ll find it now!”
“Do you think that’s what the figures mean?” inquired Bill, his caution still in evidence.
“I don’t think at all, Iknow,” jubilated Lester. “It means longitude sixty-seven degrees forty-one minutes, and latitude forty-four degrees and thirty-two minutes. Look again and see if there’s anything about seconds.”
But further search failed to reveal anything more than had already been detected.
“Never mind, that’s near enough,” concluded Lester. “That will give it to us within a few miles, and it’s up to us to find the exact spot.”
“Have you got the instruments to take the observations with and find out just where the spot is?” asked Teddy.
“Sure I have,” was the answer. “I’ve a sextant231stowed away in a locker on board theArieland father has shown me how to use it.”
“I have one, too,” put in Ross.
“So much the better. We can take independent observations and then compare them. But come along, boys. We’re on the right trail at last.”
They all hastened out of the forecastle, wildly excited by this latest and most important clue.
It was the work of only a moment to throw off the lines, and the boats were off at the fastest speed of which they were capable. Teddy had gone aboard theSleuth, so as to run the boat while Ross took his observations, and the other boys took theArieloff Lester’s hands for the same purpose.
In a few minutes this had been done, and the boats ran alongside each other, so that the skippers could compare notes.
“It’s somewhere within five miles from here,” declared Lester, at the end of the conference. “Now, fellows, keep your eyes peeled for the first big rock you see standing at the right of any opening and we’ll put in there so quick it will make your heads swim.”
“Trust us to keep a close watch,” said Fred emphatically. “We won’t let any guilty rock escape.”
“You bet we won’t!” echoed Bill.
Their excitement chased away from the boys’ minds any idea of getting a regular meal, and they contented themselves with hasty bites of whatever232was found at hand, while they kept their eyes glued to the irregular coast line.
It was late in the afternoon when a shout came from Bill.
“There’s a big rock, the biggest that we’ve seen,” he cried, pointing to the right.
Both boats turned in the direction indicated. Ross, in his eagerness, made his engine hum and came first in sight of a cove that opened out beyond the rock, and a shout went up that thrilled the hearts of those in theArielploughing on behind.
“Here it is!” yelled Teddy exultingly. “Three trees standing together and two more a hundred feet away. Now for the chest of gold!”
As the boys were unfamiliar with this part of the coast, and did not know what depth of water they might expect to find, they had to moderate their speed, a tantalizing proceeding when every impulse prompted them to rush ashore.
However, “better to be safe than sorry,” was the maxim that had been dinned into Lester by his father, and despite the urgings of the others, he felt his way, foot by foot, until he found a good place to drop anchor a hundred feet from shore. Ross followed suit. Then they packed the supplies and implements they had brought into the small boat, and rowed to the beach. Several trips were necessary, but at last everything was safely landed, just on the verge of dusk.
“Oh, if it were only morning!” groaned Teddy.
“We can’t do much more than take a look around to-night, for a fact,” said Fred. “Perhaps it’s just as well, though, that we have time to rest a little before we tackle the job.”
“It’ll be a man-sized job, all right,” warned Bill.
“But we’ll have a week to do it in if necessary,”234said Lester. “And what we won’t know about this place in a week won’t be worth knowing.”
“What’s the name of this place, anyway?” asked Fred.
“I don’t know that it has any name,” was the reply.
“Suppose we christen it, then. What’s the matter with calling it Treasure Cove?”
The suggestion met with unanimous approval, and all hoped that what they should find would justify the name.
In the waning light the boys examined curiously the five trees that had helped them to locate the place. But there was nothing cut into the bark that gave them any clue. Nor were there any hollow places in any of them that were large enough to contain the box they sought.
“Well,” said Fred, as they retraced their steps to the sheltered place they had picked out as a camping spot, “we can’t do any more to-night. But I think we can be well content to call it a day’s work and let it go at that.”
“Think of the difference between the way we felt this morning and the way we’re feeling now!” exulted Teddy. “Then we didn’t know that we’d ever get within a hundred miles of it. Now, we may be within a hundred feet of it for all we know.”
