Lambert dropped down to the deck of the _Alphonso_, and knew that a fortune lay under his feet. He paced the deck until he came to the exact spot beneath which the treasure should lie. Then he began to investigate the ship, but, skilled as he was, he would not face the risk of getting lost in its interior, of fouling his lines while he groped his way in the darkness along passages and through cabins and saloons to the strong room. To venture into the bowels of the ship would probably mean that he was going to his death. He summed up the situation. The treasure lay beneath two decks. To tear a way through with crowbars or to chop a way through with axes was impossible. Every movement at that depth was terribly exhausting, and he had to rest, in order to recover, after doing the slightest thing. His only means of getting the treasure was to blast a way through with explosives, to harness explosives to do the work and thus save his own energy. He set to work and after tremendous trouble blew through the top deck. Clearing the shattered pieces away, he let himself down into the saloon, and began his attack on the second deck. It, too, succumbed to the mighty concussions of the explosives, and Lambert dropped into another saloon. He looked about him, and in the floor at the farther end he found the entrance to the strong room. The trap-door resisted his efforts, but in the end Lambert’s crowbar, skilfully wielded, prised it up. Lambert went into the treasure-room and saw the little chests of treasure, each one of which contained a fortune. He signalled to the surface, and a cable was let down. The tremendous pressure hampered his movements, made them seem slow and clumsy. Nevertheless, he raised a chest full of treasure and managed to slip a rope beneath it, then he secured it to the hook hanging beside him. The signal was given, and Lambert watched his first haul of the treasure mount through the opening he had blasted in the ship. That chest swinging on the end of the rope was full of gold coin worth £10,000! Every time he braved the depths to seek the treasure he took his life in his hand, but he did what he set out to do, and in the end he managed to send to the surface seven boxes of treasure worth £70,000, leaving another two boxes worth £20,000 to be recovered at a later date. Lambert received £3500 as his share in this deep-sea enterprise, in addition to his pay of £40 a month and all found. Thrilling as were these treasure hunts, the most romantic story of all is that of the _Hamilla Mitchell_. Here we have treasure and pirates and a desperate chase all mixed up in the most approved adventure-story style. Only, unlike a work of fiction, this story happens to be true.