flat, and the jolt of the surface cars, I asked humbly:

"Is that ALL I get?"

"Why should you expect any more?" demanded Edgar. "It isn't YOUR
treasure. You wouldn't expect me to make you a present of an
interest in my mills; why should you get a share of my treasure?"
He gazed at me reproachfully. "I thought you'd be pleased," he
said. " It must be hard to think of things to write about, and I'm
giving you a subject for nothing. I thought," he remonstrated,
"you'd jump at the chance. It isn't every day a man can dig for
buried treasure."

"That's all right," I said. "Perhaps I appreciate that quite as
well as you do. But my time has a certain small value, and I can't
leave my work just for excitement. We may be weeks, months---- How
long do you think we----"

Behind his eye-glasses Edgar winked reprovingly.

"That is a leading question," he said. "I will pay all your
legitimate expenses--transportation, food, lodging. It won't cost
you a cent. And you write the story--with my name left out," he
added hastily; "it would hurt my standing in the trade," he
explained-- "and get paid for it."

I saw a sea voyage at Edgar's expense. I saw palm leaves, coral
reefs. I felt my muscles aching and the sweat run from my neck and
shoulders as I drove my pick into the chest of gold.