l, and your speech has been that free,
open-hearted speech that wins its way alike among the Hyperboreans that
dwell in frozen twilight near the northern star, and those dwarfed and
swarthy intelligences that blacken in the fierce sunlight of that
fearful axle we call the equator. Therefore, I will make return to you
of speech no less frank and true ..."

He took a puff at his cigar, and then continued:

"I should not risk this confession, but that it is easy to see that you
belong to the race of Eternal Children, to which, you may have realised,
my daughter and I also belong. This adventure of yours after buried
treasure has not seriously been for the doubloons and pieces of eight,
the million dollars, and the million and a half dollars themselves, but
for the fun of going after them, sailing the unknown seas, coral
islands, and all that sort of blessed moonshine. Well, Calypso and I are
just like that, and I am going to tell you something exciting--we too
have our buried treasure. It is nothing like so magnificent in amount as
yours, or your Henry P. Tobias's--and where it is at this particular
moment I know as little as yourself. In fact it is Calypso's secret...."

I looked across at Calypso, but her eyes were far beyond capture, in
un-plummeted seas.

"I will show you presently where I found it, among the rocks near
by--now a haunt of wild bees.

"Can you ever forget that passage in the Georgics? It makes the honey
taste sweeter to me every time I taste it. We must have some of it for
dinner, by the way, Calypso."

I could not help laughing, and so, for a moment, breaking up the story.
The dear fellow! Was there any business of human importance from which
he could not be diverted by a quotation from Homer or Virgil or
Shakespeare? But he was soon in the saddle again.

"Well," he resumed, "one day, some seven years ago, in a little cave
below the orange trees, grubbing about as I am fond of doing, I came
upon a beautiful old box of beaten copper, sunk deep among the roots of
a fig tree. It was strong, but it seemed too dainty for a pirate--some
great lady's jewel box more likely--Calypso shall show it to us
presently. On opening it--what do you think? It spilled over with golden
doubloons--among which were submerged some fine jewels, such as this tie
ring you see me wearing. Actually, it was no great treasure, at a
monetary calculation--certainly no fortune--but from our romantic point
of view, as belonging