Digital heart book

Taking, then, this high Honolulu figure, the value of
the opium on board the FLYING SCUD fell
considerably short of ten thousand dollars, while at
the San Francisco rate it lacked a trifle of five
thousand. And fifty thousand was the price that Jim
and I had paid for it. And Bellairs had been eager to
go higher! There is no language to express the stupor
with which I contemplated this result.
It may be argued we were not yet sure; there might be
yet another CACHE; and you may be certain in that
hour of my distress the argument was not forgotten.
There was never a ship more ardently perquested; no
stone was left unturned, and no expedient untried; day
after day of growing despair, we punched and dug in the
brig's vitals, exciting the men with promises and
presents; evening after evening Nares and I sat face to
face in the narrow cabin, racking our minds for some
neglected possibility of search. I could stake my
salvation on the certainty of the result: in all that
ship there was nothing left of value but the timber and
the copper nails.


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