returned,
panting, Parson Jones was nowhere to be seen, but Tom saw his
footsteps leading away inland, and he followed the scuffling marks in
the smooth surface across the sand humps and down into the hollows,
and by and by found the good gentleman in a spot he at once knew as
soon as he laid his eyes upon it.

It was the open space where the pirates had driven their first peg,
and where Tom Chist had afterward seen them kill the poor black man.
Tom Chist gazed around as though expecting to see some sign of the
tragedy, but the space was as smooth and as undisturbed as a floor,
excepting where, midway across it, Parson Jones, who was now stooping
over something on the ground, had trampled it all around about.

When Tom Chist saw him he was still bending over, scraping away from
something he had found.

It was the first peg!

Inside of half an hour they had found the second and third pegs, and
Tom Chist stripped off his coat, and began digging like mad down into
the sand, Parson Jones standing over him watching him. The sun was
sloping well toward the west when the blade of Tom Chist's spade
struck upon something hard.

If it had been his own heart that he had hit in the sand his breast
could hardly have thrilled more sharply.

It was the treasure box!

[Illustration]

Parson Jones himself leaped down into the hole, and began scraping
away the sand with his hands as though he had gone crazy. At last,
with some difficulty, they tugged and hauled the chest up out of the
sand to the surface, where it lay covered all over with the grit that
clung to it.

It was securely locked and fastened with a padlock, and it took a good
many blows with the blade of the spade to burst the bolt. Parson Jones
himself lifted the lid.

Tom Chist leaned forward and gazed down into the open box. He would
not have been surprised to have seen it filled full of yellow gold and
bright jewels. It was filled half full of books and papers, and half
full of canvas bags tied safely and securely around and around with
cords of string.

Parson Jones lifted out one of the bags, and it jingled as he did so.
It was full of money.

He cut the string, and with trembling, shaking hands handed the bag to
Tom, who, in an ecstasy of wonder and dizzy with delight, poured out
with swimming sight upon the coat spread on the ground a cataract of
shining silver money that rang and twinkled and jingled as it fell in
a shining heap upon the coarse cloth