“Marvelous, captain! Wonderful beyond anything I ever expected to see is the _Mystery_. She is well named. We are certainly eight or nine feet above the water now. Look at those fellows,” and the collector pointed suddenly to a dozen boats floating idly a cable’s length away. Their occupants were staring blankly at the ship before them, their faces expressing so many phases of speechless amazement that Captain Penniman and his companion broke into a roar of laughter. “Where do you carry the gold, captain?” asked the Englishman presently, the chief marvel of all in his estimation rising up to dwarf the others. “I will show you,” and the captain led the way to the lower deck and to an iron door in the center of the ship a little aft of mid-ships. He took from his pocket a flat Yale key and inserted it in the small keyhole. The door opened into a dark, iron-bound chamber, which the two men entered. Not until he had closed the door behind them did the captain touch a button and light a single electric lamp in the center of the ceiling. Nothing was to be seen except a large number of carefully-packed wooden boxes. They were arranged so that they occupied the greater portion of the floor of the chamber, but they did not rise above about four feet in height. “The gold is in these boxes,” exclaimed the captain. “There are eight hundred of them. They are not large, and you would think they might be easily handled; but if you care to walk off with one I’ll make you a present of it.” “But there cannot be two hundred tons of gold in those small boxes,” said the collector, laying his hand on one at the end of the top tier, and trying to pull it toward him. The box didn’t move, and he pulled harder. “They are nailed down, are they not?” he asked. “Oh, no,” replied the captain, smiling; “but each of those boxes contains five hundred pounds of native gold. Now that you are here, you may as well make your visit an official one and inspect the consignment. I presume if I open for you any box you may designate it will suffice for the lot, will it not?” “Certainly,” still struggling vainly to stir one of the topmost boxes, and giving it up rather breathlessly. “Suppose you open this one,” indicating a box in the middle of the front row. The captain produced a large screw-driver and began to loosen the screws in the cover of the box selected. The fastenings did not yield easily, but after a few moments the long screws had been removed and the thick cover came off. There was revealed an iron-lined receptacle heaped full of nuggets and dust, which gleamed a pale yellow in the light of the electric lamp. The customs officer drew a long breath, and then leaned closely over the naked treasure. “May I touch it?” he asked in a kind of awe. “Certainly; examine it as closely as you like.”