“Nope,” said Bob firmly.

“What’s the matter?  Sick?” asked Ted in surprise.

“No, but I’ve got to do some studying.”

“Studying?  Why, there’s only a little more school.”

“I don’t mean that kind of studying.  I’m learning the different parts of a ship, so I’ll know ’em when I get to sea.”

Ted had momentarily forgotten about Bob’s voyage.

“That’s so,” he said.  “You’ll be going away soon.  Say, we ought to have some fun before you go.”

“Guess I’ve played enough jokes for a while.”

“But we ought to have one more.  Come down to Mary Bounder’s.  Sam Shoop will go.  He’ll catch the cat.”

“Nope.  I’m going home.  I got a new book on sea terms, and I want to look at it.”

“All right.  Then Sam and I’ll go.  You’ll wish you’d come.  We’ll have some fun.”

But Bob could not be persuaded.  His mother and father noticed the change in him, and they were delighted.

“I believe we made no mistake when we consented to the captain’s plan,” said Mr. Henderson.

“If it will only last,” added his wife.

That day a letter came from Captain Spark saying he would be detained a few days longer and would not reach Moreville until Wednesday.

“The ship will sail the following Saturday,” he stated in his note.  “I could sail Friday, but I don’t want to take any chances.  Some of my sailors are superstitious, and I want them all to be in good humor.  I trust Bob has not changed his mind about going.”

“No indeed,” said the boy, when the letter was shown to him.

That afternoon as Bob was coming back from the store, he met, on the main street of the village, an old man who lived on the outskirts of the town.  His name was Captain Obediah Hickson and he had once been a sailor, though he told so many different versions of his life at sea, that it was hard to say where truth began and fiction left off.  Still he might not have meant to deceive any one, for he was rather simple-minded.

“What’s this I hear about you going to take a long sea voyage?” he asked of Bob.

“It’s true, Captain Obed,” which was what every one called the aged man.  “I’m going around Cape Horn with Captain Spark.  We start soon.”

“Around Cape Horn, eh?  Then you’ll strike the Southern Pacific.”

“I expect so.”

A curious change seemed to come over the old man.  He looked carefully up and down the street to see that no one was in sight, and then, approaching quite closely to Bob, he whispered: 

“Bob, come to my house to-night.”

“What for?”

“Hush!  Not so loud.  I’ve a great secret to disclose.”

“What about?” asked Bob with a smile, thinking to humor the old captain.

“About buried treasure.  It’s on a lonely island in the Southern Pacific Ocean.  I’m the only living man who knows where it is.  If I wasn’t so old I’d go along and help find it.  But I’m too old.  It needs some one young and strong.  You’ll dig it up for me, won’t you?”