e distance ahead.

"Give it up!" said Macloud. "Unless it's a custard-and-cream pudding
for the Midshipmen's supper. Awful looking thing, isn't it! Oh! I
recollect now: the Government has spent millions in erecting new
Academy buildings; and someone in the Navy remarked, 'If a certain chap
_had_ to kill somebody, he couldn't see why he hadn't selected the
fellow who was responsible for them--his work at Annapolis would have
been ample justification.' Judging from the atrocity to our fore, the
officer didn't overdraw it."

They took the road along the officers' quarters on Upshur Row, and came
out the upper gate into King George Street, thereby missing the Chapel
(of the custard-and-cream dome) and all the other Smith buildings.

"We can see them again!" said Croyden. "The real estate agent is more
important now."

It was the quiet hour when they got back to the hotel, and the clerk
was standing in the doorway, sunning himself.

"Enjoy your ride, sirs?" he asked.

"It wasn't bad," returned Croyden. Then he stopped. "Can you tell me
who owns Greenberry Point?"

"Yes, sir! The Government owns it--they bought it for the Rifle
Range."

"The whole of it?"

"Yes, sir!--from the Point clear up to the Experiment Station."

Croyden thanked him and passed on.

"That's the end of the purchase idea!" he said. "I thought it was 'most
too good to last."

"It got punctured very early," Macloud agreed.

"And the question is, what to do, now? Might the clerk be wrong?"

Macloud shook his head. "There isn't a chance of it. Titles in a small
town are known, particularly, when they're in the United States.
However, it's easy to verify--we'll hunt up a real estate
office--they'll know."

But when they had dressed, and sought a real estate office, the last
doubt vanished: it confirmed the clerk.

"If you haven't anything particularly pressing," said Macloud, "I
suggest that we remain here for a few days and consider what is best to
do."

"My most pressing business is to find the treasure!" Croyden laughed.

"Good! then we're on the job until it's found--if it takes a year or
longer." And when Croyden looked his surprise: "I've nothing to do, old
chap, and one doesn't have the opportunity to go treasure hunting more
than once in a lifetime. Picture our satisfaction when we hear the pick
strike the iron box, and see the lid turned back, and the jewels
coruscating before us."

"But what if there isn't any coruscating--t