Part 7 (2/2)

”Here, those who did not join the pirates were coh work about the place As there was noaway from the island except by the pirates' vessel, they were not kept very close watch of, and were allowed the freedom of the place This island, it would seein, and had a ht at one end As this part of the island was exceedingly rough and rocky it had no attraction for the pirates, who kept to the low ground along the shore

”In one of his ra up into the mountain, and he followed it up to where it ended in a fissure in the rocks He was curious to see what the inside looked like, and returning another day, entered the fissure, which lead into a large cavern, where, according to his story, the walls were glittering with gold”

”Fool's gold,” interjected Berwick

”So I thought at first,” responded the professor, ”but Brooks said that his father picked up a half dozen nuggets ranging in size from that of a bullet to that of a walnut He seems, like his son, to have been a secretive sort of a man, for he kept his discovery from his shi+pmates

From tiathering the nuggets, which he kept concealed about his person until he had accu that some time he would be able to make his escape, which, with several of his coe to get away?” asked Jo

”It seems, fro procured a small boat, which they secreted at the mountainous end of the island, and stocked with provisions, they set out on a dark and storht when there was less chance of detection The storale which they ran before, and which drove the vessels, one of which a day or so later, picked theget and got et home On his return he talked much of the mine, and drew a map of it for his son, who started out in search of it”

”How did he expect to find it when he didn't know its location?”

questioned Ji like this The place where they were picked up by the vessel was about latitude 9 south, longitude 129 west

Nohen they were picked up they had been driving for some thirty-six hours before a southind at not less than fifteen knots an hour

This would make about five hundred and forty miles they had come from the island, which must, therefore, lie somewhere between five or six hundred miles to the southwest”

”I should think that would be the spot where he would look for it,” said Juarez

”That is what he did, and so have I,” was the reply, ”but ere, neither of us, able to locate it”

”Do you think it really exists?” asked Jim

”I am quite certain of it,” answered the professor ”At any rate, I a with me”

”What do you ith us?” questioned Jim

”Well,” replied the professor, slowly, ”I need some efficient help, and I have had my eye on you boys for sohly trustworthy and could be depended upon in any eency, and I decided that you were just the kind of coht at the start that this is not going to be a picnic party; we are going to have our work cut out for us, and plenty of it, so if you go along you are likely to see soh”

”That don't scare us any,” put in Jo

”I didn't think it would,” the professor went on, ”and if it turns out as I believe it will, we shall all have all the money we need for the rest of our lives”

”But why should you take us in?” persisted Ji the treasure,” the professor explained, ”it would be a great temptation to those who learned of it to use any et possession of it That is one of the reasons I want you I feel that I can depend upon you through and through”

”I think you can,” responded Jim quietly, but not the less emphatically

”What we say we are ready to stand by”