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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Buried Treasure, by Richard Harding Davis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: My Buried Treasure
+
+Author: Richard Harding Davis
+
+Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #1761]
+Release Date: May, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BURIED TREASURE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Aaron Cannon
+
+
+
+
+
+MY BURIED TREASURE
+
+by Richard Harding Davis
+
+
+
+This is a true story of a search for buried treasure. The only part
+that is not true is the name of the man with whom I searched for the
+treasure. Unless I keep his name out of it he will not let me write the
+story, and, as it was his expedition and as my share of the treasure is
+only what I can make by writing the story, I must write as he dictates.
+I think the story should be told, because our experience was unique, and
+might be of benefit to others. And, besides, I need the money.
+
+There is, however, no agreement preventing me from describing him as I
+think he is, or reporting, as accurately as I can, what he said and did
+as he said and did it.
+
+For purposes of identification I shall call him Edgar Powell. The last
+name has no significance; but the first name is not chosen at random.
+The leader of our expedition, the head and brains of it, was and is the
+sort of man one would address as Edgar. No one would think of calling
+him "Ed," or "Eddie," any more than he would consider slapping him on
+the back.
+
+We were together at college; but, as six hundred other boys were there
+at the same time, that gives no clew to his identity. Since those days,
+until he came to see me about the treasure, we had not met. All I
+knew of him was that he had succeeded his father in manufacturing
+unshrinkable flannels. Of course, the reader understands that is not
+the article of commerce he manufactures; but it is near enough, and it
+suggests the line of business to which he gives his life's blood. It is
+not similar to my own line of work, and in consequence, when he wrote
+me, on the unshrinkable flannels official writing-paper, that he wished
+to see me in reference to a matter of business of "mutual benefit," I
+was considerably puzzled.
+
+A few days later, at nine in the morning, an hour of his own choosing,
+he came to my rooms in New York City.
+
+Except that he had grown a beard, he was as I remembered him, thin and
+tall, but with no chest, and stooping shoulders. He wore eye-glasses,
+and as of old through these he regarded you disapprovingly and warily
+as though he suspected you might try to borrow money, or even joke with
+him. As with Edgar I had never felt any temptation to do either, this
+was irritating.
+
+But from force of former habit we greeted each other by our first names,
+and he suspiciously accepted a cigar. Then, after fixing me both with
+his eyes and with his eye-glasses and swearing me to secrecy, he began
+abruptly.
+
+"Our mills," he said, "are in New Bedford; and I own several small
+cottages there and in Fairhaven. I rent them out at a moderate rate. The
+other day one of my tenants, a Portuguese sailor, was taken suddenly ill
+and sent for me. He had made many voyages in and out of Bedford to the
+South Seas, whaling, and he told me on his last voyage he had touched
+at his former home at Teneriffe. There his grandfather had given him a
+document that had been left him by his father. His grandfather said
+it contained an important secret, but one that was of value only in
+America, and that when he returned to that continent he must be very
+careful to whom he showed it. He told me it was written in a kind of
+English he could not understand, and that he had been afraid to let any
+one see it. He wanted me to accept the document in payment of the rent
+he owed me, with the understanding that I was not to look at it, and
+that if he got well I was to give it back. If he pulled through, he was
+to pay me in some other way; but if he died I was to keep the document.
+About a month ago he died, and I examined the paper. It purports to tell
+where there is buried a pirate's treasure. And," added Edgar, gazing at
+me severely and as though he challenged me to contradict him, "I intend
+to dig for it!"
+
+Had he told me he contemplated crossing the Rocky Mountains in a Baby
+Wright, or leading a cotillon, I could not have been more astonished. I
+am afraid I laughed aloud.
+
+"You!" I exclaimed. "Search for buried treasure?"
+
+My tone visibly annoyed him. Even the eye-glasses radiated disapproval.
+
+"I see nothing amusing in the idea," Edgar protested coldly. "It is a
+plain business proposition. I find the outlay will be small, and if I
+am successful the returns should be large; at a rough estimate about one
+million dollars."
+
+Even to-day, no true American, at the thought of one million dollars,
+can remain covered. His letter to me had said, "for our mutual benefit."
+I became respectful and polite, I might even say abject. After all, the
+ties that bind us in those dear old college days are not lightly to be
+disregarded.
+
+"If I can be of any service to you, Edgar, old man," I assured him
+heartily, "if I can help you find it, you know I shall be only too
+happy." With regret I observed that my generous offer did not seem to
+deeply move him.
+
+"I came to you in this matter," he continued stiffly, "because you
+seemed to be the sort of person who would be interested in a search for
+buried treasure."
+
+"I am," I exclaimed. "Always have been."
+
+"Have you," he demanded searchingly, "any practical experience?"
+
+I tried to appear at ease; but I knew then just how the man who applies
+to look after your furnace feels, when you ask him if he can also run a
+sixty horse-power dynamo.
+
+"I have never actually FOUND any buried treasure," I admitted; "but
+I know where lots of it is, and I know just how to go after it." I
+endeavored to dazzle him with expert knowledge.
+
+"Of course," I went on airily, "I am familiar with all the expeditions
+that have tried for the one on Cocos Island, and I know all about the
+Peruvian treasure on Trinidad, and the lost treasures of Jalisco near
+Guadalajara, and the sunken galleon on the Grand Cayman, and when I was
+on the Isle of Pines I had several very tempting offers to search there.
+And the late Captain Boynton invited me----"
+
+"But," interrupted Edgar in a tone that would tolerate no trifling, "you
+yourself have never financed or organized an expedition with the object
+in view of----"
+
+"Oh, that part's easy!" I assured him. "The fitting-out part you can
+safely leave to me." I assumed a confidence that I hoped he might
+believe was real. "There's always a tramp steamer in the Erie Basin,"
+I said, "that one can charter for any kind of adventure, and I have the
+addresses of enough soldiers of fortune, filibusters, and professional
+revolutionists to man a battle-ship, all fine fellows in a tight corner.
+And I'll promise you they'll follow us to hell, and back----"
+
+"That!" exclaimed Edgar, "is exactly what I feared!"
+
+"I beg your pardon!" I exclaimed.
+
+"That's exactly what I DON'T want," said Edgar sternly. "I don't INTEND
+to get into any tight corners. I don't WANT to go to hell!"
+
+I saw that in my enthusiasm I had perhaps alarmed him. I continued more
+temperately.
+
+"Any expedition after treasure," I pointed out, "is never without risk.
+You must have discipline, and you must have picked men. Suppose there's
+a mutiny? Suppose they try to rob us of the treasure on our way home? We
+must have men we can rely on, and men who know how to pump a Winchester.
+I can get you both. And Bannerman will furnish me with anything from a
+pair of leggins to a quick firing gun, and on Clark Street they'll quote
+me a special rate on ship stores, hydraulic pumps, divers' helmets----"
+
+Edgar's eye-glasses became frosted with cold, condemnatory scorn. He
+shook his head disgustedly.
+
+"I was afraid of this!" he murmured.
+
+I endeavored to reassure him.
+
+"A little danger," I laughed, "only adds to the fun."
+
+"I want you to understand," exclaimed Edgar indignantly, "there isn't
+going to be any danger. There isn't going to be any fun. This is a plain
+business proposition. I asked you those questions just to test you. And
+you approached the matter exactly as I feared you would. I was prepared
+for it. In fact," he explained shamefacedly, "I've read several of your
+little stories, and I find they run to adventure and blood and thunder;
+they are not of the analytical school of fiction. Judging from them,"
+he added accusingly, "you have a tendency to the romantic." He spoke
+reluctantly as though saying I had a tendency to epileptic fits or the
+morphine habit.
+
+"I am afraid," I was forced to admit, "that to me pirates and buried
+treasure always suggest adventure. And your criticism of my writings is
+well observed. Others have discovered the same fatal weakness. We cannot
+all," I pointed out, "manufacture unshrinkable flannels."
+
+At this compliment to his more fortunate condition, Edgar seemed to
+soften.
+
+"I grant you," he said, "that the subject has almost invariably been
+approached from the point of view you take. And what," he demanded
+triumphantly, "has been the result? Failure, or at least, before success
+was attained, a most unnecessary and regrettable loss of blood and life.
+Now, on my expedition, I do not intend that any blood shall be shed, or
+that anybody shall lose his life. I have not entered into this matter
+hastily. I have taken out information, and mean to benefit by other
+people's mistakes. When I decided to go on with this," he explained,
+"I read all the books that bear on searches for buried treasure, and I
+found that in each case the same mistakes were made, and that then,
+in order to remedy the mistakes, it was invariably necessary to kill
+somebody. Now, by not making those mistakes, it will not be necessary
+for me to kill any one, and nobody is going to have a chance to kill me.
