“Let’s look,” says I.
So we all went on deck to nose around, but not a thing did we find, and Naboth said he hadn’t found anything when he swabbed the decks this morning. It was mighty funny.
“Well,” says Mr. Browning, “that’s that. Um.... Look here, you fellows.”
He took us below and showed us a chart. “There’s something buried in the sand out yonder. I shan’t tell you what it is, because it’s just as well if you don’t know. Here are the directions to find it. Now, go to it, but be careful. If you do get it, why, it’ll be the best day’s work you’ll ever do.”
With that he went on deck, and Naboth took him ashore in the power dink. Catty and I studied the map, and so far as we could judge, it showed the place where the treasure was hid to be just about where Mr. House and Mr. Robbins had been digging. It might have been there, or it might have been a hundred feet or so in any direction of their hole, but anyhow, it was close. The only way to tell, was to make exact measurements according to the figures on the map.
“So far, so good,” says Catty. “I’ve got the figures memorized. Now we better hide this map in a safe place so there’s no chance of anybody sneaking aboard while we’re gone and stealing it.”
We looked around for a place to hide the map, but there didn’t seem to be any safe places. We had to put it some place, though, so, in the end, we hid it in back of the mirror and went on deck.
Then we got Rameses III to help us lower the other dink—the one you have to row—and started to see what we could see. The Porpoise was still at anchor, and just as we got a quarter of a mile away, we saw a whopping big steam yacht come in. She must have been close to two hundred feet long, and she was a dandy. She steamed in, slowed down, and after fussing around a while she dropped anchor. We watched and saw her lower a boat. Then a man who looked big and fat got in and two sailors, and they went chugging away, and would you believe it?—they headed straight for the Porpoise. Yes, sir, they ran right up to her, and the fat man went aboard.
“What d’you think of that?” says I.
“I think we’d better get a move on us if we want to lift this treasure,” says Catty. “That looks to me like reinforcements to the enemy.”