e_ too
strong; but--"

"Oh, that's all right, Joe," I interrupted. "There is no doubt about
the fact that you succeeded in making me genuinely angry with you; the
important question now is, has it had the effect that you anticipated?
Have the other men shown any disposition to take you into their
confidence and make you a participator in the plot or whatever it is
that you suppose them to be hatching?"

"Well, no, sir, not exactly," Joe admitted. "But I'm in hopes that they
will afore long, if this here unpleasantness between me and you goes on.
At present, you see, they don't know but what it may be a temp'ry thing
as'll soon blow over; but if they finds that you've got a sort of spite
again' me, and are always down upon me and drivin' me to desperation, as
you may say, they'll be pretty certain to have a try to get me over on
their side. You see, sir, I'm about as strong as e'er a man aboard
here, and if them chaps are up to mischief they'll nat'rally prefer to
have me with 'em instead of again' 'em."

"Undoubtedly they will," I agreed. "But, Joe, you have not yet told me
exactly what it is that you suspect. If they were dissatisfied with
their food, or their treatment, or their accommodation, would they not
come aft and make a complaint, and endeavour to get the matter rectified
in that way? But they never have done so; and indeed I cannot imagine
what they have to be dissatisfied with: their food is all of the very
best description it was possible to obtain; the forecastle is as roomy
and comfortable a place as you will meet with in any ship of this size;
and, as to work, I do not think they have much to complain of on that
score."

"No, sir, no; it ain't nothing of that sort," asserted Joe. "It's my
belief, sir, as they've somehow got wind of _the treasure_, and that
it's that they're after."

"The treasure?" I exclaimed in blank astonishment. "What treasure?"

"Why, the treasure as you expects to find on this here island as we're
bound for. Lor' bless you, sir," continued Joe, noting the
consternation that his unexpected communication had occasioned me, "we
all knowed about it in the fo'c's'le--the old hands, I mean--afore the
ship arrived in Sydney Harbour. It was the steward as brought the news
for'ard to us one night. He was a curious chap, he was, as inquisitive
as a monkey; he always wanted to know the ins and outs of everything
that was goin' on, and he'd noticed you porin' and puzzlin' ov