"Tom told me that when d.i.c.k got to this point, he couldn"t hold in any longer but asked him point blank where it was that he had buried the treasure chest.
""We didn"t bury it," d.i.c.k answered. "We hid it in----"
"Just then the skipper called Tom and he had to leave d.i.c.k, but promised to come back as soon as he could.
"But one duty after another kept him busy, and he wasn"t able to go back to d.i.c.k for some time. Then he found that a great change had taken place. d.i.c.k"s fever had gone down, he had a little appet.i.te, and it was clear that he was on the mend. Perhaps the relieving of his conscience by telling of the crime had helped him get better.
"However that might have been, he was a very different d.i.c.k from the night before. His mouth was shut as tight as an oyster, and Tom couldn"t get another word out of him. When he reminded him that he hadn"t finished his confession of the night before, d.i.c.k stared at him coldly and asked him what confession he was talking about. Tom told him, and d.i.c.k said that was the first he had heard of anything of the kind. Said he must have been out of his mind, if he"d gotten off any nonsense like that. And he gave Tom a hint that it wouldn"t be healthy for him, if he spread the report among the rest of the crew.
"He didn"t need to do that, for Tom had no idea of talking. He knew that if he did, it would be a very easy thing for one of the half dozen confederates to knock him senseless and heave him overboard some dark night. So he kept a quiet tongue in his head, and neither he nor d.i.c.k ever referred to the matter again as long as Tom was on board.
"As luck would have it, they soon after fell in with another ship of the same line that was on its way back home. Some of her crew had been swept overboard in a cyclone, and she was short-handed. Her skipper asked the captain of Tom"s craft to let him have a couple of men and he consented.
Tom and one other sailor volunteered, and they were transferred to the other ship. It was a lucky thing for Tom, because his old ship went down in a hurricane off Cape Horn and every soul on board was lost."
"Is that certain?" asked Bill.
"As certain as those things can ever be," was the answer. "That was as much as eight years ago, and not a single man of her crew has ever turned up anywhere. If any one of them had been picked up by another ship, the matter would have been reported as soon as the ship reached port. Of course, there"s a bare chance that some of them might have reached a desert island and still be alive. But that"s so unlikely that it might as well be put out of mind."
"What"s become of Tom Bixby?" asked Teddy.
"He shipped on a Canadian sealer soon after he was here, and I haven"t seen or heard of him since."
"Is there any chance that he might have gone on a still hunt for the treasure?"
"Not Tom," laughed Mr. Lee. "He didn"t have enough to go on. But he certainly was sore at the skipper for having called him away from d.i.c.k just when he did. Another minute--yes, another ten seconds--and d.i.c.k would have blurted out just where the treasure was hidden."
"It must have been fearfully exasperating to come so near finding out and yet just to miss it," remarked Bill.
"It is a lucky thing for Ross that he didn"t find out," interjected Fred. "Tom didn"t know who the rightful owner was, and if he"d found it he would have kept the gold."
"I"m afraid that he wouldn"t have tried to find out very hard," laughed their host. "Sailor men have peculiar ideas about hidden treasure. The general rule they go by is that "findings is keepings.""
"I guess there are a good many besides sailors who would go by the same rule," said Teddy.
"Human nature is much the same, no matter what a man"s calling is,"
a.s.sented Mr. Lee. "But you lads have kept me talking a long while, and I"ve got to look after my work. I"ve given you all I know about the Montgomery case, and it"s up to you now to put your heads together and make the most of it."
CHAPTER XII
UNCLE AARON REJOICES
"Well," said Fred, drawing a long breath and looking around at his companions after Mr. Lee had left the room, "we"ve certainly got more than we expected from this after-dinner talk."
"And we didn"t know at the start that we"d get a thing," exulted Teddy.
"It"s queer that dad never mentioned the matter to me," mused Lester.
"Still I was a little chap when it all happened, and the whole thing has been almost forgotten."
"But what"s the net result?" asked Bill. "We haven"t the least idea yet where the treasure really is."
