Chapter XXV: The Lost Treasure

Such good news hardly seemed true.

“Are you sure it is our ship?” Mrs. Brown asked her husband. “We were fooled the other time by a sea gull. I don’t want to be disappointed again.”

“This surely is a steamer,” said Sam Trend. “I can see her smoke.”

“Yes, that must be the _Beacon_,” said Mr. Brown. “I wonder what happened to her that she stayed away so long.”

“We’ll soon know,” returned his wife, her eyes shining with happiness. Though it was very lovely on Cocoanut Island, now that the wild man was caught, she did not want to stay there any longer.

Nearer and nearer came the vessel, appearing to get larger each minute.

Bunny and Sue ran up and down the sand in delight while their mother, their father, the two sailors and Harry Pott looked with eager eyes over the stretch of water.

“Hope she doesn’t come so close she gets on the sand-bar again, Will,” murmured Sam to his mate.

“That’s right,” agreed the other. “But I guess Captain Ward will be careful. We wouldn’t have gone on at first if it hadn’t been for the fog at night.”

A few minutes later loud whistles broke out from the ship to let the castaways know she was coming to rescue them.

“That’s the _Beacon_ all right!” cried Sam. “I know her tooting. First I thought it might be some other steamer she was sending after us. But she’s the _Beacon_!”

So it proved. A little later a boat put off from the anchored ship which came to a stop a safe distance away from the island and the sand-bar. Those on the _Beacon_ did not wait for the castaways on the island to launch the boat they had.

In the craft that put off from the ship was Captain Ward and some of his sailors. Running up the beach to where Mr. and Mrs. Brown stood with the children and the others and holding out his hands, the commander cried:

“Oh, I’m so sorry this happened and that you were left behind! It was all due to an accident and because I was hurt. We never would have gone away and left you except for that!”

“We knew it was an accident,” said Mr. Brown. “And, really, we have had a very good time here. We have an extra passenger for you to take back if you will,” and he motioned to Harry Pott.

“A regular castaway, I take it,” said the captain.

“Yes, I’ve been here nearly a year,” said Harry Pott.

“But what happened to the _Beacon_?” asked Mrs. Brown.

“Several things happened,” explained Captain Ward. “In the first place, her steering gear was damaged in the hurricane and also when we ran on the sand-bar, but we didn’t know that. Everything seemed to be all right when you folks went ashore, and then we waited until high tide and started to pull the ship off the bar.

“We managed that part all right and were backing away when we found the steering gear wouldn’t work after we had turned the ship about to head away from the island. But even that would have been all right had it not been that while I was giving orders something fell from up above and hit me and my first mate on our heads. We were knocked unconscious and remained so for a long time.

“This made so much excitement on the ship, together with the breaking of the rudder, that no one thought anything about you folks left on the island. In fact, very few of those on board knew you had gone off for a little picnic, though I knew and so did my mate. But we were both unconscious.

“Well, while I was lying in this state in my berth, the second mate, knowing nothing about you folks left here, kept the ship steaming away. She could move straight ahead, but could not turn about. And the second mate wanted to get as far away as possible from the dangerous sand-bar. So he went for many miles before dropping anchor.

“And there we were, disabled, many miles away from the island, and here you were, marooned. I tell you I felt mighty sorry about it when I came to and asked about you,” said Captain Ward. “And when I found you hadn’t come back on board and no one had gone after you, I was nearly wild with worry.

“I wanted to put back and take you off at once. But, to add to our troubles, when we got the steering gear fixed the engines got out of order and we couldn’t move at all.

“Of course the engineers worked as hard as they could to make repairs, and it was only a little while ago that we could turn around and come back to get you. All the while the machinery was being fixed I had a man on a lookout for some other ship to send to rescue you, but we saw none. Our wireless was out of order, so we couldn’t radio about you to any other ship. But as soon as we got things fixed up we came back in a hurry, and here we are!”

“We’re glad to see you,” laughed Mr. Brown. “Really, we haven’t been so badly off. We have had a good shelter and plenty to eat.”

“But we were all excited about the wild man,” said Bunny.

“And we caught him—Bunny and I!” put in Sue.

“Wild man?” asked Captain Ward.

“I guess they called me that,” said Harry Pott. And then he told his story—how he had been shipwrecked with the _Mary Bell_. “My father and I were on board,” explained the long-haired sailor, “when we ran into the big storm. I had been sick for some time and couldn’t do much. My father tried to save me when the ship broke up, but we got separated. He managed to get in a boat, but I couldn’t. I clung to part of the wreckage and got ashore.”

“Didn’t you save the treasure?” asked Bunny Brown.