Now that the strain of the chase for the Cove was235over, the boys’ appetites returned, and were all the keener because of the abstinence through the day. The lads set to work at once and in less than half an hour they had a steaming, savory meal prepared in the best style known to Lester and Bill, who were the acknowledged leaders in the culinary line. They ate as only hungry, healthy boys can eat, with digestions that asked no odds of any ostrich. Not until the last crumb had vanished did they settle back with a feeling of absolute physical content.
For an hour or more afterward, they sat around the blazing fire they had made, discussing eagerly ways and means for the morrow’s search. All of them were keyed up to the highest pitch. They had no definite plans except to hunt and dig until their strength gave out, but there was not one of them, even including cautious Bill, who did not feel sure that victory was within their grasp.
They found it hard to get to sleep, but nature would not be denied and they did sleep at last, to be awakened at the first sign of dawn.
They made a hasty breakfast and then got out their picks and spades, of which they had brought enough along for each member of the party. There was no shirking or holding back. They were like so many young hounds eager to slip from the leash when the signal should be given.
“Suppose we divide the space within easy reach from the shore into five separate sections,” suggested236Fred. “Each of us can take one and go over it a foot at a time, as though he were looking for a needle that he had dropped. If there’s any opening that might lead to a cave or any place where the ground’s heaped up as if something had been buried there, then we’ll all go to that spot and dig.”
But half the morning spent in this way showed nothing that was at all unusual.
“Nothing doing on the first try, but we can’t expect to win the game in the first inning,” said Fred cheerily. “Now, what’s next?”
“I tell you what,” suggested Teddy. “Perhaps these trees have something to do with it. Isn’t it natural to think that if they buried it in the earth at all, they’d do it somewhere on a line between the two clumps? Let’s draw a straight line from one clump to the other and dig along that line.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Lester approvingly. “But instead of starting at one end and digging up every foot of the way, what’s the matter with dividing it into lengths of ten spaces each and digging at those points? Wouldn’t the minds of those men work in that way? Instead of choosing distances of seven feet, nineteen feet, twenty-three feet, wouldn’t they first think of ten, twenty, thirty and so on? It’s the simplest way, and they were rough, simple-minded men.”
“Lester, you’re a dandy,” laughed Bill. “We’ll237have you elected a professor at Rally Hall for the first vacancy.”
But though the plan was good, it yielded no results up to the time the boys stopped work at noon to eat and rest.
They were not depressed, but it was only natural that their failure should have taken some of the fine edge off their first elation. Into the mind of each had crept the hint of the smuggler that the gold was not buried, but hidden. They did not accept this as conclusive, but it helped somewhat to dampen their enthusiasm.
“I’m hot and tired,” remarked Teddy, after they had eaten dinner, “and I’m going in for a swim before I start in again.”
A moment later he was in the water and the others were not long in following his example. All were good swimmers and they sported about indulging in all sorts of fancy practices.
“How far can you fetch under water, Teddy?” called out Bill.
“Watch me,” said Teddy, drawing in a long breath and plunging beneath the surface.
He swam with all the vigor of his sturdy young arms, helped by the current that was running strongly with him. He stayed under until his lungs felt as though they were bursting and he was forced to come up.
He was astonished to find himself in an atmosphere238of twilight instead of the brilliant sunshine he expected. His first thought was that the sun had gone under a cloud. He shook the water from his eyes and looked up.
He could see neither sun nor sky!
For a moment panic seized him. Then he pulled himself together. He could hear the shouts of his companions, alarmed because they had not seen him come up.
“I’m all right,” he shouted, to quiet their fears. Then he looked around him and realized what had happened.
He had passed under a projecting shelf of rock into what seemed to be a cave. The water was shallow and he found that he could stand on the sandy bottom.
His first feeling was that of relief. His second was one of amusement at the involuntary trick he had played on his mates. His third came to him so suddenly that it nearly took him off his feet.
What was it that Mr. Montgomery had said? “It’s where the water’s coming in.” In a moment of sanity, had the robbed and wounded man seen the place where the robbers had hidden his money?
“It’s where the water’s coming in.”
