s
brother belonged somewhere around here and loafed his time away, always
intending to visit the spot. But he, too, got sick and before he died
passed the secret along to Coster. The original thieves never came back
because they were later arrested for another crime, that of killing one
of themselves in a row, and the survivor or survivors were sent up for
life or hanged, I reckon. Anyway, they never bothered any one any more."

"But this old printed paper doesn't tell exactly where the boodle was
hid, except that it was close to a big hemlock and under a big rock."
Phil was shaking his head doubtfully. "Where would that hemlock be?
There are hemlocks scattered in the woods all around here."

"Here's something that Coster gave me while he was in jail, towards the
last. You see, I'd been sort of kind to him, or he took it that way. I
carried him some tobacco. When he found that he was in for a serious
time, he handed out to me not only this paper but a scrawl he'd made on
the back of an old envelope with a bit of pencil I'd given him some days
before. At the time I couldn't make much of what he was up to. But I
guess his bad luck in general was too much for him. After Rack landed
him he seemed to give up. Anyway he gave me both these," meaning the
printed bit of crumpled paper and the old envelope which Paul now passed
to Phil.

"Why didn't you tell us before, eh?" asked Phil sharply. "Aren't we all
comrades together?"

"Yep! But I knew you'd laugh at me for being so simple as to believe
anything Coster said. But since we've reached this place where we are
now, the thing came back to me so strong that I fished out these papers
and looked 'em over again. By jimmineddy! I can't help but think there's
something in all this rigmarole after all."

Phil, after some cogitation, gave back the papers to Paul, saying:

"Let's sleep on it, Paul. You can't get anything out of them now. In the
morning we will go into it again."

In the early morning Billy, who had some advantage over the rest in
point of sleep, was up first, and was presently whanging the others with
his pillow in a way that bade little for further slumbers on their part.

"G'way! get out!" cried Paul, feeling less interest just then in
treasure hunting than in securing a few more winks before the inevitable
bell for breakfast rang forth. "Remember how you acted last night when
we wanted you to sit up and talk!"

As for Dave, the last to be thus treated by