“What’s the trouble?�
“Why, haven’t you noticed that there are none of the regular crew with us, and that Terrill made an excuse not to go ashore. There’s something queer at the bottom of it.�
But no more was said just then, for Cap’n Toby, in high good humor, was pointing out the course they must lay to the oarsmen. His aged but keen eyes had spied a little cove that would make a good landing place. The boat was headed for this.
Before long they were ashore. The cove ran up inland between frowning walls of black cliff. But there appeared to be an exit to the interior of the island at the other end of it.
Pulling the boat up on the beach, the adventurers set off over the sand and were soon clambering among precipitous rocks, Jack and Raynor helping Uncle Toby over the worst places. The old captain’s map gave the hiding place of the stone chest as a cairn under the dead branches of the cedar.
Soon they were in full view of the tree and the heights on which it stood when they emerged from the abyss, and found themselves on a rocky plateau. From this plateau there rose what may be compared to a mesa on the western plains. It was a miniature table mountain with a flat top. On the summit was the cedar tree and, if Uncle Toby’s hopes were not doomed to be dashed, the stone cairn and the treasure chest.
“That cedar tree never grew there,� declared Jack, looking up the sheer cliffs at the mournful bare branches of the lone tree.
“No, Cap’n Walters always reckoned it was set up there by the people who had the treasure. They said it was a guide, he figgered,� said Uncle Toby.
“What is supposed to be the origin of the treasure?� asked Raynor.
“Cap’n Walters allowed that hundreds of years ago the old Vikings from Norseland came over here and found some sort of gold diggings. At any rate, the treasure consists, in a large measure, of beaten gold bracelets and breastplates and so forth. You know scientists say that there wasn’t always as much ice up here as there is to-day. They say the world’s axis has shifted a bit.