Part 32 (1/2)

CHAPTER XXII

BURIED ALIVE

Ruth pointed out to Drew exactly where the figure that had so startled her had stood. It was down the slope of the hill to the westward, and directly between two lava boulders at the edge of the jungle.

The figure--man, apparition, what or whoever it was--had lingered in sight but a moment.

Before returning to work in his excavation, Drew went down to the spot Ruth had pointed out. There was not a sign of anybody having been there. The earth between the huge lumps of lava seemed not to have been disturbed. He could find no broken twigs or torn vines at the edge of the jungle.

”She dreamed it--that's all,” muttered Drew. ”Poor Parmalee!”

He thought of the man whose tragic end was so linked with his own existence--of the body buffeted by the waves somewhere in the blue expanse that stretched easterly from this little island.

Of what use would the pirate treasure, if they found it, be to Allen Drew? This bitter query obsessed him. He would gladly give every coin and jewel Ramon Alvarez had buried here, were it his to give, to see Parmalee, leaning on his cane, walk out of the jungle.

He was so lost in these gloomy musings that he started when he felt a light touch on his arm.

He looked up to find Ruth standing beside him.

”Did you find any trace of him, Allen?” she asked, in a voice from which the tremor had not entirely gone.

”Not the slightest sign,” he answered. ”The man or thing, whatever it was, seems to have vanished into thin air.”

”It must have been mere fancy,” she murmured, though without conviction.

”Our nerves play strange tricks sometimes,” Drew rejoined lightly. ”We are all of us in such an excited state just now that anything may happen.”

”I've always felt that nerves had been left out of my composition,”

said Ruth, smiling faintly. ”But when it comes to the pinch, I suppose I'm just as liable to them as any one else.”

”No, you're not,” denied Allen Drew warmly. ”You're the most perfect thoroughbred of any woman I ever knew.”

”Perhaps your experience has been limited,” she suggested, with a flash of her old mischief.

”I'm perfectly willing it should be limited from this time on to just one woman,” he was on the point of saying, but bit his lip just in time.

”It is strange that this apparition, for want of a better name, should have taken the form of Parmalee,” he continued, his jealousy in spite of himself taking possession of him. ”Perhaps you were thinking of him, just then,” he hazarded.

”Not at all,” returned Ruth frankly. ”Just at that moment I'm afraid my mind was fixed on nothing else but the hunt for the pirate's treasure.”

Drew felt somewhat rea.s.sured by this, and they had turned to retrace their steps when he suddenly stood stock still.

”What is it?” asked Ruth in some alarm.

”I thought I saw an opening in the side of the mountain over there,” he replied. ”Perhaps the ghost, or whatever it was, is hiding in that,”

he added jestingly. ”At any rate I'm going to take a minute and see what it is.”

He made a step in the direction he had indicated. Ruth sought to restrain him.

”Don't you think you had better call my father and Mr. Grimshaw before you venture in there?” she asked. ”You don't know what may be lurking there.”