y end,--a tropic island, with only savages about me. I
had thought of something very different, since I got the gold. Perhaps,
after all, there is a curse on treasure got as that was. If there
is, and the sin is to be expiated in another world, I shall know it
soon. I did not--"

Here there was a break, and the story went on.

"---- all the others are dead, and the wreck of our ship has broken
to bits and has disappeared. Before the ruin was complete, though,
I had brought the gold on shore and buried it. No one saw me. The
natives ran from us at first, far into the forest, and ----"

The words which would have finished the sentence were wanting.

"Where three islands lie out at sea in a line with a promontory like
a buffalo's head, I sunk the gold deep in the sands, at the foot of
the cliff, and dug a rude cross in the rock above it. Some day I hope
a white man guided by this, will find the treasure and--"

"There was no more," said the lieutenant, when the captain, coming
to this sudden end looked up at him. "The last few pages of the book
are gone, torn out, or worn loose and lost. What I have translated
was scattered over many pages, with disconnected signs and characters
written in between. The book was evidently intended to be looked upon
as a mystic talisman, probably that the natives on this account might
be sure to take good care of it.

"All of the Tagalogs who can procure them, carry these
'anting-anting.' Some are thought to be much more powerful than
others. Evidently this was looked upon as an unusually valuable
charm. Sometimes they are only a button, sewed up in a rag. One of
the prisoners we took not long ago wore a broad piece of cloth over
his breast, on which was stained a picture of a man killing another
with a 'barong.' He believed that while he wore it no one could kill
him with that weapon; and thought the only reason he was not killed
in the skirmish in which he was captured was because he had the
'anting-anting' on."

"Do you believe the story which the book tells is true?" the captain
inquired.

"I don't know. Some days I think I could believe anything about
this country."

"Have you shown the book to any one else, or told any one what you
make out of it?"

"No."

"Do not do so, then. That is all, now. I will keep the book," he added,
putting the little brown volume inside his coat.

Several days later the officer in charge of the quarters where the
native prisoners were confi