There was a date at one end of the line and at the other a sum of money , as in common account-books , but instead of explanatory writing , only a varying number of crosses between the two . On the 12th of June , 1745 , for instance , a sum of seventy pounds had plainly become due to someone , and there was nothing but six crosses to explain the cause . In a few cases , to be sure , the name of a place would be added , as `` Offe Caraccas , '' or a mere entry of latitude and longitude , as `` 62o 17 ' 20 '' , 19o 2 ' 40 '' . '' The record lasted over nearly twenty years , the amount of the separate entries growing larger as time went on , and at the end a grand total had been made out after five or six wrong additions , and these words appended , `` Bones , his pile . '' `` I ca n't make head or tail of this , '' said Dr. Livesey . `` The thing is as clear as noonday , '' cried the squire . `` This is the black-hearted hound 's account-book . These crosses stand for the names of ships or towns that they sank or plundered . The sums are the scoundrel 's share , and where he feared an ambiguity , you see he added something clearer . ` Offe Caraccas , ' now ; you see , here was some unhappy vessel boarded off that coast . God help the poor souls that manned her -- coral long ago . '' `` Right ! '' said the doctor . `` See what it is to be a traveller . Right ! And the amounts increase , you see , as he rose in rank . '' There was little else in the volume but a few bearings of places noted in the blank leaves towards the end and a table for reducing French , English , and Spanish moneys to a common value . `` Thrifty man ! '' cried the doctor . `` He was n't the one to be cheated . ''
`` And now , '' XXXXX the squire , `` for the other . ''
added become boarded feared growing help noted reducing said varying