"Now," said he, greeting me, "this is the joyful day, Lieutenant Crafer; I do indeed rejoice to see you back safe and sound, and so will Phips. He is hard by--he shall be sent for." Whereon he ordered a man to go to the lodgings and to tell Sir William Phips that Lieutenant Crafer was gotten home safe and sound. "Sir William Phips!" I exclaimed. "Sir William! So! has he come to such honour as that?" "He hath, indeed," laughed the Duke, who seemed more jolly now than when we went out with the _Furie_--perhaps his new appointment making him so--"he hath, indeed. The King seemed so well pleased with his tenth that he insisted on knighting our friend, and hath even silenced those wretches of the city who say that--that Phips, and--well, no matter." "What do they say, my Lord Duke?" I asked, though I could very well guess. "Oh! 'tis nothing, a trifle! and, since neither the King nor I believe it, not to be considered." "I can imagine what they say, your Grace," I exclaimed. "It is that we have feathered a nest somewhere--that all has not been brought home that was found. Yet, 'tis not true----" "Tush, man, tush!" interrupted the Duke. "Who shall think it is?" "It is not true," I went on. "Every farthing's worth Phips got he brought home, I will swear--while as for what Alderly stole from the plate ship, why, they sunk it when we boarded them." "Man alive!" exclaimed the Duke, "who doubts it? I do not, who am the chief concerned, nor will the King hear a word. See, here is a testimony I mean to give to Phips. A gold cup I have had made out of a thousand pounds' worth of the treasure. 'Tis for his wife in Boston, now Lady Phips, to whom he hath sent out instructions to buy a fine brick house to live in. For, you must know, the King hath promised him the Governorship of Massachusetts as soon as it falls vacant, when he will be settled for life." I regarded the cup, very costly and beautiful, engraved, "From Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, to his trusty friend, Sir William Phips," while the Duke bade his servant bring us a tankard, and at that moment in came Sir William himself hot haste to see me. * * * * * * "No," he said to me that night, as we sat at wine in his lodgings hard by the Strand, "no, Nick, that hidden treasure is yours, and yours alone. It belongs not to our providers here, nor does any share pertain to me. You it was who found it, you it was who had all the risk in going to find it. It shall be yours and yours only, since none other of the galliot's crew are now in existence. Only," he went on, "as now you are provided for, I would leave it there awhile. Say, for another generation. For if you go and dig it up now, then will the merchants say that they spoke truly when they accused us of robbing them."