A droll smile flickered over the bronzed features of Captain Pegg. He brought down his fist on the window-sill.
'Well, if you aren’t chaps after my own heart!' he cried. 'Treasure about here? I was just coming to that—and a most curious happening it is! There was a cabin-boy,—name of Jenks,—a lad that I trusted and loved like my own son, who stole the greater part of my share of the treasure, and though I scoured the globe for him,'—the captain’s eyes rolled fiercely,—'I found neither trace of him nor the treasure, till two years ago. It was in Madagascar that I received a message from a dying man, confessing that, shaken by remorse, he had brought what was left of the plunder and buried it in Mrs. Handsomebody’s back yard.'
'Mrs. Handsomebody’s back yard!' We chanted the words in utter amazement.
'Just that,' affirmed Captain Pegg solemnly. 'Jenks found out that I owned the house next door, but he dared not bury the treasure there because the yard was smoothly sodded, and would show up any disturbance; while Mrs. H.'s yard, being covered with planks, was just the thing. So he simply raised one of the planks, dug a hole, and deposited the sack containing the last of the treasure, and wrote me his confession. And there you are!'
He smiled benignly on us. I longed to hug him.
The wind swooped and whistled down the alley, and the starling gave little sharp twittering noises and cocked his head.
'When, oh, when?' we burst out; 'to-night? May we search for it to-night, Captain Pegg?'
He reflected. 'No-o. Not to-night. Jenks, you see, sent me a plan of the yard, with a cross to mark where the treasure lies, and I’ll have to hunt it up so as not to waste our time turning up the whole yard. But to-morrow night—yes, to-morrow at midnight we’ll start the search!'
IV
At dinner that day the rice-pudding had the flavor of ambrosia. By night-fall preparations were already on foot.