"Come home, my son, and take vengeance. This, perhaps, you can not do,
but you at least can try. By the time that you read these words they
will be my voice from the grave; and thus I invoke you, and call you to
take vengeance.

"But at least come and save your mother, your brother, and your sister.
The danger is imminent. Not a friend is left. They all hold aloof,
indignant at me. This miscreant has his own plans with regard to them, I
doubt not; and he will disperse them or send them off to starve in some
foreign land. Come and save them.

"But I warn you to be careful about yourself for their sakes. For this
villain is powerful now, and hates you worse than any body. His arm may
reach even to the antipodes to strike you there. Be on your guard. Watch
every one. For once, from words which fell from him hastily I gathered
that he had some dark plan against you. Trust no one. Rely on yourself,
and may God help you!

"Poor boy! I have no estate to leave you now, and what I do send to you
may seem to you like a mockery. Yet do not despise it. Who knows what
may be possible in these days of science? Why may it not be possible to
force the sea to give up its prey?

"I send it, at any rate, for I have nothing else to send. You know that
it has been in our family for centuries, and have heard how stout old
Peter Leggit, with nine sailors, escaped by night through the Spanish
fleet, and what suffering they endured before they reached England. He
brought this, and it has been preserved ever since. A legend has grown
up, as a matter of course, that the treasure will be recovered one day
when the family is at its last extremity. It may not be impossible. The