Presently they were startled by a series of explosions, a short distance ahead.
"What are we getting into?" Macloud exclaimed, drawing up sharply.
"Parmenter"s defending his treasure!" said Croyden, with mock seriousness. "He is warning us off."
"A long way off, then! We must be a mile and more from the Point. It"s some one blasting, I think."
"It wasn"t sufficiently m.u.f.fled," Croyden answered.
They waited a few moments: hearing no further noises, they proceeded--a trifle cautiously, however. A little further on, they came upon a wood cutter.
"He doesn"t appear at all alarmed," Croyden observed. "What were the explosions, a minute ago?" he called.
"They weren"t nothing," said the man, leaning on his axe. "The Navy"s got a "speriment house over here. They"re trying things. Yer don"t need be skeered. If yer goin" to the station, it"s just a little ways, now," he added, with the country-man"s curiosity--which they did not satisfy.
They pa.s.sed the buildings of the Experiment Station and continued on, amid pine and dogwood, elms and beeches. They were travelling parallel with the Severn, and not very distant, as occasional glimpses of blue water, through the trees, revealed. Gradually, the timber thinned. The river became plainly visible with the Bay itself shimmering to the fore. Then the trees ended abruptly, and they came out on Greenberry Point: a long, flat, triangular-shaped piece of ground, possibly two hundred yards across the base, and three hundred from base to point.
The two men halted, and looked around.
"Somewhere near here, possibly just where your horse is standing, is the treasure," said Macloud. "Can"t you feel its presence?"
"No, I can"t!" laughed Croyden, "and that appears to be my only chance, for I can"t see a trace of the trees which formed the square."
"Be not cast down!" Macloud admonished. "Remember, you didn"t expect to find things marked off for you."
"No, _I_ didn"t! but I thought _you_ did."
"That was only to stir you up. I antic.i.p.ated even more adverse conditions. It"s amazingly easier than I dared to hope."
"Thunder! man! we can"t dig six feet deep over all of forty acres. We shall have the whole of Annapolis over to help us before we"ve done a square of forty feet."
"You"re too liberal!" laughed Macloud. "Twenty feet would be ample."
Then he sobered. "The instructions say: seven hundred and fifty feet back, from the extreme tip of Greenberry Point, is the quadrangle of trees. That was in 1720, one hundred and ninety years ago. They must have been of good size then--hence, they would be of the greater size, now, or else have disappeared entirely. There isn"t a single tree which could correspond with Parmenter"s, closer than four hundred yards, and, as the point would have been receding rather than gaining, we can a.s.sume, with tolerable certainty, that the beeches have vanished--either from decay or from wind storms, which must be very severe over in this exposed land. Hence, must not our first quest be for some trace of the trees?"
"That sounds reasonable," said Croyden, "and, if the Point has receded, which is altogether likely, then we are pretty near the place."
"Yes!--if the Point has simply receded, but if it has shifted laterally, as well, the problem is not so simple."
"Let us go out to the Point, and look at the ruins of the light-house.
If we can get near enough to ascertain when it was built, it may help us. Evidently there was none erected here, in Parmenter"s time, else he would not have chosen this place to hide his treasure."
But the light-house was a barren yield. It was a crumbling ma.s.s of ruins, lying out in water, possibly fifty feet--the real house was a bug-light farther out in the Bay.
"Well, there"s no one to see us, so why shouldn"t we make a search for the trees?" said Croyden.
"Hold my horse!" said Macloud, dismounting.
He went out on the extreme edge, faced about, and taking a line at right angles to it, stepped two hundred and fifty paces. He ended in sand--and, for another fifty paces, sand--sand unrelieved by aught save some low bushes spa.r.s.ely scattered here and there.
"Somewhere hereabout, according to present conditions, the trees should be," he said.
"Not very promising," was Croyden"s comment.
"Let us a.s.sume that the diagonal lines drawn between the trees intersect at this point," Macloud continued, producing a compa.s.s.
"Then, one hundred and ten paces North-by-North-East is the place we seek."
He stepped the distance carefully--Croyden following with the horses--and sunk his heel into the sand beside a clump of wire gra.s.s.
"Here is the old buccaneer"s h.o.a.rd!" he exclaimed, dramatically.
"Shall we dig, immediately?" Croyden laughed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HE WENT OUT ON THE EXTREME EDGE, FACED ABOUT, AND STEPPED TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY PACES]
"You dig--I"ll hold the horses; your hands are tougher than mine."
"I wonder who owns this land?" said Croyden, suddenly.
"We can ascertain very readily. You mean, you would try to purchase it?"
"Yes, as a site for a house, ostensibly. I might buy a lot beginning, say one hundred and fifty yards back from the Point, and running, at an even width of two hundred yards, from the Severn to the Bay. That would surely include the treasure."
"A fine idea!" Macloud agreed.
"If the present owner will sell," appended Croyden--"and if his price isn"t out of all reason. I can"t go much expense, you know."
"Never mind the expense--that can be arranged. If he will sell, the rest is easy. I"ll advance it gladly to you."
"And we will share equally, then," said Croyden.
"Bosh!" Macloud answered. "I"ve got more money than I want, let me have some fun with the excess, Croyden. And this promises more fun than I"ve had for a year--hunting a buried treasure, within sight of Maryland"s capital. Moreover, it won"t likely be out of reach of your own pocketbook, this can"t be very valuable land." He remounted his horse.
"Let us ride around over the intended site, and prospect--we may discover something."
But, though, they searched for an hour, they were utterly unsuccessful.
The four beech trees had disappeared as completely as though they never were.
"I"m perfectly confident, however," Macloud remarked as they turned away toward town, "that somewhere, within the lines of your proposed lot, lie the Parmenter jewels. Now, for the lot. Once you have t.i.tle to it, you may plow up the whole thing to any depth you please, and no one may gainsay you."
"I"m not so sure," replied Croyden. "My knowing that the treasure was on it when purchased, may make me liable to my grantor for an accounting."
"But you don"t _know_!" objected Macloud.
"Yet, I have every reason to believe--the letter is most specific."
"Suppose, after you"ve paid a big price for the land, you don"t find the treasure, could you make him take it back and refund the purchase money?"
"No, most a.s.suredly, no," smiled Croyden.
"Mighty queer doctrine! You must account for what you find--if you don"t find it, you must keep the land, anyway. The other fellow wins whatever happens."