"No," admitted Fred. "We haven"t. And yet we"ve made a long step forward. In the first place, we know that Ross was absolutely honest and truthful in all that he said. Then, too, we know from Tom"s story that the treasure wasn"t taken away by the smugglers then, and couldn"t have been afterwards, since they were all drowned. So we can be sure that it"s still where they left it unless some one else has stumbled on it, which isn"t at all likely. Further than that, we know where the man lives who picked up Mr. Montgomery when he was adrift, and there"s no knowing what we may be able to get out of him. It seems to me that we"re already far ahead of where we were this morning."
"There"s another point too, Fred," broke in Teddy. "d.i.c.k told Tom that the chest wasn"t buried, but was hidden somewhere. That gives us a mighty good tip. If we didn"t know that, we might waste our time and break our backs in digging, when it wouldn"t do us a bit of good."
"That"s funny, too," remarked Lester. "You"d think that burying would have been the first thing they thought of. In all the stories one reads of pirate h.o.a.rds, the treasure is buried deep down in the earth."
"And the pirate usually shot the man who dug the hole and left his skeleton to guard the treasure," said Bill.
"Perhaps Manuel might have done something of the kind, if there hadn"t been so many in the crew," said Fred. "He seems from all accounts to have been more desperate and b.l.o.o.d.y-minded than the rest."
"We needn"t worry our brains as to why it wasn"t done," remarked Teddy.
"The only thing that concerns us is that it was hidden instead of buried."
"Hidden is a pretty big word," put in skeptical Bill. "It might be hidden on a mountain top or in a thicket or in a hollow tree or under water or in a cave or any other old place. Instead of making the problem easier, it seems to me it makes it harder."
"I can see Bill getting cross-eyed trying to keep one eye on the mountains and the other on the sea," jibed Teddy.
"Bill"s all right," a.s.sented Fred. "He acts as a brake to hold us in check and keep us from going ahead too fast."
"I guess we can cut out the mountain top idea," put in Lester, "as there aren"t any mountains of any size close to the coast."
"And you must remember, too," chimed in Fred, "that they were in a hurry to get away. Mr. Montgomery was adrift, and they didn"t know at just what moment he might be picked up. Of course, he was unconscious, but he might come to his senses at any time and tell his rescuers just what had happened. In that case, the fat would be in the fire right away."
"No," said Lester thoughtfully, "whatever was done had to be done in a hurry. It"s a dead sure thing that they didn"t go far in from the coast."
"For the same reason, we can dismiss the hollow tree idea," said Teddy.
"Those things can"t be found just when you want them, and they didn"t have time to hunt around for one. Besides it would take a mighty big hollow to hold a chest as big as that."
"We"ll consider the other possibilities later," summed up Fred. "For the present, the one thing on which I guess we"re all agreed is that the chest was hidden somewhere close to the coast."
"There"s one thing we fellows must do above everything else,"
recommended Lester, "and that is to keep the whole thing absolutely secret. Even when we go to see Mark, we must put our questions in such a way that he"ll not have the slightest suspicion of what we"re really after. He might set his tongue wagging, and some reporter might get wind of it and put it in a local paper. Then it would be copied in others, and the first thing we knew it would be written up for the front page of the Sunday edition of a city paper with all sorts of scareheads and pictures. That would put the hoodoo on us for fair. We"d be followed and spied on, and the first thing you know some other party would be finding the money and Ross wouldn"t get a dollar of it.
"Of course, Tom Bixby, if he"s still alive, knows something about it, but that was so long ago that he probably only thinks of it once in a while, and if he should speak of it to any of his mates it would be put down only as a sailor"s yarn.
"Fred, you and Teddy will have to tell your folks, because it"s only right that your Uncle Aaron, who is so heavy a creditor, should know about it, and then, too, he may be able to give us some information that will help. But you can give the tip to the folks at home that it is to be kept strictly among themselves. Dad, of course, won"t let on to anybody."
"That reminds me," said Fred, "that we ought to write to Uncle Aaron right away."
"Suppose you fellows do that then, while I"m over in Bartanet,"
suggested Lester. "I have to go over there this afternoon to get supplies. Want to come along, Bill?"
"Sure thing," answered Bill, rising and stretching himself. "I need a little fresh air and exercise after the big dinner I"ve just put away."