FROM JOY TO DISMAY.
It was nearly sunset, and Jim's feast had been ready for the table fully an hour when Bob and Joe came out of the thicket and launched the boat once more.
The boys, who were on deck watching for their return, could see that both the men were nearly exhausted. They rowed as if it was a great exertion even to lift the oars, and on reaching the steamer sat in the yawl some time before coming aboard.
"You'd better hurry!" Jim said warningly. "I've had a swell dinner ready so long that it must be pretty nigh dried up by this time, an' if you fool 'round much more everything will taste like chips!"
"I couldn't hurry, lad, if a month's grub rolled together was waitin' for me," Bob said as he mopped his sun-burned face with his shirt-sleeve. "That last job was a tough one, an' I feel as though all the marrow in my bones was toasted brown. This 'ere's the only shady place with any air stirrin' we've found since mornin', an' I mean to scoop in all the comfort I can for the next half-hour."
Joe was equally as unwilling to move from the side of the tug, where slight but cooling draughts of air afforded the long-needed relief from intense heat, and Jim's feast was but little more than a cold lunch when the weary ones were ready to sit at the table in the stuffy cabin.
Bob exerted himself but once more that night after the meal was finished, and then he went below to make sure the treasure had been stowed according to his directions.
It was yet light when the tired crew stretched themselves on the mattresses which had been spread under the awning aft, and although there was such a fruitful topic, but little conversation was indulged in, because slumber came so quickly.
But however tired Jim was, he could not refrain from speaking of the treasure they had so unexpectedly found.
"What are you fellers goin' to do with your share of the gold?" he asked in a low tone, to avoid being overheard by Joe or Bob.
"Give it to father, I suppose," Harry replied, displaying but little enthusiasm because of his weariness.
"You can bet I'll keep what comes to me right in my own trousers-pocket!" Master Libby replied very decidedly. "I'm goin' to buy a vessel like the Mary Walker, an' make a voyage fishin' all by myself!"
"But you'll have to take a crew," Walter suggested with a yawn.
"Of course I'll have somebody to do the work an' stand watch; but I'll be the boss, an' won't so much as go on deck when it rains! I'll have a heavin'-line in my pocket, so's to whale the cook if the grub ain't first-class! I tell you the crew'll have to jump 'round when I'm aboard, or there'll be fun!"
"I should think you had enough of that kind of work when those men were aboard," Harry said after a pause.
"Well, you see I want to take my turn at floggin' once in a while, so's to know what it's like. I haven't had a chance yet; but I will when we get this money home."
Neither Harry nor Walter made any reply to this rather cruel project, and in the silence which followed they soon fell asleep, leaving Jim his choice of indulging in more air-castles or that of benefiting by their example.
The first rays of the rising sun failed to awaken them next morning, and all hands might have slept a good portion of the forenoon if Jim had not been aroused by a sensation of numbness in his arm, caused by the fact that Harry had unconsciously used it as a pillow.
"It's early yet, an' I reckon I'd better take one more nap instead of callin' the other fellers," he muttered to himself as he sat bolt upright an instant for the purpose of restoring the circulation of blood to his misused limb.
As he did this, however, mechanically glancing seaward, he saw that which drove from his eyelids all desire for sleep.
A boat had just come into view from around the northern point of the cove, and was heading directly toward the steamer, rowed by two men who looked strangely familiar, although for a moment he could not clearly distinguish their features.
"Bob! Bob!" he cried in a low tone as he shook the unconscious sailor. "There's a yawl comin' in here, an' I believe----"
He did not finish the sentence, for Joe was on his feet by this time, and cried, before Jim could speak another word:
