262 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



were confronted with the problem of conceaHng it. 

 There are only two possible anchorages, Chatham 

 and Wafer Bay, neither of which permit a ship to 

 lie nearer than a quarter mile from shore. We 

 imagined the Mary Dear and her crew dm-ing 

 the weary work of disposing of boatloads of specie 

 and bullion. Anyone who has ever seen the place 

 feels exhausted at the mere thought of their labors 

 after the booty was landed. Of course they would 

 not bury it on the beach, so they must have trans- 

 ported it painfully, a very little at a time, along the 

 swift, rocky streams, or up the slippery hillsides 

 and across the chasms with which the island is rent. 

 And no one would envy them the task of excavat- 

 ing, in the root-filled, stony soil, a hole large 

 enough to contain millions of dollars worth of 

 precious metal. 



On one of the two rainless days which we had 

 during our stay, Betty and I set off inland. Hav- 

 ing had experience of land routes, abounding in 

 razor-edged grass, wet clay soil that converted the 

 hillsides into tropical toboggan slides, stinging ants 

 and, in spots, all but impenetrable undergrowth, we 

 followed the stream bed from Chatham Bay. It 

 is a wonderful river, both for its pictorial quahties, 

 and for the unhmited possibihties of exercise that 

 it affords. Where it leaves the jungle to flow across 

 the beach, branches laden with blossoms arched 

 across its gurgling cool shallows. Splashing along, 

 for a while all our attention was concentrated on 

 mere progress. Here we crossed a tiny sand-bar, 

 with water only to our ankles ; beyond would be a 



