of lava pouring into the sea. One saves
his own life by instinct, I suppose. There I was. I had to live. It did
not matter much, but I continued to do it by various shifts. That last day
on the headland the fumes nearly got me. You may have noted the rather
excited scrawl in the back of the ledger? Yes, I thought I was gone that
time. But I got to the cave. It was low tide. Then the earthquake, and I
was walled in.... Mr. Barnett's very accurate explosives--Slade's
insistence--your risking your lives as you did, mites on the crust of a
red-hot cheese--I hope you know how I feel about it all. One can't thank a
man properly for the life....

"Oh, the pirates. Necessarily it must be a matter of theory, but I think
we have it right. Slade and I built it up. For what it's worth, here it
is. Let me see: you sighted the glow on the night of the 2d. Next day came
the deserted ship. It must have puzzled you outrageously."

"It did," said Captain Parkinson, drily.

"Not an easy problem, even with all the data at hand. You, of course, had
none. On Slade's showing, Handy Solomon and his worthy associates thought
they had a chest full of riches when they got the doctor's treasure;
believed they owned the machinery for making diamonds or gold or what-not
of ready-to-hand wealth. It's fair to assume a certain eagerness on their
part. Disturbed weather keeps them busy until they're well out from the
island. Then to the chest. Opening it isn't so easy: I had the key, you
know." He brought a curious and delicately wrought skeleton from his
pocket. "Tipped with platinum," he observed. "Rather a gem of a key, I
think. You see, there must have been some action, even through the
keyhole, or he wouldn't have used a metal of this kind. But the crew was
rich in certain qualities, it seems, which I failed, stupidly, to
recognise in my acquaintance with them. Both Pulz and Perdosa appear to
have been handy men where locks were concerned. First Pulz sneaks down and
has his turn at the chest. He gets it open. Small profit for him in that:
the next we know of him he is scandalising Handy Solomon by having a fit
on the deck."

"That is what I couldn't figure out to save my life," said Slade eagerly.

"If you recollect, I told you of the Professor's plunge in the cold
spring, in a sort of paroxysm, one day," said Darrow. "That was the
physiological action of the celestium. At other times, I have seen him
come out and deliberately roll in the cree