IV

The next day was Sunday.

As we sat at dinner with Mrs. Handsomebody after morning service, we were

scarcely conscious of the large, white dumplings that bulged before us,

with a delicious sticky sweet sauce, trickling down their dropsical sides.

We plied our spoons with languid interest around their outer edges, as

calves nibble around a straw stack. Our vagrant minds scoured the Spanish

Main with Captain Pegg.

Suddenly The Seraph spoke in that cock-sure way of his.

"There's a piwate at Peggs."

Mrs. Handsomebody looked at him sharply.

"What's that?" she demanded. At the same instant Angel and I kicked him

under cover of the table.

"What did you say?" repeated Mrs. Handsomebody sternly.

"Funny ole gennelman at the Cwibbage Peggs," replied The Seraph with his

mouth full.

Mrs. Handsomebody greatly respected Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Pegg, and this

play of words on the name incensed her.

"Am I to understand Alexander," she gobbled, "that you are making _game_ of

the Mortimer Peggs?"

"Yes," giggled the wretched Seraph, "it's a cwibbage game. You play it wiv

Peggs."

"Leave the table instantly!" ordered Mrs. Handsomebody. "You are becoming

unbearable."

The Seraph cast one anguished look at his dumpling and burst into tears. We

could hear his wails growing ever fainter as he plodded up the stairs.

"Mary Ellen, remove that dumpling!" commanded Mrs. Handsomebody.

Angel and I began to eat very fast. There was a short silence; then Mrs.

Handsomebody said didactically:

"The elder Mr. Pegg is a much travelled gentleman, and one of the most

noted archaeologists of the day. A trifle eccentric in his manner perhaps

but a deep thinker. David, can you tell me what an archaeologist is?"

"Something you pretend you are," said Angel, "and you ain't."

"Nonsense!" snapped Mrs. Handsomebody. "Look it up in your Johnson's when

you go upstairs, and let me know the result. I will excuse you now."

We found The Seraph lounging in a chair in the schoolroom.

"Too bad about the dumpling, old boy," I said consolingly.

"Oh, not too bad," he replied. "Mary Ellen fetched it up the backstairs to

me. I'm vewy full."

That afternoon we saw Captain Pegg go for a walk with his son and

daughter-in-law. He looked quite altered in a long grey coat and tall hat.

Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Pegg seemed proud to walk with him.

The following day was warm and sunny. When lessons were over we rushed to

our bedroom window and to our joy we found that the window opposite was

wide open, the wicker cage on the sill with the starling inside swelling up

and preening himself in the sunshine, while just beyond sat Captain Pegg

smoking a long pipe.

He seemed delighted to see us.

"Avast, my hearties!" he cried. "It's glorious sailing weather, but I've

just been lying at anchor here, on the chance of sighting you. It does my

heart good, y'see, to talk with some of my own kind, and leave off

pretending to be an archaeologist--to stretch my mental legs, as it were.

Well--have you taken your bearings this morning?"

"Captain Pegg," I broke out with my heart tripping against my blouse, "you

said something the other day about buried treasure. Did you really find

some? And would you mind telling us how you set about it?"

"Yes," he replied meditatively, "many a sack of treasure trove I've

unearthed--but the most curious find of all, I got without searching and

without blood being spilt. I was lying quiet those days, about forty years

ago, off the north of the Orkney islands. Well, one morning I took a fancy

to explore some of the outlying rocks and little islands dotted here and

there. So I started off in a yawl with four seamen to row me; and not

seeing much but barren rocks and stunted shrubs about, I bent over the

stern and stared into the sea. It was as clear as crystal.

"As we were passing through a narrow channel between two rock islands, I

bade the men rest on their oars, for something strange below had arrested

my attention. I now could see plainly, in the green depths, a Spanish

galleon, standing upright, held as in a vice, by the grip of the two great

rocks. She must have gone down with all hands, when the greater part of the

Spanish Armada was wrecked on the shores of Britain.

"'Shiver my timbers, lads,' I cried. 'Here'll be treasure in earnest! Back

to the ship for our diving suits--booty for everyone, and plum duff for

dinner!'

"Well, to make a long story short, I, and four of the trustiest of the

crew, put on our diving suits, and soon we were walking the slippery decks

once trodden by Spanish grandees and soldiers, and the scene of many a

bloody fight I'll be bound. Their skeletons lay about the deck, wrapped in

sea-tangle, and from every crevice of the galleon, tall, red, and green,

and yellow, and purple weeds had sprung, that waved and shivered with the

motion of the sea. Her decks were strewn with shells and sand, and in and

out of her rotted ribs frightened fish darted at our approach. It was a

gruesome sight.

