to note this. A sudden daring
idea had taken possession of him. Perhaps Madge Morton was not so lucky
after all. Finding a treasure did not necessarily mean keeping it.

CHAPTER XVIII

MISSING, A FAIRY GODMOTHER

Several days after the finding of the treasure-chest experts came down
from Philadelphia to appraise its value. It was not easy to decide,
immediately, what market price the old jewels, set in quaintly chased
gold, would bring. But the least that the coins and stones would be worth
was ten thousand dollars! It might be more. An extra thousand dollars or
so was hardly worth considering, when ten thousand would make things turn
out so beautifully even.

Madge and Captain Jules, Miss Jenny Ann and the other houseboat girls had
many discussions about Madge's discovery of the iron safe.

The little captain was entirely alone on one side of the argument. The
others were all against her. Yet she won her point. She continued to
insist that her wonderful find was purely an accident. How could she ever
have unearthed a box, lost from a sunken ship, that had probably been
buried for centuries, if Captain Jules Fontaine had not listened to her
pleadings and taken her on the wonderful diving trip with him? Though she
had actually struck the first blow on the piece of iron embedded in the
bay, she could never have dragged the safe out of the mud, or been able
to carry it up to the surface, without Captain Jules's assistance.

Madge and the old sailor started their discussion alone. The captain had
come over to the houseboat, bringing the iron safe with him so that the
girls might have a better view of its wonders. He had firmly made up his
mind that Madge must be made to understand that the money the treasure
would bring was to be all hers. He would not accept one cent of it. Fate
had been kinder to him than he had hoped in allowing him to guide Madge
to the discovery of her fortune.

"Ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed Madge ecstatically, when the old sailor
reported the news to her. "It's the most wonderful thing I ever heard of
in my life. I didn't dream it was worth so much money. Will you please
lend me a piece of paper and a pencil, Captain Jules. I never have been
clever at arithmetic." Madge knitted her brows thoughtfully. "Ten
thousand dollars divided by two means five thousand dollars for you and
the same sum for us."

The captain cleared his throat. "What's the rest of the arithmetic?" he
demanded