“And so to-night,” the narrator ended, “I bury the casket in the chimney; within it, my hopes and few trinkets of the past of which I am an integral part.  Good-by, little glove; good-by, brave old medal!  I am sending a drawing of the chimney to the good Abbe le Fanu.  He will outlive me.  He lives on forty-centime the day; treasures mean nothing to him; his cry, his eternal cry, is always of the People.  He will probably tear it up.  The brig will never come again.  So best.  Death will come soon.  And I shall die unknown, unloved, forgotten. Bonne nuit!”

Mr. Donovan alone remained in normal state of mind.  ’Twas all faradiddle, this talk of finding treasures.  The old Frenchman had been only half-baked.  He dumped his tools into his bag, and, with the wisdom of his kind, departed.  There would be another job to-morrow, putting the bricks back.

The others, however, were for the time but children, and like children they all talked at once; and there was laughter and thumping of fists and clapping of hands.  The admiral had a new plan every five minutes.  He would do this, or he would do that; and Fitzgerald would shake his head, or Breitmann would point out the feasibility of the plan.  Above all, he urged, there must be no publicity (with a flash toward Fitzgerald); the world must know nothing till the treasure was in their hands.  Otherwise, there would surely be piracy on the high-seas.  Two million francs was a prize, even in these days.  There were plenty of men and plenty of tramp ships.  Even when they found the gold, secrecy would be best.  There might be some difficulty with France.  Close lips, then, till they returned to America; after that Mr. Fitzgerald would become famous as the teller of the exploit.

“I confess that, for all my excitement,” said Fitzgerald, “I am somewhat skeptical.  Still, your suggestion, Mr. Breitmann, is good.”

“Do you mean to say you doubt the existence of the treasure?” cried the admiral, something impatient.

“Oh, no doubt it once existed.  But seventy-five or eighty years!  There were others besides this refugee Frenchman.  Who knows into what hands similar documents may have fallen?”

“And the unknown man who worked in the chimney?” put in the girl quietly.

“That simply proves what I say.  He knows that this treasure once existed, but not where.  Now, it is perfectly logical that some other man, years ago, might have discovered the same key as we have.  He may have got away with it.  The man might have plausibly declared that he had made the money somewhere.  The sum is not so large as to create any wide comment.”

“Ah, my boy, your father had more enthusiasm than that.”  The admiral looked reproachful.