us all--as he got the better of the first lot, and _they_
must ha' been a dozen. Four of them we uncovered afore we struck the
edge of the treasure--uncovered 'em and covered 'em up again pretty
quick, I can tell you. Fresh as paint they were, in a manner o'
speaking, just as though they'd died yesterday; whereas by Bill's
account they must ha' lain there for more'n a year. And the faces on
'em white and shinin'--"

Here Captain Coffin shivered, and, glancing about him, poured out
another go of rum.

"You wouldn't blame me for wantin' it, Brooks--not if you'd seen 'em.
That was on the Keys, as they're called--half a dozen banks to
no'thard of the island, and maybe from half a mile to three-quarters
off the shore, which shoals thereabout--sand, all the lot of 'em, and
nothin' but sand; sand and sea-birds, and--what I told you. But the
bulk lies in the island itself, in two caches; and where the bigger
cache lies _he_ don't know, and nobody knows but only Dan Coffin."

Captain Coffin winked, touched his breast, and wagged his forefinger
at me impressively.

"That makes twice," he went on. "Twice that devil has got the better
of every one. But the third time's lucky, they say. He may be dead
afore this; he'll be getting an oldish man, anyway, and life on that
cursed island can't be good for his health. We won't go in a crowd
this time, neither; not a dozen, nor yet four of us, but only you an'
me, Brooks. It's the safer way--the only safe way--an' there'll be
the fatter sharin's. Now you know--hey?--why Branscome's givin' me
lessons in navigation."

He chuckled, and was moving off mysteriously to a back doorway behind
the dresser, but halted and came back to the table beside which I
stood, making no motion to follow him.

"Look ye here, Brooks," said be. "If there's anything you don't get
the hang of--anything that takes ye aback, so to speak, in what I'm
tellin' you--you just hitch on an' trust to old Dan Coffin; to old
Dan, as'll do for you more than ever your godfathers an' godmothers
did at your baptism. You'll pick up a full breeze as you go on.
Man, the treasure's there! Man, I've handled it, or enough of it to
keep you in a coach-an'-six, with nothing to do but loll on cushions
for the rest o' your days, an' pick your teeth at the crowd.
And look ye here." He waved a hand around the room. "I'm old Danny
Coffin, ain't I? poor old drunken Danny Coffin, eh? Yet cast an eye
about ye. Nice fittin