ST have one other man," repeated Edgar, "a man who is strong enough
to dig, and strong enough to resist the temptation to murder me." The
retort was so easy that I let it pass. Besides, on Edgar, it would have
been wasted.

"I THINK you will do," he said with reluctance. "And now the
conditions!"

I smiled agreeably.

"You are already sworn to secrecy," said Edgar. "And you now agree in
every detail to obey me implicitly, and to accompany me to a certain
place, where you will dig. If I find the treasure, you agree, to help
me guard it, and convey it to wherever I decide it is safe to leave it.
Your responsibility is then at an end. One year after the treasure is
discovered, you will be free to write the account of the expedition. For
what you write, some magazine may pay you. What it pays you will be your
share of the treasure."

Of my part of the million dollars, which I had hastily calculated
could not be less than one-fifth, I had already spent over one hundred
thousand dollars and was living far beyond my means. I had bought a farm
with a waterfront on the Sound, a motor-boat, and, as I was not sure
which make I preferred, three automobiles. I had at my own, expense
produced a play of mine that no manager had appreciated, and its name
in electric lights was already blinding Broadway. I had purchased a
Hollander express rifle, a REAL amber cigar holder, a private secretary
who could play both rag-time and tennis, and a fur coat. So Edgar's
generous offer left me naked. When I had again accustomed myself to the
narrow confines of my flat, and the jolt of the surface cars, I asked
humbly:

"Is that ALL I get?"

"Why should you expect any more?" demanded Edgar. "It isn't YOUR
treasure. You wouldn't expect me to make you a present of an interest
in my mills; why should you get a share of my treasure?" He gazed at me
reproachfully. "I thought you'd be pleased," he said. "It must be hard
to think of things to write about, and I'm giving you a subject for
nothing. I thought," he remonstrated, "you'd jump at the chance. It
isn't every day a man can dig for buried treasure."

"That's all right," I said. "Perhaps I appreciate that quite as well as
you do. But my time has a certain small value, and I can't leave my work
just for excitement. We may be weeks, months---- How long do you think
we----"

Behind his eye-glasses Edgar winked reprovingly.

"That is a leading question," he said. "I will pay all your legitimat