n almost to a skeleton, his eyes were big and staring,
his face had the paleness of death. The return to consciousness was
sudden--perhaps nothing else could have called him back. He wriggled
out of bed and, supporting himself against the wall, made his way to the
door, and crawled away, mumbling to himself as he went.

A few minutes afterwards Phips and Gering were talking in the cabin.
Phips was weighing the silver up and down in his hands.

"At least three hundred good guineas here!" he said. There was a
shuffling behind them, and, as Phips turned, a figure lunged on him,
clutched and hugged the silver. It was Bucklaw.

"Mine! mine!" he called in a hoarse voice, with great gluttonous eyes.
"All mine!" he cried again. Then he gasped and came to the ground in a
heap, with the silver hugged in his arms. All at once he caught at his
throat; the bandage of his wound fell away and there was a rush of
blood over the silver. With a wild laugh he plunged face forward on the
metal--and the blood of the dead Bucklaw consecrated the first-fruits of
the treasure.

As the vessel rode up the harbour the body was dropped into the deep.

"Worse men--worse men, sir, bide with the king," said Phips to Gering.
"A merry villain, that Bucklaw." The ship came to anchor at the buoys,
and no time was lost. Divers were sent down, and by great good luck
found the room where the bullion was stored. The number of divers was
increased, and the work of raising the bullion went on all that day.
There is nothing like the lust for gold in the hearts of men. From stem
to stern of the Bridgwater Merchant and the Swallow, this wild will had
its way. Work went on until the last moment of sun. That night talk was
long and sleep short, and work was on again at sunrise. In three days
they took up thirty-two tons of bullion. In the afternoon of the third
day the store-room was cleared, and then they searched the hold. Here
they found, cunningly distributed among the ballast, a great many
bags of pieces-of-eight. These, having lain in the water so long, were
crusted with a strong substance, which they had to break with iron bars.
It was reserved for Phips himself to make the grand discovery. He donned
a diving-suit and went below to the sunken galleon. Silver and gold
had been found, but he was sure there were other treasures. After much
searching he found, in a secret place of the captain's cabin, a chest
which, on being raised and broken open, was found