Leopold immediately began to realize that he had no talent for concealment; that he was a sad bungler in the management of any business which was not open and above-board. This impertinent, disagreeable little coxcomb of a New Yorker, without a warning sound to announce his coming, had suddenly stepped between him and Stumpy, who held the hidden treasure in his hand. If there was any person in or about Rockhaven from whom he would have particularly desired to keep his secret, it was Mr. Charles Redmond, or any other person like him.

Both Leopold and Stumpy supposed the little New Yorker with the eye-glass was making himself as agreeable as he could to the young ladies on the cliffs above. It is true there was an[Pg 255] angle in the cliffs which concealed his approach from the eye, and the soft sand deadened the sound of footsteps to the ear; but both the money-digger and the clam-digger would have deemed it impossible for any one to come into their presence without being heard. But then both of them were absorbed in the unearthing of the treasure, and Leopold made so much noise with his shovel that the sound of Charley Redmond's approach, if there were any, could not be heard.

Leopold looked at Stumpy, and Stumpy looked at Leopold. The money-digger and the clam-digger realized that they were in a bad scrape. This little dandy in eye-glasses had certainly upset all Leopold's plans for the disposition of the gold.

"Halveses!" shouted Charley a second time, as he adjusted his eye-glasses, and fixed his gaze upon the wet shot-bag which contained the hidden treasure.

"I think not," added Leopold.

"No? When a fellow finds any money, the rule is to divy with all present," added Charley.[Pg 256]

"And for that reason you modestly ask for one half?"

"Well that's a conventional phrase, you see. Of course I meant shareses. I shall be quite satisfied with one-third; and that's the way to do the thing."

"Where did you come from? I thought you were on the cliff with the young ladies," asked Leopold.

"I was there; but it seems that I came down just in the nick of time," replied the little fop. "The fact is, I drank too much wine last night, and it makes me thirsty to-day. I was almost choked, and the ladies had seated themselves on a rock, to enjoy a view of the boundless ocean, you see; and it looked to me just as though they intended to stay there all day, you see. In the mean time I was suffering with thirst; but it wasn't polite, you see, for me to leave them. It isn't the way to do the thing, you see. I knew they wouldn't want me to leave them."

Leopold looked at Stumpy, and smiled significantly.
Stumpy with the Bag of Gold. Page 253. Stumpy with the Bag of Gold. Page 253.

[Pg 257]"My throat was as parched as though I had spent a month in the Desert of What-you-call-it, you see," continued Mr. Redmond. "I desired very much to come down to the boat and obtain a draught of cold water. I didn't expect to obtain a draft on a gold bank then—ha, ha! you see? Not bad—eh? Even a gentleman can't help making a pun sometimes, you see."

"Making a what?" asked Leopold.

"A pun—you see," laughed Mr. Redmond.

"Which was the pun?"

"Don't you see it? Why, a draught of water, and a draft on a gold bank. Ha, ha!"

"O, that was it—was it? I'm much obliged to you for telling me."

Of course Mr. Redmond hardly expected a "countryman" to appreciate his wit.

"I was suffering with thirst, you see," continued the fop.

"I think you said so before."

"I wanted to introduce the matter so as not to be abrupt; not to tear myself rudely away from the ladies, you see. We were gazing out upon the vast ocean, you see; and a quotation from the poet—ah—a doosed odd sort of a[Pg 258] thing, written by the poet—what's his name? you know—about an old salt that killed a wild goose, or some sort of a thing, and then had nothing to drink. I repeated the quotation, and both of the girls laughed: 'Water, water, all around, but not a drop of whiskey to drink.'"

"I don't wonder the girls laughed," replied Leopold.

"Why so?" asked Mr. Redmond, blankly.

"You didn't quote it just as the poet 'What-you-call-him' wrote it, Stumpy can give it to you correctly."

"'Water, water everywhere;
Not any drop to drink,'"

added Stumpy; "and Coleridge was the fellow that wrote it."

"Not correct," protested Mr. Redmond, emphatically. "Do you mean to tell me that an old salt thought of drinking water? It isn't the way old salts do that sort of thing, you see."

