Instantly all thoughts of the pig vanished from the man's mind, and again the long-dormant strain derived from his wrecking and smuggling ancestors reasserted itself.
"Ho! ho!" he shouted in stentorian tones. "We'm in luck, sir. Treasure an' all!"
He fumbled with the lid, then, struck by the thought that a lot of the glamour of the discovery of hidden specie and bullion would be lost unless he viewed his find in the glare of a torch, he retraced his footsteps and rejoined Alwyn and Peter.
"Girt sea-chest!" he announced excitedly. "Lifted 'en lid, I did."
"And the pig?" asked the matter-of-fact Burgoyne.
"Drat that pig!" exclaimed Minalto explosively. "The chest, sir. Ef us had a light, like... sort o' torch, now say?"
"How about it, Peter?" asked Alwyn, turning to the Wireless Officer.
"We'll manage that," replied Mostyn confidently. "Let's get out of the thicket. Suppose we ought to beat a clear path through this stuff?"
Burgoyne shook his head.
"No," he decided; "we won't disturb it more than necessary. The less we do the better. If we're careful we ought to be able to take a lighted torch into the cave without setting fire to the brushwood outside."