Townsend took the folded letter from his pocket and gave it to Carl, who passed it along to Matt.
"You can study that," said Townsend, "and it will tell you all I know. Do what you can, and, no matter what the result is, come back and report to me at Palm Beach."
Townsend did no more talking. The pain he was suffering made talking an effort, and he sank back and closed his eyes.
"Can we do it, matey?" asked Dick. "Can we cross a hundred miles of ocean and nose out a little turtle-back in all that raft of islands and keys?"
"Do you know anything about navigation, Dick? Can you take a chronometer and a sextant and figure out latitude and longitude?"
"I'd be a juggings if I couldn't. Why, mate, it's one of the first things they teach you on the training ship."
"Get in here and manage the Hawk, Dick, while I look over this chart."
Ferral dropped in among the levers and Matt went forward and sat down on the floor of the car.
The chart embraced part of the eastern shore line of Florida and took in some of the westernmost islands of the Bahama group. From Palm Beach a straight line was drawn, east by south to a dot below the western point of Great Bahama Island. The dot was marked Turtle Key, and its latitude and longitude were given.
Below this diagram, in the left-hand corner of the sheet, Turtle Key was shown in amplified form, an irregular circle of sand with a black cross on its western side. The cross was labeled, "Cavern; can be entered from the shore, or by boat at high tide. Iron chest in the cavern."