been used—the light and the raps on the hull of their sloop!

“Yes,” Don Ortiga was saying, “my brother—Rodriguez—these boys say they were in Jamaica—that is where he gets the rum he brings to the keys in El Libertad.”

The whole mystery was beginning to become as clear to the chums as it seemed to their captors.

“These fellows say they left Jamaica to go to the archipelago,” Tew took up the reasoning. “For pleasure? For relics? My eye! No! They knew somewhat about a treasure—and so did your brother.”

“But he didn’t—” Nicky cried incautiously in his excitement, and then stopped, too late.

“There was a treasure!” Tew exulted, and his eyes took on a bright avaricious glitter. “Cap’n, these boys know somewhat about a treasure on them islands. Recall? Ships have been wrecked there—in the old days there was a story about a Spanish——”

“I know,” broke in the Don, bending forward, making jerky, excited movements of his fingers and with snapping eyes. “A ship laden with gold bars! It was never discovered—the gold! The ship broke up, and parts of it were picked up in the Gulf of Mexico.”

In spite of themselves, at this verification of the old map and message of Captain Kidd, the chums took fire from their companions.

“Senor Ortiga must have knowed about it—or learned that these lads did,” Tew went on, never questioning the chums, taking it for granted that his logic was sound. “He must have saw them sail in a slow sloop—he had a fast cruiser. He beat them to the islands and took a chance he could send them somewhere else while he searched. He picked our place—But why? They’d discover us. He’d know that!”

Don Ortiga sprang from his chair; his hands were clenched, his eyes sparkled with an angry light.

“He sent them here because he has a grudge for us ever since we bought a faster boat and a bigger one and took his trade away from him!” he cried in a fury, but remembering to keep his tones fairly low.

“Well,” began Tew, after a moment, “here’s how I tote it up! We can get more out of a chest of treasure than we can from a hold full of rum, and with no fightin’. These lads must know where the gold is—we don’t! So we can use them! At the same time, we can get revenge on your brother for sending them where they might have found out about our racket and told the revenue men——”

 Prev. P 52/143 next