in gold--and, aided by the Marquesan
chief, made a secure hiding-place for it by removing the skin in the
transoms, and then packing it in oakum and wedging each package in
between the timbers. Then he carefully relaid the skin, and repainted
the whole. He said, 'If anything happens to me through treachery, no
one will ever discover that money, although they will get a couple of
thousand of Mexican silver dollars in my chest'.

"Well, the _Juliette_ sailed, and was never again heard of.

"That brings my story to an end, and if this is the _Juliette_, and the
money has not been taken, it is within six feet of us--there," and he
pointed calmly to the transoms.

Marsh was greatly excited.

"We shall soon see, Meredith. But first let me say that I am sure that
this is your father's missing schooner, and that she is the vessel that
thirteen years ago called at Motumoe, and those who sailed her sent
Pautoe on shore when she was an infant."

Then he hurriedly related the story as told to him by Mr. Copley.

Meredith nodded. "No doubt the missionary was right and my father's
fears were well-founded. I suppose the German and the Dagoes murdered
him and the four Marquesans. Krause, of course, would know that my poor
father had money on board. And I daresay that the Dagoes spared the
child out of piety--their Holy Roman consciences wouldn't let 'em cut
the throat of a probably unbaptised child. Now, Marsh, if you'll clear
away the cushions and all the other gear from the transoms, I'll get an
auger and an axe, and we'll investigate."

Rising from his seat in his usual leisurely manner, he went on deck, and
returned in a few minutes with a couple of augers, an axe, two wedges,
and a heavy hammer.

Marsh had cleared away the cushions and some boxes of provisions, and
was eagerly awaiting him.

Meredith, first of all, took the axe, and, with the back of the head,
struck the casing of the transoms.

"It's all right, Marsh. Either the money, or something else is there
right enough, I believe. Bore away on your side."

The two augers were quickly biting away through the hard wood of the
casing, and in less than two minutes Marsh felt the point of his break
through the inner skin, and then enter something soft; then it clogged,
and finally stuck. Reversing the auger, he withdrew it, and saw that on
the end were some threads of oakum and canvas, which he excitedly showed
to his partner, who nodded, and went on boring in an u