s indeed ready and the boys were filling up the long table, for
Mr. Newton had decreed that no action should be taken on Matt's
discovery until after dinner.

When all was cleared away and the boys were ready to dismiss he made the
announcement: "Burton will now tell us of his discovery; the site he
selected, how he has worked and what he has found."

"Rah for the Great and Only," yelled Chick-chick, and, the designated
title being popularly known and approved, the "rah" was given before
Matt began to speak.

There was no embarrassment about Matt Burton as he rose to speak. He was
about fifteen years old, tall, straight and handsome. A mass of dark
brown hair with well-set eyes of the same shade and regular features
gave vigor to his head and face. He was of good family and had been
reared in a home of refinement and taught to feel at ease under all
circumstances. He accepted his nickname of "The Great and Only Matty"
with some complacency, as being not inappropriate, especially since his
pitching was the star feature of their baseball playing. A wise father
had sent him to the scouts to "get acquainted with himself" but so far
the process had not reached perfection. He began to talk with a smile of
confidence.

"I know a lot about buried treasure from what I've read and heard tell
of," said he, "so I decided to work out my own plans. Chick-chick and
Goosey offered to come with me, but I had ideas of my own. I knew a few
things about how to look. I knew it was no good to look on top of the
ground--might as well look up in trees. Then I knew there's always a
false scent thrown out to put searchers off the track. I figured that
the false scent was probably the story of the lake. So instead of
choosing any place in the Hollow I looked around until I found a heap of
rock near the timber. And then I chose one hundred feet from the timber
line southeast of the Hollow. I knew that the heap of rock wouldn't be
the only sign--there's always a second sign given in a treasure hunt.
Usually, in all the books I've read, the second sign is a tree or some
tall object which casts a shadow at a certain hour of the day at just
the point where you ought to dig."

"What hour?" shouted a boy.

"I'm coming to that. I looked around for the rock heap and decided to
pace off a hundred feet. I got no results worth while until I tried it
due south. This time it brought me to an old stump of a very peculiar
appearance that might have been t