Like most sudden tropical storms, it died down rapidly, and before long the island was bathed again in radiant moonlight, without a breath of air stirring. Only the thunder of the surf on the outer reef, and curious shallow cavities dug in the silvery sand by the whirling wind, remained to show how terrific had been the force of the storm. In places, whole stretches of beach had been scooped away, to be piled up farther on like drifts of snow. Dave and Tempest surveyed this strange effect of nature in her angriest mood. “Gee, but it is a wonder we came out of that alive!” said Tempest, thankfully. Dave did not answer for a moment. He was leaning forward a little, with his eyes fixed on an object which protruded through the sand in one of the excavations left by the gale far above high-water mark, at the edge of the trees. The object gleamed like a streak of silver in the moonlight. Prompted by curiosity, he stepped down toward it. An instant later he called to his friend, his voice sharp with restrained excitement: “Tempest! Come here! It’s――it’s a skeleton!” CHAPTER XXIV THE PRIZE IS WON “That’s queer!” Tempest exclaimed, coming to his side and prodding aimlessly into the bank of sand with his foot. “It must be some poor beggar who died here after the _Hatteras_ came to grief.” “Sure to be,” agreed the boy, quietly. “I wonder if he――if it happened when he was alone. Why, here’s a piece of timber――a beam!” He scooped the sand away with his hands, and revealed another beam running parallel with the first one. “It looks like a hut that has been covered over with sand,” said the boy. “That’s it, sure enough,” agreed Tempest. “I wonder how long this chap existed after he was marooned. Ugh! It’s gruesome. Let’s get back on board.” They found the _Nautilus_ had dragged her anchor in the storm and nearly been beached; but she was unharmed, and they soon had her back in her old moorings. Shortly after midnight the trio were asleep, with only the moon to watch peacefully over the dead, the living, and the scene of Tai-o-Vai’s unsolved mystery. Dave slept fitfully, however, the events of the last few days crowding into his brain every time he awoke. He tossed and turned in his narrow bunk, thinking of what might have been the fate of Flagg in the storm, wondering when he would set foot in Brooklyn again, guessing what secret the skeleton might reveal if it could but speak, and above all trying to imagine what could have happened to the treasure that had vanished from the _Hatteras_, for vanished it obviously had. At last, weary in mind and body, he dozed off, and did not awaken until broad daylight.