13. Belt buckle containing six half-carat diamonds.
While the boys knelt, their eyes reveling in the glint of the jewels, Mac sprang up.
“You don’t mean that this coon gets all that stuff?”
Jerry, never opposing Mac very strongly on any proposition, shrank back.
“That’s my idea,” remarked Bob. The other boys nodded their heads approvingly.
“Ah ain’t reckon dat’s all mine,” ventured Jerry, in turn. “Ef Ah kin hab de gold crown fo’ mah ole mammy, yo’ all kin hab dem rings an’ sich.”
This was manifestly unfair. For a long time, the question was debated. The colored boy insisted that the little box was only a part of the treasure—that a larger box remained untouched. What might be in this box was unknown, but if it was of considerable value, there was a feeling that the other members of the expedition had some sort of a claim on it. Finally, and partly at Captain Joe’s suggestion, it was agreed by all that, of the treasure already found and yet to be examined, Jerry would be liberally compensated with a share equal to one-third.
This decision reached, Captain Joe called attention to the fact that it was half past one o’clock. But the hour meant nothing to the gold frenzied lads. With extra candles, an impetuous cavalcade made its way at once toward Oak Tree Point, Captain Joe protesting but following. Securing Jerry’s abandoned lantern, there was a rush over the smooth sand to the colored boy’s excavation.
The moon was low, a stiff breeze was blowing in from the sea and sweaters were not out of place. Jerry was not mistaken. There was a larger box or chest, part of which had been uncovered. No attempt was made to free the box, but Mac, with the shovel, soon removed the top.
The jeweled contents of “Marie Ducroix’ glove case” were for a time forgotten as the articles in the old chest were lifted out and laid on the white sand. Above all, was the unmistakable odor of mildewed and decayed clothing. In a few moments, the sand was littered with an assortment of things such as no pirate ever dreamed of concealing.