perations on
our Golconda"--his name for the ruins that we were to excavate--"and, as
our present purpose--yours no less than ours, friend Ulysses--is to
confuse Tobias, my suggestion is this: That you walk with me a mile or
two to the nor'ard. There is an entertaining mangrove swamp I should
like to show you, and also, you can give me your opinion of an idea of
mine that you will understand all the better when I have taken you over
the ground."

So we walked beyond the pines, down onto a long interminable flat land
of marl marshes and mangrove trees--so like that in which Charlie
Webster had shot the snake and the wild duck--that only Charlie could
have seen any difference.

"Now," said the "King," "do you see a sort of river there, overgrown
with mangroves and palmettos?"

"Yes," I answered, "almost--though it's so choked up it's almost
impossible to say."

"Well," said the "King," "that's the idea; you haven't forgotten those
old ruins we are going to explore. You remember how choked up they are.
Well, this was the covered water-way, the secret creek, by which the
pirates--John Teach, or whoever it was, perhaps John P. Tobias
himself--used to land their loot. It's so overgrown nowadays that no one
can find the entrance but myself and a friend or two; do you
understand?"

We walked a little farther, and then at length came to the bank of the
creek the "King" had indicated. This we followed for half a mile or so,
till we met the fresh murmur of the sea.

"We needn't go any farther," said the "King." "It's the same all the way
along to the mouth--all over-grown as you see, all the way, right out to
the 'white water' as they call it--which is four miles of shoal sand
that is seldom deeper than two fathoms, and which a nor'easter is
liable to blow dry for a week on end. Naturally it's a hard place to
find, and a hard place to get off!--and only two or three persons
besides Sweeney--all of them our friends--know the way in. Tobias may
know of it; but to know it is one thing, to find it is another matter. I
could hardly be sure of it myself--if I were standing in from the sea,
with nothing but the long palmetto-fringed coast-line to go by.

"Now, you see it? I brought you here, because words--"

"Even yours, dear 'King,'" I laughed.

"--could not explain what I suggest for us to do. You are interested
in Tobias. Tobias is interested in you. I am interested in you both. And
Calypso and I have a treasure to guard.