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 
