I
stood roaring out my defiance and my threat, than they would have
ventured to give battle to the boldest and the blackest of all bloody
buccaneers.

"I now called the men around me, and I told them all my story. You may
imagine that they opened their eyes and mouths so wide that I thought
some of them would never get them shut again. But the captain--he was
from Provincetown, Cape Cod, and he went straight to business.

"'We've mended the leak,' said he, 'and we'll pump all night, and it may
be to-morrow we shall float free. Then we'll form a company for the
recovery of the treasure on that Spanish galleon. I will take one third
of it; Mr. Gayther shall have one third; and one third shall be divided
among the crew. Then we'll anchor a buoy near this spot and sail away,
to come back again as soon as may be.'

"Everybody agreed to this, and we all went to supper. Early the next
morning a breeze blew very fresh from the southwest; then it increased
to a gale; and before ten o'clock the waves began to run so high that
one of them lifted the brig clean off the sunken ships on which she had
been resting, and we were afloat. In ten seconds more we were lying
broadside to the wind. Then indeed we had to skip around lively, get up
some sails, and put her properly on the wind. Before we had time to draw
an easy breath we were scudding along, far from the spot which we had
intended to mark with an anchored buoy. There was a good deal of water
in the hold, but the brig went merrily on as if glad to get away from
those two old sea spectres of the past with which she had been keeping
such close company.

"Of course it was impossible to beat up against such a wind, and so we
kept on toward St. Thomas. The captain had carefully taken the longitude
and latitude of the spot where we had been stranded on the ancient
ships, and he was sure he could find the place again by sounding in fair
weather.

"Before we reached port, he came on deck with the three gold pieces
which I had brought up from the Spanish galleon. One of these he put
into his own pocket; one he gave to me; and the other he gave to the
crew to be changed into small coin and divided. The stock-broker got
nothing, and I saw him no more on that voyage. I had sworn to break his
head if my eyes ever fell upon him, and he was wise enough to keep out
of my sight."

"And that is all the money you ever got from the galleon?" asked the
Daughter of the House.

"Yes," said J