"Yes," agreed Grimshaw. "Ditty is playing a waiting game. So will we. An' we have the advantage." "I don't see that," Drew muttered. "Why, we know his plans. He don't know ours," explained the old man. "We haven't got to worry about them swabs till we've found the doubloons, anyway." "If we find 'em," murmured the captain. "By George! we're bound to find 'em," Tyke said, with confidence. "That's what we come down here for." His enthusiasm seemed unquenched. Drew could not lose heart when the old man was so hopefully determined. "But Miss Ruth?" Allen suggested timidly, looking at Captain Hamilton. "Don't bother about her," answered the captain shortly. "She'll not be out of my sight a minute. She must go ashore with us every day. I'll not trust her aboard alone with these scoundrels." They talked little more that night; but it was agreed to take all the firearms and much of the ammunition, disguised in wrappings of some kind, ashore with them in the morning and conceal all with the digging tools. "Jest as well to take them all along," Tyke had advised. "I hope we won't have to use 'em. But if we're going to take Rogers with us to-morrow and leave Ditty in charge here, the rascal might go nosing around an' find them guns." "I hate to leave Ditty in possession of the schooner," returned the captain, with a worried look. "So do I," admitted Tyke. "But after all, it isn't only the schooner he wants. She's no good to him until we git the treasure aboard. The only men it will be wise to take with us to-morrow are Rogers an' a boat's crew that you know you can trust." Immediately after breakfast the next morning the captain summoned the second officer. "I want you to take me ashore this morning, Mr. Rogers," he said; "and as I have a lot of heavy dunnage that the men will have to carry, I'll want a husky crew. Take six men; and I want you to take special pains in picking out the best men we have. Men whom we can trust and who haven't been mixed up with the whispering and the queer business that you mentioned." The second officer's eye flashed, and he nodded understandingly. "Aye, aye, sir," he replied. "As for the men, sir," he went on reflectively, "there's a dozen I could stake my life on who wouldn't be in any crooked game. Suppose," he counted off on his fingers, "we take Olsen and Binney and Barker and Dodd and Thompson and Willis. They're all true blue, and I don't think they're in such a funk over the volcano as some of the others." "They'll do," assented the captain. "They're the very men I had in mind. Call some of them down now and have them get this stuff up on deck. And tell the cook to send dinner grub along, for we may be gone all day." "Aye, aye, sir," answered Rogers, as he left the cabin. A little later the party gathered at the rail, and the captain spoke to the mate.