full in the chums’ faces, there came a squatty, burly, ape-like white man, with a jutting jaw, sharp, mean eyes, but with a quirk of a smile at one side of his twisted mouth.

“Ho!” he said, in a deep rumble, “thought you cleared out this morning. Saw the craft up anchor!” He made a gesture that sent the Indian away; the lantern, set down as he left, gave the scene a weird green light. “Well, my lads,” began the man, “how’d you come to stay here when the sloop sailed?” Nicky told him about their colored man and his terror of the ghostly boat the night before.

“Ho-ho-ho!” laughed their new acquaintance. “Scared him, did it? We aimed to scare the whole passel of you—we went to enough trouble.”

“Why did you want to scare us?” demanded Nicky eagerly.

The other did not answer. He seemed to be deep in thought. “When are you going to feed us?” demanded Tom, more practically. Fearful though he might be in the face of the unknown, he was no coward when face to face with a situation he could understand. And hunger was such a situation.

“No eats! Hum—well—” The man rubbed a stubby, brownish beard, reflectively. “We can’t starve you—we aimed to drive you away, but that didn’t work—still, no use to starve you till we know all we want to——” He made a sign, as if he had decided on his course. “Go ahead, back down the trail,” he ordered. Nicky, Tom, and Cliff lost no time in complying.

Following, with the light, he directed them to the inlet where most of the cases were now being carried away. He spoke rapidly to the Seminole who seemed to be the leader of the Indian faction, gave him some coins, and then ordered the three chums into his boat—the same one, for all they knew, which they had seen the night before.

“Now I see how they got away after scaring us,” whispered Tom as the crew of four stoutly-built white men used their oars as paddles, working the boat further along the inlet until they came to a point where they made still another turn and went down another narrow stream toward the Sound.

“Just ‘ring-around-a-rosy,’” Cliff declared. “That makes the spot those three trees are on an island—a key—after all!”

“But we’ll get no chance at any treasure there,” said Nicky dejectedly. Apparently the nearest of the crew thought this was important enough to call to the attention of his captain. He turned and repeated Nicky’s words, with 

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