mounds of earth piled around their respective pits.

But fortune failed to reward their efforts. One place after another
was abandoned as hopeless.

They were toiling away with the perspiration dripping from them, when
Drew was startled by a cry from Ruth. He leaped instantly out of his
excavation, and ran to her. Ruth was standing in the shade of the
jungle's edge; but she was staring across the barren hillside toward
the west.

"What is it?" demanded the young man. "What do you see?"

"I--I don't know. I'm not _sure_ I saw anything," she admitted. "And
yet----"

"Some of the seamen?" demanded Drew. "I've been expecting that, though
your father is so sure that Ditty and his gang will remain at the
eastern end of the island."

"Oh, Allen! Not Ditty! Not one of the sailors! I--I could almost
believe in--in ghosts," and she tried to laugh.

"What is it, my dear?" asked Tyke, who had come over. "What's
happened? Did you see something?"

"Yes. It moved. It was there, and then it wasn't there. The space it
stood in was empty," said the girl earnestly.

"For the love o' goodness!" cried Tyke, mopping his brow. "You've got
me all stirred up. Now, if I was superstitious----"

"You will be if I tell you more about that--that thing," Ruth said.
She said it jokingly, and Tyke turned away, going over to where Captain
Hamilton was still at work.

"It must have been the spirit of the old pirate come back to guard his
hoard," Drew said lightly.

Ruth looked at him very oddly.

"What do you think?" she whispered, when Tyke was out of hearing. "Why
should the ghost of Ramon Alvarez look so much like Mr. Parmalee?"

Drew paled, and then flushed.

"Do you mean that, Ruth?" he asked, and he could not keep his voice
from trembling.

"Yes," she said. Then she flashed him a sudden smile. "Of course, it
was merely an hallucination. But, 'if I was superstitious----'" and
she quoted Tyke with a look which she tried to make merry.

CHAPTER XXII

BURIED ALIVE

Ruth pointed out to Drew exactly where the figure that had so startled
her had stood. It was down the slope of the hill to the westward, and
directly between two lava boulders at the edge of the jungle.

The figure--man, apparition, what or whoever it was--had lingered in
sight but a moment.

Before returning to work in his excavation, Drew went down to the spot
Ruth had pointed out. There was not a sign of anybody having been
there.