The face of Dugald Shaw was controlled, but there was a slight rigidity in its quiet.  A pulse beat rapidly in his cheek.  All worldly good, all hope of place, power, independence, hung for him on the contents of the small flat package, wrapped in oil-silk, which Miss Browne was at this moment withdrawing from her pocket.

Only Cuthbert Vane, seated next to me, maintained without effort his serenity.  For him the whole affair belonged in the category known as sporting, where a gentleman played his stake and accepted with equanimity the issue.

As Miss Browne undid the oil-silk package everybody held his breath, except poor Aunt Jane, who most inopportunely swallowed a gnat and choked.

The dead sailor’s legacy consisted of a single sheet of time-stained paper.  Two-thirds of the sheet was covered by a roughly-drawn sketch in faded ink, giving the outline of the island shores as we had seen them from the Rufus Smith.  Here was the cove, with the name it bears in the Admiralty charts—­Lantern Bay—­written in, and a dotted line indicating the channel.  North of the bay the shore line was carried for only a little distance.  On the south was shown the long tongue of land which protects the anchorage, and which ends in some detached rocks or islets.  At a point on the seaward side of the tongue of land, about on a line with the head of the bay, the sketch ended in a swift backward stroke of the pen which gave something the effect of a cross.

To all appearance the map was merely to give Hopperdown his directions for entering the cove.  There was absolutely no mark upon it to show where the treasure had been buried.

Now for the writing on the sheet below the map.  It was in another hand than that which had written Lantern Bay across the face of the cove, and which, though labored, was precise and clear.  This other was an uneven, wavering scrawl: 

He sed it is in a Cave with 2 mouths near by the grave of Bill Halliwell wich was cut down for he new to much.  He sed you can bring a boat to the cave at the half Tide but beware the turn for the pull is strong.  He sed to find the Grave again look for the stone at the head marked B. H. and a Cross Bones.  In the Chist is gold Dubloons, a vast lot, also a silver Cross wich he sed leve for the Grave for he sed Bill walks and thats unlucky.

That was all.  A fairly clear direction for any friend who had attended the obsequies of Bill and knew where to look for the stone marked B. H. and a cross-bones, but to perfect strangers it was vague.

A blank look crept into the intent faces about the table.

“It—­it don’t happen to say in more deetail jest precisely where that cave might be looked for?” inquired Mr. Tubbs hopefully.

“In more detail?” repeated Miss Browne challengingly.  “Pray, Mr. Tubbs, what further detail could be required?”

“A good deal more, I am afraid,” remarked the Scotchman grimly.