COCOS— A TALE OF TREASURE 277 



and resentment. Then they accused the woman of 

 withholding information, and searched her and all 

 her belongings, without result. 



Sometimes expeditions were frequent; on at 

 least one occasion there were two at Cocos simul- 

 taneously, regarding each other with bitterness and 

 exchanging accusations of unfair dealing, spying, 

 and destruction of landmarks. Then months would 

 go by without sight of a ship, and once two years 

 elapsed without a visitor of any kind. During such 

 intervals Captain Gissler and his wife spent busy, 

 happy days, contentedly cultivating the bananas, 

 coffee, limes, oranges, and various vegetables that 

 by now were flourishing, fishing the streams, and 

 taking long tramps over their domain, while they 

 discussed the millions that lay somewhere within 

 this narrow compass, and the possibility of finding 

 them. Captain Gissler discovered the (means, 

 which he subsequently patented, of making a very 

 useful and substantial brush from the natural ma- 

 terials at hand, and contrived a little machine to 

 use in the process of their manufacture. Like all 

 Robinson Crusoes, he put many articles to quaint 

 and unexpected uses, as when he converted his 

 bedsprings into rat-traps that wrought havoc 

 among the all-too-fearless rodents. He built a 

 tiny mill also, that utilized the power from the 

 river at Wafer Bay, and planted coconut-palms 

 to replace those so wantonly destroyed in centur- 

 ies past. There were wild pigs to hunt, and from 

 the veranda of their very comfortable house Mrs. 

 Gissler used a trout-rod every day at high water, 



