“I’ll show you, an’ it seems as if we ought to be able to get more, for I didn’t hunt very much.”
Ned led the way through the grove, his companions urging him to greater speed, so eager were they to see the exact spot from which the treasure had been taken.
“There it is,” he finally said as he pointed to the blackened timbers which could be seen above the sand.
“A pirate vessel!” Vance exclaimed.
“I don’t think so,” Ned replied decidedly, although his ideas as to what a piratical craft might be like were very hazy. “It don’t seem as if they’d keep money boxed up the same as that was which I found. I was after the timbers to build a hut of, an’ dug the sand away with sticks, so you can fancy I didn’t have a chance to search over very much space.”
The storm had obliterated all signs of his labor, but he remembered exactly which of the ancient timbers he had counted on first taking away, and was thus able to point out the exact spot where the treasure had reposed so long.
“Let’s overhaul the whole place, and see what we can find,” Vance cried excitedly, and would have started at full speed after a shovel but for Roy, who caught him by the arm as he said impressively:
“Wait a minute. There is plenty of time, and we’d better talk this matter over. No one can say how long we may be obliged to stay here, and perhaps the hour will come when food seems more valuable than gold. If there is other treasure in this place it will stay, and that is what can’t be said for the yacht.”
“You think we’d better get the grub ashore before foolin’ ’round here?” Ned asked.
“Yes, most decidedly. When we have taken from the yacht all which may be useful, we shall still have plenty of time to dig over this sand. Or, even if it happens that we are rescued very soon, our fathers will be willing to come here after hearing Ned’s story.”