ped as though he had been shot, and, scrambling out of the hole,
stood with open mouth facing the laughing boys. His surprised and
discomfited attitude was so ludicrous that their laughter increased
tenfold and they fairly shrieked.

"Wh-what's the big idea, anyway?" gasped Andy at last. "How did you
fellows come to be here?"

"Well, you see," replied Morton, sobering down a little, "I counted on
your doing the crooked thing and I wasn't mistaken."

"I'll get even with you some day," growled Andy. "You think you're
pretty smart, don't you?"

"Since you ask me, I must admit I cherish some such idea," admitted
Morton, his eyes twinkling. "The fellows from the city don't always know
everything, you understand."

"You'll live to be sorry for this trick," blustered Andy. "You just see
if you don't."

He made his way to the door and passed out amid another burst of
merriment from those who had witnessed his discomfiture, leaving his
implements lying where he had thrown them.

An account of the affair spread quickly over the village and life for
Andy became so unbearable that before another twenty-four hours he left
the town.

In the natural course of events the story came to the ears of the boys
at the lighthouse.

"I'd have given something to be there," declared Bill. "It must have
been worth a year's allowance to see his face when all those fellows
gave him the laugh. He thinks such a lot of himself that it must have
been a bitter pill to swallow."

"Let alone his not finding what he went after," put in Fred. "It hit him
in his pride and his pocketbook, and they're both sensitive spots with
Andy."

"But how do you suppose he got wind of our being in search of treasure?"
queried Teddy.

"I was wondering at that," replied Lester, "and the only way I could
figure it out is that he must have followed us the day we were at
Bartanet, and heard what we were talking about when we were eating."

"Well," concluded Fred, "he couldn't have got anything of real value
from what we said, or he wouldn't have gone digging in old Totten's
shack. But it's up to us to put a padlock on our lips when there's any
chance of being overheard. We may not be so lucky the next time."

CHAPTER XXVII

A FIGHTING CHANCE

"Only one week more now before we have to go back to Rally Hall," sighed
Teddy one morning, just after they had risen from the breakfast table.

"And nothing done yet in the way of finding that chest of gold