this hour painted as vividly
upon the eye of memory as if I had come from it five minutes ago.

"So!" cried the Frenchman suddenly, slamming the lid of the chest. "Tis
all here! Now then to the business of considering how to come off with
it."

He thrust the keys in his pocket, and we returned to the cook-room.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WE TALK OVER OUR SITUATION.

That night, as afterwards, Tassard occupied the berth that he was used
to sleep in before he was frozen. Although I had not then the least fear
that he would attempt any malignant tricks with me whilst we remained in
this posture, the feeling that he lay in the berth next but one to mine
made me uneasy in spite of my reasoning; and I was so nervous as to
silently shoot a great iron bolt, so that it would have been impossible
to enter without beating the door in.

In sober truth, the sight of the treasure had put a sort of fever into
my imagination, of the heat and effects of which I was not completely
sensible until I was alone in my cabin and swinging in the darkness.
That the value of what I had seen came to ninety or a hundred thousand
pounds of our money I could not doubt; and I will not deny that my fancy
was greatly excited by thinking of it. But there was something else.
Suppose we should have the happiness to escape with this treasure, then
I was perfectly certain the Frenchman would come between me and my share
of it. This apprehension threading my heated thoughts of the gold and
silver kept me restless during the greater part of the night, and I also
held my brains on the stretch with devices for saving ourselves and the
treasure; yet I could not satisfy my mind that anything was to be done
unless Nature herself assisted us in freeing the schooner.

However, as it happened, the gale roared for a whole week, and the cold
was so frightful and the air so charged with spray and hail that we were
forced to lie close below with the hatches on for our lives. It was true
Cape Horn weather, with seas as high as cliffs, and a westering tendency
in the wind that flung sheets of water through the ravine, which must
have quickly filled the hollow and built us up in ice to the height of
the rails but for the strong slope down which the water rushed as fast
as it was hurled.

I never needed to peep an inch beyond the companion-way to view the
sky; nor for the matter of that was there ever any occasion to leave the
cabin to guess at the weather, for the pe