sn't; it was
quite good; and after he had eaten he felt so much stronger that he went
back to the beach and moored his boat to a big boulder, so that she
wouldn't drift away.

"Now that Mr Barber had found food and water he set about taking care
of himself, so that he might get strong again and be able to get away
from where he was--because, of course, he didn't want to spend the rest
of his days there. But he wanted to find out as much as he could about
the place; so as soon as he was strong enough he began to wander about a
bit, explorin', and in particular he wanted to have a look at something
that he thought might be a house all overgrown with creepers. And when
at last he was able to get to it he found that it was a very ancient
_ship_, that he thought must have drove ashore during the height of a
very heavy gale of wind, when the level of the sea surface was raised
several feet above ordinary, deeply flooding the low ground where he
found her.

"Of course Mr Barber climbed aboard and had a good look round, thinking
that he'd perhaps be able to take up his quarters aboard her until he
could get away from the place; but he found her timbers and deck
planking all so rotten that it wasn't safe to move about aboard her.
All the same, he gave her a good overhaul; and down in the run he found
a little room, and in it eight big chests all bound round with thick,
steel bands. With a lot of trouble he broke 'em open, and five of 'em
he found packed full of gold and silver things--coins, candlesticks,
images and things that he believed had been stolen out of churches, with
chains and rings and bracelets and things of that sort. And the other
three chests had in 'em all sorts of gems--diamonds, rubies, emeralds--
and oh, I forget the names of all the things he said he found in them;
but I remember he said that they looked as though they'd been broken out
of articles of jewellery. Two of the chests were full, chock-a-block,
and the other was about three-parts full; and he said that, altogether,
the treasure must be worth millions!

"So as soon as Mr Barber felt well and strong enough to get away from
the place, he caulked the seams of his boat, and his water breaker, with
a kind of cotton that he found growing wild, made a mat sail for his
boat out of grass, laid in a stock of fruit and water, and, taking a
handful of the gems along with him, went out to sea again. But before
leaving the place he got the meridian alti