searching for some
object. He was so close in the glass that I could see the stripes in his
cotton shirt and the buttons down the sides of his navy trousers.

"What is it?" gasped Riggs, breathing hard after his climb, and testing
the rocks before he climbed up to where I was perched between two
pinnacles of slatey stone.

"Can you see anything, Trenholm?"

"It's Buckrow. He's acting queerly, and I can't make out just what he is
doing. Take a look and see if you can tell."

He took the glass and studied the pirate, who was loafing along in an
aimless fashion, stopping every few steps to scan the hills of Luzon.

"He's taking bearings on that mountain-peak or some other beacon," said
the captain. "He's got a small compass."

Without the glass I could see Buckrow get down on his knees in the sand
and put something down before him. Then he stretched at full length, with
his hands raised from his elbows to shade his eyes from the sun.

"He's taking sights on the big peak," said Riggs. "It looks to me as if
they got a bearing on it from where they have stowed the gold, and
Buckrow wants to get the same bearing from the beach and leave a marker
as a middle point and a guide to where the treasure is concealed. The
opposite reading of the compass from the bearing of the peak would be a
leader to the cache. The bearing he takes, extended behind him, will run
pretty near to where the gold is hidden. He's particular as a Swede
skipper with that sight he's taking."

Finally, Buckrow crawled into the jungle again and disappeared. We waited
for a quarter of an hour, keeping close watch on the beach, but we saw
him no more.

"He made a little beacon with three stones," explained the captain. "I
ain't sure just what it means, but Thirkle ain't the man to leave such
work to Buckrow. You can bet Thirkle will know how to find the gold again
without asking Buckrow for the bearings. There is some deviltry afoot,
and my best guess is that the pirates ain't getting along none too well
among themselves with that treasure.

"We'll have to scout along the beach and pick up their trail and run 'em
down carefully. Anyway, I'm glad they are here, but we'll have to hustle
along now or they'll be cutting out of this, and if they get the boats
into the water, we'll have to let 'em go without a shot. That'll give us
a hard job, because we'll have to take a chance of leaving the gold to
get help and having them come back for it while we're go