"All you've got to do is to find the
island and dig in that spot."
Mr. Chalk laughed and shook his head as at a choice piece of waggishness.
"Suppose," said Mr. Tredgold, slowly--"suppose anybody found it without
your connivance, would you take your share?"
"Let'em find it first," said the captain.
"Yes, but would you?" inquired Mr. Chalk.
Captain Bowers took up the map and returned it to its place in the
bureau. "You go and find it," he said, with a genial smile.
"You give us permission?" demanded Tredgold.
"Certainly," grinned the captain. "I give you permission to go and dig
over all the islands in the Pacific; there's a goodish number of them,
and it's a fairly common shape."
"It seems to me it's nobody's property," said Tredgold, slowly. "That is
to say, it's anybody's that finds it. It isn't your property, Captain
Bowers? You lay no claim to it?"
"No, no," said the captain. "It's nothing to do with me. You go and
find it," he repeated, with enjoyment.
Mr. Tredgold laughed too, and his eye travelled mechanically towards the
bureau. "If we do," he said, cordially, "you shall have your share.
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