"If you are not prosperous, if you fall sick and need a home and a friend, come back then. Don't forget your old friend Joe Marks." "I won't, Joe," said Ernest heartily. "You've got another friend here, Ernest," added Luke Robbins. "I'm a poor man, and my friendship isn't worth much, but you have it, all the same." Ernest grasped the hands of both. He felt that each was a friend worth having. "You may be sure that I won't forget either of you," he said. "When do you expect to go, Ernest, and where?" asked Joe Marks. "I shall get away to-morrow, I think, but where I shall go I can't tell yet." "Do you need any money?" "No; my uncle left me some." Ernest had not yet secured the gold, but he knew exactly where it was, and now that all his business was ended he felt that it was time to possess himself of it. Accordingly, he took a spade from the house, and bent his steps in the direction of the old oak tree. He went alone, for he thought it best not to take anyone into his confidence. Arrived at the tree, Ernest measured off five feet in the direction mentioned by Peter and began to dig. It did not take him long to reach the box, for it was only a foot beneath the surface of the ground. It proved to be a cigar box, for Peter was fond of smoking, though he usually smoked a pipe. Ernest lifted the lid, and saw a small roll inclosed in brown wrapping paper, which on being removed revealed twenty five-dollar gold pieces. He regarded them with satisfaction, for they afforded him the means of leaving Oak Forks and going into the great world which he had such a curiosity to enter. Hidden behind a tree only a few feet away was Tom Burns, the tramp and vagabond. He had come from Daneboro, and was prowling round the neighborhood searching for old Peter's hidden treasure. He had deliberated as to whether the cabin or the fields was the more likely place to have been selected. He had nothing in particular to guide him. He did not, however, venture to approach the house just yet, as it would probably be occupied by Ernest. "I wish I knowed where the old man hid his boodle," muttered Tom. "I can't dig all over." In fact, digging was not in Tom's line. It was too much like work, and if there was anything to which Tom was bitterly opposed it was work of any kind. "The boy must know. Likely the old man told him," he finally concluded. "I'll watch the boy." He therefore lost no time in prowling around the cabin, with the especial object of watching Ernest's movements. He was especially favored, as he thought, when from a distance he saw Ernest leaving the cabin with the spade in his hand. The tramp's heart was filled with joy. "He is going to dig for the treasure," he said. "I'll keep him in sight." Tom Burns had no difficulty in doing this, for Ernest bent his steps in his direction. "I hope he won't discover me," thought Burns; "at any rate not till I find out where he's going to dig."