He did so. When he came up, their eyes were ready to start
from their heads, for he bore with him an object of infinite
promise to their wealth-craving souls. It was a lump of
silver,--a "sow," they called it,--worth some two or three
hundred pounds in money.

The search was over! The spot was found! Fortune lay within
their reach! Marking the spot with a buoy, they rowed back
to the ship, on which the captain had remained. Here they,
disposed to have some sport, declared with long faces that
the affair had better come to an end. They were wasting time
and labor; the sea had no treasure to yield.

"If we were wise, captain," said the leading speaker, "we'd
pull up stakes and sail back for merry old England. There's
nothing but failure here. As much work done in digging and
drudging at home would bring tenfold more profit."

Phips listened in silence to him and the others, looking
from face to face.

"Our disappointments have been many," he replied, in a calm
and resolute tone. "Yet I do not despair. I am determined to
wait patiently on God's providence. We will find the
treasure-ship yet, my lads. Do not lose courage."

Turning his gaze to one side as he spoke, he started
violently, and then asked, in a tone so constrained that it
seemed the voice of agony,--

"Why, what is this? Whence comes this?"

He had caught sight of the sow of silver, which they had
cunningly laid a little out of direct vision.

"It is silver, Captain Phips," said the spokesman. "We did
but jest with you. That came from the bottom of the sea. All
is well; we have found the treasure-ship."

"Then, thanks be to God, we are made!" cried the captain,
clasping his hands in fervent thankfulness.

There was no longer any lack of energy in the labor. All
hands went to work with a hearty good-ill. Curiosity to
learn what the sea had to yield wrought upon them as much as
desire for reward. Up came the silver, sow after sow. In a
short time they had brought up no less than thirty-two tons
of this precious metal, with six tons besides that were
raised and appropriated by a Captain Adderly, of Providence,
whom Phips had engaged to help him, and who took this means
of helping himself. His crew was small, but his diligence
great.

The silver was not all in sows. Much of it was coined, and
this coined silver was, in many cases, covered with a crust,
several inches thick, of limestone-like material. It came
out in great lumps, the crust nee