Show CHAPTER ill III continued 4 yet Jes life had been a sheltered one her mother lind been th the e only child of an american missionary to th the society islands As a little girl she ha had d lived at the mission where an all contacts naturally were guarded lind at thirteen had been talen taken to san francisco and placed in a girls seminary where she remained until the death of her mother three years later captain poole her father had then yielded to her streaty nt reaty that she be taken with him for lo 10 a voyage aboard his vessel lie ile desired to make the better acquaintance of ills his daughter and the companionship continued until the b beginning of the last illness thal thai compelled him to quit the sea even aboard the big four master Jes life had been no loss less insulated from evil infection warren poolo poole a reader and thinker and the student that some such men become had devoted leisure moments to her education though on lines scarcely in eluded in a school curriculum there had been few topics that lie he had ta booed bloed ills his exposition of social conditions had been wise clear and clean based on the protection of knowledge rather than that hazardous fortification which Is the ignorance of innocence jessica served tea and cakes and a little later count de corlay carlay tin and robert took their leave the others walkin walking g with them through tho the woods to the cove where they had left belt boat then tom who had fallen silent went att ir ashore in the boat that he had borrowed from a friend the storekeeper whose guest he was doctor white had find not seen fit to alig augment ment tile the febrile condition of the young mans heart by inviting inciting him to stop upon the island when ills his callers had left doctor white slipped off into thil the woods jessica caught up with him just ns not he reached the point where ho he and tom had exchanged their first words with tile the frenchmen and whither his steps now had led him through r some om e subconscious b agency the while whale was the shoreward has bus tinn of the sunken reef charted ns as corvette Corvet tP ledge edge this formation naver was exposed or even visible at the most extreme low tade alile hilt but wits was andl bated by the big swells that and sometimes times broke at a certain point of its outer third the extremity v of which was marked by a is spar par buoy brov Il hello lello said the doctor and spun round now want th the dickens brought mp me over here again jessica laughed easy cam gar dy youve thinking only you thought it out nut clear ns as a clay biank well the finished product that theres no reason why by we have a try for the fourquet too said jessica the doctor gave her an owlish stare darned if I 1 dont believe youre right my dear well why not asked jessica after nil all treasure hunting it Is an open gamp game and you knew the story of the sunken corvette before any of those thise others 11 upsides PRIdes she hit n lodge that juts out from the island that you now own ow n that constitutes about as good gond a claim as tiny any of the others 11 agreed the doctor and its got precedent with the bahama conch blowers those pirate wreckers used to argue she broke her nick back on our coral corn reef so BO ashes our meat also of course I 1 was too polito polite to say so hut hilt it looks to me as it if the counts distinguished an aestor had been holding out a fistful on his august angust monarch ily by all the rules of the game of war its as played in those days das the commander of it kings ship alp was supposed to turn in to tile the royal exchequer whatever he grabbed that occurred to mp me said jessica of course the count must have thought of it hut but I 1 should siy say that it was just one of several things he see the need of telling us oh so I 1 the only one to have that hunch bunch no hut but about the fourquet I 1 think we might as well overl overhaul her now bow as any time it if only to silve poor tom his job on tile the paper and wasting what little money tips ties put by why yes agrell tile doctor mock lets go right out and help ourselves that would be best I 1 think resides this sneak of a Sebast sebasteen Srba stten len n might I 1 ight be more clever than tile the rest of t them bem have to go to bath tomorrow morning gardy and got get a diver with his gear and bo be sure to make a signed and witnessed agreement he Is to work for pay and not on lay I 1 know a good deal about alise things I 1 sail with ft ath father nearly three years for nothing the doctor made it a protesting ture dut but my dear girl dont talk so BO glibly about spending money until youve youre something to go on hut but I 1 have said aid jessica and looked out at the swell mounting over the ho point or of greatest danger on the ledge what do you vou mean you have ul 1 I mean gardy that the he only dan tha tat berous e rous point of the corvette 0 lie lodge ledge