“Well, it would be more sensible to wait a spell before he started out,” observed Joseph.
Tenderly disposed as she was to the memory of Captain Shannon, Joseph’s remark grated upon Miss Katherine, and she made a very cutting remark about people who had no fine sensibilities themselves and could not feel for others who had. However, she forgave and forgot very quickly, and the next evening she confided to Joseph a most important discovery.
“You remember that I read last night that Captain Shannon had been on Cocos Island?” she asked.
Joseph replied that he remembered all she had read to him.
“Well,” continued Miss Katherine, “the name of that island bothered me all night, and to-day I set to work to find out what I had heard about it. This is what I found in the encyclopedia:
“‘Cocos Island, volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, S. W. of Costa Rica, with steep rugged coasts and quite level interior; comprises about nine square miles, is uninhabited and is reported to have been the place of concealment of treasure, jewelry and plate sent there by wealthy inhabitants of Spanish colonies on the neighboring mainland early in the nineteenth century, during the wars in which they achieved their independence from Spain. The belief that many of these valuables have never been recovered led to a number of unsuccessful search expeditions.’
“They have never been recovered, Joseph,” repeated Miss Katherine with glistening eyes. “Did you note the significance of that? The treasure was there when Captain Shannon landed on the island, and there he was alone on the island, with provisions enough to enable him to remain there a considerable time, with tools to aid him in a complete search, and with a raft to carry him to the mainland when he had found the object of his search. What do you think now, Joseph?”
“He must have had a devil of a time landing on that island in a raft if the coast is rugged and steep, as it says,” remarked Joseph irrelevantly.
Miss Katherine wanted to shake her brother, but she brought wile instead of strength to her aid. Joseph was known among his neighbors to be “a little close.” He certainly regarded with respect and almost reverence whatever represented a good sum of dollars.
“That treasure must have been worth millions of dollars,” began Miss Katherine. “Even if Captain Shannon discovered or brought away only a small part of it, there would have been great wealth in that part.”