+
+"You propose that we fit out a schooner and sign on a crew. What will
+happen? A man with a sabre cut across his forehead, or with a black
+patch over one eye, will inevitably be one of that crew. And, as soon as
+we sail, he will at once begin to plot against us. A cabin boy who the
+conspirators think is asleep in his bunk will overhear their plot and
+will run to the quarter-deck to give warning; but a pistol shot rings
+out, and the cabin boy falls at the foot of the companion ladder. The
+cabin boy is always the first one to go. After that the mutineers kill
+the first mate, and lock us in our cabin, and take over the ship. They
+will then broach a cask of rum, and all through the night we will listen
+to their drunken howlings, and from the cabin airport watch the body of
+the first mate rolling in the lee scuppers."
+
+"But you forget," I protested eagerly, "there is always ONE faithful
+member of the crew, who----"
+
+Edgar interrupted me impatiently.
+
+"I have not overlooked him," he said. "He is a Jamaica negro of gigantic
+proportions, or the ship's cook; but he always gets his too, and he gets
+it good. They throw HIM to the sharks! Then we all camp out on a
+desert island inhabited only by goats, and we build a stockade, and the
+mutineers come to treat with us under a white flag, and we, trusting
+entirely to their honor, are fools enough to go out and talk with them.
+At which they shoot us up, and withdraw laughing scornfully." Edgar
+fixed his eye-glasses upon me accusingly.
+
+"Am I right, or am I wrong?" he demanded. I was unable to answer.
+"The only man," continued Edgar warmly, "who ever showed the slightest
+intelligence in the matter was the fellow in the 'Gold Bug'. HE kept his
+mouth shut. He never let any one know that he was after buried treasure,
+until he found it. That's me! Now I know EXACTLY where this treasure is,
+and----"
+
+I suppose, involuntarily, I must have given a start of interest; for
+Edgar paused and shook his head, slyly and cunningly. "And if you think
+I have the map on my person now," he declared in triumph, "you'll have
+to guess again!"
+
+"Really," I protested, "I had no intention----"
+
+"Not you, perhaps," said Edgar grudgingly; "but your Japanese valet
+conceals himself behind those curtains, follows me home, and at
+night----"
+
+"I haven't got a valet," I objected.
+
+Edgar merely smiled with the most aggravating self-sufficiency. "It
+makes no difference," he declared. "NO ONE will ever find that map,
+or see that map, or know where that treasure is, until I point to the
+spot."
+
+"Your caution is admirable," I said; "but what," I jeered, "makes you
+think you can point to the spot, because your map says something like,
+'Through the Sunken Valley to Witch's Caldron, four points N. by N. E.
+to Gallows Hill where the shadow falls at sunrise, fifty fathoms west,
+fifty paces north as the crow flies, to the Seven Wells'? How the
+deuce," I demanded, "is any one going to point to that spot?"
+
+"It isn't that kind of map," shouted Edgar triumphantly. "If it had
+been, I wouldn't have gone on with it. It's a map anybody can read
+except a half-caste Portuguese sailor. It's as plain as a laundry bill.
+It says," he paused apprehensively, and then continued with caution, "it
+says at such and such a place there is a something. So many somethings
+from that something are three what-you-may-call-'ems, and in the centre
+of these three what-you-may-call-'ems is buried the treasure. It's as
+plain as that!"
+
+"Even with the few details you have let escape you," I said, "I could
+find THAT spot in my sleep."
+
+"I don't think you could," said Edgar uncomfortably; but I could see
+that he had mentally warned himself to be less communicative. "And," he
+went on, "I am willing to lead you to it, if you subscribe to certain
+conditions."
+
+Edgar's insulting caution had ruffled my spirit.
+
+"Why do you think you can trust ME?" I asked haughtily. And then,
+remembering my share of the million dollars, I added in haste, "I accept
+the conditions."
+
+"Of course, as you say, one has got to take SOME risk," Edgar continued;
+"but I feel sure," he said, regarding me doubtfully, "you would not
+stoop to open robbery." I thanked him.
+
+"Well, until one is tempted," said Edgar, "one never knows WHAT he
+might do. And I've simply GOT to have one other man, and I picked on you
+because I thought you could write about it."
+
+"I see," I said, "I am to act as the historian of the expedition."
+
+"That will be arranged later," said Edgar. "What I chiefly want you for
+is to dig. Can you dig?" he asked eagerly. I told him I could; but that
+I would rather do almost anything else.
+
+"I MUST have one other man," repeated Edgar, "a man who is strong enough
+to dig, and strong enough to resist the temptation to murder me." The
+retort was so easy that I let it pass. Besides, on Edgar, it would have
+been wasted.
+
+"I THINK you will do," he said with reluctance. "And now the
+conditions!"
+
+I smiled agreeably.
+
+"You are already sworn to secrecy," said Edgar. "And you now agree in
+every detail to obey me implicitly, and to accompany me to a certain
+place, where you will dig. If I find the treasure, you agree, to help
+me guard it, and convey it to wherever I decide it is safe to leave it.
+Your responsibility is then at an end. One year after the treasure is
+discovered, you will be free to write the account of the expedition. For
+what you write, some magazine may pay you. What it pays you will be your
+share of the treasure."
+
+Of my part of the million dollars, which I had hastily calculated
+could not be less than one-fifth, I had already spent over one hundred
+thousand dollars and was living far beyond my means. I had bought a farm
+with a waterfront on the Sound, a motor-boat, and, as I was not sure
+which make I preferred, three automobiles. I had at my own, expense
+produced a play of mine that no manager had appreciated, and its name
+in electric lights was already blinding Broadway. I had purchased a
+Hollander express rifle, a REAL amber cigar holder, a private secretary
+who could play both rag-time and tennis, and a fur coat. So Edgar's
+generous offer left me naked. When I had again accustomed myself to the
+narrow confines of my flat, and the jolt of the surface cars, I asked
+humbly:
+
+"Is that ALL I get?"
+
+"Why should you expect any more?" demanded Edgar. "It isn't YOUR
+treasure. You wouldn't expect me to make you a present of an interest
+in my mills; why should you get a share of my treasure?" He gazed at me
+reproachfully. "I thought you'd be pleased," he said. "It must be hard
+to think of things to write about, and I'm giving you a subject for
+nothing. I thought," he remonstrated, "you'd jump at the chance. It
+isn't every day a man can dig for buried treasure."
+
+"That's all right," I said. "Perhaps I appreciate that quite as well as
+you do. But my time has a certain small value, and I can't leave my work
+just for excitement. We may be weeks, months---- How long do you think
+we----"
+
+Behind his eye-glasses Edgar winked reprovingly.
+
+"That is a leading question," he said. "I will pay all your legitimate
+expenses--transportation, food, lodging. It won't cost you a cent. And
+you write the story--with my name left out," he added hastily; "it would
+hurt my standing in the trade," he explained--"and get paid for it."
+
+I saw a sea voyage at Edgar's expense. I saw palm leaves, coral reefs. I
+felt my muscles aching and the sweat run from my neck and shoulders as I
+drove my pick into the chest of gold.
+
+"I'll go with you!" I said. We shook hands on it. "When do we start?" I
+asked.
+
+"Now!" said Edgar. I thought he wished to test me; he had touched upon
+one of my pet vanities.
+
+"You can't do that with me!" I said. "My bags are packed and ready for
+any place in the wide world, except the cold places. I can start this
+minute. Where is it, the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Spanish
+Main----"
+
+Edgar frowned inscrutably. "Have you an empty suit-case?" he asked.
+
+"Why EMPTY?" I demanded.
+
+"To carry the treasure," said Edgar. "I left mine in the hall. We will
+need two."
+
+"And your trunks?" I said.
+
+"There aren't going to be any trunks," said Edgar. From his pocket he
+had taken a folder of the New Jersey Central Railroad. "If we hurry," he
+exclaimed, "we can catch the ten-thirty express, and return to New York
+in time for dinner."
+
+"And what about the treasure?" I roared.
+
+"We'll' bring it with us," said Edgar.
+
+I asked for information. I demanded confidences. Edgar refused both. I
+insisted that I might be allowed at least to carry my automatic pistol.
+"Suppose some one tries to take the treasure from us?" I pointed out.
+
+"No one," said Edgar severely, "would be such an ass as to imagine we
+are carrying buried treasure in a suit-case. He will think it contains
+pajamas."
+
+"For local color, then," I begged, "I want to say in my story that I
+went heavily armed."
+
+"Say it, then," snapped Edgar. "But you can't DO it! Not with me, you
+can't! How do I know you mightn't----" He shook his head warily.
