roval and retreat. He was
not disposed to be friendly.

On one of his trips to the forward cabin Harry noticed the clothes
belonging to the newcomer lying on the floor where they had been dropped
when he had been put into the berth. Thinking to care for them by
straightening and drying them, the boy picked up the first garment in
the pile. It was a vest and as he raised it a collection of small
articles fell from the pocket to the floor.

Among the contents was a metal match box which fell and slid across the
floor, striking, on the locker as it dropped.

"Well, that's too bad. The gentleman will have wet matches, I guess,"
thought the boy. "I'd better empty those wet ones out and give him some
dry ones against his waking and needing some."

What was his amazement, however, upon opening the box to find instead of
matches, a clipping from a newspaper. Harry was about to thrust it back
into the box again when a printed word caught his attention and held him
for a moment motionless. The word was the name of their vessel, the
"Fortuna."

Hastily glancing through the headlines, Harry uttered a quick cry and
dashed forward to the pilot house.

"Boys! Jack, Tom, Arnold," he cried excitedly. "What do you think of
this? Here's some more of this mystery for us."

"What do you mean, mystery?" queried Tom, scoffingly.

"Just listen to this! Here's a newspaper clipping evidently from a
Chicago paper which tells about our fitting out the Fortuna for the
cruise to the Gulf of Mexico and also hazards the guess that we are
young and adventurous spirits evidently seeking the buried treasure on
the Gulf Coast."

"Does it say that we are after the Spanish Treasure Chest at the old
Fort on Biloxi Bay, that must be dug up in the full of the moon on a
rising tide with not a word said?" asked Tom.

"It does say that our destination is Biloxi and that we are known to be
daring lads," replied Harry. "But that is not all."

"Let's have it, Harry," cried Jack. "I'm anxious to hear all."

"There's a pencil notation across the paper that says: 'Get these
fellows at any cost.' That's mighty encouraging."

"Say, fellows, this is getting uncomfortably tight! I don't like it a
little bit," declared Tom. "Here we are peaceable Boy Scouts out for a
little pleasure trip and all at once it begins to rain adventurous
spirits from any old place and each of them is posted to make away with
us and all seem to be protecting this old Spanish stron