e in a compact form, and easily accessible,
Forbes, Joe, and myself might be able to secure it and convey it on
board the ship, unknown to the men, while they were busily engaged in
digging for it elsewhere--for, now that they were aware of its
existence, it seemed to me that my best chance of success lay in
employing them in the search, while taking care that none of them should
find it. This would naturally lead them to the conclusion that, if my
document were not an ingenious hoax, the treasure had already been
discovered and secured by somebody else.

This plan rather took my fancy. It was simple, feasible, and demanded
no elaborate system of deception; the men would simply be set to dig
upon a certain spot, and, failing, after a sufficiently exhaustive
search, to find anything, the digging would be abandoned, and they would
be sent to various more or less distant parts of the island to cut
sandal-wood. The more I thought of it, the better I liked it; and when,
later on, during the forenoon, I found an opportunity to talk it over
with Sir Edgar and Forbes--having previously related to them the
substance of Joe's communication made to me during the middle watch--
they agreed with me that, failing a better scheme, they saw no reason
why it should not be successful. Sir Edgar, as I had anticipated,
declared himself ready to act in any way that I might suggest, at a
moment's notice; and, now that he had had time to think over my former
communication to him, and to grow accustomed to the idea of a coming
contest, either of strength or wits, with the men, was as eager for the
fray as a schoolboy is for the great cricket-match of the year.

Meanwhile, the wind had slightly freshened with the rising of the sun,
and the ship was gliding along upon a taut bowline, under all plain
sail, at a speed of about six knots, heading up about a point and a half
to windward of the northern extremity of the island. We were
approaching it from the south-west--the direction mentioned in my
ancestor's cryptogram--and as we gradually rose it above the horizon it
was curious to note how exact a resemblance its outline bore to the
profile of an upturned human face lying prone along the water. It was
so striking that even the children remarked upon it; while, as for the
men, they could scarcely remove their eyes from it, though _their_
interest in the place was doubtless founded more upon the wealth they
hoped to find upon it than upon i