With legs that trembled, Teddy waded forward. He soon struck dry ground. He went up a slight slope, feeling his way until he was above high-water mark. He felt rough ledges as he steadied239himself against the rough side of the cave and suddenly a shock went through him that thrilled him to the finger tips.
On a ledge at the right, his hand rested on a box! He tried to lift it. It was too heavy.
He turned and raced for the entrance, plunged into the water and reappeared among his comrades.
“I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” he sputtered incoherently.
“Found what?” they yelled in chorus, already anticipating the answer.
“The money!” he repeated. “Ross’ money! I’ve found the chest of gold!”
None of them could remember very clearly just what followed. Like so many young otters the other boys swam after Teddy. They brought the chest to the water’s edge, and got it into the boat that Bill had swum back to fetch. They reached the beach, broke open the rusted lock with blows of a pick, and there before them in the sunlight was the gold. Golden sovereigns, golden eagles, golden twenty-franc pieces, gold that gleamed, gold that dazzled, gold that mirrored back their own delighted faces! A great wrong had been righted, and their persistent search had been crowned with a glorious success.
There were three triumphal journeys during the days that followed. The first was to Oakland, where a widow wept happy tears because her husband’s240name was to stand clear before the world and her son’s future was provided for. The second was to Bartanet Shoals, where the kindly keeper of the lighthouse had his part in the general jubilee. The third, and to the Rushton boys the most important of all, was to Oldtown, where Ross, who accompanied Fred and Teddy, had the proud delight of putting into the hands of Mr. Aaron Rushton the gold that paid his father’s debt.
“I wonder what Uncle Aaron will say when he finds out the money has been found,” remarked Teddy, when the three youths were on the way to Oldtown.
“I’ll wager he’ll hardly be able to believe his ears and eyes,” returned Fred.
During the journey Ross was unusually thoughtful. His eyes showed his deep delight over the mission he had undertaken.
“You can’t realize what this means to me,” he said to the Rushton boys with much feeling. “It has taken a wonderful load off my shoulders.”
“Take it from me, Teddy and I feel just as happy as you do, Ross,” responded Fred affectionately.
“I’m mighty glad that I took that swim,” remarked Teddy, with something of a grin. “It was worth while, wasn’t it?”
“The most wonderful swim in the whole world!” declared Ross, emphatically.
“Say! I’d like to take a swim like that again241and find another treasure,” continued the fun-loving Rushton boy.
When the Rushtons arrived at their home they found that their parents had gone out on a short errand. Their Uncle Aaron, however, was on hand, sitting in the library reading a book.
“Well, well! Home again, eh?” said their uncle, looking at the boys. Then he gazed questioningly at Ross.
“This is Ross Montgomery,” said Fred, by way of introduction. “Ross, this is my Uncle Aaron.”
“Hum!” came from Uncle Aaron. He gazed fixedly at the youth, who was smiling broadly. “You look rather happy.”
“Yes, Mr. Rushton, I suppose I do, for I never felt happier in my life,” returned Ross. “We’ve got good news.”
“The lost treasure has been found!” burst out Teddy, unable to control himself. “Every dollar of it, Uncle Aaron! What do you think of that?”
“Found!” repeated the man. “Do you really mean it?”
“Yes, Uncle Aaron, it’s true. The lost Montgomery fortune has been found,” added Fred.
“And I am here to pay you all that is coming to you,” announced Ross.
The picture that Uncle Aaron presented at that moment was one that his two nephews were likely never to forget. He stood as if transfixed to the242spot, while his eyes grew larger and larger. He clutched the back of his chair as if to support himself.
“What is that I hear?” he demanded, in a strangely unnatural voice. “You have come to pay me back all that money?”
“Yes, Mr. Rushton, every cent of it.”
“And he’s going to pay it to you in gold, too,” added Teddy eagerly.
“Well! Well! Well!” murmured the man. “I–I can scarcely believe it. Why, boys, this is wonderful news!” he continued, warming up. “Got every bit of the money, have you? Well now, isn’t that wonderful!” His face began to beam. “And so you’ve come to pay me what is due me, have you? Very fine of you, young man! Very fine, indeed!”
