The second chart was then opened.  It was of the West Indies, and particularly of certain keys.  One of these last was pointed out in a way to leave no doubt that it was meant for the key indicated by the pirate.  The same prohibition existing as to this key that exists in respect to the sealing-island, we cannot be more explicit.  The writing near this key being in pencil, it was effectually removed by means of India-rubber.  When this was done, the deacon used the precaution to rub some material on the clean place made by his knife, on the other chart, when he believed no eye could detect what had just been done.  Having marked the proper key, on his own chart of the West Indies, he replaced the charts of Daggett in the chest, and locked all up again.  The verbal accounts of the sick mariner he had already transferred to paper, and he now believed himself secure of all the information that was necessary to render him the richest man in Suffolk!

When they next met, Mary was surprised at the gaiety of her uncle, and that so soon after a funeral.  He had a lightened heart, however; for after leading him on, step by step, until he had gone so far as to purchase and fit out the schooner, Daggett had pertinaciously refused to enter into those minute particulars which it is even now forbidden us to state, and a want of which would have rendered his previous expenditures useless.  Death, however, had lifted the veil, and the deacon now believed himself secure in his knowledge.

An hour or two later, Deacon Pratt and his niece were seated, in company with two others, at the dinner-table.  The fare was simple, but good.  Fish enters largely into the domestic consumption of all those who dwell near the water, in that part of the country; and, on that particular occasion, the uncle had, in the lightness of his heart, indulged in what, for him, was a piece of extravagance.  In all such regions there are broken-down, elderly men, who live by taking fish.  Liquor has usually been their great enemy, and all have the same generic character of laziness, shiftless and ill-regulated exertions, followed by much idleness, and fits of intemperance, that in the end commonly cause their deaths.  Such a man fished between Oyster Pond and Shelter Island, being known to all who dwelt within his beat, by the familiar appellation of Baiting Joe.

Shortly after the discovery of the latitudes and longitudes on the charts, the deacon had gone to the wharf, in his impatience to see how Roswell Gardiner got on with the Sea Lion.  The young man, with his gang of hands, was hard at work, and a very material difference was to be observed in the state of the schooner, from that in which she was described in our opening chapter.  Her rigging had all been set up, every spar was in its place, and altogether she had a look of preparation and completeness.  Her water was taking in, and from time to time a country wagon, or an ox-cart, delivered alongside articles belonging to her stores.  Of cargo, proper, there was none, or next to none; a sealer carrying little besides salt, and her stores.  In a word, the work was rapidly advancing, and “Captain Gar’ner” told his impatient owner that the craft would be ready to put to sea in all that week.