COCOS— A TALE OF TREASURE 257 



The rest of Keating's story is a mass of contra- 

 dictions. He eventually reached St. John's, alone, 

 where he exchanged gold pieces and some bars of 

 bullion to the value of only about 1300 pounds. 

 Bogue was never seen again. Keating said that 

 he had been drowned, so laden down with gold 

 ingots that he could not swim, but sometimes this 

 tragedy was said to have taken place when trying 

 to launch the boat on that exciting night at Cocos, 

 and sometimes it happened in Panama Bay, which 

 the two men were supposed to have reached in the 

 open boat. There was a half-hearted attempt to 

 try Keating for murder, but in the absence of a 

 corpse, the case came to nothing. 



Captain Gissler, who has weighed and sifted 

 every available scrap of information, has a very 

 plausible explanation of the two men's movements 

 on the night of escape from the mutineers. He does 

 not believe that Keating ever knew the spot 

 where the treasure was concealed, but that Bogue 

 left him to guard the boat ( a very necessary precau- 

 tion on Cocos beaches, with their heavy surf ) while 

 Bogue made his survey and paced off the distance. 

 That was in the daytime, on their first landing. 

 That night the same thing happened ; Keating kept 

 the boat from smashing on the beach, while Bogue 

 groped his way to the cache, and returned with all 

 he could carry. It might very well be that the two 

 men disagreed then and there, and that the snow- 

 white terns, roosting in the fringing trees, were 

 wakened by angry voices and the sounds of a 

 struggle. Or perhaps there was no noise but the 