“What’s this about treasure?” asked Harry Pott. “I never had any, and my father didn’t either, that I know of.”

They told the son what Mr. Pott had raved about in the hospital. Then a look of remembrance came over Harry Pott’s face.

“Oh, I recall now that when my father went off in the lifeboat he called to me about saving the treasure,” he said.

“But what was the treasure?” asked Mr. Brown.

“It must have been something in my father’s sea chest,” said the castaway sailor. “I know he kept very close watch over it and more than once he said to me it contained something valuable. But I was too sick to pay much attention.”

“Then is the treasure lost?” asked Mrs. Brown.

“Well, my father’s chest came ashore with some other stuff,” said Harry Pott. “It’s in the deckhouse now. I’ve never opened it. I was too sad and miserable here, a castaway all by myself.”

“Well, if there’s a treasure here we don’t want to leave it behind,” said Mr. Brown. “Your father seemed very anxious about it, Harry. Let’s have a look at it.”

When they reached the deckhouse a little later and opened Mr. Philip Pott’s chest, the treasure was found to be a lot of old-fashioned silver dishes—a teapot, a sugar bowl, a coffee urn, and such things as that.

“Oh, what wonderful silver!” cried Mrs. Brown when she saw it. “That is, indeed, a treasure! Where did it come from?”

“That silver has been in our family a long time,” said Harry. “Just before my father and I sailed together on the _Mary Bell_ an old aunt of father’s died and gave us this silver. I didn’t think much about it, and I didn’t know my father called it his treasure until you people mentioned it. I don’t believe it’s worth much—old silver like that.”

“Oh, indeed, it is worth a lot of money!” said Mrs. Brown. “It is very beautiful and old. Dealers will give a lot for that.”

“Well, we’ll have it put on board the _Beacon_ and kept safely for Mr. Pott,” said Captain Ward. “And now I think we had better get back to the ship, for there may be another storm or a fog and I don’t want to get caught on the sand-bar again.”

A little later the castaways, including Harry Pott and his chest of silver, were rowed out to the _Beacon_ and soon the vessel was steaming on her way again.

“Good-by, Cocoanut Island!” called Sue, waving her hands over the rail to the place where they had had so many strange adventures.

“Good-by!” echoed Bunny Brown. “Now we’re on the rolling ocean again!”

Mr. Harry Pott was well taken care of on board the steamer. His hair and beard were trimmed and he was given some clothes to replace the ones made ragged by his lonely life of a year on the island.

“Now I feel better,” he said. “And when I get to my father I shall be very happy.”

“And he’ll be glad to see you and the treasure,” said Bunny.

As the _Beacon_ still had many miles of travel before her and as Harry Pott was anxious to get back to see his father, the ship stopped at the nearest port and the castaway and his chest of silver went ashore, to take passage in another steamer that would carry him back to Philadelphia. From there he could go by train to Bellemere. This he did, as Bunny and Sue learned a few weeks later.

The Browns remained on board the _Beacon_ and went to the West Indies, where they had a wonderful time and many strange adventures of which I have not room in this book to tell you.

At last Bunny and Sue reached home again, off the rolling ocean, and among the first to greet them was Harry Pott and his father. Mr. Pott had been cured in the hospital and was quite well again.

“And I’m never going to ride any more horses!” he said.

“Did you get the treasure all right?” Bunny wanted to know.

“Indeed I did!” cried Mr. Pott. “And if it hadn’t been that you children teased to go ashore on the island, perhaps I never would have found it, nor Harry either.”

“Oh, oh!” exclaimed Sue. “Then Bunny and I found your treasure for you, didn’t we, Mr. Pott?”

“That’s what you did, little girl.”

“And his son Harry, too,” added Bunny. “Don’t forget, Sue, that we found the wild man, and that the wild man isn’t a wild man any more but is Mr. Pott’s son Harry.”

As Mrs. Brown had thought, the old silver was valuable, and while the fortune was not a very large one, the pieces were sold for enough to satisfy Mr. Pott. He and his son remained in Bellemere some time before again taking passage as sailors.

So all ended happily, for which Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were very glad.

“Next year maybe we’ll have some more adventures,” said Bunny.

“I hope we do,” said Sue.

THE END

_This Isn’t All!_

Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in this book?

Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author?

On the _reverse side_ of the wrapper which comes with this book, you will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same store where you got this book.

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BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA’S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP-REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU’S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
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These books for boys and girls between the ages of three and ten stands among children and their parents of this generation where the books of Louisa May Alcott stood in former days. The haps and mishaps of this inimitable pair of twins, their many adventures and experiences are a source of keen delight to imaginative children everywhere.

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