"But it is a lucky thing the shark swallowed them, I must say,"
added Glenarvan, "for the bottle would have sunk to the bottom
before long with such a cork as this."

"That's true enough," replied John Mangles, "and yet it would
have been better to have fished them up in the open sea.
Then we might have found out the road they had come by taking
the exact latitude and longitude, and studying the atmospheric
and submarine currents; but with such a postman as a shark,
that goes against wind and tide, there's no clew whatever
to the starting-point."

"We shall see," said Glenarvan, gently taking out the cork.
A strong odor of salt water pervaded the whole saloon,
and Lady Helena asked impatiently: "Well, what is there?"

"I was right!" exclaimed Glenarvan. "I see papers inside.
But I fear it will be impossible to remove them," he added,
"for they appear to have rotted with the damp, and are sticking
to the sides of the bottle."

"Break it," said the Major.

"I would rather preserve the whole if I could."

"No doubt you would," said Lady Helena; "but the contents
are more valuable than the bottle, and we had better sacrifice
the one than the other."