ly; in the lazarette."

"I wish I had known that," said I; "I should have been spared a stifling
scramble over the casks and raffle forwards."

He led the way, and coming to the trap hatch that conducted to the
lazarette, he pulled it open and we descended. He held the lanthorn and
threw the light around him and said, "Ay, there are plenty of stores
here. We reckoned upon provisions for twelve months, and we were seventy
of a crew."

A strange figure he looked, just touched by the yellow candle-light, and
standing out upon the blackness like some vision of a distempered fancy,
in his hair-cap and flaps, and with his long nose and beard and little
eyes shining as he rolled them here and there. We made our way over the
casks, bales, and the like, till we were right aft, and here there was a
small clear space of deck in which lay a hatch. This he lifted by its
ring, and down through the aperture did he drop, I following. The
lazarette deck came so low that we had to squat when still or move upon
our knees. At the foremost end of this division of the ship, so far as
it was possible for my eyes to pierce the darkness--for it seems that
this run went clear to the fore-hold bulkhead, that is to say, under the
powder-room, to where the fore-hold began--were stowed the spare sails,
ropes for gear, and a great variety of furniture for the equipment of a
ship's yards and masts. But immediately under the hatch stood several
small chests and cases, painted black, stowed side by side so that they
could not shift.

Tassard ran his eye over them, counting. "Right!" cried he; "hold the
lanthorn, Mr. Rodney."

I took the light from him, and, pulling the keys from his pocket, he
fell to trying them at the lock of the first chest. One fitted; the bolt
shot with a hard click, like cocking a trigger, and he raised the lid.
The chest was full of silver money. I picked up a couple of the coins,
and, bringing them to the candle, perceived them to be Spanish pieces of
eight. The money was tarnished, yet it reflected a sort of dull metallic
light. The Frenchman grasped a handful and dropped them, as though, like
a child, he loved to hear the chink the pieces made as they fell.

"There's a brave pocketful there," said I.

"Tut!" cried he, scornfully. "'Tis a mere show of money; resolve it into
gold and it becomes a lean bit of plunder. This we got from the
_Conquistador_; it was all she had in this way; destined for some
monastery, I recol