“By Croesus, Saxe, you’ve got it! You’ve pinned the map to the mountains! Bravo, my son!”
At the outburst, Roy and David faced about, startled. They saw the unwieldy bulk of Billy swaying with the motion he had imparted to the launch by leaping to his feet. He was a figure of joy, with his little eyes glowing, his bare head a tangle of wind-tossed hair, his harsh features softened by radiance. Even Jake had turned in his seat at the wheel, and was rigidly expectant.
“Praise be!” Billy ejaculated, as he waved the chart high in a gesture of triumph. “One of you, at last, has come to my help. Saxe has run the chart to earth—literally.”
At that, there was a lively display of interest. Jake stopped the engine, and left the launch to drift lazily, while he joined the others for a study of the map in connection with the horizon line discovered by Saxe. Roy and David were inclined to be somewhat skeptical at the outset, but they were presently convinced, as they perceived the exactness of the correspondence between mountains and chart. There was jubilation on the part of all.
Jake introduced a topic that was lying in the mind of each.
“But I don’t understand yet jest where ’bouts that-thar money of Mr. Abernethey’s might be,” he remarked. “What about it?”
“Our esteemed friend has touched on the very crux of the matter,” Billy declared, with a noisy sigh. “We have now attained to all the knowledge that we require for our purposes—with a single small exception—we don’t know where the gold is. Nevertheless, the chart will tell us. It’s there—somewhere—Saxe has done nobly in coming to my assistance. It seems to me that, now, it’s the turn of either Roy or Dave.” Billy laughed, and then assumed an expression of elephantine demureness. “Roy is something of an expert in occult things,” he suggested, with his eyes twinkling. “It might be a good idea for him to try his powers on this. The divining rod, in the hands of the gifted, will locate precious metals, as well as water, under the surface of the earth. Doubtless, it will do as much for gold under water. It is probable that Jake can inform us as to where witch-hazel is to be found in the woods. With a twig of that for wand—I believe it is the accepted wood—let Roy go wandering over the lake in the launch; let him hold the divining-rod in his hand until it shall dip toward the water. Let a buoy be floated there to mark the spot, and there will we dredge, and there will we bring up the old man’s treasure.”
Roy sniffed, while Saxe and David smiled over Billy’s bombast. But Jake took the suggestion seriously, and nodded his approval.
“Allus hearn it would find gold and silver,” he said, “but I hain’t never seen it done. It’s fine for water, though, and that I know, havin’ seen it work many a time. It bent, and they dug, and the water come, and that’s all they was to it.”
Two hours after he had retired that night, Billy Walker was rudely awakened out of a sound sleep. In a dream, which had been of a curious, but most agreeable heaven, where he was dining on dishes that were puzzles, each one to be solved before it could be eaten, he was instantaneously transported to a vile groggery of the water-front in a seaport town, where a horde of rapscallions pounced on him with intent to shanghai. He awoke to behold in the moonlight Saxe, who sat on the edge of the bed, jolting him violently to and fro. When his brain was sufficiently clear, he demanded the meaning of this outrage. The first words from his friend were consolation enough.