ion, as it proves that the story can not have been noised
about.

Christmas Day! I wonder what they are all doing at home? December
28. Of course the cave under the point is the logical place. I
have been unable to find any stone marked B. H. on the ground above
it, but I fear that a search after Bill's tombstone would be
hopeless. Although the formation of the island is of the sort to
contain numerous caves, still they must be considerably less
plentiful than possible tombstones. Under circumstances such
as those of the mate's story, it seems to me that all the
probabilities point to their concealing the chest in the cave with
an opening on the bay. It must have been necessary for them to act
as quickly as possible, that their absence from the ship might go
unnoticed--though I believe the three conspirators had made the
crew drunk. Then to get the boat, laden with the heavy chest,
through the surf to any of the other caves--if the various cracks
and fissures I have seen are indeed properly to be called
caves--would be stiff work for three men. Yes, everything
indicates the cavern under the point. The only question is, isn't
it indicated too clearly? Would a smooth old scoundrel such as
this Captain Sampson must have been have hidden his treasure in the
very place certain to be ransacked if the secret ever got out?
Unless it was deeply buried, which it could have been only at
certain stages of the tide, even old Heintz would have been apt to
come across it in the course of his desultory researches for the
riches of the buccaneers. And I am certain placid old Heintz did
not mislead me. Besides, at Panama, he was making arrangements to
go with some other Germans on a small business venture to Samoa,
which he would not have been likely to do if he had just unearthed
a vast fortune in buried treasure. Still, I shall explore the cave
thoroughly, though with little hope.

Oh, Helen, if I could watch these tropic stars with you to-night!

January 6. I think I am through with the cave under the point--the
Cavern of the Two Arches, I have named it. It is a dangerous place
to work in alone, and my little skiff has been badly battered
several times. But I peered into every crevice in the walls, and
sounded the sands with a drill. I suppose I would have made a more
thorough job of it if I had not been convinced from the first that
the chest was not there. It was not reason that told me so--I know
I may well