have made this
drawing of the island where the treasure is buried. I give it freely
to Holy Mother Church, and beg that part be spent for candles to be
burned before the altar and for masses to be said for my unworthy soul.

his

_"Ramon_ (X) _Alvarez_.

mark

"Attest, _Pablo Ximenes_, notary."

"Good work, Allen," commended Tyke, as the reader stopped.

"Very cleverly done," added Captain Hamilton.

Drew flushed with pleasure.

"Those old fellows were well called 'the scourges of the sea,' weren't
they?" he said. "Now here! There are just two things missing that it
would be the merest guess-work to supply," he added. "One is the date.
We know the century, but the year is absolutely rubbed out. The other
is the number of doubloons captured with his last prize. That was in a
crease of the paper and had crumbled away."

"Yes," replied Captain Hamilton; "but neither is so very important. Of
course, the later the date, the less time there has been for any one to
find the doubloons and take them away. We have the names of some of
the ships that were captured though, and we might look the matter up in
some French or Spanish history and so get a clue to the date.

"As to the extent of the treasure, we'll find that out for ourselves
when we get it, if we ever do. And if we don't get it, the amount
doesn't matter."

"It seems to be a pretty good-sized one, from the way the rascal speaks
about it," remarked Tyke.

"Plenty big enough to pay for the trouble of getting it," agreed
Captain Hamilton.

"Well, now that we know what the paper says, let's git right down to
brass tacks," suggested Grimshaw. "In the first place, this particular
pirate, Alvarez, was evidently a Spaniard. The language the paper is
written in proves that."

"Not necessarily," objected the captain. "Spanish is the language
spoken in Trinidad, and even if the dying man were a Frenchman or an
Englishman, the notary would probably translate what he said into
Spanish. Still, the first name, and probably the last, indicate
Spanish birth. I guess we're pretty safe in considering that point
settled."

"But I thought most of the pirates, the leaders anyway, were French or
English," persisted Tyke.

"So they were," answered the captain; "but the Portuguese and Spaniards
ran them a close second. As a matter of fact, those fellows
acknowledged no nationality and cut the throats of their own countrymen
as rea