+
+It was a day in early October, the haze of Indian summer was in the air,
+and as we crossed the North River by the Twenty-third Street Ferry
+the sun flashed upon the white clouds overhead and the tumbling waters
+below. On each side of us great vessels with the Blue Peter at the fore
+lay at the wharfs ready to cast off, or were already nosing their way
+down the channel toward strange and beautiful ports. Lamport and Holt
+were rolling down to Rio; the Royal Mail's MAGDALENA, no longer "white
+and gold," was off to Kingston, where once seven pirates swung in
+chains; the CLYDE was on her way to Hayti where the buccaneers came
+from; the MORRO CASTLE was bound for Havana, which Morgan, king of all
+the pirates, had once made his own; and the RED D was steaming to Porto
+Cabello where Sir Francis Drake, as big a buccaneer as any of them, lies
+entombed in her harbor. And I was setting forth on a buried-treasure
+expedition on a snub-nosed, flat-bellied, fresh-water ferry-boat, bound
+for Jersey City! No one will ever know my sense of humiliation. And,
+when the Italian boy insulted my immaculate tan shoes by pointing at
+them and saying, "Shine?" I could have slain him. Fancy digging for
+buried treasure in freshly varnished boots! But Edgar did not mind.
+To him there was nothing lacking; it was just as it should be. He was
+deeply engrossed in calculating how many offices were for rent in the
+Singer Building!
+
+When we reached the other side, he refused to answer any of my eager
+questions. He would not let me know even for what place on the line he
+had purchased our tickets, and, as a hint that I should not disturb him,
+he stuffed into my hands the latest magazines. "At least tell me this,"
+I demanded. "Have you ever been to this place before to-day?"
+
+"Once," said Edgar shortly, "last week. That's when I found out I would
+need some one with me who could dig."
+
+"How do you know it's the RIGHT place?" I whispered.
+
+The summer season was over, and of the chair car we were the only
+occupants; but, before he answered, Edgar looked cautiously round him
+and out of the window. We had just passed Red Bank.
+
+"Because the map told me," he answered. "Suppose," he continued
+fretfully, "you had a map of New York City with the streets marked on it
+plainly? Suppose the map said that if you walked to where Broadway and
+Fifth Avenue meet, you would find the Flatiron Building. Do you think
+you could find it?"
+
+"Was it as easy as THAT?" I gasped.
+
+"It was as easy as THAT!" said Edgar.
+
+I sank back into my chair and let the magazines slide to the floor. What
+fiction story was there in any one of them so enthralling as the actual
+possibilities that lay before me? In two hours I might be bending over a
+pot of gold, a sea chest stuffed with pearls and rubies!
+
+I began to recall all the stories I had heard as a boy of treasure
+buried along the coast by Kidd on his return voyage from the Indies.
+Where along the Jersey sea-line were there safe harbors? The train
+on which we were racing south had its rail head at Barnegat Bay. And
+between Barnegat and Red Bank there now was but one other inlet, that
+of the Manasquan River. It might be Barnegat; it might be Manasquan.
+It could not be a great distance from either; toward the ocean down a
+broad, sandy road. The season had passed and the windows of the cottages
+and bungalows on either side of the road were barricaded with planks.
+On the verandas hammocks abandoned to the winds hung in tatters, on the
+back porches the doors of empty refrigerators swung open on one hinge,
+and on every side above the fields of gorgeous golden-rod rose signs
+reading "For Rent." When we had progressed in silence for a mile, the
+sandy avenue lost itself in the deeper sand of the beach, and the horse
+of his own will came to a halt.
+
+On one side we were surrounded by locked and deserted bathing houses,
+on the other by empty pavilions shuttered and barred against the winter,
+but still inviting one to "Try our salt water taffy" or to "Keep cool
+with an ice-cream soda." Rupert turned and looked inquiringly at Edgar.
+To the north the beach stretched in an unbroken line to Manasquan Inlet.
+To the south three miles away we could see floating on the horizon-like
+a mirage the hotels and summer cottages of Bay Head.
+
+"Drive toward the inlet," directed Edgar. "This gentleman and I will
+walk."
+
+Relieved of our weight, the horse stumbled bravely into the trackless
+sand, while below on the damper and firmer shingle we walked by the edge
+of the water.
+
+The tide was coming in and the spent waves, spreading before them an
+advance guard of tiny shells and pebbles, threatened our boots' and
+at the same time in soothing, lazy whispers warned us of their attack.
+These lisping murmurs and the crash and roar of each incoming wave as
+it broke were the only sounds. And on the beach we were the only human
+figures. At last the scene began to bear some resemblance to one set for
+an adventure. The rolling ocean, a coast steamer dragging a great column
+of black smoke, and cast high upon the beach the wreck of a schooner,
+her masts tilting drunkenly, gave color to our purpose. It became filled
+with greater promise of drama, more picturesque. I began to thrill with
+excitement. I regarded Edgar appealingly, in eager supplication. At last
+he broke the silence that was torturing me.
+
+"We will now walk higher up," he commanded. "If we get our feet wet, we
+may take cold."
+
+My spirit was too far broken to make reply. But to my relief I saw that
+in leaving the beach Edgar had some second purpose. With each heavy step
+he was drawing toward two high banks of sand in a hollow behind which,
+protected by the banks, were three stunted, wind-driven pines. His words
+came back to me.
+
+"So many what-you-may-call-'ems." Were these pines the three somethings
+from something, the what-you-may-call-'ems? The thought chilled me to
+the spine. I gazed at them fascinated. I felt like falling on my knees
+in the sand and tearing their secret from them with my bare hands. I
+was strong enough to dig them up by the roots, strong enough to dig the
+Panama Canal! I glanced tremulously at Edgar. His eyes were wide open
+and, eloquent with dismay, his lower jaw had fallen. He turned and
+looked at me for the first time with consideration. Apology and remorse
+were written in every line of his countenance.
+
+I'm sorry, he stammered. I had a cruel premonition. I exclaimed with
+distress.
+
+"You have lost the map!" I hissed.
+
+"No, no," protested Edgar; "but I entirely forgot to bring any lunch!"
+
+With violent mutterings I tore off my upper and outer garments and
+tossed them into the hack.
+
+"Where do I begin?" I asked.
+
+Edgar pointed to a spot inside the triangle formed by the three trees
+and equally distant from each.
+
+"Put that horse behind the bank," I commanded, "where no one can see
+him! And both you and Rupert keep off the sky-line!" From the north and
+south we were now all three hidden by the two high banks of sand; to the
+east lay the beach and the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west stretches
+of marshes that a mile away met a wood of pine trees and the railroad
+round-house.
+
+I began to dig. I knew that weary hours lay before me, and I attacked
+the sand leisurely and with deliberation. It was at first no great
+effort; but as the hole grew in depth, and the roots of the trees were
+exposed, the work was sufficient for several men. Still, as Edgar had
+said, it is not every day that one can dig for treasure, and in thinking
+of what was to come I forgot my hands that quickly blistered, and my
+breaking back. After an hour I insisted that Edgar should take a turn;
+but he made such poor headway that my patience could not contain me, and
+I told him I was sufficiently rested and would continue. With alacrity
+he scrambled out of the hole, and, taking a cigar from my case, seated
+himself comfortably in the hack. I took my comfort in anticipating the
+thrill that would be mine when the spade would ring on the ironbound
+chest; when, with a blow of the axe, I would expose to view the hidden
+jewels, the pieces of eight, coated with verdigris, the string of
+pearls, the chains of yellow gold. Edgar had said a million dollars.
+That must mean there would be diamonds, many diamonds. I would hold them
+in my hands, watch them, at the sudden sunshine, blink their eyes and
+burst into tiny, burning fires. In imagination I would replace them in
+the setting, from which, years before, they had been stolen. I would try
+to guess whence they came from a jewelled chalice in some dim cathedral,
+from the breast of a great lady, from the hilt of an admiral's sword.
+
+After another hour I lifted my aching shoulders and, wiping the sweat
+from my eyes, looked over the edge of the hole. Rupert, with his back
+to the sand-hill, was asleep. Edgar with one hand was waving away the
+mosquitoes and in the other was holding one of the magazines he had
+bought on the way down. I could even see the page upon which his
+eyes were riveted. It was an advertisement for breakfast food. In my
+indignation the spade slipped through my cramped and perspiring fingers,
+and as it struck the bottom of the pit, something--a band of iron, a
+steel lock, an iron ring--gave forth a muffled sound. My heart stopped
+beating as suddenly as though Mr. Corbett had hit it with his closed
+fist. My blood turned to melted ice. I drove the spade down as fiercely
+as though it was a dagger. It sank into rotten wood. I had made no
+sound; for I could hardly breathe. But the slight noise of the blow had
+reached Edgar. I heard the springs of the hack creak as he vaulted from
+it, and the next moment he was towering above me, peering down into the
+pit. His eyes were wide with excitement, greed, and fear. In his hands
+he clutched the two suit-cases. Like a lion defending his cubs he glared
+at me.
