e had helped him get better.

"However that might have been, he was a very different Dick from the
night before. His mouth was shut as tight as an oyster, and Tom couldn't
get another word out of him. When he reminded him that he hadn't
finished his confession of the night before, Dick stared at him coldly
and asked him what confession he was talking about. Tom told him, and
Dick said that was the first he had heard of anything of the kind. Said
he must have been out of his mind, if he'd gotten off any nonsense like
that. And he gave Tom a hint that it wouldn't be healthy for him, if he
spread the report among the rest of the crew.

"He didn't need to do that, for Tom had no idea of talking. He knew that
if he did, it would be a very easy thing for one of the half dozen
confederates to knock him senseless and heave him overboard some dark
night. So he kept a quiet tongue in his head, and neither he nor Dick
ever referred to the matter again as long as Tom was on board.

"As luck would have it, they soon after fell in with another ship of the
same line that was on its way back home. Some of her crew had been swept
overboard in a cyclone, and she was short-handed. Her skipper asked the
captain of Tom's craft to let him have a couple of men and he consented.
Tom and one other sailor volunteered, and they were transferred to the
other ship. It was a lucky thing for Tom, because his old ship went down
in a hurricane off Cape Horn and every soul on board was lost."

"Is that certain?" asked Bill.

"As certain as those things can ever be," was the answer. "That was as
much as eight years ago, and not a single man of her crew has ever
turned up anywhere. If any one of them had been picked up by another
ship, the matter would have been reported as soon as the ship reached
port. Of course, there's a bare chance that some of them might have
reached a desert island and still be alive. But that's so unlikely that
it might as well be put out of mind."

"What's become of Tom Bixby?" asked Teddy.

"He shipped on a Canadian sealer soon after he was here, and I haven't
seen or heard of him since."

"Is there any chance that he might have gone on a still hunt for the
treasure?"

"Not Tom," laughed Mr. Lee. "He didn't have enough to go on. But he
certainly was sore at the skipper for having called him away from Dick
just when he did. Another minute--yes, another ten seconds--and Dick
would have blurted out just where the treasure