back?" I demanded.

"Captain didn't say."

"You seem to take it easily," I flamed up; "but _I_ call it a
burning shame! Captain Branscome seems to think that this Island
belongs to him; and you know well enough, if it hadn't been for me,
he'd never have set eyes on it. What are you going to do?"

"Smoke a pipe," said Mr. Goodfellow, "and watch the beauties o'
Nature."

"Well, I'm not," I threatened. "Captain Branscome may be a very good
seaman but he's too much of an usher out of school. This isn't
Stimcoe's."

"Not a bit like it," assented Mr. Goodfellow, feeling in his
pockets.

"And if he thinks he can go on playing the usher over me, he'll find
out his mistake. Why, look you, whose is the treasure, properly
speaking? Who found it?"

"Nobody, yet."

Mr. Goodfellow drew forth a pipe and rubbed the bowl thoughtfully
against his nose.

"Well, then, who found the chart? Who put you all on the scent?
Who was it first heard the secret from Captain Coffin? And this man
doesn't even consult me--doesn't think me worth a civil word!
I'll be shot if I stand it!" I wound up, pacing the deck in my
rage.

Just then Plinny's voice called up to us from the cabin, announcing
that dinner was ready.

"But," said she, "one of you must eat his portion on deck while he
keeps watch; that was Captain Branscome's order."

"More orders!" I grumbled; and then, with a sudden thought, I
nodded to Mr. Goodfellow, who was replacing his pipe in his pocket.
"_You_ go. Hand me up a plate and a fistful of ship biscuit, and
leave me to deal with 'em. I'm not for stifling down there under
hatches, whatever your taste may be."

"'Tis a fact," he admitted, "that a meal does me more good when I
square my elbows to it."

"Down you go, then," said I; "and when you're wanted I'll call you."

He descended cheerfully, reappeared to pass up a plate, and descended
again. I gobbled down enough to stay my appetite, crammed my pocket
full of ship biscuit, and, after listening for a moment at the
hatchway, tiptoed forward and climbed out upon the bowsprit.
Then, having unloosed the cockboat's painter, I lowered and let
myself drop into her, and, slipping a paddle into the stern-notch,
sculled gently for shore.

The _Espriella_, of course, lay head-to-tide, and the tide by this
time was making strongly--so strongly that I had no time to get
steerage way on the little boat before it swept her close under the
open porthole throug