k.
The houseboat party and Tom were beginning to grow impatient. What made
Captain Jules so slow? Philip Holt, who was standing by Mrs. Curtis's
side, gazed sneeringly at the operations. He was glad, indeed, that he
had not risked his life in descending to the bottom of the bay in search
for pearls, only to bring up a rusty chest.

"The box is fastened tightly; it will have to be broken open," remarked
Madge indifferently. She was feeling tired, now that the excitement of
her diving trip was over. She wished to go home to the houseboat. She did
not wish Captain Jules to guess for an instant how disappointed she was
that they had found nothing of value on their diving adventure. If only
the captain had not dropped the shells in which there might have been a
chance of finding pearls!

Captain Jules had hold of the iron hammer that he used when diving.
Click! click! click! he struck three times on the lock of the iron safe.
Like the magic tinder-box, the lid flew open. Tania's long-drawn
childish, "Oh!" was the only sound that broke the tense and breathless
stillness that pervaded the group.

A single pearl! The scorned iron chest almost full of shining coins and
precious stones! There were coins of gold and silver--strange coins that
no one in the watching crowd had ever seen before. Some of them bore
dates and inscriptions of English mintings of the early part of the
eighteenth century.

Of course, it was incredible! No one believed his eyes. A treasure-chest
unearthed after more than two hundred years? It was impossible!

Yet instantly each one of the girls remembered that the pirates had sunk
many vessels in Delaware Bay in the latter part of the seventeenth and
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In those days many wealthy
English families came over with their servants and their treasure to
settle in the new country of America.

Phil's book on the history of piracy had recalled this information to the
girls only ten days before. It was then, when Madge lay with her head
resting in her hands, looking dreamily out over the waters, that she had
wondered how anything so remote from her as the story of the early
American battles with pirate ships could help her to solve her present
troubles? Yet here, like a miracle before her eyes, lay the answer!

The little captain was the last of the onlookers to know what had
happened. She was too dazed, perhaps, from her stay under the water.

It was only when Tania flu