nic bottles.
That and the sandwiches seemed to sort of soothe things all around, and
we got a sketch of their troubles.

Just as Vee had suspected, Rupert had started out to show 'em the
island where the treasure was. Oh, he was sure he could take 'em right
to it.

"And we went blithering and blundering around for half the night," says
Old Hickory, "until this marvel of marine intelligence ran us hard and
fast aground here, where we've been ever since."

"I--I got turned around," protests Rupert.

"We admit that," says Old Hickory. "I will even concede that you are
swivel-brained and couldn't help it. But that fails to explain why you
should invent for our benefit any such colossal whopper as that
treasure-island fiction."

"No fiction about it," grumbles Rupert, his voice a bit husky, either
from indignation or chicken sandwich, we couldn't tell which. "And
I'll find it yet," he adds.

"You will have ample opportunity," says Old Hickory, "for when we leave
here you will be left also. You may make a life job of it, if you
wish."

"We ought to be getting back," says Auntie. "Will that little boat
hold us all?"

"Why, this one is afloat now," announces Vee. "The tide must have come
in."

"And here we've been sitting, like so many cabbage heads on a bench,
waiting for someone to come and tell us about it!" snorts Old Hickory.
"Excellent! Killam, do you think you can pilot us back without trying
to cut new channels through the State of Florida?"

Rupert don't make any promises, but he gets busy; and pretty soon we're
under way. It's about then that I springs this hunch of mine.

"Say, Mr. Ellins," says I, "was this island you were lookin' for a
little one with a hump in the middle?"

"That tallies with Captain Killam's description," says he. "Why?"

"Well," I goes on, "a little while before we located you we passed one
like that. Don't you remember, Vee?"

"That's so," says Vee; "we did. I know right where it is, too."

"We might take a glance at it," says Old Hickory. "Killam, give Miss
Verona the wheel."

I couldn't have said exactly which way to go, but Vee never hesitates a
second. She steers straight back on the course we'd come, and inside
of fifteen minutes we shoots past a point and opens up a whole clump of
islands, with one tiny one tucked away in the middle.

"That's it!" shouts Rupert, jumpin' up and down. "That's Nunca Secos
Key!"

"Maybe," says Old Hickory. "There does