easure laid aside, and they began to reveal
themselves, both in speech and in action, as the unscrupulous scoundrels
that they were.

I paid no attention, however, to anything I saw or heard, leaving them
to believe, if they pleased, that I regarded their behaviour as a simple
ebullition of high spirits at the prospect of a little recreation
ashore; and passing my sextant and other paraphernalia carefully down
into the boat, quickly followed them and gave the order to shove off.

There were twelve of us, all told, in the boat; she was therefore pretty
deep in the water. Notwithstanding which, so eager were the men to get
at the treasure, that in less than ten minutes from the time of leaving
the ship we were once more in the creek, and pulling toward its head or
north-eastern corner, at which point I had noticed on the preceding
evening that the timber appeared to be growing more thickly and heavily
than elsewhere, and where, consequently, the task of penetrating it for
any distance would involve the greatest labour and consume the most
time.

As we drew near the shore at this point I observed--what had escaped my
notice on the preceding evening--that a small stream of beautifully
clear, crystal water came brawling down through a steep, narrow ravine,
and discharged itself into the creek exactly at the spot for which we
were heading, and I at once resolved to avail myself of its presence as
a means of deluding the men into the belief that they were working at
the right spot.

Accordingly, when the boat grounded upon the beach, I ordered everybody
out of her, with the picks and shovels, and set all hands to work
cutting pegs and long slender rods, under the direction of the
boatswain, retaining Forbes and San Domingo, the negro, as assistants in
my own especial part of the work. Within ten minutes, the fellows had
cut all the pegs and rods I could possibly require; and then, looking
carefully and anxiously about me, I at length fixed a stout peg, with
the nicest accuracy, in the sand at its junction with the grass, and
exactly at the edge of the stream. Then I sent men here and there with
long wands, which I made them hold exactly perpendicular on the ground,
adjusting their positions with the most finicking precision, until I had
wrought them all firmly into the belief that the whole of this labour
was gone through for the purpose of finding the exact spot where the
treasure lay buried. Finally, I set out by com