herself was destroyed.
Her career of murder and terror and destruction was ended at last, and
the evil spirit of those seas was laid.

All now being over, and it being no longer necessary to carry out their
original intention of scouring the Mexican Gulf for the pirate--chance
having so fortunately thrown him in their way,--it was decided to carry
out the other part of their programme; which, it will be remembered, was
to run to La Guayra and see whether there were any plate ships lying
there, and, if so, to endeavour to cut them out and capture them. A
course was therefore set, and the little squadron bore away to the
southward and eastward in the direction of that port.

Roger and Harry had now a little time to themselves, and, having so
recently witnessed the destruction of the pirate vessel and the
execution of her notorious captain, the conversation naturally enough
turned to the cipher which Roger had in his possession. He had already
acquainted his friend with the news that the marooned man, William
Evans, had given him an exact duplicate of the cipher that he had in his
possession, taken from the _Gloria del Mundo_, and the two lads now
seriously turned their attention to its translation. But again it
foiled them; they could make nothing of it. They did not wish to
communicate the fact of it being in their possession to any third
person, and ask his advice, knowing that a secret shared with others is
usually a secret no longer. So he and Harry kept their knowledge to
themselves, and went over the remainder of the papers which Evans had
given Roger, as well as the cipher. These also proved to be of no
importance to anyone but their former owner, as they merely contained
notes from the log and diary of the pirate, and, indeed, consisted
mainly of a skeleton account of his many atrocities, recorded for who
knows what reason. The two lads could not see that any useful purpose
would be served by retaining these memoranda; they therefore tore them
up small, and consigned them to the deep. For this reason the history
of the doings and exploits of the pirate Jose Leirya has never been
written, and never will be.

As the two lads could make nothing of the cipher, they put it away,
deciding not to worry their heads about the matter until some time in
the future, when they should have nothing else to occupy them. The two
ciphers were therefore folded up into a neat packet, and, with the
assistance of a needle a