the lad. "That is, did he try to discover if you knew
anything about it?"

"Yes," said Mr. Weston, "he did. He pumped me, if you are acquainted
with that term, and are not offended by it. You see, when I arrived
here I made inquiries as to where your father's place was located. Mr.
Berg overheard me, and introduced himself as agent for a shipbuilding
concern. He was very friendly, and when he said he knew you and your
parent, I thought he was all right."

Tom's heart sank. His worst fears were to be realized, he thought.

"Yes, he and I talked considerable, if I may be permitted to say so,"
went on the captain. "He seemed to know about the wreck of the Boldero,
and that she had three hundred thousand dollars in gold aboard. The
only thing he didn't know was where the wreck was located. He knew it
was off Uruguay somewhere, but just where he couldn't say. So he asked
me if I knew, since he must have concluded that I was going with you on
the gold-hunting expedition."

"And you do know, don't you?" asked Tom eagerly.

"Well, I have it pretty accurately charted out, if you will allow me
that expression," was the calm answer. "I took pains to look it up at
the request of Mr. Sharp."

"And he wanted to worm that information out of you?" inquired the youth
excitedly.

"Yes, I'm afraid he did."

"Did you give him the location?"

"Well," remarked the captain, as he took another observation before
closing up the telescope, "you see, while we were talking, I happened
to drop a copy of a map I'd made, showing the location of the wreck.
Mr. Berg picked it up to hand to me, and he looked at it."

"Oh!" cried Tom. "Then he knows just where the treasure is, and he may
get to it ahead of us. It's too bad."

"Yes," continued the seaman calmly, "Mr. Berg picked up that map, and
he looked very closely at the latitude and longitude I had marked as
the location of the wreck."

"Then he won't have any trouble finding it," murmured our hero.

"Eh? What's that?" asked the captain, "if I may be permitted to request
you to repeat what you said."

"I say he won't have any trouble locating the sunken Boldero," repeated
Tom.

"Oh, but I think he will, if he depends on that map," was the
unexpected reply. "You see," explained Mr. Weston, "I'm not so simple
as I look. I sensed what Mr. Berg was after, the minute he began to
talk to me. So I fixed up a little game on him. The map which I dropped
on purpose, not accidentally, where