The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove Part 29

Fred, who remembered how the bully had tried to put on him the theft of some examination papers at Rally Hall, hesitated, but Teddy, who noticed how shabby and downcast Andy looked, intervened.

"I guess we might fix it up," he ventured to say. "Just let me speak to the others for a minute."

They had a short conference, as a result of which Teddy collected and handed over the five dollars that Andy desired.

Andy's thanks were profuse, but after having tucked the money safely away in his pocket, something of his old surly manner returned. He took leave of his benefactors with scant ceremony, but the boys were so glad to get rid of him that they hardly noticed this.

"After all," remarked Bill, as they watched Andy go down the street, "five dollars isn't so much to pay for getting free from that bird. I'd be willing to lose a lot more than that if I could be sure of never seeing him again."

The boys made their purchases and took their way to the place that Lester had in mind to eat their lunch. They found themselves on a high sand dune, overgrown with coa.r.s.e gra.s.s. It afforded an excellent view of the sea and also furnished a comfortable place to lean against.

"This is great!" exclaimed Ross. "Let's get out that grub and pitch in.

I could eat a barrel full of bra.s.s tacks and never know I had eaten anything."

"I guess you wouldn't know anything very long," laughed Lester, as he proceeded to lay out the provisions.

The eatables vanished with surprising speed, and after the first sharp edge of their hunger had worn off, the conversation turned, as it usually did these days, to their quest for the missing treasure.

A brisk breeze was blowing in from the ocean and the brittle sand gra.s.s kept up a constant rustling. This sound served admirably to cover the approach of a stealthy figure that had followed the boys at a distance ever since they had left Bartanet. This figure crept closer and closer to the sand dune, until only a projecting hump concealed it from the five boys on the seaward side.

As it attained this position of vantage, Teddy was addressing a remark to Ross.

"Haven't you lost a bit of your confidence yet, Ross?" he queried.

"Not a particle," affirmed Ross stoutly. "We'll find that treasure, sooner or later, if it ever was actually hidden in the neighborhood of Bartanet Shoals."

"You bet we will!" declared Fred, "even if we have to import a steam shovel to dig up the whole territory."

"I hope it will be soon," interposed Bill. "It'll be us for Rally Hall, you know, before long, and then what chance will we have?"

"Keep a stiff upper lip," counseled Lester. "We've just begun to fight."

During the conversation the eavesdropper had lain quietly and listened with the closest attention. Now he edged away cautiously, and when he had reached a sufficient distance rose to his feet and hurried back in the direction of Bartanet.

The boys light-heartedly got into their boat and rowed back to the lighthouse without the slightest suspicion that almost all they had said had been overheard by Andy Shanks.

That rascal hastened back to town, his brain awhirl with dreams of sudden riches. He had heard enough to know that there was treasure buried in or around Bartanet, and he also knew that the boys whom he held in hatred were in search of it. What joy to steal the riches from them and thus gain the twofold advantage of thwarting them and at the same time putting himself in a position to indulge those vices in which he delighted!

Before Andy had gone far, he met one of the village youths whose acquaintance he had recently made. Unfortunately for Andy, this young fellow, who was named Morton, had a strong liking for practical jokes, and after Andy, with his usual boastfulness, had thrown out sly hints about knowing how to "pick up all the money that he wanted," Morton scented a chance to make a victim.

As Andy was very vague regarding the sources from which he expected to get his wealth, Morton did not hesitate to impart to Andy the slighting opinion that he was "talking through his hat."

"Not much I'm not," retorted Andy, stung by the imputation. "I tell you I know there's oodles of money buried somewhere around here and what's more, if you'll help me to find it, I'll let you in for a share of it."

His acquaintance, seeing that Andy was in earnest, quickly formed a plan to have some fun at the other's expense.

"Well, seeing you're so certain of it, I _will_ help you, then!" he exclaimed. "Shake hands on the bargain."

CHAPTER XXVI

BADLY FOOLED

Morton gravely extended his hand and Andy shook it.

"Let's see, now," said the town youth, pretending to be racking his memory, "whereabouts could that money be hid? It's probably in some old shack or cave somewhere. Say!" he shouted as though struck by an idea, "I'll wager I know the identical place where it's stowed away. Come to think of it, I'm sure I do."

"Where? Where?" questioned Andy eagerly.

"Well, I know you're on the square and won't give me the double cross,"

replied Morton, "so I don't mind telling you what I know.

"There was an old fellow partly tipsy one winter night, who told me a long yarn about knowing where there was a mint of money hidden away. I didn't pay any attention to him then, because I thought he was just raving, the way those people often do. But now I come to think of it, I remember his speaking of an old hut that was almost buried in a sand dune close to the water. Let's see now, where is there an old shack that answers to that description?"

Morton pretended to meditate deeply, while Andy waited breathlessly for him to continue.

"I have it!" exclaimed Morton abruptly. "It's the place old Totten used to have on the beach just north of Bartanet. He kept very close to himself, but he always seemed to have slathers of money. He died two or three years ago, and since then the sand has nearly rolled over his shack. I'll venture to say that if we dug there we'd find money enough to make us both rich for the rest of our lives."

"By jinks! but I believe you're right," blurted out Andy with an avaricious glitter in his shifty eyes. "Let's go there to-night and see if we can find it."

"Oh, we won't be able to go to-night," protested Morton. "We'll have to get picks and shovels, and we'll have to do it so quietly that n.o.body will catch on. And I can't do it to-morrow night, either," he continued, as though just recalling something. "I've got an engagement that I can't break. But I'll make it the night after that, if you're willing."

"Sure!" a.s.sented Andy. "That suits me fine."

But there was a reluctance to look into Morton's eyes as Andy spoke, that convinced the joker that his plans would work out as he expected.

He knew Andy Shanks pretty well, and he was sure that Andy would not wait till the appointed time to hunt for the treasure. He guessed that Andy would endeavor to cheat him out of his share of the fict.i.tious treasure by getting in before the time agreed upon. And he made no mistake in reckoning on the mean nature of Andy Shanks.

The two arranged the details of the expedition, such as securing shovels and picks and candles. Then they parted, after Morton had exacted an oath of secrecy from the other.

The latter was no sooner left to himself, however, than he began revolving in his mind plans to outwit the friend, who, he thought, had confided in him so completely.

"It's a lucky thing for me," thought Andy, "that he can't be there to-morrow night. I'll get a pick and shovel somewhere and beat him to it. If he's such a fool as to tell all he knows, he deserves to lose his share."

In the meantime, Morton was hugging himself in antic.i.p.ation. He confided the matter to a few of his friends, who were delighted at the chance of playing a joke on Shanks, who was anything but popular in the town. All volunteered to help Morton, and having secured an old trunk, they armed themselves with spades and sallied forth in the direction of Totten's old shack.

After shoveling the sand away from before the door, they entered and started to "plant the treasure," as one of them expressed it. They dug a hole four feet deep and wide enough to contain the trunk. Then they filled the trunk with sand and lowered it into the excavation. This done, they filled the hole up again, replaced the rotting boards that formed the floor and surveyed the completed job with satisfaction.

"I guess that will keep him busy for a while," remarked Morton, "especially as he won't know where to look and will have to dig the whole place up, more or less. It's going to be more fun than a circus."

"But we want to see him while he's at it," objected one of his followers. "How are we going to manage it?"

"That's so," agreed Morton. "Guess we'll have to clear the sand away from the little window there."

The lads set to work with a will and soon had enough of the sand shoveled away to permit a clear view of the interior of the shack. This accomplished, they closed the door and heaped sand against it, leaving everything as they had found it.