+
+"Get out!" he shouted.
+
+"Like hell!" I said.
+
+"Get out!" he roared. "I'll do the rest. That's mine, not yours! GET
+OUT!"
+
+With a swift kick I brushed away the sand. I found I was standing on a
+squat wooden box, bound with bands of rusty iron. I had only to stoop to
+touch it. It was so rotten that I could have torn it apart with my bare
+hands. Edgar was dancing on the edge of the pit, incidentally kicking
+sand into my mouth and nostrils.
+
+"You PROMISED me!" he roared. "You PROMISED to obey me!"
+
+"You ass!" I shouted. "Haven't I done all the work? Don't I get----"
+
+"You get out!" roared Edgar.
+
+Slowly, disgustedly, with what dignity one can display in crawling out
+of a sand-pit, I scrambled to the top.
+
+"Go over there," commanded Edgar pointing, "and sit down."
+
+In furious silence I seated myself beside Rupert. He was still
+slumbering and snoring happily. From where I sat I could see nothing of
+what was going forward in the pit, save once, when the head of Edgar,
+his eyes aflame and his hair and eye-glasses sprinkled with sand,
+appeared above it. Apparently he was fearful lest I had moved from
+the spot where he had placed me. I had not; but had he known my inmost
+feelings he would have taken the axe into the pit with him.
+
+I must have sat so for half an hour. In the sky above me a fish-hawk
+drifted lazily. From the beach sounded the steady beat of the waves, and
+from the town across the marshes came the puffing of a locomotive and
+the clanging bells of the freight trains. The breeze from the sea cooled
+the sweat on my aching body; but it could not cool the rage in my heart.
+If I had the courage of my feelings, I would have cracked Edgar over
+head with the spade, buried him in the pit, bribed Rupert, and forever
+after lived happily on my ill-gotten gains. That was how Kidd, or
+Morgan, or Blackbeard would have acted. I cursed the effete civilization
+which had taught me to want many pleasures but had left me with a
+conscience that would not let me take human life to obtain them, not
+even Edgar's life.
+
+In half an hour a suit-case was lifted into view and dropped on the edge
+of the pit. It was followed by the other, and then by Edgar. Without
+asking me to help him, because he probably knew I would not, he
+shovelled the sand into the hole, and then placed the suitcases in the
+carriage. With increasing anger I observed that the contents of each
+were so heavy that to lift it he used both hands.
+
+"There is no use your asking any questions," he announced, "because I
+won't answer them."
+
+I gave him minute directions as to where he could go; but instead we
+drove in black silence to the station. There Edgar rewarded Rupert with
+a dime, and while we waited for the train to New York placed the two
+suit-cases against the wall of the ticket office and sat upon them. When
+the train arrived he warned me in a hoarse whisper that I had promised
+to help him guard the treasure, and gave me one of the suit-cases. It
+weighed a ton. Just to spite Edgar, I had a plan to kick it open, so
+that every one on the platform might scramble for the contents. But
+again my infernal New England conscience restrained me.
+
+Edgar had secured the drawing-room in the parlor-car, and when we were
+safely inside and the door bolted my curiosity became stronger than my
+pride.
+
+"Edgar," I said, "your ingratitude is contemptible. Your suspicions are
+ridiculous; but, under these most unusual conditions, I don't blame
+you. But we are quite safe now. The door is fastened," I pointed
+out ingratiatingly, "it and this train doesn't stop for another forty
+minutes. I think this would be an excellent time to look at the
+treasure."
+
+"I don't!" said Edgar.
+
+I sank back into my chair. With intense enjoyment I imagined the
+train in which we were seated hurling itself into another train;
+and everybody, including Edgar, or, rather, especially Edgar, being
+instantly but painlessly killed. By such an act of an all-wise
+Providence I would at once become heir to one million dollars. It was a
+beautiful, satisfying dream. Even MY conscience accepted it with a smug
+smile. It was so vivid a dream that I sat guiltily expectant, waiting
+for the crash to come, for the shrieks and screams, for the rush of
+escaping steam and breaking window-panes.
+
+But it was far too good to be true. Without a jar the train carried us
+and its precious burden in safety to the Jersey City terminal. And each,
+with half a million dollars in his hand, hurried to the ferry, assailed
+by porters, news-boys, hackmen. To them we were a couple of commuters
+saving a dime by carrying our own hand-bags.
+
+It was now six o'clock, and I pointed out to Edgar that at that hour
+the only vaults open were those of the Night and Day Bank. And to that
+institution in a taxicab we at once made our way. I paid the chauffeur,
+and two minutes later, with a gasp of relief and rejoicing, I dropped
+the suit-case I had carried on a table in the steel-walled fastnesses of
+the vaults. Gathered excitedly around us were the officials of the bank,
+summoned hastily from above, and watchmen in plain clothes, and watchmen
+in uniforms of gray. Great bars as thick as my leg protected us. Walls
+of chilled steel rising from solid rock stood between our treasure and
+the outer world. Until then I had not known how tremendous the nervous
+strain had been; but now it came home to me. I mopped the perspiration
+from my forehead, I drew a deep breath.
+
+"Edgar," I exclaimed happily, "I congratulate you!" I found Edgar
+extending toward me a two-dollar bill. "You gave the chauffeur two
+dollars,"' he said. "The fare was really one dollar eighty; so you owe
+me twenty cents."
+
+Mechanically I laid two dimes upon the table.
+
+"All the other expenses," continued Edgar, "which I agreed to pay,
+I have paid." He made a peremptory gesture. "I won't detain you any
+longer," he said. "Good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!" I cried. "Don't I see the treasure?" Against the walls of
+chilled steel my voice rose like that of a tortured soul. "Don't I touch
+it!" I yelled. "Don't I even get a squint?"
+
+Even the watchmen looked sorry for me.
+
+"You do not!" said Edgar calmly. "You have fulfilled your part of the
+agreement. I have fulfilled mine. A year from now you can write the
+story." As I moved in a dazed state toward the steel door, his voice
+halted me.
+
+"And you can say in your story," called Edgar, "that there is only one
+way to get a buried treasure. That is to go, and get it!"
+
+THE CONSUL
+
+For over forty years, in one part of the world or another, old man
+Marshall had, served his country as a United States consul. He had
+been appointed by Lincoln. For a quarter of a century that fact was his
+distinction. It was now his epitaph. But in former years, as each new
+administration succeeded the old, it had again and again saved his
+official head. When victorious and voracious place-hunters, searching
+the map of the world for spoils, dug out his hiding-place and demanded
+his consular sign as a reward for a younger and more aggressive party
+worker, the ghost of the dead President protected him. In the State
+Department, Marshall had become a tradition. "You can't touch Him!"
+the State Department would say; "why, HE was appointed by Lincoln!"
+Secretly, for this weapon against the hungry headhunters, the department
+was infinitely grateful. Old man Marshall was a consul after its own
+heart. Like a soldier, he was obedient, disciplined; wherever he was
+sent, there, without question, he would go. Never against exile, against
+ill-health, against climate did he make complaint. Nor when he was moved
+on and down to make way for some ne'er-do-well with influence, with a
+brother-in-law in the Senate, with a cousin owning a newspaper, with
+rich relatives who desired him to drink himself to death at the expense
+of the government rather than at their own, did old man Marshall point
+to his record as a claim for more just treatment.
+
+And it had been an excellent record. His official reports, in a quaint,
+stately hand, were models of English; full of information, intelligent,
+valuable, well observed. And those few of his countrymen, who stumbled
+upon him in the out-of-the-world places to which of late he had been
+banished, wrote of him to the department in terms of admiration and awe.
+Never had he or his friends petitioned for promotion, until it was
+at last apparent that, save for his record and the memory of his dead
+patron, he had no friends. But, still in the department the tradition
+held and, though he was not advanced, he was not dismissed.
+
+"If that old man's been feeding from the public trough ever since the
+Civil War," protested a "practical" politician, "it seems to me, Mr.
+Secretary, that he's about had his share. Ain't it time he give some
+one else a bite? Some of us that has, done the work, that has borne the
+brunt----"
+
+"This place he now holds," interrupted the Secretary of State suavely,
+"is one hardly commensurate with services like yours. I can't pronounce
+the name of it, and I'm not sure just where it is, but I see that, of
+the last six consuls we sent there, three resigned within a month and
+the other three died of yellow-fever. Still, if you insist----"
+
+The practical politician reconsidered hastily. "I'm not the sort,"
+he protested, "to turn out a man appointed by our martyred President.
