s.

"Come, Stumpy, ain't you going down to the boat?" asked Leopold, as he
began to move in a different direction from that of his friend.

"No hurry--is there? _I_ want to go to the spring, and clean up a
little," replied the clam-digger.

"Can't you do it down by the boat?" suggested the money-digger, who did
not feel inclined to answer the questions which the disturbed state of
the beach under Coffin Rock would put into the mouth of Stumpy.

"I never wash in salt water when I can get fresh. Besides I want a
drink."

Without intending to be obstinate, Stumpy silently insisted upon having
his own way, by directing his steps towards the springs, which flowed
from the rocks not twenty feet from the hidden treasure. The pure water
dropped from an overhanging cliff, in a kind of alcove in the precipice.
It was clear and cold, and on a warm day it was emphatically a luxury.
If the weather was not warm on the present occasion, Stumpy was, for he
had been digging deep into the sand and mud of the beach. The water
dropping from the spring had formed a deep pool under the cliff, which
overflowed, and was discharged by a stream flowing down the sands into
the ocean. In this stream Stumpy washed his face and hands, and then his
feet, covered with the black mud which he had thrown up from under the
sand at low tide.

Leopold sat down on a bowlder, some distance from the cliff, to wait for
his companion. Stumpy seemed to be determined to do just what his friend
did not want him to do, for, as soon as he had washed his feet, he
walked directly out of the alcove to the spot under Coffin Rock, taking
the clams and shovel with him.

"I say, Le, can't we get up a clam-bake for the girls?" said he, calling
to the skipper in the distance.

"It won't pay," replied Leopold, walking to the place where Stumpy
stood, exactly over the buried treasure.

"Why not? You said Miss Rosabel liked clams."

"It will take too long. We must get back to the hotel by dinner time."

"Just as you say; but if the girls like clams, it would be a treat to
them; and this is just the place to do this thing."

"We haven't time to-day."

"All right," replied Stumpy, who seemed to be just then engaged in a
survey of the locality. "What in the world were you doing here, Le?" he
added. "This sand looks as though it had been all dug over."

No high tide had washed the beach since Leopold dug for the treasure,
and even his shovel marks were plainly to be