the most unexpected good fortune, we have Captain Branscome; in the
third place, a carpenter, to provide us with shelter on the island
and be at hand in case of accident to the vessel--and here is Mr.
Goodfellow; while as for Harry--" Plinny hesitated, for the moment
at a loss; then her face brightened suddenly. "Harry can climb a
tree, and the instructions on the back of the map point to this as
necessary. Harry will be invaluable!"

I could have wrung her hand; but Plinny, having finished her
justification of the ways of Providence, had taken off her spectacles
and was breathing on them and polishing them with a small silk
handkerchief which she ever kept handy for that purpose.

"Captain Branscome," said Miss Belcher, sharply, "will you be so good
as to give us your opinion?"

Captain Branscome lifted his head. "My mind, if you'll excuse me,
ma'am, works a bit slowly, and always did. But there's no denying
that Miss Plinlimmon has given the sense of it."

"Hey?"

"To be sure," said the Captain, tracing with his finger an imaginary
pattern on the table-cloth, "her courage carries her too far--as in
this talk about hiring a ship. A ship needs a crew; a crew that
could be trusted on a treasure-hunt is perhaps the most difficult to
find in the whole world; and when you've found one to rely upon, your
troubles are only just beginning. The main trouble is with the ship,
and that's what no landsman can ever understand. A ship's the most
public thing under heaven. You think of her, maybe, as something
that puts out over the horizon and is lost to sight for months.
But that helps nothing. She must clear from a port, and to a port
sooner or later she must return; and in both ports a hundred curious
people at least must know all about her business.

"I don't say that a ship, once out of sight, cannot be made away
with--though even that, with a crew to tell tales, has beaten some of
the cleverest heads; but to take out a ship and fill her up with
treasure, and bring her home _and unload her without any one's
knowing_--that's a feat that (if you'll excuse me) I've heard a
hundred liars discuss at one time and another; and one has said it
can be done in this way, and another in that, but never a one in my
hearing has found a way that would deceive a child."

"Yet you said, a moment since, that Miss Plinlimmon had given the
sense of it?"

"I did, ma'am. I am saying that to fetch this treasure will be
difficu