Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/259

 withdrew it, showing a small wavering line of brown upon the paper. Garth gave a triumphant shout.

"Splice my foretopmast stu'ns'l downhaul!" Jim remarked; "but something's happening!"

Garth flung an appreciative glance at Joan and leaned eagerly over his father's shoulder. The expenditure of seven or eight matches left the paper somewhat smoked, but bearing a perfectly visible map, traced in faint brown.

"There's your map, or I'm a lubber," said Jim. "Well, I'll be off, sirs, and leave you to decipher it. 'Tis drawed uncommon poorly," he added, looking at Joan.

"Have you ever tried to draw with inwisible ink?" she asked mildly. "Milk, mayhap, or such-like?"

"Look'ee here, sir," she said to Garth, when Jim had entered the lighthouse, "do you think likely this is meant for the bay wot the savages hereabout calls Pettasantuck?"

"Like enough," the Captain agreed, poring over the map; "but what for would be all these little dots, Ben?"

"This yere shoal, I takes it," Bobstay proposed; "and where the cross-mark is, there the treasure lies, I'll venture."