“The treasure—is any of that there?” asked Harry, eagerly.
“Not a bit of it.”
“Well, that’s what I call an unfair deal,” murmured Bruce. “It is a blow below the belt. If the old skeleton had desired to go away, none of us would have objected, but it might have left the trimmings with which it was adorned.”
Frank was puzzled, and the more he investigated the greater grew his wonder. He knew they had seen the skeleton, yet it had vanished like fog before a blazing sun.
Jack shrugged his shoulders and shivered, saying:
“There’s something uncanny about it, old man. I believe it is a warning.”
“Nonsense!” cried Frank. “What sort of a warning?”
“A warning of the fate that awaits all of us.”
“You are not well, Jack.”
“Oh, it is not that! First we see a lake of water, and that disappears; then we see this skeleton, and now that has vanished. You must confess that there is something remarkable in it all.”