to vess vessels els of ordinary draught Is the cor vette herself what just that gardy she was weded wedged firmly the there ro bott bottom up tip find and partly pet and nil crusted crust pil with barnacled barnacles barn acles and covered with a beavy mass of kelp long before we lind tiny ronit ennst and goo geodetic goodelle detle survey at uncommonly low titles tides with a heavy he nv ground swell run nang you cin can see the big brown skate like mass of it just under the surface in the trough impossible absurd 1 it all ins has been sounded out A sounding lend lead would clink on her the same feline ns as on a rock said Jessl cil her timbers timber q are calcified they get that way when lien always entirely suh buh merged especially in cold writer water like this you know liow how those old fighting ships were built solid masses of oak the frames set close together they w were ore practically as if hewn out of one en enormous amous block of the finest seasoned wood od 11 the doctor shook his hend head his gray eyes eves were gleaming all the r some same it possible for one thing sho she never could have turned turtle and sank right where she struck she hesslen admitted she struck lanes ledge edge over there a bout about three furlongs to the northward and got dismasted distasted dis masted they cut away the wreck as she wits was settling and drifting down here with the tide then she sank rolled over and made of herself the bad spot on what was afterward charted as corvette conette ledge I 1 think the c chances tire that they knew nf at that time what it really was but tint that after ward vard it was forgotten bilut jerusalem the doctors pro f calm that had find grown to be till ills babit was forsaking him in his excitement cit ement the swell would have rolled her away she had to fetch up tip somewhere gardy its all rocky down th thre there re she must have rolled over into a cleft where she stuck tier her ballast shifted as she went on to her beam ends and tier her guns made her top heavy and helped hold her down that and her ballast was dumped on to the under side of hir her berth deck the swell Is never heavy enough this his far up tip into the hay bay to move the alie deeper water much mu ch Jess jesslene lens theory seemed cr ous and yet set her illustration of it was sound hut but that the corvette ledge should be in its dinger danger aspect ohp cor rette herself was not only an li abou it but an amusing gnp the doc tor give gave an excited chuckle well said lie he im thoroughly and an delightfully jiggered I 1 believe yon are anre right hut but whatever put it into your head and supposing vou nou should manage manag ge to locate incite her what do yon 1011 ex e hect to find Jes shapely head turned slowly treasure site she said nich treasure pirate loot that this old fraud or of tin an ancestor of this young fraud frand of a bob was trying it to study up tip some scheme for appropriating perhaps he sa sank n k her on purpose meaning to c come 0 in 0 hack back later and recover it she may have him by not sticking where she struck nut but dont you think that your theory reconstructs too much no I 1 dont I 1 know flints it a ship and not a rock not many girls at papette could bent me swimming 1 9 ani d diving I 1 went down in about feet and fetched up tip squarely on her keel on tier her keel did you say on her kepi it must hive have been from the way the alig alges es sloped off on either side any diver not looking for a wreck would wo uld have thought it the straight gilt crest of n sunken reef I 1 went down at slack water when there wis was no cur rent otherwise you vou conid nt see a thing for the algie nl ie out grent great layers lasers of the elephant par sort with long snaky stems tile the water was clear so that I 1 emild could get an idea of her position slips ashes bow and stern in the line of the ledge head out to tile the buoy buny and completely capsized though heeled to the north ard a little tint that would make it hard ha rd to get at n t her guns said the doctor oh bother her guns flardy the thing to do would he to dynamite ft hole to work through then sop what she has inside her something heavy must have got adrift cown wn below to have rolled her over like that roused mused doctor white though of course theres no stability to speak of in a oiled filled vessel and the swell Is sometimes pretty stepp steel rint nut I 1 cant help thinking about her guns bernine ench each time tom mentioned them the count looked for a like a gory pirate him himself seir perhaps she had a cargo of them in her hold suggested jessica since site tie was or ordered derpol here to tulip take und and holi hold silo sho nine have brought a supply of small cali cannon tion for its defense that would account for her hugging bottom so BO liard hard but even the bronze guns of those times such a lot of money would they 1 ITO BIC BB CONTINUED CONTIN UrD |