270 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



tance who thought he knew the location of the loot. 

 At his instigation they had bought the ship in San 

 Francisco; when they reached the promised land, 

 their guide took them ashore, pointed to a large 

 hole that some one had dug, and announced tri- 

 umphantly, "There, — I told you there was treasure 

 here." Which seemed to be the sum of his knowl- 

 edge. Between disgust and discouragement, they 

 did not even look further but started back and 

 reached Punta Arenas, penniless. They wanted to 

 sell the schooner, which fell in perfectly with Gis- 

 sler's plans, but when he went aboard, he found 

 her nothing but a sieve. 



"For God's sake, what have you been doing?" 

 Gissler demanded. 



"Pumping day and night to keep afloat," they 

 confessed, and the last he heard of these latest vic- 

 tims to the lure of Cocos, they were in the interior, 

 working in the mines. 



No boat suitable for Gissler's purpose tm-ned up. 

 The boy came down with fever, and his father de- 

 cided to take him home, leaving August Gissler to 

 continue the expedition alone. 



"If you find anything, I leave it to you to do 

 the fair thing," was his valedictory. 



At length a Swedish barque, loading cedarwood, 

 came into Punta Arenas. She was short-handed, 

 and Gissler shipped as mate on condition that en 

 route to Valparaiso they should go to Cocos and 

 stay ten days while he looked about and checked up 

 on his information. They sighted Cocos one day, 

 but then, like so many mariners before them, they 