+Besides, he's so old now, if the fever don't catch him, he'll die of old
+age, anyway."
+
+The Secretary coughed uncomfortably. "And they say," he murmured,
+"republics are ungrateful."
+
+"I don't quite get that," said the practical politician.
+
+Of Porto Banos, of the Republic of Colombia, where as consul Mr.
+Marshall was upholding the dignity of the United States, little could
+be said except that it possessed a sure harbor. When driven from the
+Caribbean Sea by stress of weather, the largest of ocean tramps, and
+even battle-ships, could find in its protecting arms of coral a safe
+shelter. But, as young Mr. Aiken, the wireless operator, pointed out,
+unless driven by a hurricane and the fear of death, no one ever visited
+it. Back of the ancient wharfs, that dated from the days when Porto
+Banos was a receiver of stolen goods for buccaneers and pirates, were
+rows of thatched huts, streets, according to the season, of dust or
+mud, a few iron-barred, jail-like barracks, customhouses, municipal
+buildings, and the whitewashed adobe houses of the consuls. The backyard
+of the town was a swamp. Through this at five each morning a rusty
+engine pulled a train of flat cars to the base of the mountains, and, if
+meanwhile the rails had not disappeared into the swamp, at five in the
+evening brought back the flat cars laden with odorous coffee-sacks.
+
+In the daily life of Porto Banos, waiting for the return of the train,
+and betting if it would return, was the chief interest. Each night the
+consuls, the foreign residents, the wireless operator, the manager of
+the rusty railroad met for dinner. There at the head of the long table,
+by virtue of his years, of his courtesy and distinguished manner, of his
+office, Mr. Marshall presided. Of the little band of exiles he was
+the chosen ruler. His rule was gentle. By force of example he had made
+existence in Porto Banos more possible. For women and children Porto
+Banos was a death-trap, and before "old man Marshall" came there had
+been no influence to remind the enforced bachelors of other days.
+
+They had lost interest, had grown lax, irritable, morose. Their white
+duck was seldom white. Their cheeks were unshaven. When the sun sank
+into the swamp and the heat still turned Porto Banos into a Turkish
+bath, they threw dice on the greasy tables of the Cafe Bolivar for
+drinks. The petty gambling led to petty quarrels; the drinks to fever.
+The coming of Mr. Marshall changed that. His standard of life, his
+tact, his worldly wisdom, his cheerful courtesy, his fastidious personal
+neatness shamed the younger men; the desire to please him, to, stand
+well in his good opinion, brought back pride and self-esteem.
+
+The lieutenant of her Majesty's gun-boat PLOVER noted the change.
+
+"Used to be," he exclaimed, "you couldn't get out of the Cafe Bolivar
+without some one sticking a knife in you; now it's a debating club.
+They all sit round a table and listen to an old gentleman talk world
+politics."
+
+If Henry Marshall brought content to the exiles of Porto Banos, there
+was little in return that Porto Banos could give to him. Magazines and
+correspondents in six languages kept him in touch with those foreign
+lands in which he had represented his country, but of the country he had
+represented, newspapers and periodicals showed him only too clearly
+that in forty years it had grown away from him, had changed beyond
+recognition.
+
+When last he had called at the State Department, he had been made to
+feel he was a man without a country, and when he visited his home town
+in Vermont, he was looked upon as a Rip Van Winkle. Those of his boyhood
+friends who were not dead had long thought of him as dead. And the
+sleepy, pretty village had become a bustling commercial centre. In
+the lanes where, as a young man, he had walked among wheatfields,
+trolley-cars whirled between rows of mills and factories. The children
+had grown to manhood, with children of their own.
+
+Like a ghost, he searched for house after house, where once he had been
+made welcome, only to find in its place a towering office building.
+"All had gone, the old familiar faces." In vain he scanned even the shop
+fronts for a friendly, homelike name. Whether the fault was his,
+whether he would better have served his own interests than those of his
+government, it now was too late to determine. In his own home, he was a
+stranger among strangers. In the service he had so faithfully followed,
+rank by rank, he had been dropped, until now he, who twice had been a
+consul-general, was an exile, banished to a fever swamp. The great Ship
+of State had dropped him overside, had "marooned" him, and sailed away.
+
+Twice a day he walked along the shell road to the Cafe Bolivar, and back
+again to the consulate. There, as he entered the outer office, Jose, the
+Colombian clerk, would rise and bow profoundly.
+
+"Any papers for me to sign, Jose?" the consul would ask.
+
+"Not to-day, Excellency," the clerk would reply. Then Jose would return
+to writing a letter to his lady-love; not that there was any-thing to
+tell her, but because writing on the official paper of the consulate
+gave him importance in his eyes, and in hers. And in the inner office
+the consul would continue to gaze at the empty harbor, the empty coral
+reefs, the empty, burning sky.
+
+The little band of exiles were at second break fast when the wireless
+man came in late to announce that a Red D. boat and the island of
+Curacao had both reported a hurricane coming north. Also, that much
+concern was felt for the safety of the yacht SERAPIS. Three days before,
+in advance of her coming, she had sent a wireless to Wilhelmstad, asking
+the captain of the port to reserve a berth for her. She expected to
+arrive the following morning. But for forty-eight hours nothing had
+been heard from her, and it was believed she had been overhauled by the
+hurricane. Owing to the presence on board of Senator Hanley, the closest
+friend of the new President, the man who had made him president, much
+concern was felt at Washington. To try to pick her up by wireless, the
+gun-boat NEWARK had been ordered from Culebra, the cruiser RALEIGH,
+with Admiral Hardy on board, from Colon. It was possible she would seek
+shelter at Porto Banos. The consul was ordered to report.
+
+As Marshall wrote out his answer, the French consul exclaimed with
+interest:
+
+"He is of importance, then, this senator?" he asked. "Is it that in your
+country ships of war are at the service of a senator?"
+
+Aiken, the wireless operator, grinned derisively.
+
+"At the service of THIS senator, they are!" he answered. "They call him
+the 'king-maker,' the man behind the throne."
+
+"But in your country," protested the Frenchman, "there is no throne. I
+thought your president was elected by the people?"
+
+"That's what the people think," answered Aiken. "In God's country,"
+he explained, "the trusts want a rich man in the Senate, with the same
+interests as their own, to represent them. They chose Hanley. He picked
+out of the candidates for the presidency the man he thought would help
+the interests. He nominated him, and the people voted for him. Hanley is
+what we call a 'boss.'"
+
+The Frenchman looked inquiringly at Marshall.
+
+"The position of the boss is the more dangerous," said Marshall gravely,
+"because it is unofficial, because there are no laws to curtail his
+powers. Men like Senator Hanley are a menace to good government. They
+see in public office only a reward for party workers."
+
+"That's right," assented Aiken. "Your forty years' service, Mr. Consul,
+wouldn't count with Hanley. If he wanted your job, he'd throw you out as
+quick as he would a drunken cook."
+
+Mr. Marshall flushed painfully, and the French consul hastened to
+interrupt.
+
+"Then, let us pray," he exclaimed, with fervor, "that the hurricane has
+sunk the SERAPIS, and all on board."
+
+Two hours later, the SERAPIS, showing she had met the hurricane and had
+come out second best, steamed into the harbor.
+
+Her owner was young Herbert Livingstone, of Washington. He once had
+been in the diplomatic service, and, as minister to The Hague, wished to
+return to it. In order to bring this about he had subscribed liberally
+to the party campaign fund.
+
+With him, among other distinguished persons, was the all-powerful
+Hanley. The kidnapping of Hanley for the cruise, in itself, demonstrated
+the ability of Livingstone as a diplomat. It was the opinion of
+many that it would surely lead to his appointment as a minister
+plenipotentiary. Livingstone was of the same opinion. He had not lived
+long in the nation's capital without observing the value of propinquity.
+How many men he knew were now paymasters, and secretaries of legation,
+solely because those high in the government met them daily at the
+Metropolitan Club, and preferred them in almost any other place. And if,
+after three weeks as his guest on board what the newspapers called his
+floating palace, the senator could refuse him even the prize, legation
+of Europe, there was no value in modest merit. As yet, Livingstone
+had not hinted at his ambition. There was no need. To a statesman of
+Hanley's astuteness, the largeness of Livingstone's contribution to the
+campaign fund was self-explanatory.
