rbor.

It was good to avoid the sun and the mosquitoes and the moist heat of
the jungle, though I felt a little guilty at lying in a hammock on the
shady side of the deck with Evelyn at my side, while my friends were
perspiring in the burning sand pits with shovel and pick.

Fortunately, it was only a few hours before the last of the boxes buried
by Bucks was uncovered. Jamaica Ginger's hatchet found it a good fifty
yards from the others. Within an hour it had been dragged out of the
dirt and brought aboard.

We sailed the same afternoon about twelve hours later than the schooner,
which had quietly slipped past us on its way to the sea in the faint
light of early dawn.

That Fleming had given up the attempt to win the treasure was plain. I
doubt whether his men would have followed him even if he had wished it,
for he had not the dominant temper of his chief.

We dropped anchor under the lee of a little island in the Boco Chico,
but our engines were throbbing again by break of day. As we puffed
across the North Bay we passed the schooner almost within a stone's
throw.

Henry Fleming was on deck, and half a dozen of the blacks and browns who
made up the crew swarmed to the side of the vessel to see us. Blythe had
made quiet preparations in case any attempt at stopping us should be
made, but apparently nothing was farther from the thoughts of the enemy.

In fact several of the dusky deck hands waved us a friendly greeting as
we drove swiftly past. From that day to this I have never seen any
member of that crew, though a letter received last week from
Gallagher--who is doing well in the cattle business in the
Argentine--mentioned that he had run across Henry Fleming at Buenos
Ayres.

Out of the Gulf of San Miguel we pushed past Brava Point as fast as
Stubbs could send the _Argos_. The lights of Panama called to us. They
stood for law and civilization and the blessed dominance of the old
stars and stripes.

We were in a hurry to get back to the broad piazzas of its hotels, where
women at their ease did fancy work and played bridge while laughing
children romped without fear.

Adventure is all very well, but I have discovered that one can get a
surfeit of it.

Before the division of the treasure there arose a point of morality
that, oddly enough, had not been considered before. It was born of my
legal conscience and for a few minutes was disturbing.

Tom and I were in Blythe's cabin with him discussing an equi