CHAPTER XXVI
BADLY FOOLED
Morton gravely extended his hand and Andy shook it.
"Let's see, now," said the town youth, pretending to be racking hismemory, "whereabouts could that money be hid? It's probably in some oldshack or cave somewhere. Say!" he shouted as though struck by an idea,"I'll wager I know the identical place where it's stowed away. Come tothink of it, I'm sure I do."
"Where? Where?" questioned Andy eagerly.
"Well, I know you're on the square and won't give me the double cross,"replied Morton, "so I don't mind telling you what I know.
"There was an old fellow partly tipsy one winter night, who told me along yarn about knowing where there was a mint of money hidden away. Ididn't pay any attention to him then, because I thought he was justraving, the way those people often do. But now I come to think of it, Iremember his speaking of an old hut that was almost buried in a sanddune close to the water. Let's see now, where is there an old shack thatanswers to that description?"
Morton pretended to meditate deeply, while Andy waited breathlessly forhim to continue.
"I have it!" exclaimed Morton abruptly. "It's the place old Totten usedto have on the beach just north of Bartanet. He kept very close tohimself, but he always seemed to have slathers of money. He died two orthree years ago, and since then the sand has nearly rolled over hisshack. I'll venture to say that if we dug there we'd find money enoughto make us both rich for the rest of our lives."
"By jinks! but I believe you're right," blurted out Andy with anavaricious glitter in his shifty eyes. "Let's go there to-night and seeif we can find it."
"Oh, we won't be able to go to-night," protested Morton. "We'll have toget picks and shovels, and we'll have to do it so quietly that nobodywill catch on. And I can't do it to-morrow night, either," he continued,as though just recalling something. "I've got an engagement that I can'tbreak. But I'll make it the night after that, if you're willing."
"Sure!" assented Andy. "That suits me fine."
But there was a reluctance to look into Morton's eyes as Andy spoke,that convinced the joker that his plans would work out as he expected.He knew Andy Shanks pretty well, and he was sure that Andy would notwait till the appointed time to hunt for the treasure. He guessed thatAndy would endeavor to cheat him out of his share of the fictitioustreasure by getting in before the time agreed upon. And he made nomistake in reckoning on the mean nature of Andy Shanks.
The two arranged the details of the expedition, such as securing shovelsand picks and candles. Then they parted, after Morton had exacted anoath of secrecy from the other.
The latter was no sooner left to himself, however, than he beganrevolving in his mind plans to outwit the friend, who, he thought, hadconfided in him so completely.
"It's a lucky thing for me," thought Andy, "that he can't be thereto-morrow night. I'll get a pick and shovel somewhere and beat him toit. If he's such a fool as to tell all he knows, he deserves to lose hisshare."
In the meantime, Morton was hugging himself in anticipation. He confidedthe matter to a few of his friends, who were delighted at the chance ofplaying a joke on Shanks, who was anything but popular in the town. Allvolunteered to help Morton, and having secured an old trunk, they armedthemselves with spades and sallied forth in the direction of Totten'sold shack.
After shoveling the sand away from before the door, they entered andstarted to "plant the treasure," as one of them expressed it. They dug ahole four feet deep and wide enough to contain the trunk. Then theyfilled the trunk with sand and lowered it into the excavation. Thisdone, they filled the hole up again, replaced the rotting boards thatformed the floor and surveyed the completed job with satisfaction.
"I guess that will keep him busy for a while," remarked Morton,"especially as he won't know where to look and will have to dig thewhole place up, more or less. It's going to be more fun than a circus."
"But we want to see him while he's at it," objected one of hisfollowers. "How are we going to manage it?"
"That's so," agreed Morton. "Guess we'll have to clear the sand awayfrom the little window there."
The lads set to work with a will and soon had enough of the sandshoveled away to permit a clear view of the interior of the shack. Thisaccomplished, they closed the door and heaped sand against it, leavingeverything as they had found it.
"Well," declared Morton, "that was considerable work, but it will beworth it. We'll hustle back to town now and tell the other fellows thateverything's all right. Then we'll have nothing to do but wait for thefun. I'm as sure as I am that I'm alive that that sneak will try tocircumvent me. I could see it in his eye."
