one who betrayed the others.

"They didn't dare keep on their voyage to the port where they were
going. There would have been too much explaining to do. So they made for
a cove on the coast----"

"Where was it? What was its name? How far from here?" came in a chorus
from the boys.

"A cove on the coast," went on Mr. Lee, disregarding the interruption,
"where they could think things over and make their plans. They anchored
at a little distance out, and came into the cove in a small boat,
carrying the chest of gold and the unconscious passenger. They carried
the gold ashore and left the passenger in the boat. But in the
excitement, they must have failed to draw the boat far enough up on the
sand. At all events, it got adrift and floated out into the darkness.

"When they missed it, they were panic-stricken. They didn't know what to
do with the gold. If it had been in small bills that couldn't have been
traced, the matter would have been easy enough. But they feared that if
Mr. Montgomery escaped and recovered there would be a regular hue and
cry, and a close watch kept for any one who was spending gold pieces,
which is rather an unusual thing to do in these days of paper money. Of
course, professional sharpers would have found some way out, but these
men were not that, and now that they had taken part in a crime they were
in deadly fear of detection.

"They concluded at last that the best thing they could do for the
present was to leave the gold in its chest carefully concealed in that
lonely place, sail their ship to some harbor where they could sell it
for what it would bring, and then ship together on a long voyage that
would keep them out of the country until the storm blew over. Thus each
could watch the others and when they got back they could get the chest
and divide the gold among them.

"Tom told me that when Dick got to this point, he couldn't hold in any
longer but asked him point blank where it was that he had buried the
treasure chest.

"'We didn't bury it,' Dick answered. 'We hid it in----'

"Just then the skipper called Tom and he had to leave Dick, but promised
to come back as soon as he could.

"But one duty after another kept him busy, and he wasn't able to go back
to Dick for some time. Then he found that a great change had taken
place. Dick's fever had gone down, he had a little appetite, and it was
clear that he was on the mend. Perhaps the relieving of his conscience
by telling of the crim