"It was a mystery that intrigued me. I wanted to know what had happened to the ship and its crew and I wanted the gold it held. For years I ran down one rumor after another. That story last year sent out from New York was written around one of the rumors, but my trip to see Crazy John was based on something more than rumor." Ford paused while Tim threw fresh fuel on the flames. "A month ago an old sailorman in New York told me he'd met a fellow years ago who said he knew what had happened to the Southern Queen. I got to checking up and the man he was talking about was John Boggs, the ship's carpenter, the man we know as Crazy John. Again, through sheer coincidence, I learned from a pearl dealer in New York that he occasionally bought fresh water pearls from a man named John Boggs out here in the Cedar river valley. It didn't take me long to get on the job." "Could Crazy John tell you about the Southern Queen?" The globe trotter smiled. "Crazy John told me the whole story and I'm so sure he's told the truth that I'm going into the Caribbean at once." "What happened to the Southern Queen?" "It struck a reef off an island on the coast of Yucatan. The accident happened shortly after midnight. Crazy John says they started to sink at once and the crew and rebels were too drunk to get the boats off. A few jumped overboard and tried to swim to the island. The sharks got them. Crazy John managed to get a skiff launched and he reached the island. It was uninhabited and a gale wrecked his small boat. He finally made a raft but he drifted for days before he was able to get across the channel to the mainland for the currents held him just away from the shore. He thinks he went insane then and it wasn't until he got away from the sea and settled down here that his mind cleared up. But the horror of those days on the raft is too much for him. He won't go back." "I don't blame him," said Tim. "It must have been horrible, drifting for days with the shore in sight." "I've made an agreement with Crazy John that he is to have a fourth of the treasure if it is found," went on Ford. "In turn he has given me an excellent description of the island and that section of the coast of Yucatan. I'm sure I'll be able to find the island without difficulty." "But will you be able to locate the remains of the Southern Queen and bring up the treasure if you do find her?" "That's something I've got to take a chance on. A good many people would like to have the same information I obtained from Crazy John." "Including Jack Sladek?" "Right. Sladek would give a good many thousand." "Why is he so interested?" "Sladek was one of the soldiers of fortune with Crespes on the short-lived revolution. He had a broken leg and they sailed away from Martee and left him stranded there. It saved Sladek's life, but he doesn't know that." "How could he have learned about Crazy John?" asked Tim.