THE TREASURE-HUNT 135 



wooded hills, all feathery green with the new leaves 

 of early spring. The Band felt that they occupied a 

 strong and strategic position. A drop of some 

 twenty feet sheer from the broken flooring behind 

 them to the ground protected them against any 

 rear attack, and the only entrance to their refuge 

 was so shadowed and hidden by rose-red and snow- 

 white apple-blossoms that it would be a cunning and 

 desperate foe indeed who could find or would storm 

 their fastness. 



With safety once secured, it was the unanimous 

 feeling of the whole company that luncheon was the 

 next and most pressing engagement for their consid- 

 eration. An investigation of the commissary showed 

 that the Quartermaster-General had merited promo- 

 tion and decoration and citation and various other 

 military honors, by reason of the unsurpassable 

 quality of the rations for which she was responsible. 

 When these were topped off by the Treasure for des- 

 sert, it was felt by the whole Band that this was a 

 Day which thereafter would rank in their memories 

 with Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, and press 

 hard upon the heels even of Christmas Day itself. 



After a rapturous half-hour undisturbed by any 

 desultory and unnecessary conversation, followed a 

 chapter in the Adventures of Great-great Uncle 

 Jake. Said relative had been a distant collateral 

 connection of the Captain, and had fought through 

 the Revolution, and, in the opinion of the Band, 

 next to General Washington, had probably been 

 most nearly responsible for the final success of the 



