if hope stillmore could have seen the old lady’s partner at cards as he appeared creeping stealthily down the stairs in that still, dark hour, she would have laughed. for the girl was not without a sense of humor.
the three adventurers had dressed in a great hurry and in a sudden inspiration (as pee-wee would have called it) fuller had thrown a fancy table cover over his shoulder and drawn it in at the waist by a broken trunk strap (souvenir of the departed braggens) which he had found in the room. he looked not unlike a spanish bull fighter.
a scout is supposed to be not only economical, but cautious, and pee-wee did not follow his two friends quite to the scene of excavation. he did not take his thirty-one cents’ worth all at once, but prudently fell behind, taking about fifteen cents’ worth. fuller stepped up first, ray presently joined him, and pee-wee advanced as he gathered courage. one look at the stranger informed the three that he was the man they had seen at the station.
like a flash of lightning, fuller reached for the coat.
“digging for bait?” fuller asked pleasantly.
the stranger seemed greatly disconcerted. “yere, but i don’t find any,” he said.
“maybe you’re digging too deep?” said ray. “anybody tell you that this is the only place to find bait?”
“i ain’t hurtin’ nobody, am i?” asked the man.
“no, but you’re trespassing,” said fuller quietly. he glanced about, casually inspecting the immediate vicinity. he squinted his eyes at the tree under which they stood. then he leaned against the tree in an offhand manner.
“i was wondering whether this nail in the tree meant anything to you,” he asked in a friendly way. ray fancied that he could catch a certain unexpressed meaning in his friend’s tone. “sometimes they mark spots where there is good bait,” fuller said. “you’re a stranger in town, aren’t you?”
“am i doin’ any harm?” the stranger asked, reaching for his coat that hung on a limb of the tree. like a flash of lightning, fuller reached for the coat, quickly went through the pockets in which he found nothing, then flung the coat in the man’s face.
“the best thing for you to do is to get out of here double quick,” he said briskly. “you’re either an escaped convict or an ex-convict. oh, you needn’t be afraid, we haven’t got anything on you. only if you’re caught here it might be bad for you. if there’s any good fishing bait here we’ll find it. now get out of here, quick. there’s a freight train leaving about now, and we’re very much obliged to you for calling.”
the stranger hesitated for just a moment. it seemed as if he could not bring himself to go. then he departed.
he had dug all around the tree; he must have been at work long before pee-wee saw him. fuller sat down on the edge of the irregular excavation; the others followed.
“i have a hunch! there’s something planted around here,” fuller said. “there’s no mysterious paper with figures and crazy directions on it and death’s head designs and four paces in the light of the moon stuff, and that’s too bad. but that chap had a reason for coming here. the only mark of identification anywhere around that i can see is that old rusty nail in the tree. anyway, the rusty nail seems to have the laugh on him. come on, let’s go in and get some sleep.”
fuller and ray slept peacefully enough for the balance of the night, but pee-wee did not sleep. skimper’s was transformed into a desert island where he had come to search for buried treasure. he would stay six months if necessary. so far as he was concerned he had voyaged a thousand miles to the desolate haunt of pirates, all for thirty-one cents. once again his spirit rallied to the standard of ray and fuller. “gee whiz, they’re right,” he said. “one place is as good as another if not better.”
great was the excitement at the snailsdale house in the morning. “it’s thrilling,” hope said, as she examined the excavation with several curious old ladies. “why didn’t you wake me up?”
“those fellers—they always have adventures,” pee-wee told her. “you can even find treasure on—you can even find it on fire escapes—sometimes. gee whiz, you should never go hunting for something like you did, because you never find it, that’s sure.”
