"All shipshape, boys? Good! Reckon I'll let one of you steer awhile, and hit my bunk for an hour or two. There'll be wind out'n the sou'east, later on; and then I'll take charge again. All you've got to do now is to turn her around, with her nose pointin' yonder,"---he waved a hand toward the distant Sanibel Islands that stretch along the coast south of Charlotte Harbor,---"and take 'vantage of every puff of wind that you can use for tackin'. Understand?" They signified their readiness to manage the sloop, once she had gone well beyond any reefs or bars, and they drew lots to see who should be first to take the captain's place while he rested. The draw, fell to Chester and he took charge of the helm. Alec came next, then Billy took his turn, and finally Hugh. While one steered, the others kept a look-out for the erratic _Esperanza_, thinking it might again appear from some unexpected quarter. Mark and Roy Norton lounged in the bow and lazily swapped fishing stories, not at all averse to leaving the work to the rest. With the departure of the _Petrel_ on her return to the waters near Snipe Point, and with a barely-perceptible rise of wind, the sloop _Arrow_ laid a zigzag course toward the Ten Thousand Islands and came abreast of them about five o'clock. Beyond a broad inlet that led into the bay, a white sand beach, sparsely overgrown with crabgrass and waving palmettos, indicated to Dave that they were near one of his old camping places. He called Captain Vinton's attention to it, hinting that it would be a good place to spend the night. "Why not aboard the sloop?" queried Vinton, though he knew perfectly well that Dave would seek any excuse to stretch his unseaworthy limbs on _terra firma_ in preference to tossing on the bosom of old ocean. "Bad weather comin',---windy to-night," said the Seminole prophet, pointing to a bank of jagged slaty-gray clouds that was rising in the west over the gulf. "Reckon you're right, Dave. If that brings half the wind its looks promise, I'd ruther have these keys between it and us---eh? There's anuther squall brewin' out yonder. Come on, let's go ashore, lads." Making in shoreward, the _Arrow_ presently cast anchor off a shallow cove "inside" the nearest bar. All five boys got into the sloop's dory, and after landing the others on the beach, Hugh rowed back to the sloop to bring the captain, Norton and the guide ashore. When they landed, they discovered Billy and Alec, Chester and Mark engaged in examining a big battered tin box, locked, with its cover sealed up with black sealing wax, which they had found half buried in the sand. "What is it? What have you got there?" Hugh asked quickly, running forward. "It looks like part of Captain Kidd's buried treasure!" said Billy, whose eyes were sparkling with anticipation. "Nothing of the sort!" declared matter-of-fact Chester. "It's probably a lot of old maps and charts." "Let's open it and see," was Alec's advice.