, 'Better luck next time'. We would
say in England, 'There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of
it'. I have never felt very sanguine myself about this; it has all
along seemed too good to be true. Of course we are disappointed, but we
may have better luck next time."

"But I don't know, senor, with certainty of any other place. No one was
ever entrusted with more than one secret, so that if the Spanish
tortures wrung it out of him two treasures would not be lost."

"We need not talk any more about this place, Dias. I see your wife has
got some of the fish that we caught yesterday fizzling on the fire. Now
I think of it, I am very hungry, for it is six hours since we had our
coffee this morning. After we have had our meal we can discuss what our
next move had better be."

While they were speaking, Jose had been rapidly telling Maria the
misfortune which had befallen them, and the tears were running down the
woman's cheeks.

"You must not feel so badly about it, Maria," Harry said cheerfully;
"you see my brother and I are quite cheerful. At any rate, no one is to
blame. It would have been an enormous piece of luck if we had
succeeded, but we never looked on it as a certainty. Anything might
have happened between the time the gold was shut up and now, though we
certainly never expected to find what we did. We only thought it
possible that we might have the luck to find the treasure. Now you had
better look to those fish, or we shall lose our breakfast as we have
lost our gold, and this time by our own fault. We are as hungry as
hunters all of us; and in fact we are hunters, although we have not
brought any game with us this time."

The woman wiped away her tears hastily, and, taking off the fish which
she had put on when they were coming down the hill, she laid them on
plates with some freshly-baked cakes. The fish were excellent, and
Bertie, as they ate, made several jokes which set them all laughing, so
that the meal passed off cheerfully.

"Now for the great consoler," Harry said, as he took out his pi