George A. Birmingham

“ If there'd come on the least bit of a blow that fellow in the fur coat and the other play boy, whoever he is, would have been at the bottom of the briny sea."
"Well, they're not," said the Major, "so their deaths are not on your conscience."
"They wouldn't have been in any case," said Meldon. "I never thought they'd go outside Moy Bay, or I wouldn't have hired the boat to them. Who'd expect a seedy individual in a fur coat, a fellow that looked sodden with drink, to take a boat out on to the broad Atlantic? At the same time the other fellow can't be altogether a fool. ”

“ I don't set up to be infallible. The best men may make mistakes. Listen to me, now, till I explain. The galleon is lying jammed in that channel. The water is, of course, comparatively calm there on account of the shelter of the headland. The Spanish captain, not being a fool—we agreed from the first, you remember, that the Spanish captain wasn't an absolute fool—sees that there is no immediate danger of the galleon breaking up. These Spanish galleons were all pretty tough. You remember the one that came ashore on Robinson Crusoe's island. ”

“ Meldon went on—
"In the first place, if he was a journalist, or if he was any kind of inspector, the Congested Districts Board would bring him round in their own steamer. They always take care to do a journalist middling well when they catch him, and they keep their eye on him. They don't let him off by himself in a boat to pry into all sorts of things which he has no business to see. That's one objection. The second is this: if he is a journalist, who is the other chappie, the one in the fur coat? Journalists never go about in couples. ”

“ Stirred by the taunt, Meldon spoke with some appearance of recovering self-confidence.
"It's the Aureole right enough. I hired her to a man in a mangy fur coat, who said he didn't know anything about boats but had a friend who did. Now I'll tell you this, Major, to start with. Either that friend knows nothing about boats either, or else he has some pretty strong reason for wishing to get to this island. Nobody but a fool, or a man who was prepared to take big risks, would have ventured out here in her. Why, every rope in her rigging is as rotten as a bad banana. ”

“ Meldon, having got rid of his boots and socks, stood up while he took off his coat and waistcoat.
"What are you going to do?" said the Major.
"Swim to the end of the channel, of course, and see what's inside that hole. You can stay here and mind my clothes. But to go on where you interrupted me. Where was I? Oh yes. The galleon had just struck on the point. What happens next? A great sea lifts her stern and slews it round. ”

“ You can't go out treasure-seeking without meeting an occasional difficulty. That's where the sport comes in. And listen to me, Major, it doesn't in the least matter what I tell the Member of Parliament or what he hears from Higginbotham. ”

“ It was evident that when the tide rose a little the water would reach the hole, and that at half-tide the entrance to it would be entirely covered.
Meldon gazed down the channel and saw the hole in the cliff. His face wore a look of intense satisfaction. Major Kent also seemed pleased. He gave a sigh expressive of relief.
"Now," he said, "we're stuck and we can't go any further. We've reached the last rock on which it is possible to climb, and I can neither swim nor fly. Sup- pose we start to go back?" ”

“ I'm not going on with that old boy watching me. I tell you he knows what we are after. He can't have believed that story about the Athalonia miserabilis. What horrid sceptics these unsophisticated-looking people are in their hearts! ”

“ Meldon sat down and began to take off his boots.
"This," he said, "is the scene of the shipwreck, and in that hole the Spanish captain concealed his treasure. Reconstruct the scene for yourself, Major. The galleon, partially disabled by the loss of one or more of her masts, comes driving down on the island before a nor'-westerly gale. I gave you my reasons for saying the wind was nor'-west, so we needn't go into that again. Where does she strike? On the point we've just passed. ”