For years the report has
been circulated that there was such a treasure and this man Wyckoff and
Lopez claimed to be blood descendants of the officer who buried it. The
name on that map would seem to bear them out. But tonight or tomorrow
night will be the only time you'll have to get at the treasure for
another year, if the whole tale is true."
"How's that?" breathlessly asked the boys.
"I can't explain the whole thing, for I never attempted to memorize
details, always believing the story a fairy tale, but as I recall it,
the moon and tide must both be just right--something like the moon is
tonight and the tide will be in a short time--and then the ground around
the chest softens up and the chest comes to the surface for the rightful
heir to reach out and get it."
"If there's anything at all in that," asserted Jack, "I'll bet the thing
lays in a bed of quicksand. When the tide is just right it softens up
and boils. Then any solid substance may be thrown up to the surface.
Maybe someone has seen a piece of log or some driftwood at some such
time and that's the way the treasure story started."
"But I have the map," declared Harry excitedly. "What do you make of
that? You'll have to go some to explain that."
"I guess that's so," sheepishly admitted Jack. "I forgot that."
"Until tonight," stated Harrison, "I never had much faith in the story,
but this map as a climax to other things is convincing."
Rowdy, who had been lying on a berth with Arnold, now slipped to the
floor.
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