"Only what?"
"I didn't have the tools, and it was cemented right in the wall of the cave."
"Indeed!" The old tar put up his hand to shut off the others from talking. "Farvel, I think yer a natural born story-teller. You ain't seed so much as a corner o' thet stone. It's a put-up job to make us take ye into partnership—but it won't work nohow."
"Jacob Ropes is right," said Robert Menden. "You haven't seen the tablet."
"It ain't in no wall!" burst out Danny, ere he had stopped to think twice. "It's—" He stopped in dismay.
"Ha! so you have located it!" cried Joseph Farvel.
"It ain't in no wall, fer de papers don't read dat way," went on Danny, bound to smooth matters over. "It's behind a monument wid lions' heads and carved snakes, and such t'ings around it."
"A monument with lions' heads?" queried Farvel, in bewilderment. "All right—if you know best." He paused. "Then you won't form any partnership?"
"No," said Robert Menden; and all of the others agreed with him.
Without another word, Joseph Farvel ordered his helpers to gather his things together. He was on the point of appropriating one of old Jacob's ropes when the sailor stopped him.