" Edgar fixed his eye-glasses upon me
accusingly.
"Am I right, or am I wrong?" he demanded. I was unable to answer.
"The only man," continued Edgar warmly who ever showed the
slightest intelligence in the matter was the fellow in the 'Gold
Bug. HE kept his mouth shut. He never let any one know that he was
after buried treasure, until he found it. That's me! Now I know
EXACTLY where this treasure is, and----"
I suppose, involuntarily, I must have given a start of interest;
for Edgar paused and shook his head, slyly and cunningly. "And if
you think I have the map on my person now," he declared in triumph,
"you'll have to guess again!"
"Really," I protested, "I had no intention----"
"Not you, perhaps," said Edgar grudgingly; "but your Japanese valet
conceals himself behind those curtains, follows me home, and at
night----"
"I haven't got a valet," I objected.
Edgar merely smiled with the most aggravating self- sufficiency.
"It makes no difference," he declared. "NO ONE will ever find that
map, or see that map, or know where that treasure is, until I point
to the spot."
"Your caution is admirable," I said; "but what," I jeered, "makes
you think you can point to the spot, because your map says
something like, 'Through the Sunken Valley to Witch's Caldron, four
points N. by N. E. to Gallows Hill where the shadow falls at
sunrise, fifty fathoms west, fifty paces north as the crow flies,
to the Seven Wells'? How the deuce," I demanded, "is any one going
to point to that spot?"
"It isn't that kind of map," shouted Edgar triumphantly.
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