Harry said, “Well, you can laugh——” Brent said, “I’m not laughing, I’m weeping and gnashing my teeth; that’s true sixteenth century stuff, isn’t it?” “Well, how do you explain the writing on that paper, then?” Harry wanted to know. “Sure, how do you explain it, then?” Westy piped up. “He _can’t_ explain it,” Tom Warner shouted. “Sure he can’t!” Pee-wee yelled. Brent said, “I seem to have an overwhelming minority.” Harry said, “You’re always shouting about real adventures, but when we stumble on the real thing, when we’re told on black and white to follow a line due north from willow—what does that say?” “It says _follow a line due north from willow_,” Brent said, all the while reading the paper. “It says _cons to the west_. It says _stake_; I don’t know whether it’s a porterhouse or a sirloin. It may be a Hamburger. It says by following the S line south we’ll come to the pie.” Harry jumped down and looked over Brent’s shoulder and he said, “What does it say about the treasure? We’ll find it at HW limit—there it is on black and white. Boys, we’ll get a map in Indianapolis and find out where Snake Creek is if we have to study that map all night. We’re on the track of pirates’ gold, by thunder! Here’s a _real adventure_ handed to us by fate! If old Grouch Gaylong isn’t with us, we’ll send him home in a baby carriage, that’s what!” Brent said—gee whiz, I had to laugh the way he said it; he said, “Comrades, I will follow where you lead. Take me to the treasure and I will dig it up. But if that scarecrow has deceived me, I will never trust man again. As a criminal I have been a failure. I wanted to escape from cruel jailers, I escaped from two boy scouts. I wanted to plunge from the window of a dry goods van. I wanted to kill a fellow being; I murdered a scarecrow. My life has been a failure.” Gee whiz; honest I almost felt sorry for him. He said, “But I have not lost hope. Boys, I will go with you. I will follow the line north from the willow. I will measure ninety-two feet along something-or-other. I will follow the S line south to the pie, be it pumpkin, apple or mince. I will eat the stake. But if I am deceived, if my hopes are again dashed——” “We’ll send you to the insane asylum,” Harry said; “that’s where you belong.” Brent said, “I have always longed to be thrown into a mad-house.” Gee whiz, you can’t help laughing at that fellow. CHAPTER XXXVIII—THE ONLY WAY The next afternoon we got to Indianapolis and Harry treated us all to sodas. Then we bought a map that showed the Ohio River. We made a camp about ten miles east of Indianapolis and had a dandy camp-fire. While we were there we studied the map and, good night, there was Snake Creek as plain as day running into it from the north. It ran into it about fifteen miles north of Wheeling. Harry said, “That’s enough for us; the treasure is ours.” Pee-wee said, “I’m sorry now we didn’t get some more sodas as long as we’re going to be rich.”