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UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS

rowed ashore just to have a look at the derelict. Perhaps they would have been a bit keener if only somebody had remembered that there was a lost treasure-ship called the Hatteras."

"Did the old man say exactly where it was?"

"No. He just mentioned that they were running between Christmas Island and some other island, when they had to take shelter."

"Well, there's many a syndicate taken a sporting chance on a thing like that and made a little fortune," Tempest commented. "Now, after your father told you there was a treasure-ship called the Hatteras, why did n't you go back and pump the old man to find out the exact bearings of the island!"

"In the first place, as I say, Dad did n't think it was any good after all that time; and in the second place the old man's ship had put to sea again."

"Where to?"

"Don't know. I did n't ask him."

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