more, you go and see Mr. Chalk. I'm sick and tired of the
whole business. And you'd no right to talk about it while we were away."

"I've got the paper you signed and I'm going to know the truth," said
Miss Vickers, fiercely. "It's my right. What was the size of the
island?"

Mr. Stobell maintained an obstinate silence.

"What colour did you say these 'ere Fidgetty islanders was?" inquired Mr.
Vickers, with truculent curiosity.

"You get out," roared Stobell, rising. "At once. D'ye hear me?"

Mr. Vickers backed with some haste towards the door. His daughter
followed slowly.

"I don't believe you," she said, turning sharply on Stobell. "I don't
believe the ship was wrecked at all."

Mr. Stobell sat gasping at her. "What?" he stammered. "W h-a-a-t?"

"I don't believe it was wrecked," repeated Selina, wildly. "You've got
the treasure all right, and you're keeping it quiet and telling this tale
to do me out of my share. I haven't done with you yet. You wait!"

She flung out into the hall, and Mr. Vickers, after a lofty glance at Mr.
Stobell, followed her outside.

"And now we'll go and hear what Mr. Tredgold has to say," she said, as
they walked up the road. "And after that, Mr. Chalk."

Mr. Tredgold was just starting for the office when they arrived, but,
recognising the justice of Miss Vickers's request for news, he stopped
and gave his version of the loss of the Fair Emily. In several details
it differed from that of Mr. Stobell, and he looked at her uneasily as
she took out pencil and paper and made notes.

"If you want any further particulars you had better go and see Mr.
Stobell," he said, restlessly. "I am busy."

"We've just been to see him," replied Miss Vickers, with an ominous gleam
in her eye. "You say that the boat was two or three hundred yards away
when the ship sank?"

"More or less," was the cautious reply.

"Mr. Stobell said about half a mile," suggested the wily Selina.

"Well, perhaps that would be more correct," said the other.

"Half a mile, then?"

"Half a mile," said Mr. Tredgold, nodding, as she wrote it down.

"Four yards was what Mr. Stobell said," exclaimed Selina, excitedly.
"I've got it down here, and father heard it. And you make the time it
happened and a lot of other things different. I don't believe that you
were any more shipwrecked than I was."

"Not so much," added the irrepressible Mr. Vickers.

Mr. Tredgold walked to the door. "I am busy," h