There was a pause and my hand went to my revolver. If the suggestion should take root, would they not at once search the galley? "He'd a mind to get the lot, that was his game," said the captain. They went on deck, we could hear them stamping about overhead. Then came an oath, and a quick movement. I thought they were coming down again, but a moment later there was the soft swish of oars, followed by silence. "Carefully!" said Quarles, as I fumbled at the galley door. "One of them may have remained to shoot us from the top of the companion." He was wrong, but it was more than probable that such an idea had occurred to them. They had discovered our dinghy! It had been cut adrift, and the scoundrels had escaped, leaving us isolated on the yacht. I snapped out a good round oath. "Can you swim, Wigan?" asked the professor. At full tide the creek was wide, and the sullen, rushing water had a hungry and cruel sound. "Not well enough to venture here, and in the dark," I said. "And I cannot swim at all," said Quarles. "We are caught until morning and low-water. It's cold, and beginning to rain. With all its defects I prefer the cabin." He went below and declared that he must get a little sleep. Whether he did or not, I cannot say; I know that I never felt less inclined to close my eyes. We had been trapped, that made me mad; and I could not forget our gruesome companion behind the door of the aft cabin. There was a glimmer of daylight when Quarles moved. "This is nearly as good a place to think in as my empty room at Chelsea, Wigan. What do you make of the mystery?" "A trio of villains after buried treasure." "Which they could not find; and two of them are scuttling away to save their necks." "So you think the dead man yonder fooled them?" "No. I think there is some flaw in the conundrum. By the way, why is a golf course called links?" "It's a Scotch word for a sandy tract near the sea, isn't it?" "But to an untutored mind, Wigan, especially if it were not Scotch, there might be another meaning, one based on number, for instance. As a chain consists of links, so a golf course, which has eighteen links. It is a possible view, eh?" "Perhaps." "I see they have taken the paper," said Quarles; "but I dare say you remember the wording. S. B., that means south bank; N. B., north bank. I have no doubt there is a pile with a chain on it, whether with nine or ninety links does not matter. It was on the green of the ninth hole that the man was practicing. For the word "link" substitute "hole," and you get a particular pile connected with the ninth hole, which, of course, has a flag, and so we get a particular direction indicated. From the high-water line of mud on the north bank we continue this ascertained direction for ninety feet, and then we dig down four feet." "And find nothing," I said.