was afeard you might have fallen on the Skipper and a hurt him. He's
a kind of a tender plant you know." The Shepherd made this remark with a
perfectly sober face, in no wise disturbed by the hilarity of the boys,
over the idea of the tenderness of the Skipper.

"Here's the cave," said Juarez, and he led the way through an arched
opening in the wall of the cliff. Picking up a lantern, he went ahead as
guide.

"This is certainly a dry cave," said Jim.

"It ought to be," said Jeems Howell. "It don't rain on this Island more
than twice a year, but I feel it in my bones that it is coming on to
storm today."

"I hope you don't feel it in _all_ your bones," remarked Jim,
quizzically, "because it is liable to be a long drawn out storm if you
do."

The lanky Shepherd gave himself over to spasms of silent mirth at Jim's
queer humor.

"Here's where we found Tom," said Juarez. "Just discovered him a couple
of hours before you discovered us."

When the Captain had made his sudden change of plans, Tom made himself
as comfortable as he could for the night, intending to search for Juarez
in the morning.

"Sometime I hope that this wretched Captain will be captured and
imprisoned right here," said the Spaniard with a cold, vindictiveness.

"If he comes snooping around here again, that is what will happen to
him," remarked Jim quietly. "I suppose, Tom, that he hid some of the
loot he took from us in this cave somewhere. I bet this is his safe
deposit vault, all right."

"He went back in there with his small satchel," said Tom, indicating the
depths of the cave as yet unexplored.

"It will keep," said Jim, "but before I leave this island for Hawaii, I
am going to search every corner of this cave and see if I cannot find
our property."

"We discovered it in a cave and perhaps we will lose our treasure in a
cave," said Juarez, who was something of a fatalist.

"Don't you believe that we won't find it," declared Jim stoutly, "but no
work for me for a while. I'm going to take a good rest."

"So say we all of us," chanted the boys.

"Gentlemen," said Jeems Howell oracularly, "If it pleases you, and
Christopher Columbus," with a wave of his hand toward Jim, "who
discovered this savage group, we will now adjourn to my castle on the
distant hillside."

"We are with you," declared those assembled in unison, and in a short
time they were making their way up the slope towards the "castle" on the
hillside, where they made thems