“I suppose they had some such plan,” rejoined Mr. Chadwick. “You told us that your papers had been ransacked soon after leaving Madeira and that in that way the men discovered your destination. After the mutiny, I suppose they decided to navigate the yacht to her original destination and then, by some means, make you guide them to the treasure. But of course the wreck changed all that.”
“Egzacly, mein friends. Now der point iss dis: I am here, chust aboudt vere I vant to be. I may neffer haf such a chance again to obtain vot I am in search of.”
“Treasure?” asked Dick, his eyes wide open.
The professor gave a sort of laugh, with a note of scorn in it.
“Nodt your idea of treasure,” he said; and then, becoming very serious, he pushed back his spectacles and poised a finger.
“You haf heardt of der mammoths,” he asked, “of der huge beasts dot roamed der earth when it vos young?”
They nodded and looked at him with interest. What could be coming next? That the professor was in deadly earnest, there was no doubt. His leathery cheeks were flushed with enthusiasm.
“Undt you dink dot de mammoths is all perished from der face of der eardt?” he went on catechisingly.
“Well, such is the general opinion of scientific men,” rejoined Mr. Chadwick.
“Den dey are wrong. Dot is, I hope to prove dot dey are wrong,” declared the professor. “I pelieve, undt der are many dot agree mit me, dot in parts of de globe der mammoth still exists. Dot is, certain forms of him. You haf ever heard of der Spanish naturalist Moreno?”