Mr. Burton has a pleasant home just out of London at Barnes Common. Like so many other Englishmen of prominence in these days, he is married to an American woman. He is a large, broad-chested man, standing six feet, two inches and a quarter, in his shoes, with dark, piercing eyes. Mr. Burton has decided views about the true methods for literary work. He does not believe in fixing on a good subject for a novel, then selecting a picturesque period, and, after making yourself thoroughly acquainted with the manners and customs of that epoch, planting your characters in it, as is the habit of certain novelists. The story must come to you, you cannot go out and bring it in. "I never think," he says, "of producing a story laid in a period (or about persons) which I have to read up--to 'mug' up, as we used to say at school. But I have been an ardent reader of history and memoirs all my life, and the story arises naturally from periods and incidents with which I am well acquainted." "I mean," he adds, "that the story should fit into an intimate acquaintance with the _mise-en-scène_, not that the _mise-en-scène_ should be hunted up to fit the story." No one who reads this exciting story, "The Hispaniola Plate," and who is held captive by its vivid scenes, its deep, rich coloring, its overmastering air of reality, but will wish long life to this strong and original talent, which already has behind it such remarkable achievement. May we have many such books from his pen! CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Nicholas Crafer's Strange Will CHAPTER II. An Old Bit of History CHAPTER III. The Vanished Mr. Wargrave CHAPTER IV. Cazalet's Bank CHAPTER V. Captain William Phips CHAPTER VI. The Beginning of a Mutiny CHAPTER VII. The Ending of It CHAPTER VIII. The Second Mutiny CHAPTER IX. And the Preparations Against It CHAPTER X. And How It was Ended CHAPTER XI. They Have to Desist CHAPTER XII. The Bark "Furie" CHAPTER XIII. The Old Man's Story CHAPTER XIV. The Wreck is Found CHAPTER XV. What the First Search Revealed CHAPTER XVI. An Honest Man Arrives CHAPTER XVII. An Alarm from the "Furie" CHAPTER XVIII. Treachery and Flight CHAPTER XIX. The "Honest Man" in His True Colours CHAPTER XX. A Fight CHAPTER XXI. The Villain's Den CHAPTER XXII. Mad! CHAPTER XXIII. The Treasure House CHAPTER XXIV. What was in the Treasure House CHAPTER XXV. The Middle Key CHAPTER XXVI. Nicholas Leaves the Island CHAPTER XXVII. The Narrative Ends CHAPTER XXVIII. Off to the Virgin Isles CHAPTER XXIX. Drawing Near CHAPTER XXX. Out of the Depths of a Far Distant Past CHAPTER XXXI. Some Light upon the Past CHAPTER XXXII. The Solitude is Interrupted CHAPTER XXXIII. The Island's Owner CHAPTER XXXIV. Joseph Alderly CHAPTER XXXV. Danger Impending CHAPTER XXXVI. Beware! CHAPTER XXXVII. "And Death the End of All" CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Owner of the Treasure