The coxcomb felt that he had the best of the argument, however astonished he was to find that these countrymen knew something about the poets.[Pg 259]

"I told the ladies that I felt just as that old salt did, only I would rather have water just then than whiskey, however good whiskey may be in its place, you see. From this it was quite easy to say that I was very thirsty; and I said so. Though Miss Hamilton did not wish me to leave her, you see, she was kind enough to tell me that I should find a spring of nice cold water under the cliff. I apologized for leaving the ladies, you see; but they were so self-sacrificing as to say that I needn't climb up the rocks to join them again; they would soon meet me on the beach. Isn't it strange how these girls will sometimes give up all their joys for a feller?"

"The girls must be miserable up there without you," added Leopold.

"The water was clear and cold, and it suited me better than the whiskey that old salt wanted in the poem. I found a tin cup at the spring, and I drank half a gallon. I was very thirsty, you see. While I was drinking, I heard you talking about the bag of gold; and then I stepped in here under this rock, just in the nick of time. Come, Stumpy, cut the string of the[Pg 260] bag, and let us divy before the ladies join us."

"Why should you want a share of it Mr. Redmond?" asked Leopold very much embarrassed by the situation. "You are the son of a rich man, and seem to have all the money you want."

"No, not at all. That isn't the way my governor does that sort of thing, you see. A year ago he used to do the handsome thing, and then I could give a champagne supper to my friends at Delmonico's. But one night, you see, I came home just a little elevated, you see; and when I went up to my bed, I had the misfortune to tumble down—it was quite accidental, you see—near the door of my governor's chamber. The patriarch came out. I was rather bewildered, you see, by my fall; and he had the impertinence to tell me I was intoxicated. After that he reduced my allowance of pocket money about one half, so that I have been short ever since, you see. Cruel—wasn't it? What would you say, Leopold, if your governor should tell you you were intoxicated?"

"If I had been drinking champagne, or any other kind of wine, I should believe he spoke the truth."[Pg 261]

"Nonsense! You see, I'm a two-bottle man, and I was only just a little heavy, you see. But we are wasting time. Let us proceed to business. I have told you just how this sort of thing ought to be done; and I ask only the fair thing, you see. How much is there in the bag?" added Mr. Redmond, extending his hand to Stumpy to take the treasure.

Stumpy did not respond to this application for the money. On the contrary, he handed it to Leopold.

"How much is there? Do you know?" repeated the fop.

"I do know: the bag contains twelve hundred dollars in gold," replied Leopold, as he dropped the four-pound bag into his trousers pocket, where it weighed heavily upon his starboard suspender.

"Bully for you, my countryman;" exclaimed Mr. Redmond. "Twelve hundred dollars in gold! that's four hundred apiece, you see; and I don't ask for more than my third. Four hundred in gold! And that's over eight hundred dollars in greenbacks at the present time! I can give a dozen champagne suppers on that, you see; and[Pg 262] when you fellows come to New York, I shall invite you to one of them, and tell my friends the romantic incident of the finding of the bag of gold."

"I don't believe that any of this money will be spent for champagne suppers—at least, not yet a while," replied Leopold.

"Aren't you going to divy?" demanded Mr. Redmond, looking as though he had regarded such a disposition of the treasure as a foregone conclusion.

"I am not going to divy."

"No? But that's mean you see."

"I don't see it."

"But it's the thing to do, when you find any money, you see."

"Do you think you had any share in finding it, Mr. Redmond?" asked Leopold, quietly, as he began to move towards the boat.

"I was looking on when you found it, Leopold; and it's the rule, you see, in such cases, to divy. I was here when you unearthed the thing."

"No, you were not," answered Leopold, decidedly. "I dug it before you came to Rockhaven."[Pg 263]

"I don't claim any share of it," Stumpy put in. "Le didn't find it by accident. No part of it belongs to me, and I don't ask for a dollar of the money."

"O, you don't!" exclaimed Mr. Redmond; "then Leopold and I will divy even, you see; half to each."

"We shall not divide at all," added the skipper of the Rosabel, who had by this time reached the flat rock where the sloop was made fast.

"See here, Leopold; do I understand you to say that you are going to keep the whole?" asked Charley Redmond, very seriously. "That would be mean, you see. It would be the way a swine would do that sort of thing."

"I don't intend to divide at all, or to keep it myself. It don't belong to me any more than it does to you," protested Leopold.