“‘Whereas our good ship had suffered hard buffeting by wind and sea, we took counsel together and were of one mind that we should proceed toward shore and drop anchor until we could encompass such labor as was needful to render the ship seaworthy once more. For we were desirous of turning the Dragon about in order to pursue a course due north which would, after many days, bring us to Virginia. And we weighed carefully the peril in which we stood that we might at any hour be attacked by hostile galleons and mayhap find ourselves overwhelmed and delivered into the cruel and merciless hands of the Spaniard. Yet we knew that we had no choice save to incur this hazard. Now it draweth toward sunset. This day we have labored diligently and accomplished much. Neither have we been molested.’”
“The next entry is so dim I can hardly make it out,” Patsy announced. “It looks as though it might have been written in pencil. I didn’t know there were any lead pencils as early as 1618.”
“There were, though,” Bee affirmed. “I remember reading in a magazine awhile ago that the first lead pencils were made in fifteen hundred and something. I can’t recall the exact date.”
“Well, I’m sure this was written in pencil,” returned Patsy. “Don’t be impatient if I stumble a little in reading the entry for it’s awfully dim.”
“Do go on,” implored Eleanor. “We’re keyed up to a high pitch of suspense to hear what happened next.”
“‘October the fifth,’” Patsy obediently resumed. “‘This morning at sunrise we were attacked by a Spanish galleon which inflicted sore injuries to our good ship. Yet we rendered such sturdy account of ourselves as to force our enemy to draw off and speed away, I doubted not in order to bring other galleons against us. All that which we accomplished yesterday hath been undone by the divers volleys of shots which the enemy hurled against us.
“‘The galleon having been put to flight we again took counsel. Rather than permit the passing of such valuables as each of us possessed into the greedy fingers of the Spaniard, we made haste to place all together in a strong chest. Each man attended to the gathering of his gold, silver and jewels into a small bag, his name being written upon paper and placed within the bag on top of his wealth. These bags we placed in the seaman’s chest together with a fine gold service which His Majesty had entrusted to our captain, to be delivered to a certain knight in Virginia.
“‘When all was done the weight of the box was so great six men could scarcely bear it to the ship’s boat. To me was intrusted the command of these men, who were ordered to row to shore and there bury the box in the earth against the time when we might be able to return for it. This we did and found for the treasure a secure hiding place and buried it at the true sign of the Dragon, which was also His Majesty’s ship, sunk this day, so that we could not mistake it on our return. Our interest was then to proceed speedily to the ship, for we had agreed to weigh anchor and sail away, crippled though we were.
“‘Yet while we floundered our way back to the shore, through well-nigh impassable green growths, infested with loathsome serpents which we slaughtered in numbers, we heard shots and knew that disaster had come upon our ship. So we made haste to gain the shore, but bethought ourselves to hide at the edge of the jungle rather than show ourselves before we had learned the cause of the firing. And we saw a mighty Spanish galleon bearing down on the Dragon and knowing that we could do nothing were compelled to lie where we were and watch the unequal fight between our gallant ship and the great, high-built galleon.