“Stored in a cave, gold and silver and jewels would last forever. Everything else would have rotted away probably.�
“It says to the value of millions of pounds, you notice,� she repeated thoughtfully, pointing to the parchment again.
“Aye,� I answered, “there is nothing unusual or unbelievable in that; the cargoes of those old Spanish galleons ran up into the millions often, I have read.�
“How could we get there?� she asked.
“If you had a ship,� said I, “well commanded and found and manned you could reach the spot without difficulty.�
“How much would it cost?�
Well, I quickly and roughly estimated in my mind the necessary outlay. Such a vessel as she would require might be bought for perhaps twenty-five hundred or three thousand pounds; provisioning, outfitting, together with the pay of the officers and the crew, would require perhaps from fifteen hundred to two thousand five hundred pounds more, or a total of between five and six thousand pounds. And she had but two!
I was about to tell her the prohibitive truth when the solution of the problem suddenly came to me. In one way or another I had been a fortunate voyager and I had saved up or earned by trading and one or two adventures in which I had taken part, something over four thousand pounds, which was safely lodged to my credit in a London bank. Her fortune was two thousand pounds. Alone she could do nothing, together we could accomplish it. I had no right to put the suggestion in her mind, but I did it.
“I should think,� I said slowly, “that two thousand pounds would be ample to cover everything.�
“Ah,� she said triumphantly, “exactly the sum that Master Ficklin said was left of my mother’s fortune.