+
+After her wrestling-match with the hurricane, all those on board the
+SERAPIS seemed to find in land, even in the swamp land of Porto Banos,
+a compelling attraction. Before the anchors hit the water, they were
+in the launch. On reaching shore, they made at once for the consulate.
+There were many cables they wished to start on their way by wireless;
+cables to friends, to newspapers, to the government.
+
+Jose, the Colombian clerk, appalled by the unprecedented invasion of
+visitors, of visitors so distinguished, and Marshall, grateful for a
+chance to serve his fellow-countrymen, and especially his countrywomen,
+were ubiquitous, eager, indispensable. At Jose's desk the great senator,
+rolling his cigar between his teeth, was using, to Jose's ecstasy,
+Jose's own pen to write a reassuring message to the White House. At
+the consul's desk a beautiful creature, all in lace and pearls, was
+struggling to compress the very low opinion she held of a hurricane
+into ten words. On his knee, Henry Cairns, the banker, was inditing
+instructions to his Wall Street office, and upon himself Livingstone
+had taken the responsibility of replying to the inquiries heaped upon
+Marshall's desk, from many newspapers.
+
+It was just before sunset, and Marshall produced his tea things, and the
+young person in pearls and lace, who was Miss Cairns, made tea for the
+women, and the men mixed gin and limes with tepid water. The consul
+apologized for proposing a toast in which they could not join. He begged
+to drink to those who had escaped the perils of the sea. Had they been
+his oldest and nearest friends, his little speech could not have been
+more heart-felt and sincere. To his distress, it moved one of the ladies
+to tears, and in embarrassment he turned to the men.
+
+"I regret there is no ice," he said, "but you know the rule of the
+tropics; as soon as a ship enters port, the ice-machine bursts."
+
+"I'll tell the steward to send you some, sir," said Livingstone, "and as
+long as we're here."
+
+The senator showed his concern.
+
+"As long as we're here?" he gasped.
+
+"Not over two days," answered the owner nervously. "The chief says
+it will take all of that to get her in shape. As you ought to know,
+Senator, she was pretty badly mauled."
+
+The senator gazed blankly out of the window. Beyond it lay the naked
+coral reefs, the empty sky, and the ragged palms of Porto Banos.
+
+Livingstone felt that his legation was slipping from him.
+
+"That wireless operator," he continued hastily, "tells me there is a
+most amusing place a few miles down the coast, Las Bocas, a sort of
+Coney Island, where the government people go for the summer. There's
+surf bathing and roulette and cafes chantants. He says there's some
+Spanish dancers----"
+
+The guests of the SERAPIS exclaimed with interest; the senator smiled.
+To Marshall the general enthusiasm over the thought of a ride on a
+merry-go-round suggested that the friends of Mr. Livingstone had found
+their own society far from satisfying.
+
+Greatly encouraged, Livingstone continued, with enthusiasm:
+
+"And that wireless man said," he added, "that with the launch we can
+get there in half an hour. We might run down after dinner." He turned to
+Marshall.
+
+"Will you join us, Mr. Consul?" he asked, "and dine with us, first?"
+
+Marshall accepted with genuine pleasure. It had been many months
+since he had sat at table with his own people. But he shook his head
+doubtfully.
+
+"I was wondering about Las Bocas," he explained, "if your going there
+might not get you in trouble at the next port. With a yacht, I think it
+is different, but Las Bocas is under quarantine."
+
+There was a chorus of exclamations.
+
+"It's not serious," Marshall explained. "There was bubonic plague there,
+or something like it. You would be in no danger from that. It is only
+that you might be held up by the regulations. Passenger steamers can't
+land any one who has been there at any other port of the West Indies.
+The English are especially strict. The Royal Mail won't even receive any
+one on board here without a certificate from the English consul saying
+he has not visited Las Bocas. For an American they would require the
+same guarantee from me. But I don't think the regulations extend to
+yachts. I will inquire. I don't wish to deprive you of any of the many
+pleasures of Porto Banos," he added, smiling, "but if you were refused a
+landing at your next port I would blame myself."
+
+"It's all right," declared Livingstone decidedly. "It's just as you say;
+yachts and warships are exempt. Besides, I carry my own doctor, and if
+he won't give us a clean bill of health, I'll make him walk the plank.
+At eight, then, at dinner. I'll send the cutter for you. I can't give
+you a salute, Mr. Consul, but you shall have all the side boys I can
+muster."
+
+Those from the yacht parted from their consul in the most friendly
+spirit.
+
+"I think he's charming!" exclaimed Miss Cairns. "And did you notice his
+novels? They were in every language. It must be terribly lonely down
+here, for a man like that."
+
+"He's the first of our consuls we've met on this trip," growled her
+father, "that we've caught sober."
+
+"Sober!" exclaimed his wife indignantly.
+
+"He's one of the Marshalls of Vermont. I asked him."
+
+"I wonder," mused Hanley, "how much the place is worth? Hamilton, one of
+the new senators, has been deviling the life out of me to send his son
+somewhere. Says if he stays in Washington he'll disgrace the family. I
+should think this place would drive any man to drink himself to death in
+three months, and young Hamilton, from what I've seen of him, ought to
+be able to do it in a week. That would leave the place open for the next
+man."
+
+"There's a postmaster in my State thinks he carried it." The senator
+smiled grimly. "He has consumption, and wants us to give him a
+consulship in the tropics. I'll tell him I've seen Porto Banos, and that
+it's just the place for him."
+
+The senator's pleasantry was not well received. But Miss Cairns alone
+had the temerity to speak of what the others were thinking.
+
+"What would become of Mr. Marshall?" she asked. The senator smiled
+tolerantly.
+
+"I don't know that I was thinking of Mr. Marshall," he said. "I can't
+recall anything he has done for this administration. You see, Miss
+Cairns," he explained, in the tone of one addressing a small child,
+"Marshall has been abroad now for forty years, at the expense of the
+taxpayers. Some of us think men who have lived that long on their
+fellow-countrymen had better come home and get to work."
+
+Livingstone nodded solemnly in assent. He did not wish a post abroad at
+the expense of the taxpayers. He was willing to pay for it. And then,
+with "ex-Minister" on his visiting cards, and a sense of duty well
+performed, for the rest of his life he could join the other expatriates
+in Paris.
+
+Just before dinner, the cruiser RALEIGH having discovered the
+whereabouts of the SERAPIS by wireless, entered the harbor, and Admiral
+Hardy came to the yacht to call upon the senator, in whose behalf he
+had been scouring the Caribbean Seas. Having paid his respects to that
+personage, the admiral fell boisterously upon Marshall.
+
+The two old gentlemen were friends of many years. They had met,
+officially and unofficially, in many strange parts of the world. To
+each the chance reunion was a piece of tremendous good fortune. And
+throughout dinner the guests of Livingstone, already bored with each
+other, found in them and their talk of former days new and delightful
+entertainment. So much so that when, Marshall having assured them that
+the local quarantine regulations did not extend to a yacht, the men
+departed for Las Bocas, the women insisted that he and admiral remain
+behind.
+
+It was for Marshall a wondrous evening. To foregather with his old
+friend whom he had known since Hardy was a mad midshipman, to sit at
+the feet of his own charming countrywomen, to listen to their soft,
+modulated laughter, to note how quickly they saw that to him the evening
+was a great event, and with what tact each contributed to make it the
+more memorable; all served to wipe out the months of bitter loneliness,
+the stigma of failure, the sense of undeserved neglect. In the
+moonlight, on the cool quarter-deck, they sat, in a half-circle, each
+of the two friends telling tales out of school, tales of which the
+other was the hero or the victim, "inside" stories of great occasions,
+ceremonies, bombardments, unrecorded "shirt-sleeve" diplomacy.
+
+Hardy had helped to open the Suez Canal. Marshall had assisted the Queen
+of Madagascar to escape from the French invaders. On the Barbary Coast
+Hardy had chased pirates. In Edinburgh Marshall had played chess with
+Carlyle. He had seen Paris in mourning in the days of the siege, Paris
+in terror in the days of the Commune; he had known Garibaldi, Gambetta,
+the younger Dumas, the creator of Pickwick.
+
+"Do you remember that time in Tangier," the admiral urged, "when I was a
+midshipman, and got into the bashaw's harem?"
+
+"Do you remember how I got you out?" Marshall replied grimly.
+
+"And," demanded Hardy, "do you remember when Adelina Patti paid a visit
+to the KEARSARGE at Marseilles in '65--George Dewey was our second
+officer--and you were bowing and backing away from her, and you backed
+into an open hatch, and she said 'my French isn't up to it' what was it
+she said?"
+
+"I didn't hear it," said Marshall; "I was too far down the hatch."
