ever, was shot dead ere he
could reach Hugh Saint Leger's side, and the urgent message remained
undelivered. At length the stubborn courage of the English prevailed,
and, despite their vast superiority in numbers, the Spaniards, who had
boarded, were first driven back to their own deck and then below, when,
further resistance being useless, they flung down their arms and
surrendered.

"Hugh now, after giving a few hasty orders as to the disposal of the
prisoners, found time to think of his father, whom he remembered seeing
in the act of being borne below, wounded, in the early part of the
fight. He accordingly hurried away in search of him, finding him in his
own cabin, supported in the arms of one of the seamen, and literally at
his last breath. It was with difficulty that Hugh succeeded in
rendering his father conscious of his presence; and when this was at
length accomplished the sufferer only rallied sufficiently to gasp
painfully the words, `The treasure--buried--island--full particulars--
concealed in my--' when a torrent of blood gushed from his mouth and
nostrils, and, with a last convulsive struggle, Richard Saint Leger sank
back upon his pallet, dead.

"He was buried at sea, that same night, along with the others who had
fallen in the fight; and some days afterwards, when Hugh Saint Leger had
conquered his grief sufficiently to give his attention to other matters,
he set himself to the task of seeking for the particulars relating to
the buried treasure. But though he patiently examined every document
and scrap of paper contained in his father's desk, and otherwise
searched most carefully and industriously in every conceivable
hiding-place he could think of, the quest was unavailing, and _the
particulars have never been found, to this day_!"

"It is very curious," I remarked, when my mother had brought her
narrative to a conclusion--"very curious, and very interesting. But
what you have related only strengthens my previous conviction, that the
document or documents no longer exist. I have very little doubt that,
if the truth could only be arrived at, it would be found that Richard
Saint Leger kept the papers concealed somewhere about his clothing, and
that they were buried with him."

"No; that was certainly not the case," rejoined my mother; "for it is
distinctly stated that--probably to obviate any such possibility--Hugh
Saint Leger carefully preserved every article of clothing which his
father wor