myself, as the joint heads of the Harding-Browne expedition, are inclined to think no more than the reward which is your due.  We suggest, therefore, a simple way out of the difficulty, Mr. Dugald Shaw was engaged on liberal terms to find the treasure.  He has not found the treasure.  He has not found the slightest clue to its present whereabouts.  Mr. Tubbs, on the contrary, has found a clue.  It is a clue of the first importance.  It is equivalent almost to the actual discovery of the chest.  Therefore let Mr. Shaw, convinced I am sure by this calm presentation of the matter of the justice of such a course, resign his claim to a fourth share of the treasure in favor of Mr. Hamilton H. Tubbs, and agree to receive instead the former allotment of Mr. Tubbs, namely, one-sixteenth.”

Having offered this remarkable suggestion, Miss Browne folded her arms and waited for it to bear fruit.

It did—­in the enthusiastic response of Mr. Tubbs.  Having already played his highest trump and missed the trick, he now found himself with an entirely fresh hand dealt to him by the obliging Miss Higglesby-Browne.  The care in his countenance yielded to beaming smiles.

“Well, well!” he exclaimed.  “To think of your takin’ old H. H. that literal!  O’ course, havin’ formed my habits in the financial centers of the country, I named a stiff price at first—­a stiff price, I won’t deny.  But that’s jest the leetle way of a man used to handlin’ large affairs—­nothin’ else to it, I do assure you.  The Old Man himself used to say, ’There’s old H. H.—­you’d think he’d eat the paint off a house, he’ll show up that graspin’ in a deal.  And all the time it’s jest love of the game.  Let him know he’s goin’ to win out, and bless you, old H. H. will swing right round and fair force the profits on the other party.  H. H. is slicker than soap to handle, if only you handle him right.’  Can I say without hard feelin’s that jest now H. H. was not handled right?  Instead o’ bein’ joshed with, as he looked for, he was took up short, and even them which he might have expected to show confidence”—­here Mr. Tubbs cast a reproachful eye at Aunt Jane—­“run off with the notion that he meant jest what he said.  All he’d done for this expedition, his loyalty and faith to same, was forgotten, and he was thought of as a self-seeker and Voracious Shark!” The pain of these recollections dammed the torrent of Mr. Tubbs’s speech.

“Oh, Mr. Tubbs!” breathed Aunt Jane heart-brokenly, and of course a tear trickled gently down her nose, following the path of many previous tears which had already left their saline traces.

Mr. Tubbs managed in some impossible fashion to roll one eye tenderly at Aunt Jane, while keeping the other fastened shrewdly on the remainder of his audience.

“Miss Higglesby-Browne and Miss Jane Harding,” he resumed, “I accept.  It would astonish them as has only known H. H. on his financial side to see him agree to a reduction of profits like this without a kick.  But I’m a man of impulse, I am.  Get me on my soft side and a kitten ain’t more impulsive than old H. H. And o’ course the business of this expedition ain’t jest business to me.  It’s—­er—­friendship, and—­er—­sentiment—­in short, there’s feelin’s that is more than worth their weight in gold!”