them
exchanging glances full of a strange, expectant uneasiness. The
circumstance aroused his curiosity, but he refrained from asking any
questions, deciding that the captain would explain the trouble in his
own good time.

As the evening wore away, the change in the captain's manner became
more and more marked. All his cheeriness of the day had departed,
leaving him glum and silent. He took no part in the lively
conversation going on between the boys, but sat apart answering their
questions in monosyllables. His manner, Walter decided, was that of a
man who faces some great impending evil.

With the coming of darkness the air was filled with the noises of the
swamp; the croaking of multitudes of frogs, the hooting of owls, and
the hoarse bellowing of many alligators.

Suddenly the boys sat up erect and stared at each other in amazement.
"What is it?" Walter cried.

Clear and sweet above the noises of the night rang the tolling of a
silver-toned bell.

"It's the bell of the spirits callin' us," said the captain gloomily,
while Chris sat ashen-faced trying vainly to control his terror.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE TREASURE.

"Nonsense, there are no such things as spirits," cried Charley, hotly.
"That tolling is made by a big bell, and a remarkably sweet-toned one,
too."

"It's over a hundred miles to the nearest settlement," said the captain
gloomily, "do you reckon you could hear the biggest bell made that far?"

"No," the lad admitted, "but that bell is not over two miles away.
Some Indian has traded for a bell and tolls it for his own amusement."

The captain lowered his voice to a superstitious whisper. "It's a
mystery to the Indians," he declared, "and they avoid the sound like it
were an evil spirit. Even the chief could not tell me what it was,
although all his life he had heard its tolling. He wasn't so much
afraid of it as are the other Indians an' he built this wigwam here so
as to be within sound of it." The captain's voice dropped still lower
as he added impressively, "It tolled all the night after he died."

"Have you tried to follow up the sound and discover where it comes
from?" demanded Charley, sharply.

"Not me," declared the captain, solemnly, "I ain't got any call to
interfere with the doings of the dead. I tell you, lad, this is a land
of mystery, an' a man's got no call to fool with what he can't
understand."

Charley checked the angry reply rising to his lips. He bethought