“Hadn’t you better tell us all about it?” went on the master of the Golden Eagle.
“Wait a minute!” cried Dave. “Do you suppose those men are anywhere near here?”
“I don’t know. They said they would be back, but they did not come.”
“They may have seen us and skipped out,” ventured the senator’s son.
“More than likely,” groaned Giles Borden. “Now that they have my money they won’t want to stay here. They’ll take passage on that ship as soon as she comes in and leave me to shift for myself.”
“Tell us your story, so we can understand what you are talking about,” said Captain Sanders.
In a disconnected manner the Englishman related his tale, pausing occasionally to take another drink of water. He said he was from London and had met Geswick, Pardell, and Rumney less than six months before. They had come to him with the story of a wonderful pirates’ treasure said to be hidden on Cave Island, and had asked him to finance an expedition in search of it.
“I had just fallen heir to five thousand pounds through the death of my father,” he went on, “and I was anxious to get the treasure, so I consented to pay the expenses of the trip, taking the three men along. They had the chart that you saw on shipboard and some other particulars, and they made me bring along a thousand pounds extra, stating that we might have to pay some natives well to get them to show us where the particular cave we were seeking was located.”
Then had followed the trip to Florida and the one to Barbados. At the latter island a schooner had been chartered to take them to Cave Island, where they were landed on the eastern shore. The schooner was to come back for the Englishmen a week later.
“As soon as the treasure hunt began I suspected that I was being hoaxed,” continued Giles Borden. “For all I knew, we were alone on the island. We found several huts, but they were all deserted. We visited a score of caves, but saw nothing that looked like a treasure. Then, one afternoon, Geswick asked me about the extra thousand pounds I was carrying. I grew suspicious and tried to hide the money between the rocks. The three caught me at it and pounced on the money like a pack of wolves. Then, when I remonstrated, they laughed at me, and told me to keep quiet, that they were going to run matters to suit themselves.”