Part 27

"Somewhere near here, possibly just where your horse is standing, is the treasure," said Macloud. "Can't you feel its presence?"

"No, I can't!" laughed Croyden, "and that appears to be my only chance, for I can't see a trace of the trees which formed the square."

"Be not cast down!" Macloud admonished. "Remember, you didn't expect to find things marked off for you."

"No, I didn't! but I thought you did."

"That was only to stir you up. I anticipated even more adverse conditions. It's amazingly easier than I dared to hope."

"Thunder! man! we can't dig six feet deep over all of forty acres. We shall have the whole of Annapolis over to help us before we've done a square of forty feet."

"You're too liberal!" laughed Macloud. "Twenty feet would be ample." Then he sobered. "The instructions say: seven hundred and fifty feet back, from the extreme tip of Greenberry Point, is the quadrangle of trees. That was in 1720, one hundred and ninety years ago. They must have been of good size then--hence, they would be of the greater size, now, or else have disappeared entirely. There isn't a single tree which could correspond with Parmenter's, closer than four hundred yards, and, as the point would have been receding rather than gaining, we can assume, with tolerable certainty, that the beeches have vanished--either from decay or from wind storms, which must be very severe over in this exposed land. Hence, must not our first quest be for some trace of the trees?"

"That sounds reasonable," said Croyden, "and, if the Point has receded, which is altogether likely, then we are pretty near the place."

"Yes!--if the Point has simply receded, but if it has shifted laterally, as well, the problem is not so simple."

"Let us go out to the Point, and look at the ruins of the light-house. If we can get near enough to ascertain when it was built, it may help us. Evidently there was none erected here, in Parmenter's time, else he would not have chosen this place to hide his treasure."

But the light-house was a barren yield. It was a crumbling mass of ruins, lying out in water, possibly fifty feet--the real house was a bug-light farther out in the Bay.

"Well, there's no one to see us, so why shouldn't we make a search for the trees?" said Croyden.

"Hold my horse!" said Macloud, dismounting.

He went out on the extreme edge, faced about, and taking a line at right angles to it, stepped two hundred and fifty paces. He ended in sand--and, for another fifty paces, sand--sand unrelieved by aught save some low bushes sparsely scattered here and there.

"Somewhere hereabout, according to present conditions, the trees should be," he said.

"Not very promising," was Croyden's comment.

"Let us assume that the diagonal lines drawn between the trees intersect at this point," Macloud continued, producing a compass. "Then, one hundred and ten paces North-by-North-East is the place we seek."

He stepped the distance carefully--Croyden following with the horses--and sunk his heel into the sand beside a clump of wire grass.

"Here is the old buccaneer's hoard!" he exclaimed, dramatically.

"Shall we dig, immediately?" Croyden laughed.

"You dig--I'll hold the horses; your hands are tougher than mine."

"I wonder who owns this land?" said Croyden, suddenly.

"We can ascertain very readily. You mean, you would try to purchase it?"

"Yes, as a site for a house, ostensibly. I might buy a lot beginning, say one hundred and fifty yards back from the Point, and running, at an even width of two hundred yards, from the Severn to the Bay. That would surely include the treasure."

"A fine idea!" Macloud agreed.

"If the present owner will sell," appended Croyden--"and if his price isn't out of all reason. I can't go much expense, you know."

"Never mind the expense--that can be arranged. If he will sell, the rest is easy. I'll advance it gladly to you."

"And we will share equally, then," said Croyden.