Both the boys lay down with the determination to be on deck at the first sign of dawn, and yet the sun was half an hour high before either opened his eyes.
Nelse was the first to awaken, and he cried, in a tone of deepest anxiety, as if believing the delay might in some manner result to their injury:
“Get up, Gil! If this is the way we set about hunting for gold there won’t be a very good chance of finding any. We should have been on deck two hours ago.”
This summons was sufficient to bring Gil to his feet instantly, and, after a hurried toilet, the two were leaning over the rail aft, with the well-worn and enigmatical piece of brown paper spread out where it could be studied at their leisure.
When they first gained the deck Andy was coming from the galley to the cabin with the morning meal; but both the would-be treasure seekers were in such a high state of excitement that they actually forgot their curiosity of the previous night, and did not even think to ask what steps he had taken to insure his safety against the dreaded voudoos.
“If that was intended as a chart of the Tortuga de Mar the schooner is in the best possible place for you to go ahead with the work,” Mr. Jenkins said, as he approached the boys. “There’s the point of land, with a rock or bit of coral to the nor’ard of it, an’ dead as the bowsprit shows is the cove with what I take to be soundings; but have you fellows figured out the meaning of the other things?”
“We think the drawing of the schooner with a lead-line on which is the figure eight, hanging from her bowsprit means that only a small craft with a draught of not over eight feet can get in there,” Gil replied.
“I reckon that’s right, though it was a waste of time an’ lead pencil to make the craft after showing the soundings.”
“Then the letters and figures on this stick, and the straight lines on the side, refer to the same thing, which is that from a certain tree—for those scratches must have been made to represent foliage—at a distance of eighteen feet and eight inches north, then five feet west, the treasure will be found.”
“Well, you’ve figured it out better than I expected,” Mr. Jenkins said, approvingly; “but how do you know whether the measurements are in feet, yards or fathoms?”