Thereupon Uncle Aaron sunk back in his chair and demanded that the three youths give him all the particulars of the finding of the treasure. They were in the midst of a graphic recital of these happenings when Mr. and Mrs. Rushton arrived.
“Hullo!” cried the boys’ father. “I hardly expected to see you yet.”
“Oh, we’ve found the treasure! We’ve found the treasure!” burst out Teddy, rushing up to shake hands with his father and then to hug his mother.
“Teddy, Teddy, don’t crush me to death!” panted243Mrs. Rushton, as the youth drew her closer and closer. “Why, I declare, I can’t breathe!”
“But isn’t it grand news?” cried the elated boy.
“Indeed it is!”
“This is Ross Montgomery, father,” said Fred. “He, you know, is the owner of the treasure.”
“And so you actually found it?” returned the father, with a smile of satisfaction. “I didn’t think you’d be able to do it.”
“Wonderful boys! Wonderful boys!” murmured Uncle Aaron. “When they first came in and told me, I thought they were putting up some sort of job on me. Say! It isn’t a joke, is it?” he queried quickly and with sudden suspicion.
“You don’t think we’d play a joke like that, do you?” demanded Teddy.
“Well, I’ve known you to play some pretty hard jokes,” said their uncle dryly. “But never mind that now, my boy,” he continued, almost affectionately. “I’ll forgive you for all of ’em, now that this money has come to light. I had about made up my mind that I’d never see a cent of it.”
“You’ll have to tell us all the particulars,” said Mr. Rushton.
“That is just what we had started to do when you came in,” answered Ross.
“Teddy is the hero of this story,” broke in Fred. “He’s the one who found the box that contained the gold pieces.”
244“Oh, come now! Don’t put it that way,” returned Teddy modestly. “We all had a hand in finding that box. Didn’t we all search for it day in and day out?”
“Never mind, you are the one who really found it, and you ought to have the credit,” said his brother firmly.
“That’s right!” broke in Ross. “If Teddy hadn’t made that wonderful dive and come up into the cave, that box might still be where it was.”
“It is queer to me that some one else didn’t find it in all these years,” was Fred’s comment.
“Well, I’m mighty glad somebody else didn’t find the money box!” cried Uncle Aaron. “But go ahead and tell the story. I want to hear every word of it.”
“All right, then,” answered Ross. And sitting down with the others he told his tale in full, aided by Fred and Teddy.
It goes without saying that the older Rushtons were tremendously interested in the recital. When Mrs. Rushton heard how Teddy had made his wonderful dive she shuddered.
“Oh, my son, what a risk to take!” she murmured. “What if you had never come up to the surface again!”
“Oh, don’t worry, Momsey,” he answered affectionately. “I know how to take care of myself.”
“I’ll wager that the folks at Bartanet Shoals245were surprised to hear the news,” was Mr. Rushton’s comment.
“Yes, indeed,” answered Fred.
“But you should have seen my mother when she heard the great tidings,” came from Ross, and his voice choked a little when he spoke. “Why she was the happiest woman in the whole world!”
“I have no doubt of it,” answered Mrs. Rushton, “and she had good cause for her happiness.”
That their parents were proud of the part that Fred and Teddy had played in the finding, goes without saying. Their Uncle Aaron was so delighted that he gladly wiped off the slate all his past grievances against his nephews. He even went so far as to claim some share in what they had done.
“Wasn’t it through me they went to Rally Hall?” he demanded. “If they hadn’t gone there, they wouldn’t have met Lester or gone to Bartanet Shoals, and I’d have been twelve thousand dollars to the bad.”
Ross had insisted on a share of the recovered money going to the Rushton boys and Lester. The friendship between the boys had grown very strong and they were delighted when in answer to their urging, Ross agreed to go with them to Rally Hall. They little knew at the time that they were destined to take part in fresh and stirring adventures before the fall term was over.
“Well,” remarked Fred, when he was talking it246all over with his brother, “we’ve had some exciting times together, but this has been ahead of anything yet!”
“Yes,” agreed Teddy, “but I have a feeling that we’re in for something better yet when we get back to Rally Hall.”
And here let us say good-bye to the Rushton boys.
THE END