COCOS— A TALE OF TREASURE 279 



Mary Dear. For this exploit he received a repri- 

 mand from the realistic Admiralty, and Cocos was 

 put out of bounds so far as the British Navy was 

 concerned. The First Lord perhaps visualized the 

 island as exerting an influence like Sindbad's Mag- 

 netic Rock, and drawing in Her Majesty's ships 

 one by one. 



Captain Shrapnel had left Cocos before Captain 

 Gissler came back from the mainland, but the idea 

 of buried treasure had a firm grip on his imagina- 

 tion. Some years later he retui-ned, having ar- 

 ranged the financing of a civilian expedition, and 

 spent some busy weeks round Chatham Bay. He 

 had received information from a man named Fitz- 

 gerald, to whom Keating had confided certain di- 

 rections on his death-bed. These bore such fanciful 

 touches as the face of a cliff that would, when a 

 spring was pressed, revolve and reveal the treasm-e. 

 Whether it was Benito's crew or that of the Mary 

 Dear that included such skilled stone-cutters, does 

 not appear to have been explained. 



There was also Lord Fitzwilliam, a wealthy Brit- 

 ish peer, who tried his hand at treasure-seeking. 

 He stole a march on Captain Gissler by beginning 

 blasting operations at Chatham Bay without the 

 owner's permission, but a large section of cliff fell 

 on his head and possibly persuaded him that the 

 God of Buried Treasure fought on the side of the 

 mannerly. 



Another English expedition was financed by a 

 Mr. and Mrs. Gray, who came on their yacht to 

 this island whose soil has been so industriously 



