“Nonsense, man,” returned the other, impatiently, shaking off his grasp. “What a way to talk about nothing. You’re in a precious bad humour, seems to me. You know right well I wouldn’t go back on you and Ed.”
“I know nothing of the sort,” snarled the other “I know you, I tell you. I know you left us when things got hot, and took the jewels that we risked our necks for. Don’t I know that we shouldn’t have seen or heard of you again till we had hunted for you—which we would have done—if that man Mason hadn’t got so close up on to you that you didn’t dare try to get out of here alone.”
“Well, have it so, have it so, then, since you are bound to quarrel,” said Craigie, sullenly; and the boys heard no more. The two men passed beyond hearing and entered the haunted house.
“I don’t intend to miss this,” whispered Henry Burns, for once thoroughly excited. “There’s going to be the worst kind of trouble when that big black-looking fellow finds the box gone. Burton’s going to let them dig for it—he told me so. Said he was curious to see what they would do.”
“Rather he would have that sort of fun than I,” said Bob. “It’s a good deal like watching a keg of powder blow up. I say we’d better stay right here, as Burton advised, till we hear from them. We might upset the whole thing.”
“I don’t mind saying I’m scared clear down to my boots,” said George, “but I’m going to see the thing through. I’ll go if you will, Henry.”
So the two left Bob in the woods, close by the path to the shore, and crept up on their hands and knees to that same cellar window through which they had before witnessed the hiding of the box.
By the light of a lantern placed on the cellar floor they saw the two men. Craigie had removed his coat, and was digging in the earth where he had hidden the box. He worked vigorously, throwing up spadefuls of the soil with quick, nervous jerks. His tall companion looked on with an expression of mingled anger and contempt on his face.
As the box failed to come to light after some minutes of hard work, the drops of perspiration stood out in great beads on Craigie’s face, and he redoubled his efforts with the spade.
“It’s down deeper than I thought I buried it,” he muttered, with a sort of nervous laugh.