"Blakely? Blakely, did you say? Why he is the man who purchased all the provisions from me."
"He is here on the island, and now has charge of all the business matters connected with our venture."
"Well, that is remarkable, indeed; but I must proceed. Four months after the Juan Ferde sailed, I came into contact with a peculiar character, who had been all over the southern part of the universe, and he finally interested me sufficiently to look over some peculiar documents which he had, bearing on the[p. 226] subject of the lost treasures, and from the information which he gave, it occurred to me that the location could not be far from the island where I was cast ashore.
"With a good business, and entirely free from all family entanglements, I made up my mind that I would accompany him, and finance the undertaking. What induced me more than anything else, was the fact that the stories he told corresponded so nearly with the information which Blakely gave me, although the latter did not go into many details, that I looked on the venture in the nature of a lark. Besides I wanted to meet my old friends on the island, and possibly induce them to gather the products of the island for me.
"We sailed about five months after the Juan Ferde left, and had a quick run to the island where it was supposed I had been left years before. It seems that at the time I landed there the tribe was at war, and we had a terrible time to get away from the people, who, of course, did not remember me, even though the tribe was the same, but of this I had no absolute knowledge at the time.
"Two months after reaching the island, we sailed to the south, in order to explore the second island, noted on the chart, and it was then that the returning monsoon, which usually blows in the opposite direction from the one of six months before, wrecked the vessel, and the next day one of my companions and myself, who were so far as I then knew, the only survivors, reached the southern shore of an island, where we saw high mountains, so unlike those in the island where I was shipwrecked years before."
"While I think of it," remarked John, "how did you know about the second island, to which you refer?"
"I learned this from Walter."
"Then did you know anything about the skull on the headland, and the note which Walter left?"