to appease the profound curiosity of the boatmen and
partly to save time when I should come to confer with my relative, I
gave them the story of my shipwreck, and told how I had met with the
schooner and how I had managed to escape with her.

"And now, Mason," said I, "whilst our friends here empty these bowls,
come you with me to the cook-room." And with that we quitted the cabin.

"D'ye mean to tell me, Paul," was the first question my relative asked,
"that this vessel was on the ice eight-and-forty years?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Surely you dream?"

"I think not."

"What we have been eating and drinking--is that forty-eight years old,
too?"

"Ay, and older."

"Well, such a thing shall make me credulous enough to duck old women for
witches. But what brandy--what brandy! Never had spirit such a bouquet.
Every pint is worth its weight in guineas to a rich man. To think of
Deal boatmen and niggers swilling such nectar!"

"Mason," said I, speaking low, "give me now your attention. In the run
of this schooner are ten chests loaded with money, bars of silver and
gold, and jewellery. This vessel was a pirate, and her people valued
their booty at ninety to a hundred thousand pounds."

His jaw fell; he stared as if he knew not whether it was he or I that
was mad.

"Here is evidence that I speak the truth," said I. "A little sample
only--but look at it!" And I put the pirate captain's watch into his
hand.

He eyed it as though he discredited the intelligence of his sight,
turned it about, and returned it to me with a faint "Heaven preserve
me!" Then said he, still faintly, "You found some of the pirates alive?"

"No."

"Who told you that the people of the vessel valued their plunder at that
amount?"

I answered by giving him the story of the recovery of the Frenchman.

He listened with a gaze of consternation: I saw how it was; he believed
my sufferings had affected my reason. There was only one way to settle
his mind; I took a lanthorn, and asked him to follow me. As we passed
through the cabin I whispered Wilkinson that I meant to show my relative
the lading below, and bade him keep the Deal men about him. I had the
keys of the chests in my pocket: lifting the after-hatch, we entered the
lazarette, and Mason gazed about him with astonishment. But I was in too
great a hurry to return to suffer him to idly stand and stare. I opened
the second hatch and descended into the run, and crawling to the jewel
chest