ion.

[Illustration: map]*

Both our place and Kidd's Pines are not a great distance from Shelter
Island, where one lovely umbrella pine exists, under which the pirate is
said to have buried his treasure in 1669. He may have emptied his
pockets there one day, but that's _nothing_ to what he seems to have
done at Kidd's Pines. Gardiner's Island--very aristocratic and
historic--isn't far off, and it was from there Captain Kidd sent word of
his arrival to Lord Bellomont, whose famous syndicate he'd betrayed and
made a laughing-stock by turning pirate. He had his six-gunned sloop
_Antonio_ in harbour there, hoping to "make good" with the authorities;
but he must have guessed that there wasn't much chance for him. He must
have expected the very thing to happen that did happen: to be arrested
with his whole pirate crew, and sent to England in a man-o'-war. If he
foresaw that event, he'd not have been silly enough to bury his treasure
on Gardiner's Island, where everybody would rush to search for it the
minute his back was turned, would he? No, he'd take a few of his most
trusty men and make secret night expeditions in boats from Gardiner's
Island to some part of the shore far enough away not to come under
suspicion. Then he would have to mark the place where the treasure was
buried (oh, but a treasure rich and rare, for he'd brought everything
away with him when he left his stolen ship, _The Quedah Merchant_, at
San Domingo!), mark it in a way not too conspicuous, but permanent, in
case he had the luck ever to get free and come back. No good marking
with stones, because some one might build; but what a smart idea to
plant trees so valuable that nobody to whom that land was granted would
want to destroy them! This is what the canny man of Greenock is supposed
to have done. He'd brought the tree-slips from the south when he risked
his spying expedition into northern waters. He meant to make a present
of them to Lord Bellomont if the Governor were lenient: but the
Governor's heart was flinty, and Captain Kidd found softer soil for the
planting of his trees.

It makes a nice story anyhow, doesn't it? And Kidd's Pines as a hotel
can put on five dollars a day extra at least because of the romance and
glamour of that hidden hoard. By the way, it's "going some," that hotel
inspiration of ours. What with history in general, buried treasure in
particular, Marcel Moncourt's fame, Larry's charm and connections, and
Pat's fatal fascina