buried an' that some
day, if luck was with him, he'd be a rich man.

"I'd heard so much of that kind o' stuff in my time that I used to
laugh at him, an' then he'd get peeved--that is, as peeved as he dared
to be, me being skipper. But that wouldn't last long, and after a
while he'd be at it again. Jest seemed as though he couldn't get away
from the thought of it."

"Perhaps there was something in it after all," said Drew, to whom just
now anything that savored of adventure appealed more strongly than
usual.

"More likely his brain was a bit touched," replied Grimshaw carelessly.
"I lost sight of him for several years when I quit the sea. But just
before he went on his last voyage, he wanted me to take charge of this
chest of his until he returned. Said he didn't dare trust it with any
one else.

"'All right, Manuel. No diamonds or anything of that kind in it, I
s'pose?' I says with a laugh and a wink.

"But he didn't crack a smile.

"'Somet'in' wort' more zan diamon's,' he said solemnly, an' went away.
I never saw him again, an' a few months later I heard of the _Nancy
Boardman's_ going down with all hands."

"Why not examine the chest?" cried Drew eagerly.

The recital of the grizzled veteran had fired his blood. All that he
had ever read or heard of the old buccaneers came back to him. In
fancy he saw them all, Avery, Kidd, Bartholomew Roberts, Stede Bonnet,
Blackbeard Morgan, the whole black-hearted and blood-stained crew of
daring leaders ranging up and down the waters of the Spanish Main,
plundering, sacking, killing, boarding the stately galleons of Spain,
sending peaceful merchant ships to the bottom, wasting their gains in
wild orgies ashore capturing Panama and Maracaibo amid torrents of
blood and flame. Silks and jewels and brocades and pearls and gold!
From the whole world they had taken tribute, until that world--tried at
last beyond bearing--had risen in its might and ground the whole nest
of vipers beneath its wrathful heel.

Tyke looked at the young man quizzically.

"Thinking of the pirate doubloons, Allen?"

"Why not?" Drew defended himself, albeit a little sheepishly. "Perhaps
the key to treasure is right over there in that old chest of Manuel's."

Then Tyke laughed outright.

CHAPTER V

A SETBACK

"I wouldn't bank on finding treasure," Grimshaw advised. "What those
old pirates got they spent as they went along. They warn't of the
saving kind. 'Easy come, easy go