Читать книгу The Secret Chart; or, Treasure Hunting in Hayti онлайн

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First the newspaper story was placed before Captain Mansfield; then a small coil of thin, well-waxed cord; then a piece of hard, dark-colored wood about four inches long by two wide, with the following marks rudely cut, as if with a sheathknife:

A fragment of an old British admiralty chart, showing a portion of the northwestern end of the Island of Hayti, was next examined, and then Gil unfolded a rough drawing, of which the sketch below is an exact copy:

“Do you know where these things came from?” Gil asked, after his father had gazed at the odd collection for several moments in silence.

“I never saw them before.”

“Wasn’t this your chest?”

Captain Mansfield examined the outside of the box intently, apparently more interested in the find than the boys, and then said, slowly:

“It belonged to an old sailor whom I found in Hong Kong many years ago. He was in the last stages of consumption, and begged me to bring him to this country. I advised him to remain in the hospital, for it seemed certain he would die at sea; but he persisted, and on the fortieth day out we were obliged to give him a sailor’s burial. The night he died we were doing our best to save the ship, she having been partially dismasted in a typhoon, and when he asked for me, I was needed on deck. He sent word by one of the men that I was to keep his chest, which I did, although it seemed nothing more than a dying man’s whim. It was probably brought here with my dunnage, and I have never thought of it since. Now I can fancy what sort of a yarn he wanted to tell me.”