+
+"Do you mean the old KEARSARGE?" asked Mrs. Cairns. "Were you in the
+service then, Mr. Marshall?"
+
+With loyal pride in his friend, the admiral answered for him:
+
+"He was our consul-general at Marseilles!"
+
+There was an uncomfortable moment. Even those denied imagination could
+not escape the contrast, could see in their mind's eye the great harbor
+of Marseilles, crowded with the shipping of the world, surrounding
+it the beautiful city, the rival of Paris to the north, and on the
+battleship the young consul-general making his bow to the young Empress
+of Song. And now, before their actual eyes, they saw the village of
+Porto Banos, a black streak in the night, a row of mud shacks, at the
+end of the wharf a single lantern yellow in the clear moonlight.
+
+Later in the evening Miss Cairns led the admiral to one side.
+
+"Admiral," she began eagerly, "tell me about your friend. Why is he
+here? Why don't they give him a place worthy of him? I've seen many of
+our representatives abroad, and I know we cannot afford to waste men
+like that." The girl exclaimed indignantly: "He's one of the most
+interesting men I've ever met! He's lived everywhere, known every one.
+He's a distinguished man, a cultivated man; even I can see he knows his
+work, that he's a diplomat, born, trained, that he's----" The admiral
+interrupted with a growl.
+
+"You don't have to tell ME about Henry," he protested. "I've known Henry
+twenty-five years. If Henry got his deserts," he exclaimed hotly, "he
+wouldn't be a consul on this coral reef; he'd be a minister in Europe.
+Look at me! We're the same age. We started together. When Lincoln sent
+him to Morocco as consul, he signed my commission as a midshipman.
+Now I'm an admiral. Henry has twice my brains and he's been a
+consul-general, and he's HERE, back at the foot of the ladder!"
+
+"Why?" demanded the girl.
+
+"Because the navy is a service and the consular service isn't a service.
+Men like Senator Hanley use it to pay their debts. While Henry's been
+serving his country abroad, he's lost his friends, lost his 'pull.'
+Those politicians up at Washington have no use for him. They don't
+consider that a consul like Henry can make a million dollars for his
+countrymen. He can keep them from shipping goods where there's no
+market, show them where there is a market." The admiral snorted
+contemptuously. "You don't have to tell ME the value of a good consul.
+But those politicians don't consider that. They only see that he has
+a job worth a few hundred dollars, and they want it, and if he hasn't
+other politicians to protect him, they'll take it." The girl raised her
+head.
+
+"Why don't you speak to the senator?" she asked. "Tell him you've known
+him for years, that----"
+
+"Glad to do it!" exclaimed the admiral heartily. "It won't be the first
+time. But Henry mustn't know. He's too confoundedly touchy. He hates the
+IDEA of influence, hates men like Hanley, who abuse it. If he thought
+anything was given to him except on his merits, he wouldn't take it."
+
+"Then we won't tell him," said the girl. For a moment she hesitated.
+
+"If I spoke to Mr. Hanley," she asked, "told him what I learned to-night
+of Mr. Marshall, would it have any effect?"
+
+"Don't know how it will affect Hanley," said the sailor, "but if you
+asked me to make anybody a consul-general, I'd make him an ambassador."
+
+Later in the evening Hanley and Livingstone were seated alone on
+deck. The visit to Las Bocas had not proved amusing, but, much to
+Livingstone's relief, his honored guest was now in good-humor. He took
+his cigar from his lips, only to sip at a long cool drink. He was in a
+mood flatteringly confidential and communicative.
+
+"People have the strangest idea of what I can do for them," he laughed.
+It was his pose to pretend he was without authority. "They believe I've
+only to wave a wand, and get them anything they want. I thought I'd be
+safe from them on board a yacht."
+
+Livingstone, in ignorance of what was coming, squirmed apprehensively.
+
+"But it seems," the senator went on, "I'm at the mercy of a conspiracy.
+The women folk want me to do something for this fellow Marshall. If they
+had their way, they'd send him to the Court of St. James. And old Hardy,
+too, tackled me about him. So did Miss Cairns. And then Marshall himself
+got me behind the wheel-house, and I thought he was going to tell me how
+good he was, too! But he didn't."
+
+As though the joke were on himself, the senator laughed appreciatively.
+
+"Told me, instead, that Hardy ought to be a vice-admiral."
+
+Livingstone, also, laughed, with the satisfied air of one who cannot be
+tricked.
+
+"They fixed it up between them," he explained, "each was to put in a
+good word for the other." He nodded eagerly. "That's what I think."
+
+There were moments during the cruise when Senator Hanley would have
+found relief in dropping his host overboard. With mock deference, the
+older man inclined his head.
+
+"That's what you think, is it?" he asked. "Livingstone," he added, "you
+certainly are a great judge of men!"
+
+The next morning, old man Marshall woke with a lightness at his heart
+that had been long absent. For a moment, conscious only that he was
+happy, he lay between sleep and waking, frowning up at his canopy of
+mosquito net, trying to realize what change had come to him. Then he
+remembered. His old friend had returned. New friends had come into his
+life and welcomed him kindly. He was no longer lonely. As eager as a
+boy, he ran to the window. He had not been dreaming. In the harbor lay
+the pretty yacht, the stately, white-hulled war-ship. The flag that
+drooped from the stern of each caused his throat to tighten, brought
+warm tears to his eyes, fresh resolve to his discouraged, troubled
+spirit. When he knelt beside his bed, his heart poured out his thanks in
+gratitude and gladness.
+
+While he was dressing, a blue-jacket brought a note from the admiral.
+It invited him to tea on board the war-ship, with the guests of the
+SERAPIS. His old friend added that he was coming to lunch with his
+consul, and wanted time reserved for a long talk. The consul agreed
+gladly. He was in holiday humor. The day promised to repeat the good
+moments of the night previous.
+
+At nine o'clock, through the open door of the consulate, Marshall saw
+Aiken, the wireless operator, signaling from the wharf excitedly to
+the yacht, and a boat leave the ship and return. Almost immediately the
+launch, carrying several passengers, again made the trip shoreward.
+
+Half an hour later, Senator Hanley, Miss Cairns, and Livingstone came
+up the waterfront, and entering the consulate, seated themselves around
+Marshall's desk. Livingstone was sunk in melancholy. The senator,
+on the contrary, was smiling broadly. His manner was one of distinct
+relief. He greeted the consul with hearty good-humor.
+
+"I'm ordered home!" he announced gleefully. Then, remembering the
+presence of Livingstone, he hastened to add: "I needn't say how sorry I
+am to give up my yachting trip, but orders are orders. The President,"
+he explained to Marshall, "cables me this morning to come back and
+take my coat off." The prospect, as a change from playing bridge on a
+pleasure boat, seemed far from depressing him.
+
+"Those filibusters in the Senate," he continued genially, "are making
+trouble again. They think they've got me out of the way for another
+month, but they'll find they're wrong. When that bill comes up, they'll
+find me at the old stand and ready for business!" Marshall did not
+attempt to conceal his personal disappointment.
+
+"I am so sorry you are leaving," he said; "selfishly sorry, I mean. I'd
+hoped you all would be here for several days." He looked inquiringly
+toward Livingstone.
+
+"I understood the SERAPIS was disabled," he explained.
+
+"She is," answered Hanley. "So's the RALEIGH. At a pinch, the admiral
+might have stretched the regulations and carried me to Jamaica, but
+the RALEIGH's engines are knocked about too. I've GOT to reach Kingston
+Thursday. The German boat leaves there Thursday for New York. At first
+it looked as though I couldn't do it, but we find that the Royal Mail
+is due to-day, and she can get to Kingston Wednesday night. It's a great
+piece of luck. I wouldn't bother you with my troubles," the senator
+explained pleasantly, "but the agent of the Royal Mail here won't sell
+me a ticket until you've put your seal to this." He extended a piece of
+printed paper.
+
+As Hanley had been talking, the face of the consul had grown grave. He
+accepted the paper, but did not look at it. Instead, he regarded the
+senator with troubled eyes. When he spoke, his tone was one of genuine
+concern.
+
+"It is most unfortunate," he said. "But I am afraid the ROYAL MAIL will
+not take you on board. Because of Las Bocas," he explained. "If we had
+only known!" he added remorsefully. "It is MOST unfortunate."
+
+"Because of Las Bocas?" echoed Hanley.
+
+"You don't mean they'll refuse to take me to Jamaica because I spent
+half an hour at the end of a wharf listening to a squeaky gramophone?"
