“‘I am going to tell you’” (at the beginning of the second paragraph) “’of a very strange thing which happened to me since I last wrote.  I will first state that after my guano-bags had all been safely stored in the warerooms I have hired, I had a heavy piece of work getting the packages of gold out of the bags, and in packing the bars in small, stout boxes I found in the City of Mexico and had sent down here.  In looking around for boxes which would suit my purpose, I discovered these, which had been used for stereotype plates.  They were stamped on the outside, and just what I wanted, being about as heavy after I packed them with gold as they were when they were filled with type-metal.  This packing I had to do principally at night, when I was supposed to be working in a little office attached to the rooms.  As soon as this was done, I sent all the boxes to a safe-deposit bank in Mexico, and there the greater part of them are yet.  Some I have shipped to the mint in San Francisco, some have gone North, and I am getting rid of the rest as fast as I can.

“’The gold bars, cast in a form novel to all dealers, have excited a good deal of surprise and questioning, but for this I care very little.  My main object is to get the gold separated as many miles as possible from the guano, for if the two should be connected in the mind of any one who knew where the guano was last shipped from, I might have cause for anxiety.  But as the bars bear no sort of mark to indicate that they were cast by ancient Peruvians, and, so far as I can remember,—­and I have visited several museums in South America,—­these castings are not like any others that have come down to us from the times of the Incas, the gold must have been cast in this simple form merely for convenience in transportation and packing.  Some people may think it is California gold, some may think it comes from South America, but, whatever they think, they know it is pure gold, and they have no right to doubt that it belongs to me.  Of course, if I were a stranger it might be different, but wherever I have dealt I am known, or I send a good reference.  And now I will come to the point of this letter.

“’Three days ago I was in my office, waiting to see a man to whom I hoped to sell my stock of guano, when a man came in,—­but not the one I expected to see,—­and if a ghost had appeared before me, I could not have been more surprised.  I do not know whether or not you remember the two American sailors who were the first to go out prospecting, after Mr. Rynders and his men left us, and who did not return.  This man was one of them—­Edward Shirley by name.’”

“I remember him perfectly!” cried Ralph.  “And the other fellow was George Burke.  On board the Castor I used to talk to them more than to any of the other sailors.”