George A. Birmingham

“ Further on in the log-book, which you say you've read, I find that old Sir Giles and your grandfather, having heard Lady Buckley's story, made another expedition to the island to look for the treasure."
"They did, and brought back the old iron chest that's in my bedroom this minute."
"Now I ask you," said Meldon, "were your grandfather and old Sir Giles the kind of men to go off on a wild-goose chase after treasure which didn't exist? They weren't that kind of men at all, either of them. They were shrewd, hard-headed men who thought things out carefully before they acted. ”

“ If the treasure was discovered since 1798 we'd have heard of it. Those Inishgowlan men come in here to Ballymoy to do their marketing. Now suppose they'd taken to offering the shopkeepers hundreds and thousands of Spanish gold coins any time during the last century, do you suppose we shouldn't have heard of it? Why, man, the whole country would be full of stories of their find. But nobody in this neighbourhood has ever so much as seen a Spanish coin, therefore the Inishgowlan people can't have found the treasure. Therefore it's on the island still."
Meldon paused triumphantly. ”

“ If they had a fault, it was that they were a bit too keen about money."
"How do you know all that?"
"It stands to common sense," said Meldon. "People who keep their property safe, as the Buckleys did, all through the eighteenth century in Ireland, must have been pretty sharp business men. Besides, I always heard that the first Buckley came over from Scotland. And the Scots, as we all know, don't waste their time fooling after treasure which doesn't exist. ”

“ I know well enough that the seals off this coast don't have the proper sort of skins for muffs. I mean to go to Inishgowlan and bring back a whole pot of money, thousands and thousands of pounds. I'll rig my little girl out in proper furs when I get back. She shall have silk dresses and real lace and a motor-car, and I'll drive her up and down Grafton Street and buy her any mortal thing she chooses. ”

“ Doyle said this afternoon that there were plenty, but that was only to encourage Langton to stay on at the hotel. There's nothing else that could be called a yacht within fifty miles of Ballymoy. But I must be off. Let me see, is there anything else we have to settle? ”