“I’ll bet he didn’t bury any on Hog Island,” Jack laughed. “You can’t dig six inches anywhere there without striking solid ledge. I’ve been out there three or four times.”
“Then we won’t go to Hog Island, Hal,” said Bee calmly. “I merely suggested that particular place because it was the first island I saw. We’ll find another one. How about the thing you call The Lump?”
“Just a ledge sticking out of the water,” said Jack. “If you really want to hunt for buried treasure, though, Mansfield, you might have a go at Nobody’s Island.” He smiled across at Hal. “’Most everyone has around here!”
CHAPTER IV
Buried Treasure
“That’s the ticket!” Bee snapped his fingers gleefully. “That’s the very place I’m looking for. Nobody’s Island, eh? There must be buried treasure on an island with a name like that. Where is it?”
“About three miles up the shore,” replied Jack, smiling. “It isn’t much of an island any more, though. Some years ago the sea ran in back of it and then, I suppose, it was a real island. Nowadays it isn’t an island at all, except once or twice a year when there’s an uncommonly high tide. Come on into the sitting-room and I’ll show it to you on the chart.”
“Father always said there was money buried somewhere there,” said Faith as she followed the boys into the front room.
“I don’t doubt but that there is,” responded Jack as he spread a chart across the center table, “but I don’t believe anyone’s going to find it. I’ll bet a hundred people have dug on Nobody’s Island since I can remember. Years ago, when a man didn’t have anything particular to do, Mansfield, he took a shovel and went over to Nobody’s Island and dug for gold. Here it is; see? The chart doesn’t call it an island, though; it just says, ‘Salvage Head,’ and lets it go at that. These two little rocks out here, just off the beach, are The Tombstones. Boats used to pile up there every little while trying to get around the Head. But in those days Clam River—this is it here—had two mouths, one on each side of the island. You could go in here to the north of Salvage Head and sail clean around and come out here on the east. Then a storm or something filled up the northern inlet and now it’s just sand there and you can walk right across. Father always said that some day that inlet would open up again, but it hasn’t yet.”