lans of Evans. As soon as the long boat had
gone with the shore party he packed the treasure in boxes and lowered
them into a boat. Late in the afternoon the tired sailors returned to
the ship.

Evans ordered the boatswain to pipe all hands on deck. To the assembled
crew he made a speech, pointing out the need of getting the treasure to
some safer place than aboard a ship which might any day fall into the
hands of the enemy. He intended, he said, to take three men with him and
bury the chests on the sand spit within sight of them all.

But at this proposal the men broke into flat rebellion. Not one of them
was willing to trust the gold out of his reach. Things in fact had come
to such a pass that, though there was plenty for all, each was plotting
how he might increase his share by robbing his neighbor.

Evans had made his preparations. The officers, Lobardi, Quinn, and two
other sailors who sided with the chief villains were grouped together,
all of them heavily armed. In the struggle that followed the victory
lay with the organized party. The mutineers were defeated and disarmed.

Evans selected Quinn, Lobardi, and a sailor named Wall to go with him
ashore to bury the gold. Those on board watched the boat pull away with
the gold that had cost so many lives. To the fury and amazement of all
of them the boat rounded a point of land and disappeared from sight.

Evans had broken his agreement to bury the treasure in the sight of all.
Even Captain Rogers joined in the imprecations of the men. He ordered
the long boat lowered for a pursuit, but hardly had this started when a
shot plumped into the water in front of it.

Unobserved in the excitement, the _Truxillo_ had slipped into the bay.
Its second shot fell short, its third wide, but the fourth caught the
boat amidship and crumpled it as the tap of a spoon does an empty
eggshell. Of the eight men aboard two were killed outright and the rest
thrown into the sea. One of them--a man named Bucks, as we were to learn
in a most surprising way--clung to the wreckage and succeeded in
reaching shore. The rest were drowned or fell a prey to sharks.

The long boat disposed of, the _Truxillo_ turned her guns upon the
_Santa Theresa_. Those left on board made a desperate defense, but the
captain, seeing that escape was impossible, chose to blow up the ship
rather than be hanged as a pirate from the yardarm.

Meanwhile, the boat with the treasure, which had rounded the point
be