INGOTS OF GOLD 37 - Agatha Christie - short stories

Sign of the Golden Galleon.' And he pointed to where, over the front door, hung a perfect reproduction of a Spanish galleon with all sails set. "My first evening was a most charming and instructive one. My host showed me the old manuscripts relating to the .Juan Fernandez. He unrolled charts for me and indicated positions on them with dotted lines, and he produced plans of diving apparatus, which, I may say, mystified me utterly and completely. "I told him of my meeting with Inspector Badgworth, in which he was much interested. "'They are a queer people round this coast,' he said reflectively. 'Smuggling and wrecking is in their blood. When a ship goes down on their coast they cannot help regarding it as lawful plunder meant for their pockets. There is a fellow here I should like you to see. He is an interesting survival.' "Next day dawned bright and clear. I was taken down into Polperran and there introduced to Newman's diver, a man called Higgins. He was a wooden-faced individual, extremely taciturn, and his contributions to the conversation were mostly monosyllables. After a discussion between them on highly technical matters, we adjourned to the Three Anchors. A tankard of beer somewhat loosened the worthy fellow's tongue. "'Detective gentleman from London has come down,' he grunted. 'They do say that that ship that went down here last November was carrying a mortal lot of gold. Well, she wasn't the first to go down, and she won't be the last.' "'Hear, hear,' chimed in the landlord of the Three An- chors. 'That is a true word you say there, Bill Higgins.' "'I reckon it is, Mr. Kelvin,' said Higgins. "I looked with some curiosity at the landlord. He was a remarkable man, dark and swarthy, with curiously broad shoulders. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had a curiously http://www.4shared.com/get/ouTsKRL4/Agatha_Christie-uk-Complete_sh.html