Young Hunters in Porto Rico; or, The Search for a Lost Treasure

Dick felt his heart sink within him. Farvel was in an exceedingly ugly mood, and looked as if he fully intended to let the youth suffer as he had intimated.

"You rascal! What is the meaning of this?"

The words were spoken in English, and caused Joseph Farvel to jump as though he had been shot. Turning, he saw himself confronted by several gentlemen, one of whom carried a pistol.

"Mr. Grey!" gasped Dick—as he recognized the gentleman Bob had brought to the Dashaway, while taking on stores at St. Augustine—"Help me, please!"

"Why, is it possible!" ejaculated the merchant. "You are—er—the young man from that yacht, are you not?"

"Yes, sir."

"And who is this—this villain?"

"An Englishman, who has tried to do our party a great deal of injury. He claims that a treasure that we have been hunting for belongs to him."

"That is no reason why he should treat you in this fashion. Stand where you are, sir, while I release the youth."

Several of the party sprang to Dick's side and one cut the vines. Then Garrison Grey turned to collar Joseph Farvel.

But the rascal realized the position he was in, and not wishing to serve a term in prison, he dashed away, straight for the jungle.

Dick went after him and called upon Mr. Grey to do the same, and soon the entire party of newcomers were in the chase.

More alarmed than ever, Joseph Farvel turned from the jungle toward a high bank overlooking the valley.

He was not careful of his footsteps, and of a sudden he plunged into a rocky gully all of fifty feet deep.

He turned over twice in his fall and then landed on his chest and shoulder. When the party got to where he was lying, they found him unconscious.

The newcomers were all Americans, out sight-seeing, and one of them was a well-known physician of Philadelphia.

"What do you think of this case, Doctor Carey?" asked Mr. Grey, while Dick looked on with interest.

"He has his shoulder broken and also several ribs," replied the physician, after a thorough examination. "Luckily for him, I doubt if there are any internal injuries."

While the physician set to work to make Joseph Farvel as easy as circumstances permitted, the others turned to Dick and made him relate his tale, the boy only omitting the interesting detail that the treasure had been found.

"I've heard of these treasures, in Ponce," said the coffee trader. "They will belong to anybody who finds them. The smuggler who placed them there left no heirs."

Dick thought Joseph Farvel had suffered enough for his misdeeds, and decided to let the man go his own way—which was not saving much, as he had to be conveyed by litter to a wretched little hospital at Caguas.

Here the man laid on a sick bed for nearly four months, when he made his way to Ponce, on money furnished by Robert Menden. Menden likewise furnished Farvel with money to take him back to England, where he remained a sadder and, probably, a wiser man. The members of the Gun and Sled Club never heard of him again. "And we never wanted to," said Bob, in telling of the circumstance.

Garrison Grey's party had met old Jacob and the others on the road, and they directed Dick to his friends' camp. The owner of the Dashaway was hailed as one from the tomb.

"The Lord be praised!" cried old Jacob, as he embraced the lad; and then the others joined in, until happy Dick was almost hugged to death. Danny danced an Irish jig for joy, and prepared such a spread as none of the party had eaten since leaving the yacht.

It was decided by all hands, now that the treasure was found, to go back to the Dashaway without delay; and inside of twenty-four hours they were on the way to Caguas. Here Robert Menden paid a short visit to Joseph Farvel; but what passed between the pair never came to light, excepting that Menden gave the man the money mentioned. "Poor beggar; I couldn't do less," was all Menden would say.

At Caguas the party hired a native carriage, and with the treasure divided between them, set off on the ride to San Juan. All were armed, and a strict watch was kept for brigands; but Bumbum had learned a lesson and did not appear, nor did any others of his calling put in an appearance.

At San Juan the Dashaway was found just as they had left her, and it was with a long sigh of relief that Dick and the others boarded the craft, followed by the ever-faithful Dash. At once the man who had had charge of the craft was paid off, and stores sufficient to last them for a trip to the United States were taken on board.

It was decided to run directly for Savannah, and they dropped out of the harbor of San Juan one bright morning when nature seemed to be at its loveliest. The sun was shining brightly, the sea was almost as smooth as glass, and scarcely a cloud dotted the deep blue sky.

"Good-bye to Porto Rico!" cried Bob, swinging his cap in the air. And all of the others echoed the words. Then they sped on their course, and before night, town and coastline had faded far away in the distance.

It must not be imagined that the return to the States was made without incident. As in coming, they encountered a severe storm, and once came very close to drifting on the rocks in a calm, when the anchor was lost and not recovered.

But taken all in all, the voyage was a happy one. On the first days out they tried to count up the value of the treasure. But this was impossible, as they had no idea what the precious stones would bring in.

"I believe the gold is worth all of twenty thousand dollars," said Robert Menden. "Perhaps the stones are worth as much more."

"That will be forty thousand dollars," replied Leander. "Quite a haul, eh?" and he winked his eye joyfully.

They were in the best of spirits, and when Danny was not working, he was dancing, or singing or whistling at the top of his lung power. "We'll be millionaires, dat's wot!" he was wont to say, to anybody who would listen to him. He intended to give nearly all of his share to his mother—a poor widow, who took in washing for a living. "It will most strike her dead; I know it will!" he whispered one day to Don.

But all voyages must come to an end, and one morning old Jacob electrified everybody by announcing that land was in sight. Before night they entered the harbor of Savannah.

It was Robert Menden, old Jacob and Bob, who took the gold to one of the banks and got a receipt for it. Carefully weighed, the treasure proved to be worth twenty-two thousand and three hundred dollars.

Then the stones were taken to a reliable jewelry firm, sorted and tested. Their value brought the total amount of the treasure to a little over fifty thousand dollars.

Of this, Robert Menden insisted upon keeping only one-half. The other twenty-five thousand was placed to Dick's credit. Of this amount the members of the Gun and Sled Club divided five thousand equally between old Jacob and Danny, and kept the twenty thousand for themselves—Dick, Don, Bob and Leander to share and share alike.

The good news was sent ahead by mail, and created a veritable sensation in Waterford. Poor Mrs. Guirk could not believe her good fortune, and shed tears of joy when Squire Hobart read to her the letter Danny had managed to pen, with Bob's aid.

"Sure an' it's a blessing from Heaven, Squire," said she. "Danny's a good b'y, but I niver expected this of him, never!" And she wiped her tears away with her apron.

When the Dashaway arrived at home the boys found the water-front of the town decorated in their honor. A grand feast was had at the home of Dick Wilbur, and here their various adventures had to be told again and again, for the benefit of the club members' parents, and their numerous friends. It was a jolly time and one never to be forgotten; and here we will leave them, satisfied that, no matter what adventures they may have in the future, they will never have any more thrilling than those encountered while treasure-hunting in Porto Rico.

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