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

9 страница из 64

“Is that all?” Gil asked, as Nelse ceased reading.

“Every word, and it isn’t such a bad sort of story, except that there’s not more than half enough. I wonder why your father has been keeping it in the chest?”

“I don’t believe he knew it was here. But look at the rest of this stuff! Do you suppose these have anything to do with the piece of newspaper?”

As he spoke, Gil picked up the other articles, and he and Nelse were gazing at them in perplexity when Captain Mansfield entered the attic.

ssss1

“Well, what are you boys hunting for? Pirates’ gold?” Captain Mansfield asked, with a hearty laugh, as he looked over Gil’s shoulder.

“We came here for this old chest, because our trunks won’t hold all we want to carry, and in it found these things, which I don’t suppose amount to anything; but I can’t make out why you or any one else would want to keep them.”

As he spoke, Gil laid on the lid of the box the different, apparently useless, articles which had fallen out when the hasp was broken. They all had that peculiar musty, salty odor, which tells of months spent in the forecastle, while the good ship plows her way across this or that ocean, one day aided by favoring winds, and on the next battling for life with the spirit of the tempest.