a little and then drew it down over his eyes
again incredulously. "I guess it can't be true," he said at last. "I
have never hear me 'bout any cannon sunk in de bay, an' I know all de
story of ole time."

Bascom was prancing up and down in a perfect fever of impatience. "It
must have been ever so long ago, the pirates or the Spaniards," he said.
"An' if there's a cannon there must ha' been a ship sunk there, an' if
there was a ship there must be a treasure, an' we're not a-goin' to say
nothin' to nobody, but we're a-goin' to fish it all up!"

Captain Tony put a hand on Bascom's shoulder to keep him from squirming.
"Yo' boy," he said, with the warm-hearted indulgence he always felt for
the young waif who had become his business partner, "I doan t'ink me dat
if dere is a cannon dere it will run off--not dis evenin'; an' faw de
treasure, it was without doubt mo' easy to remove. Mos' likely it run
away good w'ile ago."

"Well, I'm goin' to look an' be sure," Bascom said. "We must get the
cannon, anyways, and have her on the _Mystery_."

The Captain chuckled. "Us'es'll raise sail," he said, "an' jus' run out
befo' de breeze dies down." They might more easily have rowed, but Tony
and Bascom seldom went anywhere without the _Mystery_, except on land.

When Narcisse was rowing leisurely toward his father's point on the back
bay, he saw the little _Mystery_ put out from shore and presently cast
anchor at the croaker bank, and he put two and two together clumsily.

"Might 'a' known Bascom wouldn' drown hisse'f like dat faw fun," he
meditated. "He has suah foun' somet'ing." He rested on his oars and
pondered quite a while. "If Bascom has foun' somet'ing, I doan' see why
I didn' fin' it too. Maybe I did. My han' touched bottom, an' I
recollec' I felt somet'ing me. Bascom think he sma't not to have tell,
but I did not tell either, me;" and suddenly Narcisse set to rowing.

After Bascom dropped anchor on the croaker bank, Captain Tony poised
himself and dived. Bascom waited for his reappearance, with hands
clinched. Tony did not stay under as long as the boy had, but he was
almost as excited as soon as he came up.

"I didn' fin' 'em at de firs'," he panted, "but dere are two at de
leas'. I put my han' on dem. It mus' have been a great ship, but, I do
not know 'boud her. It mus' be ver', ver' ole, de mos' ole of all."

"How can we get 'em up?" gasped Bascom.

"Ah," said the Captain, "dat will be de troub'. It will take a wi