It was early Tuesday morning, and Mrs. Cliff and Willy having just finished their breakfast, were busily engaged in packing the two trunks they proposed taking with them, and the elder lady was stating that although she was perfectly willing to dress in the blue flannel suit which had been ordered, she was not willing to wear a white cap, although Willy urged that this was the proper thing, as they had been told by the people where they had bought their yachting suits; and Mrs. Cliff was still insisting that, although it would do very well for Willy to wear a white cap, she would wear a hood,—the same kind of a hood which she had worn on all her other voyages, which was more like a bonnet and more suitable[Pg 174] to her on that account than any other kind of head covering, when Mr. Burke burst—actually burst—without knocking, into the room. His silk hat was on the back of his head, and he wore no overcoat.

"Mrs. Cliff," he exclaimed, "I\'ve just seen Shirley! You remember Shirley?"

"Indeed, I do," said Mrs. Cliff. "I remember him very well, and I always thought him to be a remarkably nice man! But where did you see him, and what in the world did he tell you to throw you into such a flurry?"

"He said a lot to me!" replied Burke. "And I\'ll try to make as straight a tale of it as I can! You see, about a week ago Shirley got a telegraphic message from Captain Horn—"

"Captain Horn!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. "Where is he, and what did he say?"

"He\'s in Mexico," said Burke; "and the telegram was as long as a letter—that\'s one advantage in not being obliged to think of what things cost,—and he told Shirley a lot—"

"How did they say they were?" asked Mrs. Cliff, eagerly. "Or did he say anything about Mrs. Horn? Are they well?"

"Oh, I expect they\'re all right," said Burke; "but I don\'t think he treated that subject. It was all about that gold, and the part of it that was to go to Peru!

"When the business of dividing up the treasure was settled in London in the way we know all about, word was sent to the Peruvian government to tell them what had happened, and to see what they said about it. And[Pg 175] when they heard the news, they were a good deal more than satisfied,—as they ought to have been, I\'m sure,—and they made no bones about the share we took. All they wanted was to have their part sent to them just as soon as could be, and I don\'t wonder at it; for all those South American countries are as poor as beggars, and if any one of them got a sum of money like that, it could buy up all the others, if it felt like spending the money in that way!

"Those Peruvians were in such a hurry to get the treasure that they wouldn\'t agree to have the gold coined into money, or to be sent a part at a time, or to take drafts for it; but they wanted it just as it was as soon as they could get it, and, as it was their own, nobody could hinder them from doing what they pleased with it. Shirley and I have made up our minds that most likely the present government thought that they wouldn\'t be in office when the money arrived if they didn\'t have it on hand in pretty short order; and, of course, if they got their fingers on that treasure, they could stay in power as long as they pleased.

"It is hard to believe that any government could be such fools,—for they ordered it all shipped on an ordinary merchant vessel, an English steamer, the Dunkery Beacon, which was pretty nigh ready to sail for Lima. Now, any other government in this world would have sent a man-of-war for that gold, or some sort of an armed vessel to convoy it, but that wasn\'t the way with the Peruvians! They wanted their money, and they wanted it by the first steamer which could be got ready[Pg 176] to sail. They weren\'t going to wait until they got one of their cruisers over to England,—not they!

"The quickest way, of course, would have been to ship it to Aspinwall, and then take it by rail to Panama, and from there ship it to Lima, but I suppose they were afraid to do that. If that sort of freight had been carried overland, they couldn\'t have hindered people from finding out what it was, and pretty nearly everybody in Central America would have turned train-robber. Anyway, the agents over there got the Dunkery Beacon to sail a little before her regular time.

"Now here comes the point! They actually shipped a hundred and sixty million dollars\' worth of pure gold on a merchant steamer that was going on a regular voyage, and would actually touch at Jamaica and Rio Janeiro on account of her other freight, instead of buying her outright, or sending her on the straightest cruise she could make for Lima! Just think of that! More than that, this business was so talked about by the Peruvian agents, while they were trying to get the earliest steamer possible for it, that it was heard of in a good many more ports than one!

"Well, this steamer with all the gold on board sailed just as soon as it could; and the very next day our London bankers got a telegram from Paris from the head of a detective bureau there to tell them that no less than three vessels were fitting out in the biggest kind of hurry to go after that slow merchant steamer with the millions on board!"

Mrs. Cliff and Willy uttered a simultaneous cry of[Pg 177] horror. "Do you mean they\'re pirates, and are going to steal the gold?" cried Mrs. Cliff.

"Of course they are!" continued Burke. "And I don\'t wonder at it! Why, I don\'t believe such a cargo of gold ever left a port since the beginning of the world! For such a thing as that is enough to tempt anybody with the smallest streak of rascal blood in him and who could get hold of a ship!

"Well, these three vessels were fitting out hard as they could,—two in France, at Toulon and Marseilles, and one in Genoa; and although the detectives were almost positive what their business was, they were not sure that they could get proof enough to stop them. If the Dunkery Beacon had been going on a straight voyage, even to Rio Janeiro, she might have got away from them, but, you see, she was goin\' to touch at Jamaica!

"And now, now,—this very minute,—that slow old steamer and those three pirates are on the Atlantic Ocean together! Why, it makes your blood creep to think of it!"

"Indeed it does! It\'s awful!" cried Mrs. Cliff. "And what are the London people going to do?"

"They\'re not going to do anything so far as I know!" said Burke. "If they could get through with the red-tape business necessary to send any sort of a cruiser or war-vessel after the Dunkery Beacon to protect her,—and I\'m not sure that they could do it at all,—it would be a precious long time before such a vessel would leave the English Channel! But I don\'t think[Pg 178] that they\'ll try anything of the sort; all I know is, that the London ............