ver the directions for a long time, while Eli looked over my
shoulder, as if trying to decipher the characters.

"Eli bea'nt no schullard," he grunted at length; "Jasper be, Jasper raid
et to Eli."

"Wait a bit, Eli," I said, trying to remember some of the things I had
learnt at school, "it's beginning to get plain to me."

"Wish I was schullard," he cried excitedly.

Again I pored over the paper, and presently I translated it to mean as
follows:

_Scilly Isles._

_Name of Island: Annette. Uninhabited._

_Calm sea. (Be sure of this.)_

_Due south of the island. Go as far as possible.
Here southward still is a rock, of which a
rough sketch is given. The treasure is laid at
the point indicated by the black spot, called the
Devil's Point._

_Hell's Mouth S.W. Billy's Head N.W.
An iron box jammed tight. Take pick, crowbar,
and shovel._

The longer I looked at the paper the more certain I was that I had given
the correct meaning to it, and yet the whole idea of a buried treasure
became absurd.

"Eli," I said, "are you sure this is intended to tell where a treasure
is?"

"Iss."

"Look, Eli, tell me the history of this paper. Tell me who wrote it, and
what Granfer Fraddam had to do with it. Tell me how it came into your
mother's hands and into yours."

"Shaan't tell 'ee nothin' more," grunted Eli. "'Tes there. Give et to me
ef you doan't want et."

I sat for a long time in deep thought, for I scarcely knew what step to
take. Presently, however, my mind was made up. I would, at any rate, see
if these rudely drawn characters had any meaning. By this means I might
get back Pennington, and I should not take Naomi to the altar a
penniless outcast.

If these directions had no meaning I should be none the worse; if there
were a treasure, I had as much right to it as any other man; nay, more.
Eli was Granfer Fraddam's descendant, and he had given the paper to me.

Besides, the longer I thought of it, the more I was convinced that there
was a meaning in what I had been reading. Why should it have been
written at all? Why was Granfer Fraddam so particular to preserve it?
And, above all, why should Cap'n Jack Truscott be so eager to obtain it?

I had heard of _Annette_ as forming one of a group of islands lying
about thirty miles from the Land's End, but beyond that I knew nothing.
It was evidently uninhabited, and regarded by