“But we’ll have a week to do it in if necessary,” 234 said Lester. “And what we won’t know about this place in a week won’t be worth knowing.”
“What’s the name of this place, anyway?” asked Fred.
“I don’t know that it has any name,” was the reply.
“Suppose we christen it, then. What’s the matter with calling it Treasure Cove?”
The suggestion met with unanimous approval, and all hoped that what they should find would justify the name.
In the waning light the boys examined curiously the five trees that had helped them to locate the place. But there was nothing cut into the bark that gave them any clue. Nor were there any hollow places in any of them that were large enough to contain the box they sought.
“Well,” said Fred, as they retraced their steps to the sheltered place they had picked out as a camping spot, “we can’t do any more to-night. But I think we can be well content to call it a day’s work and let it go at that.”
“Think of the difference between the way we felt this morning and the way we’re feeling now!” exulted Teddy. “Then we didn’t know that we’d ever get within a hundred miles of it. Now, we may be within a hundred feet of it for all we know.”
Now that the strain of the chase for the Cove was 235 over, the boys’ appetites returned, and were all the keener because of the abstinence through the day. The lads set to work at once and in less than half an hour they had a steaming, savory meal prepared in the best style known to Lester and Bill, who were the acknowledged leaders in the culinary line. They ate as only hungry, healthy boys can eat, with digestions that asked no odds of any ostrich. Not until the last crumb had vanished did they settle back with a feeling of absolute physical content.
For an hour or more afterward, they sat around the blazing fire they had made, discussing eagerly ways and means for the morrow’s search. All of them were keyed up to the highest pitch. They had no definite plans except to hunt and dig until their strength gave out, but there was not one of them, even including cautious Bill, who did not feel sure that victory was within their grasp.