"Three weeks we worked, carrying the treasure to our own ship, and I began

to feel as much at home under water as above it. At last we set sail

without mishap, and every man on board had his share and some of them gave

up pirating and settled down as inn-keepers and tradesmen."

As the sound of his deep voice ceased, we three were silent also, gazing

longingly into his eyes that were so like the sea.

Then--"Captain Pegg," said Angel, in a still, small voice, "I

don't--s'pose--you'd know of any hidden treasure hereabouts? We'd most

awfully like to find some. It'd be a jolly thing to write and tell father!"

A droll smile flickered over the bronzed features of Captain Pegg. He

brought down his fist on the window-sill.

"Well, if you aren't chaps after my own heart!" he cried. "Treasure about

here? I was just coming to that--and a most curious happening it is! There

was a cabin-boy--name of Jenks--a lad that I trusted and loved like my own

son, who stole the greater part of my share of the treasure, and, though I

scoured the globe for him--" the Captain's eyes rolled fiercely--"I found

neither trace of him nor the treasure, till two years ago. It was in

Madagascar that I received a message from a dying man, confessing that,

shaken by remorse, he had brought what was left of the plunder and buried

it in Mrs. Handsomebody's back yard!"

"Mrs. Handsomebody's back yard!" We chanted the words in utter amazement.

"Just that," affirmed Captain Pegg solemnly. "Jenks found out that I owned

the house next door but he dared not bury the treasure there because the

yard was smoothly sodded, and would show up any disturbance; while Mrs.

Handsomebody's yard, being covered with planks, was just the thing. So he

simply raised one of the planks, dug a hole, and deposited the sack

containing the last of the treasure, and wrote me his confession. And there

you are!"

He smiled benignly on us. I longed to hug him.

The March wind swooped and whistled down the alley, and the starling gave

little sharp twittering noises and cocked his head.

"When, oh when--" we burst out--"tonight? May we search for it tonight,

Captain Pegg?"

He reflected. "No-o. Not tonight. Jenks, you see, sent me a plan of the

yard with a cross to mark where the treasure lies, and I'll have to hunt it

up so as not to waste our time turning up the whole yard. But tomorrow

night--yes, tomorrow at midnight we'll start the search!"

V

At dinner that day the rice pudding had the flavor of ambrosia. By

nightfall preparations were already on foot.

Firstly the shovel had been smuggled from the coal cellar and secreted in a

corner of the yard behind the ash barrel together with an iron crowbar to

use as a lever and an empty sack to aid in the removal of the treasure.

I scarcely slept that night, and when I did my mind was filled with wild

imaginings. The next morning we were heedless scholars indeed, and at

dinner I ate so little that Mrs. Handsomebody was moved to remark jocularly

that somebody not a thousand miles away was shaping for a bilious bout.

At four o'clock Captain Pegg appeared at his window looking the picture of

cheerful confidence. He said it warmed his heart to be at his old

profession again, and indeed I never saw a merrier twinkle in any one's

eyes. He had found the plan of the yard sent by Jenks and he had no doubt

that we should soon be in possession of the Spanish treasure.

"But there's one thing, my lads;" he said solemnly, "I make no claim

whatever to any share in this booty. Let that be understood. Anything we

find is to be yours entirely. If I were to take any such goods into my

son's house, his wife would get suspicious, uncomfortable questions would

be asked, and it'd be all up with this archaeologist business."

"Couldn't you hide it under your bed?" I suggested.

"Oh, she'd be sure to find it," he replied sadly. "She's into everything.

And even if they didn't locate it till I am dead, they'd feel disgraced to

think their father had been a pirate. You'll have to take it."

We agreed, therefore, to ease him of the responsibility of his strangely

gotten gain. We then parted with the understanding that we were to meet him

in the passage between the two houses promptly at midnight, and that in the

meantime we were to preserve a calm and commonplace demeanour.

With the addition of four crullers and a slab of cold bread pudding filched

from the pantry, our preparations were now complete.

We were well disciplined little animals; we always went to bed without a

murmur, but on this night we literally flew there. The Seraph ended his

prayers with--"and for this piwate tweasure make us twuly thankful. Amen."

The next moment we had dived under the bed clothes and snuggled there in

wild expectancy.

From half past seven to twelve is a long stretch. The Seraph slept

peacefully. Angel or I rose every little while and struck a match to look

at the clock. At nine we were so hungry that we ate all four crullers. At

eleven we ate the slab of cold bread pudding. After that we talked less,

and I think Angel dozed, but I lay staring in the direction of the window,

watching for the brightness which would signify that Captain Pegg was astir

and had lighted his gas.

At last it came--a pale and trembling messenger, that showed our little

room to me in a new aspect--one of mystery and grotesque shadows.