For days I kept my bed, as every part of my anatomy had received a tremendous battering when I took my flight over the jagged stones that barred my way.

My constant thought as I lay on the bed with the glorious sunshine streaming in from the open window, which gave me a view of the dark trees standing out against the azure sunlit sky, was about the hieroglyphics on the paper.  What did the skull portend, and what did the letters and figures refer to?

The skull I set down as the point to which the most importance was to be attached, and as I believed it referred to some hidden articles or treasure stowed away more than a century ago, I was naturally very eager to find out its whereabouts.

Well, say the skull represented the treasure spot, what did the square surrounding it mean?  I gave it up.  “Then what,” I asked myself, “is the meaning of the letters at certain angles round the square both inside and out?” These I assumed to be the bearings of certain objects, as the person stood at the spot in which the goods were hidden; the figures I conjectured were the number of feet or yards distant of the “treasure spot” from the various objects.

Next, where was it most likely a man would hide anything of value, beneath the sea or upon dry land?  Land certainly.  Would it be among the rocks or where the ground was softer?  Certainly the latter, I should say.

Then I set to thinking of the different places on the island where the nature of the soil would allow of digging, and could call to mind but few, and these mostly on the higher parts of the island.  I determined when I was able to get about that I would inspect all these places, and see if I could find objects to correspond with the bearings and distances given in the sketch.  Having thus promised myself to pursue the search further at a more appropriate time, I dismissed the subject from my mind for the time being.

After several days of enforced idleness I was at length able once more to go out, but at first felt very weak in the legs for want of exercise.

[Illustration:  Decorative scroll]

FOOTNOTE: 

4:  Speaking of island doctors reminds me that Dr. Moyle has recently retired from practice in the Isles of Scilly, where he has been the sole medical practitioner for over forty years.  He is spoken of with love and respect by all the islanders, and no wonder, for he has been a wonderful old man.  His patients were scattered over the five inhabited islands, and never once did he fail to go when summoned.  On many a wild winter night has he been called up to cross the rough sea to attend, perhaps, on some poor fisherman’s child.  Dressed in an oilskin coat, sou’wester and big boots, he was always ready to go, and scarcely looked like a medical man.  The people have shown their regard for him in a handsome manner.  Without the aid of bazaars or other such institutions, they have raised funds enough to present him with a life-long annuity of L52.