THE TREASURE.
The sheet of metal, which was about eight feet square and half an inch in thickness, covered considerable more space than had the base of the coral-head, consequently it became necessary to work some time longer with the shovel before it could be raised.
After the edges were exposed, and the sand had been thrown back to prevent any chance of its falling in and burying whatever might be beneath when the metal was removed, Bob said in a tone of caution, curbing his own excitement as much as possible:
"Keep cool, lads, for too great speed jes' now may make no end of extra work. Joe, you take hold of this 'ere plate with me, while Jim stands by with the shovel in case we start the sand a runnin'. Don't let your hopes climb so high that you'll be disappointed if we fail to find anything here, my hearties, for there's a good many chances somebody has been at this place ahead of us, an' we'll have all our labor for nothin'. Calm down same's I am, an' then there won't be any harm done if we find nothin' but an empty hole."
Bob's advice was good, but he did not follow it himself. Now they were so near the end of the task, he was actually trembling with suppressed excitement, and it was as if he had made this long speech for the purpose of quieting his own nerves.
The boys stood around the excavation awaiting impatiently the moment when the secret was to be revealed; and although Jim held the shovel ready to check any flow of sand, it was apparent that he paid more heed to what might be under the metal plate than the duty assigned him.
To raise the heavy covering was more difficult than the old sailor at first supposed. Four times did he and Joe make the attempt unsuccessfully, and then, as every muscle was strained to the utmost, it canted on edge, while five pairs of eyes peered eagerly into what was naturally supposed to be an excavation.
If the anxious ones had expected an immediate view of treasure they were disappointed. A mass of what appeared to be canvas, but so discolored and decayed as to require a close scrutiny before such fact could be determined, was all that could be seen, and this in itself cheered Bob wonderfully.
"Whatever was buried is still here, for if anybody had got at it they wouldn't a' taken the trouble to cover the hole over again. All hands turn to an' lift this chunk of metal out of the way."
"An' don't be two or three hours about it either," Jim cried impatiently, as he grasped one side of the huge plate, "or we'll never find out what's under the canvas."
The additional excitement lent strength to every arm, and as if it had been nothing more than a piece of wood the heavy mass was rolled end over end until it lay on the sand a dozen feet from the excavation.
When this had been done there was no longer any delay in continuing the investigation. With one accord every member of the party seized at the same moment the discolored covering which hid from view the secret of the key. The fabric crumbled in their hands like tinder, and instead of lifting it off readily each pulled up a small quantity of moldering fiber.
"Take the shovel!" Bob cried excitedly to Joe. "This stuff hasn't got much more substance than dust, an' it must be scraped away carefully."
"It's a bad lookout for what may be beneath," Joe replied grimly, as he obeyed the order while the boys and Bob worked with their hands until a black, stiff surface was exposed.
"This is tarred canvas, an' by gettin' hold of the edges we can lift it out, I reckon," the old sailor said; and as the others followed his example the second covering, together with the remaining fragments of the first, was raised without difficulty, exposing to view a sight well calculated to increase the already feverish excitement.
An excavation about five feet square, dug down to the bed-rock and lined on the sides with tarred canvas, was revealed, while in it, packed with a view to economy of space, were a large number of small, black bags full to plumpness of something which bulged here and there like metal.
Bob drew his sheath-knife in a twinkling, and instead of cutting the mouth of a bag which he lifted from its long resting-place, slit it down the side, allowing the contents to drop in a dull yellow shower on the sand.
