the caching
of the plunder--and this only because he was not aware of it.

During all those forty years Quinn had kept it as a fixed purpose to
return to the scene of his crime and possess himself of the wealth he
had lost his soul to gain.

But to outfit an expedition of the necessary proportions took much
money. On this rock the man's purpose had always split. Periodically he
was a hard drinker. He would live hard and close for a year, saving
every cent he could, and then spend the whole amount in one grand
debauch.

Had he been willing to confide his story to some capitalist of
California it is likely he might have raised the needed funds, but the
nature of the man was both suspicious and secretive and he had guarded
his knowledge all these years with jealousy.

Wallace was acquainted with the owner and master of a tramp schooner
which had a doubtful reputation along the water front. Jim Slack had
been an opium smuggler and was watched so closely by the revenue
officers that he jumped at the chance of a trip to parts where no
government officials could reach him.

Cautiously Wallace broached the subject to him, hinting at treasure but
leaving the details dark. He drew a map which was a facsimile of the one
made by Quinn, except that the latitude and longitude were omitted, and
one or two details altered.

The result was that two weeks later the three men, together with a crew
of five, were beating their way along the coast of Lower California in
the notorious _Jennie Slack_. A bargain had been struck by which the
owner of the vessel was to get one-third of the gold, out of which share
he was to pay all the expenses of the cruise.

Each of the three leaders of the expedition was pledged to secrecy, but
before they had been a week out of the Golden Gate Wallace discovered by
accident not only that the crew knew the story, but that they were
implicated with the master of the boat in a plot to obtain the whole
treasure for themselves.

He told what he had learned to Quinn under cover of an evening smoke on
deck. The old pirate took it without winking an eyelash, for he could
see Slack and one of his men watching them.

"Six to two. Long odds, boy," he said, knocking the ashes from his pipe.

To keep up appearances Bob Wallace laughed.

"I'm to be got rid of just before we land. It is to be made to look like
an accident. You're safe until you have uncovered the treasure. Then
it's good-by Cap Nat, too."

Q