"It"ll be a man-sized job, all right," warned Bill.
"But we"ll have a week to do it in if necessary," said 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 was over, the boys"
appet.i.tes 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 s.p.a.ce within easy reach from the sh.o.r.e into five separate sections," suggested Fred. "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 s.p.a.ces 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"ll have 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 st.u.r.dy 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 atmosphere of 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 pa.s.sed 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 amus.e.m.e.nt 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 steadied himself 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 antic.i.p.ating 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"s name 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,"