“Bosh!” scoffed Gavin.  “You’ll get over it.  Self-forgiveness is the easiest blessing to acquire.  You’re better of it, already, or you couldn’t talk so glibly about it.  Now, about this treasure-business:  You know, of course, that you’ll have to drop it,—­that you’ll have to give up every cent of it to the Government?  If you can’t find the cache, up North, where Hade used to send it when he lugged it away from here, it is likely to go a bit hard with you.  I’m going to do all I can to get you clear.  Not for your own sake, but for your sister’s.  But you’ll have to ‘come through, clean,’ if I’m to help you.  Now, if you’ve got anything to say—­”

He paused, invitingly.  Milo gaped at him, the big bearded face working convulsively.  Nerves wrenched, easily dominated by a stronger nature, the giant was struggling in vain to resume his pose of not understanding Brice’s allusions.  Presently, with a sigh, that was more like a grunt of hopelessness, he thrust his fingers into an inner pocket of his waistcoat, and drew forth a somewhat tarnished silver dollar.  This he held toward Gavin, in his wide palm.

Brice took the coin from him and inspected it with considerable interest.  In spite of the tarnish and the ancient die and date, its edges were as sharp and its surface as unworn as though it had been minted that very year.  Clearly, this dollar had jingled in no casual pockets, along with other coins, nor had it been sweated or marred by any sort of use.

“Do you know what that is?” asked Milo.

“Yes,” said Brice.  “It is a United States silver dollar, dated ‘1804.’”

“Do you know its value?” pursued Milo.  “But of course you don’t.  You probably think it is worth its weight in silver and nothing more.”

“It is, and it isn’t,” returned Gavin.  “If I were to take this dollar, to-night, to the right groups of numismatists, they would pay me anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000 for it.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Standish, in visible surprise.  “You know something about numismatics, then?”

“Just a little,” modestly admitted Brice.  “In my work, one has to have a smattering of it.  For instance—­if I remember rightly—­there are only three of these 1804 silver dollars generally known to be in existence.  That is why collectors are ready to pay a fortune for authentic specimens of them, in good condition.  Yes, a smattering of numismatics may come in handy, at times.  So does sailor lore.  It did, for instance, with a chap I used to know.  He had read up, on this special dollar.  He was dead-broke.  He was passing the Gloucester waterfront, one day, and saw a dockful of rotting old schooners that were being sold at auction for firewood and for such bits of their metal as weren’t rusted to pieces.  He read the catalog.  Then he telegraphed to me to wire him a loan of one hundred dollars.  For the catalog gave the date of one schooner’s building as 1804.  He knew it used to be a hard-and-fast custom of ship-builders to put a silver dollar under the mainmast of every vessel they built, a dollar of that particular year.  He bought the schooner for $70.  He spent ten dollars in hiring men to rip out her mast.  Under it was an 1804 dollar.  He sold it for $3,600.”