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!"
[39]
