dollars, can remain covered. His letter to me had said, "for our
mutual benefit." I became respectful and polite, I might even say
abject. After all, the ties that bind us in those dear old college
days are not lightly to be disregarded.

"If I can be of any service to you, Edgar, old man," I assured him
heartily, "if I can help you find it, you know I shall be only too
happy." With regret I observed that my generous offer did not seem
to deeply move him.

"I came to you in this matter," he continued stiffly, "because you
seemed to be the sort of person who would be interested in a search
for buried treasure."

"I am," I exclaimed. "Always have been."

"Have you," he demanded searchingly, "any practical experience?"

I tried to appear at ease; but I knew then just how the man who
applies to look after your furnace feels, when you ask him if he
can also run a sixty horse-power dynamo.

"I have never actually FOUND any buried treasure," I admitted; "but
I know where lots of it is, and I know just how to go after it." I
endeavored to dazzle him with expert knowledge.

"Of course," I went on airily, "I am familiar with all the
expeditions that have tried for the one on Cocos Island, and I know
all about the Peruvian treasure on Trinidad, and the lost treasures
of Jalisco near Guadalajara, and the sunken galleon on the Grand