d him how old he thought it would be, and he
gave it as his opinion that it was one hundred and fifty years old, if
it was a day. Then said I,

"What is the French for walnut tree?"

"Noyer," was his reply, and into my pocket went my hand to bring out the
mystic document to see if there was an N on the chart. Joy, there was,
and at sight of it my hand trembled violently, and I felt ready to choke
with excitement, as I believed I had now a key to the finding of the
treasure.

Monday was as excited as myself, all he could exclaim was, "Oh, la, la!
Oh, la, la!" which was with him a mark of supreme delight.

We fetched the yard measure, and commenced our survey, as I shrewdly
guessed the fine old mulberry tree had something to do with the
calculations; if so the distance from the mulberry tree (Murier
accounting for the letter M) to the walnut tree would be twenty-four
yards; so we measured, but could not make the distance correct, as we
made it 26-2/3 yards, or just eight feet too much. This quite nonplussed
us, and our excitement greatly abated; but we were not yet vanquished,
and set our wits to work to discover the meaning of another of the
letters from which we could take further measurements.

Being near N (the walnut tree) I walked round the garden wall to the
point marked EC, but could there find no landmark at all from which to
measure. A century ago something may have stood there, but now it was a
bare spot. Here was another rebuff which seemed to upset my theory
altogether, and Monday with long visage said,

"Crusoe, you are on the wrong scent, you have 'shaken hands with a
shadow.'"

"Wait a bit, Monday. 'A cracked pitcher will hold _some_ water,' and
although I may be wrong on some of the points, I may find at least _one_
correct one presently."

We then walked along to the corner of the wall at the angle of which was
the letter P. At this point stood the well.

"What is French for '_well_', Monday."

"Puit."

"Puit?"

At this I gave a yell of delight.

"Eureka! I believe. Measure away, good comrade; measure away!"

"Where to, noble Crusoe?"

"Ah, where," said I to myself. "Well, measure off twelve yards towards
the centre of the garden, and see if it cuts the line between the
mulberry tree and the big walnut."

We measured to the wall and climbed over, and continued our measuring,
but alas, it went beyond the bee-line between the two trees by about
five feet! Wrong again!

Now I began t