unnecessary
chances."

This comforted the old man more than any one could have imagined.

"It's all right then, sar?" he said. "It will come out all right now,
I'm sure--though, as I wanted to say"--and he hesitated--"I had hoped
that you had forgotten those treasures that--"

"Go on, Tom."

"That moth and rust do corrupt."

"I know, dear old Tom, but neither moth nor rust can ever corrupt the
treasure I meant--the treasure I have already found."

"You have found the treasure, sar?" asked Tom, in natural bewilderment.

"Yes, Tom, and I am going to show it to you--to-morrow."

The old man waited, as a mortal might wait till it pleased his god to
speak a little more clearly.

"Quite true, Tom," I continued; "you shall see my treasure to-morrow;
meanwhile, read this note." Tom was so much to me that I wanted him to
know all about the details of the enterprise we shared together, and in
which he risked his life no less than I risked mine.

Tom took out his spectacles from some recess of his trousers, and
applied himself to Charlie Webster's note, as though it had been the
Bible. He read it as slowly indeed as if it had been Sanscrit, and then
folded it and handed it back to me without a word. But there was quite a
young smile in his old eyes.

"'The wonderful works of God,'" he said presently. "I guess, sar, we
shall soon be able to ask him what he meant by that expression."

Then, as sunlight had almost gone, and the stars were trying to come out
overhead, and the boys were stringing out our lanterns, I surprised our
captain by telling him that I had changed my mind, and that I didn't
want to make Nassau that night, but wanted to head back again, but a
point or so to the south'ard. He demurred a little, because, as he said,
he was not quite sure of his course. We ought to have had a pilot, and
the shoals--so much he knew--were bad that way, all "white water,"
particularly in a northeast wind. This only confirmed what the "King"
had said. So, admitting that I knew all the captain said, I ordered him
to do as I told him.

So we ruffled it along, making two or three "legs"--I sitting abaft the
jib boom, with my back against the mainmast, watching out for Samson and
his light.

Soon the long dark shore loomed ahead of us. I had reckoned it out about
right. But the Captain announced that we were in shoal water.

"How many feet?" I asked, and a boy threw out the lead.

"Sixteen and a half," he said.

"Go a