"They won't get me where I'm going in though," laughed Fred. "I'll be so close to sh.o.r.e that any shark would run aground trying to get at me."

"Let's all go in," exclaimed Grant. "We've got work to-day and if we are going swimming we'd better hurry."

"Ah mus' hab one o' dem teeth," said Sam, referring to the array in the ugly mouth of the great shark.

"What do you want one of them for?" asked George curiously.

"'Cause it am sho' to bring yo' luck."

"Then I want one too," cried George. "I want luck myself."

"Get us each one, will you, Sam!" exclaimed Fred. "We can at least wear them for watch fobs when we get home."

"They'll help us to find the gold maybe," suggested George.

"Don't worry about that," exclaimed John, confidently. "We'll find the gold all right and we don't need any shark teeth or anything else to help us, either."

"Well, I say we don't fool around here any more, but go and get the gold," said Fred. "All we've done so far is to talk about it."

A moment later they were all splashing around in the water enjoying their early morning swim. Soon afterward they returned to the cave, where they collected everything they had that might aid them in their search for the buried treasure. They spent but little time there, however, and then quickly started on their way towards the big black rock that was so strangely fashioned in the semblance of a shark. Never did a party start out more eagerly or with higher hopes than this little band of castaways on their search for buried wealth.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE SPOT IS MARKED

"You've got your compa.s.s, haven't you, Pop?" demanded Grant.

"Right in my hand," replied George, holding the precious article in question up to view.

"Does it work?" asked Fred, slyly.

"Of course it works," said George loftily. "Anything that I have is all right. You ought to know that by this time."

"If we didn't have so much work ahead of us this morning," said Fred, "I should suggest that we stop here for a minute and take the conceit out of him."

"Oh, Pop's all right," laughed Grant. "He just feels good to-day."

"Why didn't you bring your nice gentle little parrot along, Pop?"

inquired John. "He'd have enjoyed seeing his owner do some work."

"I was going to bring him," said George, "but look what he did to me,"

and he held up a bleeding finger. "That's his answer to my invitation to come along."

"Isn't he affectionate?" laughed John. "My, I wish I had a parrot."

"He'll be all right some day," said George seriously. "You see if he won't."

"I'm glad you're the trainer and not I, anyway," said John grimly.

Laughing and joking, bantering one another and full of spirits they soon came to their destination, and prepared to measure off the distances according to the code.

"Read what the code says first of all, Grant," exclaimed Fred. "That'll help us all to know just what we are to do."

"You ought to know it by heart now I should think," laughed Grant.

"Still, I'll read it if you say so."

"Go ahead, Grant," urged John, and once more they listened to the words that meant so much to every one of them.

"Take a course due north one hundred feet from the southern extremity of shark rock, then east fifty feet and north by east thirty-three. Dig."

"Dig," cried George. "That's the important word. Dig! Dig! Dig!"

"Wait a minute, Pop," exclaimed Grant. "We've got to find the place where we are to dig first, you know."

"All right," said George eagerly. "Here's the compa.s.s."

"Lay it flat out on the rock," directed Grant. "We'll take our first observation."

The little instrument was placed on top of the great rock while the five gold seekers crowded around it eagerly. The delicate indicator fluttered excitedly for some moments, then its fluctuations gradually became less and less. At last it stopped entirely, the tiny needle pointing exactly north.

"There we are," exclaimed George. "Now if we go directly opposite to the way that needle is pointing we'll find the southern extremity of this rock."

"That's what we want," cried Grant. "You walk down there, Fred."

Fred hastened to obey and soon stationed himself at the opposite end of the rock, which happened to be the tail of the shark.

"Get in direct line now," directed Grant.

"You'll have to tell me what that is," replied Fred. "I can't tell the exact spot, you know, from looking at it."

"That's right," agreed John, "and we don't want to make any mistake at the very beginning of our calculations. That would throw us 'way off later on."

"Take this stick," suggested George, bringing up a long thin shoot he had torn from one of the nearby bushes. "Lay it flat out on the rock and in a direct line with the needle. Be sure to get it exact and if we do we can easily enough find the 'southern extremity.'"

This was quickly done, and in a few moments the exact spot desired was located beyond the shadow of a doubt.

"Now," exclaimed Grant, "the next thing to do is to measure off a distance due north from here."

"Here's your tape measure," laughed John, offering his shoe to Grant.

"That's exactly ten inches long. I'll take my oath to that."

"Let's see," mused Grant. "We want to measure a hundred feet from here and the shoe is ten inches long. How are we going to figure that out?"

"That's easy enough," exclaimed John. "You do it this way: there are twelve inches in a foot, of course, and in one hundred feet there would be one hundred times twelve, or twelve hundred. Now the shoe is ten inches long, so you divide twelve hundred by ten, which is--"