“Does he really mean to come here and dig?” asked Jack.
“Oh, yes, he’s absolutely serious about it. We’re to bring a tent here and camp out. I don’t mind. I rather like camping out, don’t you? And he insists that you must come with us. He thinks you’re pretty fine, Jack, and says we can’t get along without you. I hope you’ll come.”
“Why, I’d like to. I don’t want to make him pay me for it, Hal, but—I don’t think I could afford to do it unless he did. Has he a lot of money?”
“Bee? Oh, yes; his father’s terribly rich, I believe; he’s a coal operator, whatever that is; owns mines, I guess. Bee gets money whenever he asks for it, pretty near. Still, he doesn’t usually waste it like this. I don’t mean that he’s mean, because he isn’t; he gives a lot to the school funds, like football and baseball and such; but he’s always careful to get his money’s worth.”
“Well, it would be rather good fun to have a camp here for a week or so; especially if we struck good weather, and we’re likely to at this time of year. There’s good fishing all around here, and good shooting, too, in season; lots of ducks on the marsh back there in the Fall. I don’t quite see why he wants the Crystal Spring here, though.”
Hal laughed. “Oh, he just wants to do the thing right, I guess. Thinks it would look more like the stories he’s read. He’s always getting hold of some book about buried treasure; doesn’t read any other kind if he can help it. We might as well humor him. Of course, the hunting for the treasure part of it is just nonsense, but he likes to make believe that he’s going to find it.”
“There’s a whole lot of ground to dig up,” said Jack with a smile. “Of course, if we knew just where Old Verny had his house we might have a go at it, but as we don’t it would be pretty hopeless.”
“Seems as though some of the old fellows in town ought to know where the cabin stood,” reflected Hal. “It wasn’t much more than thirty or forty years ago, was it, that it was burned?”
“About forty-one or two, I suppose.”
“Bee talks to every old chap he runs across on the water-front,” said Hal, “and maybe he’s got a clue. Hello!”