The earth between the huge lumps of lava seemed not to have
been disturbed. He could find no broken twigs or torn vines at the
edge of the jungle.

"She dreamed it--that's all," muttered Drew. "Poor Parmalee!"

He thought of the man whose tragic end was so linked with his own
existence--of the body buffeted by the waves somewhere in the blue
expanse that stretched easterly from this little island.

Of what use would the pirate treasure, if they found it, be to Allen
Drew? This bitter query obsessed him. He would gladly give every coin
and jewel Ramon Alvarez had buried here, were it his to give, to see
Parmalee, leaning on his cane, walk out of the jungle.

He was so lost in these gloomy musings that he started when he felt a
light touch on his arm.

He looked up to find Ruth standing beside him.

"Did you find any trace of him, Allen?" she asked, in a voice from
which the tremor had not entirely gone.

"Not the slightest sign," he answered. "The man or thing, whatever it
was, seems to have vanished into thin air."

"It must have been mere fancy," she murmured, though without conviction.

"Our nerves play strange tricks sometimes," Drew rejoined lightly. "We
are all of us in such an excited state just now that anything may
happen."

"I've always felt that nerves had been left out of my composition,"
said Ruth, smiling faintly. "But when it comes to the pinch, I suppose
I'm just as liable to them as any one else."

"No, you're not," denied Allen Drew warmly. "You're the most perfect
thoroughbred of any woman I ever knew."

"Perhaps your experience has been limited," she suggested, with a flash
of her old mischief.

"I'm perfectly willing it should be limited from this time on to just
one woman," he was on the point of saying, but bit his lip just in time.

"It is strange that this apparition, for want of a better name, should
have taken the form of Parmalee," he continued, his jealousy in spite
of himself taking possession of him. "Perhaps you were thinking of
him, just then," he hazarded.

"Not at all," returned Ruth frankly. "Just at that moment I'm afraid
my mind was fixed on nothing else but the hunt for the pirate's
treasure."

Drew felt somewhat reassured by this, and they had turned to retrace
their steps when he suddenly stood stock still.

"What is it?" asked Ruth in some alarm.

"I thought I saw an opening in the side of the mountain over there," he
replied. "Perhaps the ghost