take care of him in some
way," ended Madge confidently.

"You will, eh?" returned Captain Jules gruffly. "It seems to me, my girl,
that this is a pretty position you have mapped out for me. I am to take
half of our find--nice, selfish old codger that I am--while you divide
yours with your friends. I am not going to take a cent of that money, so
you can just do your sums over again."

It was at this point that Madge called Miss Jenny Ann and the other
houseboat girls into the discussion. It ended with the captain's agreeing
to take one-seventh of the money, if all the others would follow suit.

"Because, if you don't," declared Madge in her usual impetuous fashion,
"I shall just throw this chest of money and jewelry right overboard and
it can go down to the bottom of the bay and stay there, for all I care."

Captain Jules remained to dinner on the houseboat that evening. After
dinner the girls proceeded to adorn themselves with the old sets of
jewelry found in the safe. Madge wore the pearls because, she insisted,
they were her special jewels, and she had gone down to the bottom of the
bay to find them. Phil was more fascinated with some old-fashioned
garnets, Lillian with a big, golden topaz pin, and Eleanor with some
turquoises that had turned a curious greenish color from old age.

It was well after ten o'clock when the captain announced that he must set
out for home. Tom Curtis had been spending the evening on the houseboat
with the girls, but he had gone home an hour before to join his mother
and her guest, Philip Holt. Before going away the captain concluded that
it would be best for him to leave the iron safe of coins and precious
stones on the houseboat for the night. It was too late for him to carry
it back to "The Anchorage" alone. As no one but Tom knew of its being on
the houseboat, the valuables could be in no possible danger. The captain
would call some time within the next day or so to take the iron box to a
safety deposit vault in the town of Cape May.

Together Miss Jenny Ann and the captain hid the precious chest in a small
drawer in the sideboard built into the wall of the little dining room
cabin of the houseboat. They locked this drawer carefully and Miss Jenny
Ann hid the key under her pillow without speaking of it to any one.

In spite of these precautions no one on the houseboat dreamed of any
possible danger to the safety of their newly-found prize. Remember, no
one knew of its being on th