“Did you ever meet any one who had seen the island?” inquired Grant.
“Nebber,” replied Sam. “Some say dat de island done disappeah or dat de ocean had swallowed ’er up. Dese was all stories Ah heard.”
“Well!” exclaimed Fred, his eyes shining with excitement. “I certainly am in favor of finding out what those codes mean. Perhaps we’ll find something on this island after all. I’ll bet this is the one Sam has heard about all right.”
“Seems so, doesn’t it?” agreed Grant. “We may get rich yet.”
“The treasure was in that chest up there in the cave, I tell you,” said George. “Some one has been here and taken it away.”
“Not at all,” cried Fred. “At any rate there’s more of it here. Didn’t you hear Sam say that he has heard about this island for years and years?”
“You’re not sure this is the one.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure there aren’t two islands with rocks on them like that,” exclaimed Fred. “A rock shaped just like a shark is so unusual that you see they identify the island by it.”
“But why has no one ever found it?”
“You just said they had,” Grant reminded him. “You also said that the treasure was gone. You are contradicting yourself.”