“Upon my word, lad, I believe there’s something in that chart after all. Give me the spade until we see what’s below here!”
Now all hands were literally trembling with excitement, as the mate threw out the loose sand in a perfect shower, and when several fragments of decayed wood were disclosed each one believed the desired discovery was about to be made.
CHAPTER XX.
THE UNDERGROUND PASSAGE.
The treasure seekers were not kept long in suspense after the first evidence that there was some foreign substance beneath the surface.
In less than ten minutes Jenkins cleared the sand away, exposing to view an iron-bound hatch, which presented the appearance of having been taken from a small vessel. It showed every sign of age. The iron was so eaten with rust as to be nothing more than thin ribbons of metal, and the wood had been bored by insects or worms until it looked like a gigantic sieve.
“If there’s any treasure on this island here’s where we shall find it,” the mate said, as he paused to wipe the perspiration from his face. “It don’t stand to reason that men would spend their time burying a thing like this, and then make a chart to show exactly the spot, unless there was something valuable underneath.”
“Of course there’s plenty of gold down there, and perhaps we shall find a lot of diamonds and jewelry,” Gil cried, excitedly. “Why don’t you lift it up?”
“That’s more than can be done from below here, unless the hole is made at least twice as large, which will be too much work to suit me. There are some pieces of rope on the beach that were left over after we finished riggin’ the boat. Get them, an’ we’ll soon have a purchase that’ll raise this ’ere cover mighty easy.”
Both the boys started for the shore at full speed. They were too much excited to be able to converse about the matter, and, without saying a single word, gathered up the desired articles, returning to the scene of the discovery in a wonderfully short space of time.