“When the intelligence of this exploit reached the Tortoise, the entire island was thrown into a hubbub. Nothing was thought of but to go buccaneering for galleons. Brig after brig and ship after ship were fitted out, and in a year this species of piracy became a recognized business. Ten years later the Spanish commerce in these waters had been almost entirely destroyed. The sea was forsaken for the richer prizes on land. The rich capital of Campeche was sacked, to be, in turn, followed by Panama, and the curers of beef had become such a power as to attract the attention of every nation.”
“Is that all?” Gil asked, as Nelse ceased reading.
“Every word, and it isn’t such a bad sort of story, except that there’s not more than half enough. I wonder why your father has been keeping it in the chest?”
“I don’t believe he knew it was here. But look at the rest of this stuff! Do you suppose these have anything to do with the piece of newspaper?”
As he spoke, Gil picked up the other articles, and he and Nelse were gazing at them in perplexity when Captain Mansfield entered the attic.
“Well, what are you boys hunting for? Pirates’ gold?” Captain Mansfield asked, with a hearty laugh, as he looked over Gil’s shoulder.
“We came here for this old chest, because our trunks won’t hold all we want to carry, and in it found these things, which I don’t suppose amount to anything; but I can’t make out why you or any one else would want to keep them.”
As he spoke, Gil laid on the lid of the box the different, apparently useless, articles which had fallen out when the hasp was broken. They all had that peculiar musty, salty odor, which tells of months spent in the forecastle, while the good ship plows her way across this or that ocean, one day aided by favoring winds, and on the next battling for life with the spirit of the tempest.
First the newspaper story was placed before Captain Mansfield; then a small coil of thin, well-waxed cord; then a piece of hard, dark-colored wood about four inches long by two wide, with the following marks rudely cut, as if with a sheathknife:
A fragment of an old British admiralty chart, showing a portion of the northwestern end of the Island of Hayti, was next examined, and then Gil unfolded a rough drawing, of which the sketch below is an exact copy: