"You bet we will," chimed in Tyke. "There wouldn't be any cruise at all if it hadn't been for you. Who suggested searching the box? Who translated the paper and the map? You've been the head and front of the whole thing from the beginning."
"But——" began Drew.
"'But,' nothing," interrupted Tyke. "Not another word. Remember I'm your boss."
And Drew, glad enough for once in his life to be bossed, became silent. But the walls of his air castle began to grow more solid.
"How long will it be before you can have the schooner ready to sail?" Tyke inquired, turning to the captain.
"Oh, in a week or ten days if we are pressed," was the response. "It won't take us more than that to get our supplies aboard and ship our crew."
"The crew is an important matter," reflected Tyke. "It won't do to pick up any riffraff that may come to hand. We want to git men that we can trust. Sailors have a way of smelling out the meaning of any cruise that is out of the usual order of things, an' if there's any trouble-makers in the crew who git a hint that we're out for treasure, they'll cause mischief."
"They won't get any hint, unless some of us talk in our sleep," replied the captain. "I know where I can lay hands on quite a few of my old crew, but I'll be so busy with other things that I'll have to leave the picking of most of the men to Ditty."
"Ditty?" said Grimshaw inquiringly.
"He's my mate," explained the captain. "Cal Ditty. As smart a sailor as one could ask for. But that about lets him out."