on. For Tyke had refused to be kept out of the work of
recovering the treasure, and when Drew had strolled off with the
intention of discovering what had frightened Ruth and had been followed
shortly after by the latter, the old man had seized Drew's abandoned
shovel and had gone lustily to work.

"Too much of a strain on that game leg of yours to be heaving up those
shovelfuls," the captain protested.

"Nary a bit of it," answered Tyke. "I ain't ready to be put on the
shelf yet, not by a blamed sight, and I guess if it came to a showdown,
Rufe, my muscles are as good as yours."

"You're a tough old knot all right," admitted Captain Hamilton, his
eyes twinkling. "But there's no sense in your doing Allen's work.
Where in thunder has the boy gone anyway?"

"Oh, he'll turn up in a minute or two," returned Tyke. "Wherever he is
you can bet your boots he's doing something connected with this here
work of treasure seeking. It simply ain't in that boy to lay down on
any job."

"Drew makes a hit with you all right," laughed the captain.

"And why shouldn't he?" asked Tyke belligerently. "He's been with me
for some years now, and I've had plenty of chances of sizin' him up.
If there was a yellow streak in him, I'd have found it out long ago.
If I'd had a son of my own, I wouldn't have asked for him to be any
better fellow than Allen is, and nobody could say any more'n that.
He's got grit an' brains an' gumption, an' more'n that he's as straight
as a string."

"Go ahead," laughed the captain, as Tyke paused for want of breath.
"Don't let me stop you."

"I don't mind tellin' you, Rufe, what I've never told yet to any human
soul," continued Tyke, waxing confidential, "an' that is that when I
lay up in my last harbor, Allen is goin' to come into everything I've
got. He don't know it himself yet, but I've got it down shipshape in
black and white an' the paper's in my office safe."

"He's a lucky fellow," commented the captain briefly.

"An' let me tell you another thing, Rufe," said Tyke, "an' that is that
Allen would make not only a good son, but a mighty good son-in-law."

He nudged the captain in the ribs as he spoke, with the familiarity of
old comradeship.

"Lay off on that, Tyke," said the captain, flushing a little beneath
his bronze.

"You don't mean to say that you haven't seen the way the wind was
blowin'?" rejoined Tyke incredulously. "Why, any one with a pair of
good eyes in his head can't help bu