CHAPTER XXVII
A FIGHTING CHANCE
"Only one week more now before we have to go back to Rally Hall," sighedTeddy one morning, just after they had risen from the breakfast table.
"And nothing done yet in the way of finding that chest of gold," groanedFred.
"It's now or never," declared Lester with decision.
"I'm afraid it's never, then," put in Bill, the skeptical. "Here fordays we've been blistering our hands and breaking our backs, to saynothing of racking what brains we have, and we're no nearer finding itthan we were at the beginning."
"I wouldn't go so far as to say that," protested Fred. "We've at leastexplored a lot of places where there were no signs of the peculiar treesand rock shown in that map that Ross told us about. That leaves just somany fewer places to waste our time on, and makes it more likely thatthe next will be the right one."
"Not much nourishment in that," persisted Bill. "I'll admit that we'vefound plenty of places where the gold _isn't_, but that doesn't getus anywhere. And we'll be gray-headed before we can explore the wholecoast of Maine."
"Oh, stop your grouching, you old sinner," exhorted Teddy, clapping himon the back. "This is like football or baseball. The game isn't overtill after the last minute of play."
"That's the talk," cried Lester emphatically. "If we go down, we'll doit with the guns shotted and the band playing and the flag flying."
It was not to be wondered at that the lads were all assailed at times bythe doubt and discouragement that troubled Bill acutely that morning.They had taken advantage of every day when the sea permitted, and, asTeddy phrased it, had "raked the coast fore and aft." Their mainreliance had been the map that had appeared in the story of the oldsailor to Ross, and the first thing they did after entering any bay orcove was to look about them for the clump of two and three trees, withthe big rock standing at the right. Once or twice they had foundconditions that nearly answered this description, and they had dug andhunted near by, wherever the lay of the land held out any hope ofsuccess.
In the absence of anything better, this supposed map was their strongestclue. Yet even this was only supposition. It might not have beenanything more than the fanciful sketch of an idle sailor. Or if itindeed were a map of any given locality, it might not refer in theslightest degree to the robbery by the crew of the smuggler.
The knowledge that this might be so had at times a paralyzing effect onthe boys. They felt the lack of solid ground beneath their feet. Likethe coffin of Mahomet, they were as though suspended between earth andsky.
Still, it was the only clue they had, and there was something in themake-up of these sturdy young Americans that made them desperatelyunwilling to confess defeat. It was the "die-in-the-last-ditch" spiritthat has made America great. Even Bill, although he relieved himselfsometimes by grumbling, would not really have given up the search andwhen the pinch came he dug and hunted as eagerly as the rest.
This morning, they had arranged to set off for a final cruise that mighttake up all the remaining time of their vacation, which was now drawingrapidly to a close. Their party was complete, with the exception ofRoss. He had gone up to Oakland to spend a few days with his mother, whohad arrived from Canada, but he had arranged to meet the boys that dayat a point agreed on, about fifteen miles up the coast.
As their cruise was expected to be longer than usual, it took them sometime before they had everything on board the _Ariel_ and were readyto cast off from the little pier below the lighthouse.
"Well," said Mr. Lee, who had come down to see them off, "good-by, boys,and luck go with you."
"Watch us come back with that chest of gold," called out Teddy gaily.
"I'll be watching, all right," grinned the lighthouse keeper, "and Ihave a sort of hunch that you boys will get there this time. Youcertainly have earned it, if you do lay your hands on it."
"And that's no merry jest, either," remarked Bill, as he looked at thecallous spots on his hands.
"Bill wasn't made to work," scoffed Teddy. "He's made to sit on the boxand crack the whip, while we common trash pull and strain in theshafts."
"Not much," retorted Bill. "I'm no mule driver."
"It's a touching picture, that of Teddy pulling and straining, isn'tit?" laughed Lester, as he pointed to that young gentleman slumped downcomfortably in the stern.
With jest and banter, the morning wore away. The day was serene andbeautiful, with not a cloud obscuring the sky, while there was justenough wind to make their progress steady and rapid. Almost before theyknew it, they had reached the point agreed upon with Ross, and soonafter descried the _Sleuth_ coming down to meet them.
They hailed Ross cordially, and his beaming face showed how deep andwarm was his feeling for the boys, whom he already seemed to have knownfor years rather than weeks.
"Some smart navigators, we are, to meet just where we arranged to!"laughed Lester.
"We're the real thing in the way of sailor men," assented Ross, throwingout his chest.
"Listen to the mutual admiration society," jibed the irrepressibleTeddy. "Blushing violets aren't in it with them. Here you let my modestworth pass unnoticed, while you're handing bouquets to each other. Butthat's the way it is in this world. It's nerve and gall that counts. Nowif I----"
But his eloquent peroration was spoiled by a hasty shift to escape alife preserver that Lester hurled at his head, missing him by an inch.
"You'd better let me have Teddy aboard the _Sleuth_," laughed Ross."Then if the engine gives out, I'll start Teddy wagging his tongue. Thatwill furnish power enough."
"Not a bit of it," replied Lester. "I want him here, in case the windgives out."
"It's evident that I'm the most important person here, anyway," retortedTeddy. "Neither one of you seems to be willing to get along without me."
"Seven cities claimed Homer, you know," said Bill sarcastically.
"Yes," said Teddy complacently, "he and I are in the same class."
Ross turned his boat around, and the two craft went along side by side.
"The sea's like a mill pond to-day," remarked Fred. "How different fromthe day of the storm, when we watched it from the observation room. Doyou remember what your father said?"
"Not especially," answered Lester. "What particular thing do you mean?"
"Why, when he prophesied that many a good ship would lay her bones on areef or beach before the storm was over."
"I suppose he was anxious," answered Lester gravely, "but I haven'theard of any ship's being wrecked on this particular strip of the coastduring this storm. The worst time we've had around here, as far as I canremember, was about three years ago. That storm kept up for three daysand three nights, and when it was over there were at least a dozenwrecks, just on the coast of Maine.
"By the way," he went on, as a sudden thought struck him, "we'll have topass one of those wrecks a few miles from here. It's a schooner thatwent ashore in the storm. There's part of the hull left, and, if youlike, we'll run in and look it over."
"Was the crew saved?" asked Fred.
"Every soul aboard was drowned," Lester answered soberly. "They wereswept overboard before the life-saving crew could get to them. The mastswent over the side, and the hull was driven so hard and deep into thesand that it has been there ever since."
A half hour more passed, and then Lester gave a twist to the tiller andturned the _Ariel_ inshore.
"There's the wreck," he said in response to Fred's look of inquiry, ashe pointed to a dark object near the beach. "We'll just run in and lookher over. But we won't be able to stay more than a few minutes, for thisis to be one of our busy days."
The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove; Or, The Missing Chest of Gold Page 27