approached the frigate, at first with hesitation, but when they were
hailed by the master in their own tongue, and told that the ship was
English, they came alongside and bartered their fish. They assured the
master that the stormy weather was sure to continue for some days, until
the moon quartered, and Captain Reay was pleased to learn from them that
a certain amount of provisions, fish, vegetables, and fruit, would be
brought off daily to the ship for sale.

The wind still blew with violence, and although the ship lay in water as
smooth as a mill-pond, the narrow strip of open ocean visible from her
decks was whipped foaming white with its violence.

In their conversation with the master, the natives had told him that at
a village some miles away from where the Triton was anchored, there was
a white man and his wife living--French people, so they said. A year
before, a French privateer, running before a heavy gale and a wild,
sweeping sea, had struck upon the barrier reef of one of the outer
low-lying islands of the group, and, carried over it by the surf, had
foundered in the lagoon inside. Only ten people were saved, and among
them were the Frenchman and his wife. Two months afterwards eight of
the male survivors took passage in a prahu belonging to the Sultan of
Batchian, having heard that there was a French ship refitting at that
island.

"Why did the two others remain?" asked Mr. Dacre.

The natives laughed. "Ah! the one man who stayed was a clever man. When
the prahu from Batchian came here he said he was sick, and that his wife
feared to sail so far in a small prahu. He would wait, he said, till a
ship came."

"And then?" asked Dacre.

"And then, after the other Frenchmen had gone, he came to our head man
and said that if they would keep faith with him he would make them rich,
for he knew that which none else knew. So he and they made a bond to
keep faith with one another, and that day he took them to where the ship
had sunk, and pointing to where she lay beneath the water he said: 'Is
there any among ye who can dive down so far?' They laughed, for the
wreck was but ten single arm lengths below, and then they said: 'Is this
where thy riches lie? Of what use to us is this sunken ship, save for
the guns on her decks?'

"Then he said: 'In that ship is gold and silver money enough to cover as
a carpet the beach that lies in front of the village, but to get it
the decks must be torn up. I, who was second in