it, by Jove!" he exclaimed in a beautiful English accent, and then
started laughing as only absurd dare-devil youngsters can.

"Forgive me!" he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "but I had to
do it. Heaven knows what the old man will say!"

He seemed to take it all for granted in a delightful, nonchalant way, so
that the angry protest which had already started from Charlie's lips
stopped in the middle. That fearless leap had taken his heart.

"You're something of a long jump!" said Charlie.

"O! I have done my twenty-two and an eighth on a broad running jump, but
I had no chance for a run there," answered the lad, carelessly.

"But suppose you'd hit the water instead of the deck?"

"What of it? Can't one swim?"

"I guess you're all right, young man," said Charlie, softened; "but ...
well, we're not taking passengers."

The words had a familiar sound. They were the very ones I had used to
Tobias, as he stood with his hand on the gunwale of the _Maggie
Darling._ I rapidly conveyed the coincidence--and the difference--to
Charlie. It struck me as odd, I'll admit, that our second start, in this
respect, should be so like the first. Meanwhile, the young man was
answering, or rather pleading, in a boyish way.

"Don't call me a passenger; I'll help work the boat. I'm strong, you'll
see--not afraid of hard work; and anyway, won't you help a chap to an
adventure?... I'll tell the truth. I heard--never mind _how_--about your
trip, and I'm just nutty about buried treasure. Come, be a sport; I've
been watching for you all day. Pretty late starting, aren't you?... We
can let the old guv'nor know, somehow ... and it won't kill him to tear
his hair for a day or two. He knows I can take care of myself."

"Well!" said Charlie, after thinking awhile in his slow way, "we'll
think it over. You can come along till the morning. Then I can get a
good look at you. If I don't like your looks, we'll still be able to put
you off at West End; and if I do--well--right-ho!"

"My looks!" exclaimed our young stranger, with a peculiar mellow laugh.

"What's the joke?" demanded Charlie.

"O! I only wondered what my looks had to do with it!"

"Well," laughed Charlie, entering into the spirit of the lad, "you might
be pock-marked for all I know in this light--and I have a peculiar
prejudice against pock-marked gentlemen."

"Unfeeling of you!" retorted the boy. "Anyhow," he added, with the same
curiously attractive laugh, "I'm not p