“You’ll live to be sorry for this trick,” blustered Andy. “You just see if you don’t.”
210He made his way to the door and passed out amid another burst of merriment from those who had witnessed his discomfiture, leaving his implements lying where he had thrown them.
An account of the affair spread quickly over the village and life for Andy became so unbearable that before another twenty-four hours he left the town.
In the natural course of events the story came to the ears of the boys at the lighthouse.
“I’d have given something to be there,” declared Bill. “It must have been worth a year’s allowance to see his face when all those fellows gave him the laugh. He thinks such a lot of himself that it must have been a bitter pill to swallow.”
“Let alone his not finding what he went after,” put in Fred. “It hit him in his pride and his pocketbook, and they’re both sensitive spots with Andy.”
“But how do you suppose he got wind of our being in search of treasure?” queried Teddy.
“I was wondering at that,” replied Lester, “and the only way I could figure it out is that he must have followed us the day we were at Bartanet, and heard what we were talking about when we were eating.”
“Well,” concluded Fred, “he couldn’t have got anything of real value from what we said, or he wouldn’t have gone digging in old Totten’s shack. 211 But it’s up to us to put a padlock on our lips when there’s any chance of being overheard. We may not be so lucky the next time.”