d enthusiasm was
not as contagious now as it was when the subject of the buried
treasure was first brought up for discussion. Godfrey had no
intention of renewing his efforts to find the barrel--he could not
have been hired to go into that potato-patch after what had happened
there--but it was well enough, he thought, to hold it up to Dan as an
inducement. Besides, if he could get the boy interested in the matter
again, and induce him to prosecute the search, and Dan should, by any
accident, stumble upon the barrel, so much the better for himself.
The great desire of his life would be attained. He would be rich, and
that, too, without work.

"Why can't you steal the canoe yourself?" asked Dan.

"Kase I've got to pack up an' get ready to leave here; that's why.
It'll take me from now till the time you come back to get all my
traps together."

Dan hurriedly made a mental inventory of the valuables his father
possessed and which he had seen in the camp, and the result showed
one rifle, one powder-horn and one bullet-pouch. All Godfrey had
besides he carried on his back. It certainly would not take him three
or four hours to gather these few articles together.

"Pap's mighty 'feared that he'll do something he can make somebody
else do fur him," thought the boy. "But he needn't think he's goin'
to get me into a furse. I ain't agoin' to steal no canoe fur nobody."

"An' since it's you," added Godfrey, seeing that Dan did not readily
fall in with his plans, "I'll give you a dollar of my hard-'arned
money for doin' the job."

"Wal, now that sounds like business," exclaimed Dan, brightening up.
"Whar's the money, an' how am I goin' to get off'n the island?"

"The money's safe, and I'll bring it to you in a minute," replied
Godfrey. "You stay here till I come back. As fur gettin' acrosst the
bayou, that's easy done. Thar's plenty of drift wood at the upper end
of the island, an' you kin get on a log an' pole yourself over. When
you get home, Dannie, make friends with Dave the fust thing you do,
an' tell him you was only foolin' when you said you was goin' agin
him. Help him every way you kin, an' when he gits the money we'll
show our hands."

So saying, Godfrey walked down the path out of sight. After a few
minutes' absence, he came back and handed Dan the money of which he
had spoken, a five-dollar bill to be expended for himself at the
store, and a one-dollar bill to pay Dan for stealing the canoe. When
Dan had put t