Andy spent a restless night, his mind busied with plans to get the bestof Morton. He rose early the next morning and roamed restlessly abouttown. The great problem confronting him was how to get the pick andshovel without Morton's getting wind of it. He finally concluded that itwould be taking too much of a risk to buy the implements in the village,so he made a trip to a town five miles distant and got the necessarytools.
Night came at last, and the sneak sallied forth and set out for the oldcabin, the location of which Morton had been careful to give to him.Throwing down his tools, Andy carefully reconnoitred the surroundings.The jokers had done their work so carefully that he saw nothing amiss,and after satisfying himself that the coast was clear, he starteddigging in the sand in front of the door.
It did not take him long to gain an entrance, and after getting in helit two of his candles and took a careful survey of the surroundings.There was nothing in sight to give him a clue. The sole furnitureconsisted of an old table and a couple of rickety chairs.
Somewhat at a loss where to begin, Andy finally started sounding therough planking of the floor. When he came to the place where the plankshad been ripped up the preceding evening, he saw that they were looseand resolved to take a chance there. He removed the boards, took off hiscoat and began to dig in earnest.
He made rapid progress at first, but soon his muscles, flabby and unusedto such strenuous exercise, began to protest and he was forced to take abreathing spell.
Had he chanced to glance at the little window, his labors might havecome to a premature conclusion. Grouped outside were Morton and hisfriends, almost bursting with smothered laughter. The sight of Andy,whose antipathy to work was well known, sweating away over the hardestkind of labor, amused them immensely.
Wholly unconscious of the amusement he was providing, Andy resumed histask and worked with such good will that it was not long before hisspade struck on the edge of the buried trunk. He uttered a shout ofdelight and scattered the remaining sand in every direction. Before longhe had uncovered the top of the trunk. This he tried to lift out of thehole. Finding it too heavy for this, however, and not able to restrainhis impatience to see what it contained, he seized the pickax andsmashed in the top.
His chagrin may be imagined when instead of the treasure he expected hefound that the trunk was filled with sand. On top of this was a sheet ofpaper which Morton had placed there the previous evening. It containedone word done in heavy capitals:
_STUNG!_
For a few moments Andy gazed stupidly, unable for the time to understandthat he had been made the victim of a hoax. While this was slowlydawning upon him, the door burst open and, with a yell of laughter, thecrowd rushed into the hut.
Andy jumped as though he had been shot, and, scrambling out of the hole,stood with open mouth facing the laughing boys. His surprised anddiscomfited attitude was so ludicrous that their laughter increasedtenfold and they fairly shrieked.
"Wh-what's the big idea, anyway?" gasped Andy at last. "How did youfellows come to be here?"
"Well, you see," replied Morton, sobering down a little, "I counted onyour doing the crooked thing and I wasn't mistaken."
"I'll get even with you some day," growled Andy. "You think you'repretty smart, don't you?"
"Since you ask me, I must admit I cherish some such idea," admittedMorton, his eyes tw
inkling. "The fellows from the city don't always knoweverything, you understand."
"You'll live to be sorry for this trick," blustered Andy. "You just seeif you don't."
He made his way to the door and passed out amid another burst ofmerriment from those who had witnessed his discomfiture, leaving hisimplements lying where he had thrown them.
An account of the affair spread quickly over the village and life forAndy became so unbearable that before another twenty-four hours he leftthe town.
In the natural course of events the story came to the ears of the boysat the lighthouse.
"I'd have given something to be there," declared Bill. "It must havebeen worth a year's allowance to see his face when all those fellowsgave him the laugh. He thinks such a lot of himself that it must havebeen a bitter pill to swallow."
"Let alone his not finding what he went after," put in Fred. "It hit himin his pride and his pocketbook, and they're both sensitive spots withAndy."
"But how do you suppose he got wind of our being in search of treasure?"queried Teddy.
"I was wondering at that," replied Lester, "and the only way I couldfigure it out is that he must have followed us the day we were atBartanet, and heard what we were talking about when we were eating."
"Well," concluded Fred, "he couldn't have got anything of real valuefrom what we said, or he wouldn't have gone digging in old Totten'sshack. But it's up to us to put a padlock on our lips when there's anychance of being overheard. We may not be so lucky the next time."