soft buckskin lay twelve great emeralds, gleaming
with a clear green light even in that dark place. They were perfectly
matched and as large as the end of a man's thumb, each cut in a square
pattern after the oldtime fashion. Such stones they were as could have
come only from the coffers of an oriental king--the ransom, perhaps, of
a prince of the blood, or of the favorite wife of some Maharajah, seized
in one of Solomon Brig's daredevil raids.

Bob found breath at last.

"It's a fortune!" he cried. "They're worth more than all the gold
together! And they're yours, Jeremy--yours by right of discovery twice
over. You're rich--you and your father and Tom! Think of it! You can buy
a whole fleet of big ships like the _Indian Queen_, and become a great
merchant. You and I'll be partners when we're grown up!" Jubilant, he
picked up one of the sacks of gold and made his way to the deck,
followed by the half-dazed Jeremy, who carried the rest of the treasure.

The sun was close to setting when the _Tiger's_ boat made its last trip
to the pirate sloop. This time its errand was a sad one. Silently the
crew passed long, limp bundles across the rail, rowed with them to the
beach, and clambered up the desolate dunes with picks and shovels in
their hands. There, where the wind moaned in the beach-plum thickets and
the white gulls wheeled and screamed, they dug a long grave and laid the
dead to rest, pirates and honest men together under the wintry sky.

The boat returned and was hoisted aboard. Just as the mainsail had been
run up and the schooner was filling away for her northward beat, a
single shout from the crosstrees caused every man to turn his gaze
shoreward into the gathering dark. A faint glow seemed to hang in the
air above the pirate sloop. A little snaky flame wriggled its way along
a piece of sagging cordage, licked at the edges of a torn sail, and
flared outward in a burst of red fire. A moment later, and the whole
schooner was ablaze, from waterline to masthead. Jeremy, watching,
fascinated, from the _Tiger's_ rail, thought of the night when he had
first seen that black hull, and of the burning brig that had lit up the
sky as the pirate sloop now illumined it. Her fate was the same that she
had meted out to many a good ship.

They were rapidly drawing away, now. The great glare of the burning
schooner faded out as the flame devoured her fabric. The foremast
toppled and fell in a shower of sparks. The mainmast follo