“Amount, sir!” cried the squire. “It will amount to this: If we have the clue you talk about, I’ll fit out a ship in Bristol dock, and take you and Hawkins here along, and I’ll have that treasure if I search a year.”

“Very well,” said the doctor. “Now, then, if Jim is agreeable, we’ll open the packet,” and he laid it before him on the table.

The bundle was sewn together, and the doctor had to get out his instrument case and cut the stitches with his medical scissors. It contained two things⁠—a book and a sealed paper.

“First of all we’ll try the book,” observed the doctor.