ogers was not along to protect them
with his musket. He had lived and dreamed in expectation of this quest.

"We'll find no treasure, nary a penny of it," dolefully observed Joe
Hawkridge who had actually begun to shiver.

"Of course we can find the sea-chest, you ninny," scolded Jack.

"Dead or alive, Cap'n Ed'ard Teach flew away with it afore now," was
Joe's rejoinder. "He was a master one at black magic."

"Don't chatter like an idiot," spoke up Uncle Peter who was wildly
brushing the mosquitoes from a sun-blistered nose. "My faith, I cannot
understand how you lads got out of this swamp alive. It breeds all the
plagues of Egypt."

They came to the tiny lagoon and rounded the bend beyond which the
pirogue had capsized Blackbeard's cock-boat. There was nothing to
indicate that any human being had visited this lonely spot since that
sensational encounter. No trees had been cut down to serve as purchases
for lifting the sea-chest from its oozy hiding-place. It was agreed that
some traces would have remained if Blackbeard had been at work here
before his death.

A camp was made upon the higher ground of the knoll and the party went
about its task with skill and deliberation. Jointed sounding rods of
iron were screwed together and the exact position of the spot determined
from Jack Cockrell's chart and description. But neither he nor Joe
Hawkridge could be coaxed into lending more active assistance. They were
afraid of disturbing the bones of the drowned seaman who had fled from
Blackbeard's bloody dirk. Jack had seen him go down and it was not a
pleasant recollection. And so these two heroes who had faced so many
other perils without flinching were content to putter about
half-heartedly and let the others exert themselves.

All one day they prodded and sounded but struck only sunken logs. What
gave them more concern than this was the discovery that the slender
rods, sharpened to a point, could be driven through one yielding stratum
after another of muck and ooze. Through myriad years the decaying
vegetable matter of this rank swamp had been accumulating in these
layers of muck. There was no telling how deep down the weight of the
sea-chest might have caused it to settle.

Mr. Peter Forbes began to lose his youthful optimism and took four men
to go and dig in the knoll while the others continued to search for the
chest. The wooden cross still stood above the grave of Jesse Strawn and
the long-leaf pines murmured h