THE TREASURE-HUNT 131 
approved Indian method, and as soon as it: began to 
crackle, the paper was held as close to the blaze as 
possible. The Captain had the right idea. As the 
paper bent under the heat, on its white surface 
brown tracings appeared, which slowly formed letters 
and then words, until they could all read: “I am in the 
hidey-hole of the chimney of the Haunted House. 
The Treasure.” 
For a moment the Band stared at each other in 
silence. They had made a special study of pirates, 
black, white, yellow, and mixed. Haunted houses, 
however, were beyond their bailiwick. It spoke 
well for the iron discipline and high hearts of the 
company that not one of them faltered. Led by 
dauntless Sergeant Henny-Penny, they crossed the 
creek in single file on a tippy tree-trunk. Half hid- 
den in the bushes above, a gaunt stone house stared 
down at them out of empty window-sockets like a 
skull. Through the thicket and straight up the 
slope the Band charged, with such speed that the 
Captain was hard put to keep up with his gallant 
officers. They never halted until they stood at the 
threshold of the House itself. Under the bowed 
lintel the Band marched, and never halted until 
they reached the vast fireplace which took in a whole 
side of the room. The floorings of the House had 
gone, and nothing but the naked beams remained, 
save for a patch of warped boards far up against the 
stone chimney where the attic used to be. It was 
plainly there that they must look for the hidey-hole. 
The Captain showed his followers how in one of 
