During the afternoon Jack set up the wireless apparatus, stringing his aërials from a stout bush far up the cliff side. Then he began to send messages. He was in the midst of this work when there was a sudden stir in the camp. Three newcomers were approaching down the gulch.
They were Terrill, Jarrow and another of the crew. Terrill looked crestfallen. Jarrow carried a handkerchief tied to a stick as a token of truce.
He noticed the hostile looks cast at him and held up one of his bony-fingered hands deprecatingly.
“I have come in peace,� he said in a sanctimonious voice.
“You precious rascal, I’d like to see you go away in pieces,� roared Uncle Toby, who was with difficulty restrained from rushing at the oily rascal.
“We all of us make mistakes,� muttered Jarrow, rolling his squinting eye horribly. “I’m thinking we all made a big mistake in ever coming here.�
“Yes, Captain Ready,� said Terrill, “there is no chance of ever reaching the top of that cedar plateau. The treasure is secure from us both. We will reach an amicable agreement. You give me notes to pay half the expenses of this cruise, and we will sail for home to-day.�
Uncle Toby burst into a loud laugh.
“Fer a slick feller, Terrill, you’ve got yourself inter as nice a corner as ever a man did,� he chuckled, “so now, after trying your best to cheat us and leaving us here to starve fer all you know, you try to get me to sign notes for half of a business venture that you went into with your foxy eyes wide open and intendin’ to swindle me? I’ll see you rot on this island first.�
“Confound you!� shrieked Terrill, “it’s you that are the swindler. You landed me in this out of the way place. If the treasure is there, it’s impossible to get it without an aeroplane.