Part 11 (1/2)

”Luck! 'Tisn't luck that makes a man dig out a foreign lingo,” said Tyke. ”An', anyway, you've been smart at every point with your suggestions, an' helped us out as we went along. You started things with your eagerness to look into Manuel's box an' you put the cap sheaf on when you jest now gave Cap'n Rufe that last pointer.

”An' now,” Tyke went on, when they had sobered down a little, ”let's get down to bra.s.s tacks. There's jest one thing that remains to be done, but it's a mighty big thing. We feel pretty sure that there is a treasure, an' we think we know where that treasure is. Now the question is, how are we going to git it?”

Drew experienced a feeling of dismay. He had been so engrossed with the preliminary work that he had hardly given a thought to the practical problem involved. He had taken it for granted that it would be easy enough to get a s.h.i.+p to go after the pirate's h.o.a.rd.

Now with Tyke's bald statement confronting him, a host of perplexities sprang up to torment him. Where were they to get the right kind of s.h.i.+p? How could they escape telling the captain of that s.h.i.+p just where they were going and what they were going for?

But if the matter puzzled Tyke and his chief clerk, it bothered Captain Hamilton not at all. He lighted a fresh cigar, crossed his legs and smiled broadly.

”That's an easy one,” he remarked. ”Give me something hard.”

Tyke looked at him in some surprise and Drew's face reflected his bewilderment.

”Seems to me it's hard enough,” grumbled Tyke.

”What do you mean?” asked Drew quickly.

”I mean,” said the captain complacently, ”that we'll make this voyage in my schooner.”

The two others jumped to their feet.

”Splendid!” cried Drew.

”Glory be!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Tyke.

”The plan seems to suit you,” smiled the captain.

”Suit us!” shouted Tyke. ”Why, it's jest made to order. But how're you going to git the owner's permission? How do you know he'll be willing to have the s.h.i.+p chartered for such a cruise? An' how are we going to keep the secret from him?”

”As I happen to be the chief owner, as well as the captain, I guess we won't have any trouble on that score.”

”Owner!” exclaimed Tyke, in astonishment. ”I hadn't any idee that you had any int'rest in her outside of your berth as captain. You've been pretty forehanded to have got so far ahead as to own a craft like that.”

”I haven't done so badly in the last few years,” said the captain modestly; ”and as fast as I saved money I kept buying more stock in the old girl. Mr. Parmalee encouraged that idea in his captains. He knew human nature, and knew that when a man's own money was invested in the deck under him he was going to be mighty careful of the s.h.i.+p's safety and would have a personal interest in seeing that she was a money maker. The old man's dead now, but his son has inherited a third interest in the _Bertha Hamilton_, while I hold the other two-thirds.

I renamed her when I got control of the bonny craft. I hope some day to buy out Parmalee's share and become the sole owner.”

”You're a lucky man,” congratulated Tyke warmly. ”It must be great when you tread the plank to feel that you're not only boss for the time being, but that you actually own her. What is she like? How big is she? And how much of a crew do you s.h.i.+p?”

”She's three stick, schooner rigged,” replied the captain. ”A hundred and fifty feet over all and carries a crew of about thirty. Oh! she's a sailing craft, Tyke. She's not afoul with steam winches and the like. And she's a beauty,” he added, his eyes kindling with pride.

”There are mighty few s.h.i.+ps on this coast that she can't show a pair of heels to, and she's a sweet sailer in any weather. She stands right up into the wind's eye as steady as a church and when it comes to reaching or running free, I'd back her against anything that carries sails.”

”But how about your other engagements?” suggested Grimshaw. ”Is she chartered for a voyage anywhere soon?”

”That's another rare bit of luck,” returned the captain. ”I had an engagement to-day with Hollings & Company, who were thinking of having me take a cargo for Galveston. If I hadn't run plump into this treasure business as I did, there isn't any doubt but I would have closed with them to-day. But now it's all off. I'll see them this afternoon and tell them they'll have to get somebody else.”

Tyke sat down heavily in his chair and wagged his grizzled head solemnly.

”It's beyond me,” he said. ”It must be meant. Here we might be weeks or months before we could git a s.h.i.+p that suited us, if we got it at all; but along comes Cap'n Rufe here with the very thing we want. If I was superst.i.tious,”--before his stony stare they sat unwinking--”I'd think for sure there was something in this more'n natural. It can't be, after all this, that we're going on a wild goose chase.”

”Well,” replied Captain Hamilton cautiously, ”it may be that after all.