iny."

Parson Jones burst out laughing. "Thankee, Tom," he said; "and I'll
thankee again when I get my chist of tea. But tell me, Tom, didst thou
ever hear of the farmer girl who counted her chickens before they were
hatched?"

It was thus they talked as they hurried along up the beach together,
and so came to a place at last where Tom stopped short and stood looking
about him. "'Twas just here," he said, "I saw the boat last night. I
know 'twas here, for I mind me of that bit of wreck yonder, and that
there was a tall stake drove in the sand just where yon stake stands."

Parson Jones put on his barnacles and went over to the stake toward
which Tom pointed. As soon as he had looked at it carefully he called
out: "Why, Tom, this hath been just drove down into the sand. 'Tis
a brand-new stake of wood, and the pirates must have set it here
themselves as a mark, just as they drove the pegs you spoke about down
into the sand."

Tom came over and looked at the stake. It was a stout piece of oak
nearly two inches thick; it had been shaped with some care, and the top
of it had been painted red. He shook the stake and tried to move it, but
it had been driven or planted so deeply into the sand that he could not
stir it. "Aye, sir," he said, "it must have been set here for a mark,
for I'm sure 'twas not here yesterday or the day before." He stood
looking about him to see if there were other signs of the pirates'
presence. At some little distance there was the corner of something
white sticking up out of the sand. He could see that it was a scrap of
paper, and he pointed to it, calling out: "Yonder is a piece of paper,
sir. I wonder if they left that behind them?"

It was a miraculous chance that placed that paper there. There was only
an inch of it showing, and if it had not been for Tom's sharp eyes, it
would certainly have been overlooked and passed by. The next windstorm
would have covered it up, and all that afterward happened never would
have occurred. "Look, sir," he said, as he struck the sand from it, "it
hath writing on it."

"Let me see it," said Parson Jones. He adjusted the spectacles a little
more firmly astride of his nose as he took the paper in his hand and
began conning it. "What's all this?" he said; "a whole lot of figures
and nothing else." And then he read aloud, "'Mark--S. S. W. S. by S.'
What d'ye suppose that means, Tom?"

"I don't know, sir," said Tom. "But maybe we can understand it better if
yo