th, there shot into the open, smoking rocks, debris of many kinds,
and--something else! Drew, seeing this final object, shrieked aloud.
His voice could not be heard above the uproar, but the others saw his
mouth agape, and struggled to see that at which he was pointing so
wildly.

The crevasse closed with a crash and jar that rocked the whole island.
It was the final throe of the volcano's travail. The lurid light above
the crater subsided. The dust began to fall thick upon the treasure
seekers as they lay upon the ground. They sat up, dazed and
horror-stricken. It was some time before their palsied tongues could
speak, and when they did, the words came almost in whispers.

Drew found that his arm was around Ruth. She had been near him when
the first shock came, and he had seized her instinctively. Now he
turned to her and asked:

"You're not hurt, are you, Ruth?"

"N--no," she gasped, "but dreadfully frightened! Oh, let's get away
from here!"

She realized that he was holding her and drew away with a faint blush.
He released her and staggered to his feet.

Tyke and the captain followed suit, and the three men looked at each
other.

"Now, if I was superstitious----" began Tyke in a quavering voice.

"Never mind any 'ifs' just now," interrupted the captain. "We've got
to get away from here just as fast as the good Lord will let us. I
don't believe in tempting Providence."

"And leave the doubloons?" queried Tyke, in dismay.

"Yes, and leave the doubloons," replied the captain stubbornly. "If
Ruth weren't here, we men might take a chance, but my daughter is worth
more to me than all the pirate gold buried in the Caribbean."

Drew, if inaudibly, agreed with him. "Let's get Ruth down to the
shore, anyway," he said. "Then, if you'll come back---- I saw
something just at that last crash."

"By the great jib-boom!" roared Tyke, "so did I. What did you see,
Allen? Something shot up out o' one o' them pits we dug yesterday. I
saw it. An' it wasn't a lava boulder, neither!"

"You're right, there," Drew agreed. "It was a box or something. Too
square-shaped to be a rock."

"We can't fool with it now," Captain Hamilton said, with determination,
though his eyes sparkled. "Come, Ruth. I must get you down to the
boat."

But here the girl exercised a power of veto. "I don't go unless the
rest of you do--and to remain, too," she declared. "I am not a child.
Of course, I'm afraid of that volcano