Suddenly Tom made a discovery of a very unpleasant character. As he wandered about, he found himself, all at once, upon a regular carriage road. It was not a first-class road by any means, but it was a road for wheeled vehicles, and, from its appearance, was evidently in constant use. The sight of this created at once a deep disappointment, in which all the others shared as soon as they saw it. They found that the seclusion of the place was broken up. To dig for gold here, by the side of a public road, would be a difficult matter, and a very different thing from what they had at first supposed. So completely had their minds been impressed by the apparent seclusion of Deep Cove, that they had forgotten all about the houses and settlements which they had seen, only a short time before, on the outer coast. Yet these settlements were only a little distance away, and this was, no doubt, the road that joined them together, which had to make the circuit of Deep Cove, in order to effect a connection. The boys now seated themselves apart, out of hearing of Turnbull, in order to discuss the situation. “There can’t be any doubt,” said Tom, “that this is the mound made by the pirates to cover up their treasure. They didn’t dig a hole, but covered up the treasure by piling earth over it.” “That’s about it,” said ‘Phil; “and what’s more, I don’t believe that we’ll have to go very far down, either.” “I wonder if any one has ever tried it,” said Arthur. “I don’t believe it,” said Tom. “There isn’t the slightest mark on the place.” “But wouldn’t people have tried it, if it is really the place?” “Perhaps they don’t know the actual place; and we may be the first who ever suspected this mound. It isn’t impossible.” “No; it may be that the people here are too dull; or it may be just a happy guess of ours, which has never occurred to any one else.” “And this miserable road here,” said Tom, dolefully, “is going to spoil all.” “I wonder if we couldn’t manage to dig, in spite of the road.” “How?” “Why, we might stick up the sail of the Antelope, and make a big tent, and pretend to be fishing, or roughing it.” “Well, there may be something in that.” “Something! Of course there’s everything in that. I call it a good idea, and the only way we can go about it.” “But wouldn’t we be bothered with visitors?” “No; certainly not; or, at any rate, they couldn’t get in.” “They’d see the earth thrown up.” “O, we wouldn’t throw up much. I don’t believe we’d have to dig far, and we could put up both sails, so as to cover up everything. Some of us could watch, to give notice to the diggers to knock off in case any one passed by.” “Well, it’s not a bad idea; and it’s the only thing we can do. So it’s worth trying.” “Yes; but there’s one thing first.” “What’s that?” “Why, we’ll have to talk with the landlord, and see if we can find out from him what the probabilities are about this place being really the resort of the old buccaneers.” XII.