f sighting you. It does my
heart good, y'see, to talk with some of my own kind, and leave off
pretending to be an archaeologist--to stretch my mental legs, as it were.
Well--have you taken your bearings this morning?"

"Captain Pegg," I broke out with my heart tripping against my blouse, "you
said something the other day about buried treasure. Did you really find
some? And would you mind telling us how you set about it?"

"Yes," he replied meditatively, "many a sack of treasure trove I've
unearthed--but the most curious find of all, I got without searching and
without blood being spilt. I was lying quiet those days, about forty years
ago, off the north of the Orkney islands. Well, one morning I took a fancy
to explore some of the outlying rocks and little islands dotted here and
there. So I started off in a yawl with four seamen to row me; and not
seeing much but barren rocks and stunted shrubs about, I bent over the
stern and stared into the sea. It was as clear as crystal.

"As we were passing through a narrow channel between two rock islands, I
bade the men rest on their oars, for something strange below had arrested
my attention. I now could see plainly, in the green depths, a Spanish
galleon, standing upright, held as in a vice, by the grip of the two great
rocks. She must have gone down with all hands, when the greater part of the
Spanish Armada was wrecked on the shores of Britain.

"'Shiver my timbers, lads,' I cried. 'Here'll be treasure in earnest! Back
to the ship for our diving suits--booty for everyone, and plum duff for
dinner!'

"Well, to make a long story short, I, and four of the trustiest of the
crew, put on our diving suits, and soon we were walking the slippery decks
once trodden by Spanish grandees and soldiers, and the scene of many a
bloody fight I'll be bound. Their skeletons lay about the deck, wrapped in
sea-tangle, and from every crevice of the galleon, tall, red, and green,
and yellow, and purple weeds had sprung, that waved and shivered with the
motion of the sea. Her decks were strewn with shells and sand, and in and
out of her rotted ribs frightened fish darted at our approach. It was a
gruesome sight.

"Three weeks we worked, carrying the treasure to our own ship, and I began
to feel as much at home under water as above it. At last we set sail
without mishap, and every man on board had his share and some of them gave
up pirating and settled down as inn-keepers and tradesmen."

As t