ly.

"It's a lucky thing for me," thought Andy, "that he can't be there
to-morrow night. I'll get a pick and shovel somewhere and beat him to
it. If he's such a fool as to tell all he knows, he deserves to lose his
share."

In the meantime, Morton was hugging himself in anticipation. He confided
the matter to a few of his friends, who were delighted at the chance of
playing a joke on Shanks, who was anything but popular in the town. All
volunteered to help Morton, and having secured an old trunk, they armed
themselves with spades and sallied forth in the direction of Totten's
old shack.

After shoveling the sand away from before the door, they entered and
started to "plant the treasure," as one of them expressed it. They dug a
hole four feet deep and wide enough to contain the trunk. Then they
filled the trunk with sand and lowered it into the excavation. This
done, they filled the hole up again, replaced the rotting boards that
formed the floor and surveyed the completed job with satisfaction.

"I guess that will keep him busy for a while," remarked Morton,
"especially as he won't know where to look and will have to dig the
whole place up, more or less. It's going to be more fun than a circus."

"But we want to see him while he's at it," objected one of his
followers. "How are we going to manage it?"

"That's so," agreed Morton. "Guess we'll have to clear the sand away
from the little window there."

The lads set to work with a will and soon had enough of the sand
shoveled away to permit a clear view of the interior of the shack. This
accomplished, they closed the door and heaped sand against it, leaving
everything as they had found it.

"Well," declared Morton, "that was considerable work, but it will be
worth it. We'll hustle back to town now and tell the other fellows that
everything's all right. Then we'll have nothing to do but wait for the
fun. I'm as sure as I am that I'm alive that that sneak will try to
circumvent me. I could see it in his eye."

Andy spent a restless night, his mind busied with plans to get the best
of Morton. He rose early the next morning and roamed restlessly about
town. The great problem confronting him was how to get the pick and
shovel without Morton's getting wind of it. He finally concluded that it
would be taking too much of a risk to buy the implements in the village,
so he made a trip to a town five miles distant and got the necessary
tools.

Night came at last, and th