COCOS— A TALE OF TREASURE 271 



were becalmed, the mists came down, and in the 

 grip of the strong cm-rents they drifted helplessly 

 away and did not see the island again. Arrived at 

 Valparaiso, a ship's broker was interested in the 

 story, and eventually a company was formed and a 

 ship chartered. The captain and every man in the 

 crew received, instead of wages, shares in the prob- 

 lematical profits of the voyage. Thus Gissler first 

 reached the spot that was to be his home, the place 

 to which so many of his memories are bound and 

 where his hopes still center. 



In Chatham Bay the ship anchored for a fort- 

 night. Then the captain grew uneasy; his stores 

 were decreasing, and he saw no profits accruing 

 here, while he knew of cargoes that he might be 

 carrying up and down the coast. Gissler had not 

 finished cutting his lines to survey the bearings 

 given on his map, so the ship sailed promising to 

 retui'n at some future date, and left him with three 

 sailors. 



The provisions were divided man for man, those 

 on board sharing equally with those left behind. 

 With Gissler stayed Mike, a Dane, "who had lived 

 with Irishmen so long he was as bad as one him- 

 self," Anderson, a mechanic, and Holm, "who was 

 not a practical man." On the hill in the center of 

 Chatham Bay they built a hut from some boards 

 and pieces of corrugated iron that they found, 

 probably the remnants of the convict settlement. 



It was almost eight months before they saw the 

 ship again. Food ran short, of course, and from 

 boards they built a flat-bottom boat in which to 



