Chapter 11
The Treasure
THE SUDDEN introduction to this weird apparition had startled us all, but the skipper, quickly recovering, questioned him eagerly.
"You speak English?" he demanded, "Then you are not island-born!"
"Go back! Leave this cursed place while yet you may depart! You do not know the evil that is in it!"
It was repeated like a lesson painfully memorised,
"We do not mean to stay on this island. We are here to look at something; then we go back. Our ship is well guarded. In two days we will be gone. But you— how did you come here?"
There seemed to be understanding in the keen eyes, and there was a muttering between the bearded lips as if the old man was practising with words of which he was uncertain.
"Ship Euphrates," he said at last, with difficulty.
"You came here
