ds. But it's so heavy that surely there must be
something valuable inside it. Don't you think that we ought to open it
and see?"

"If you break it open you will spoil it, as likely as not," said the
second mate.

Armstrong squatted down in front of it, with his head on one side, and
his long, thin nose within a few inches of the lock.

"The wood is oak," said he, "and it has shrunk a little with age. If I
had a chisel or a strong-bladed knife I could force the lock back
without doing any damage at all."

The mention of a strong-bladed knife made me think of the dead seaman
upon the brig.

"I wonder if he could have been on the job when someone came to
interfere with him," said I.

"I don't know about that, sir, but I am perfectly certain that I could
open the box. There's a screwdriver here in the locker. Just hold the
lamp, Allardyce, and I'll have it done in a brace of shakes."

"Wait a bit," said I, for already, with eyes which gleamed with
curiosity and with avarice, he was stooping over the lid. "I don't see
that there is any hurry over this matter. You've read that card which
warns us not to open it. It may mean anything or it may mean nothing,
but somehow I feel inclined to obey it. After all, whatever is in it
will keep, and if it is valuable it will be worth as much if it is
opened in the owner's offices as in the cabin of the _Mary Sinclair_."

The first officer seemed bitterly disappointed at my decision.

"Surely, sir, you are not superstitious about it," said he, with a
slight sneer upon his thin lips. "If it gets out of our own hands, and
we don't see for ourselves what is inside it, we may be done out of our
rights; besides--"

"That's enough, Mr. Armstrong," said I, abruptly. "You may have every
confidence that you will get your rights, but I will not have that box
opened to-night."

"Why, the label itself shows that the box has been examined by
Europeans," Allardyce added. "Because a box is a treasure-box is no
reason that it has treasures inside it now. A good many folk have had a
peep into it since the days of the old Governor of Terra Firma."

Armstrong threw the screwdriver down upon the table and shrugged his
shoulders.

"Just as you like," said he; but for the rest of the evening, although
we spoke upon many subjects, I noticed that his eyes were continually
coming round, with the same expression of curiosity and greed, to the
old striped box.

And now I come to tha