+
+"The trouble," explained Marshall, "is this: if they carried you, all
+the other passengers would be held in quarantine for ten days, and there
+are fines to pay, and there would be difficulties over the mails. But,"
+he added hopefully, "maybe the regulations have been altered. I will see
+her captain, and tell him----"
+
+"See her captain!" objected Hanley. "Why see the captain? He doesn't
+know I've been to that place. Why tell him? All I need is a clean bill
+of health from you. That's all HE wants. You have only to sign that
+paper." Marshall regarded the senator with surprise.
+
+"But I can't," he said.
+
+"You can't? Why not?"
+
+"Because it certifies to the fact that you have not visited Las Bocas.
+Unfortunately, you have visited Las Bocas."
+
+The senator had been walking up and down the room. Now he seated
+himself, and stared at Marshall curiously.
+
+"It's like this, Mr. Marshall," he began quietly. "The President desires
+my presence in Washington, thinks I can be of some use to him there in
+helping carry out certain party measures--measures to which he pledged
+himself before his election. Down here, a British steamship line has
+laid down local rules which, in my case anyway, are ridiculous. The
+question is, are you going to be bound by the red tape of a ha'penny
+British colony, or by your oath to the President of the United States?"
+
+The sophistry amused Marshall. He smiled good-naturedly and shook his
+head.
+
+"I'm afraid, Senator," he said, "that way of putting it is hardly
+fair. Unfortunately, the question is one of fact. I will explain to the
+captain----"
+
+"You will explain nothing to the captain!" interrupted Hanley. "This
+is a matter which concerns no one but our two selves. I am not asking
+favors of steamboat captains. I am asking an American consul to assist
+an American citizen in trouble, and," he added, with heavy sarcasm,
+"incidentally, to carry out the wishes of his President."
+
+Marshall regarded the senator with an expression of both surprise and
+disbelief.
+
+"Are you asking me to put my name to what is not so?" he said. "Are you
+serious?"
+
+"That paper, Mr. Marshall," returned Hanley steadily, "is a mere form,
+a piece of red tape. There's no more danger of my carrying the plague to
+Jamaica than of my carrying a dynamite bomb. You KNOW that."
+
+"I DO know that," assented Marshall heartily. "I appreciate your
+position, and I regret it exceedingly. You are the innocent victim of a
+regulation which is a wise regulation, but which is most unfair to you.
+My own position," he added, "is not important, but you can believe me,
+it is not easy. It is certainly no pleasure for me to be unable to help
+you."
+
+Hanley was leaning forward, his hands on his knees, his eyes watching
+Marshall closely. "Then you refuse?" he said. "Why?"
+
+Marshall regarded the senator steadily. His manner was untroubled. The
+look he turned upon Hanley was one of grave disapproval.
+
+"You know why," he answered quietly. "It is impossible."
+
+In sudden anger Hanley rose. Marshall, who had been seated behind his
+desk, also rose. For a moment, in silence, the two men confronted each
+other. Then Hanley spoke; his tone was harsh and threatening.
+
+"Then I am to understand," he exclaimed, "that you refuse to carry out
+the wishes of a United States Senator and of the President of the United
+States?"
+
+In front of Marshall, on his desk, was the little iron stamp of the
+consulate. Protectingly, almost caressingly, he laid his hand upon it.
+
+"I refuse," he corrected, "to place the seal of this consulate on a
+lie."
+
+There was a moment's pause. Miss Cairns, unwilling to remain, and
+unable to withdraw, clasped her hands unhappily and stared at the floor.
+Livingstone exclaimed in indignant protest. Hanley moved a step nearer
+and, to emphasize what he said, tapped his knuckles on the desk. With
+the air of one confident of his advantage, he spoke slowly and softly.
+
+"Do you appreciate," he asked, "that, while you may be of some
+importance down here in this fever swamp, in Washington I am supposed
+to carry some weight? Do you appreciate that I am a senator from a State
+that numbers four millions of people, and that you are preventing me
+from serving those people?" Marshall inclined his head gravely and
+politely.
+
+"And I want you to appreciate," he said, "that while I have no weight
+at Washington, in this fever swamp I have the honor to represent eighty
+millions of people, and as long as that consular sign is over my door
+I don't intend to prostitute it for YOU, or the President of the United
+States, or any one of those eighty millions."
+
+
+Of the two men, the first to lower his eyes was Hanley. He laughed
+shortly, and walked to the door. There he turned, and indifferently, as
+though the incident no longer interested him, drew out his watch.
+
+"Mr. Marshall," he said, "if the cable is working, I'll take your tin
+sign away from you by sunset."
+
+For one of Marshall's traditions, to such a speech there was no answer
+save silence. He bowed, and, apparently serene and undismayed, resumed
+his seat. From the contest, judging from the manner of each, it was
+Marshall, not Hanley, who had emerged victorious.
+
+But Miss Cairns was not deceived. Under the unexpected blow, Marshall
+had turned older. His clear blue eyes had grown less alert, his broad
+shoulders seemed to stoop. In sympathy, her own eyes filled with sudden
+tears.
+
+"What will you do?" she whispered.
+
+"I don't know what I shall do," said Marshall simply. "I should have
+liked to have resigned. It's a prettier finish. After forty years--to be
+dismissed by cable is--it's a poor way of ending it."
+
+Miss Cairns rose and walked to the door. There she turned and looked
+back.
+
+"I am sorry," she said. And both understood that in saying no more than
+that she had best shown her sympathy.
+
+An hour later the sympathy of Admiral Hardy was expressed more directly.
+
+"If he comes on board my ship," roared that gentleman, "I'll push him
+down an ammunition hoist and break his damned neck!"
+
+Marshall laughed delightedly. The loyalty of his old friend was never so
+welcome.
+
+"You'll treat him with every courtesy," he said. "The only satisfaction
+he gets out of this is to see that he has hurt me. We will not give him
+that satisfaction."
+
+But Marshall found that to conceal his wound was more difficult than
+he had anticipated. When, at tea time, on the deck of the war-ship, he
+again met Senator Hanley and the guests of the SERAPIS, he could not
+forget that his career had come to an end. There was much to remind
+him that this was so. He was made aware of it by the sad, sympathetic
+glances of the women; by their tactful courtesies; by the fact that
+Livingstone, anxious to propitiate Hanley, treated him rudely; by the
+sight of the young officers, each just starting upon a career of honor,
+and possible glory, as his career ended in humiliation; and by the big
+war-ship herself, that recalled certain crises when he had only to press
+a button and war-ships had come at his bidding.
+
+At five o'clock there was an awkward moment. The Royal Mail boat, having
+taken on her cargo, passed out of the harbor on her way to Jamaica, and
+dipped her colors. Senator Hanley, abandoned to his fate, observed her
+departure in silence.
+
+Livingstone, hovering at his side, asked sympathetically: "Have they
+answered your cable, sir?"
+
+"They have," said Hanley gruffly.
+
+"Was it--was it satisfactory?" pursued the diplomat.
+
+"It WAS," said the senator, with emphasis.
+
+Far from discouraged, Livingstone continued his inquiries.
+
+"And when," he asked eagerly, "are you going to tell him?"
+
+"Now!" said the senator.
+
+The guests were leaving the ship. When all were seated in the admiral's
+steam launch, the admiral descended the accommodation ladder and himself
+picked up the tiller ropes.
+
+"Mr. Marshall," he called, "when I bring the launch broadside to the
+ship and stop her, you will stand ready to receive the consul's salute."
+
+Involuntarily, Marshall uttered an exclamation of protest. He had
+forgotten that on leaving the war-ship, as consul, he was entitled to
+seven guns. Had he remembered, he would have insisted that the ceremony
+be omitted. He knew that the admiral wished to show his loyalty, knew
+that his old friend was now paying him this honor only as a rebuke to
+Hanley. But the ceremony was no longer an honor. Hanley had made of it a
+mockery. It served only to emphasize what had been taken from him. But,
+without a scene, it now was too late to avoid it. The first of the seven
+guns had roared from the bow, and, as often he had stood before, as
+never he would so stand again, Marshall took his place at the gangway
+of the launch. His eyes were fixed on the flag, his gray head was
+uncovered, his hat was pressed above his heart.
+
+For the first time since Hanley had left the consulate, he fell into
+sudden terror lest he might give way to his emotions. Indignant at the
+thought, he held himself erect. His face was set like a mask, his eyes
+were untroubled. He was determined they should not see that he was
+suffering.
+
+Another gun spat out a burst of white smoke, a stab of flame. There was
+an echoing roar. Another and another followed. Marshall counted seven,
+and then, with a bow to the admiral, backed from the gangway.
+
+And then another gun shattered the hot, heavy silence. Marshall,
+confused, embarrassed, assuming he had counted wrong, hastily returned
+to his place. But again before he could leave it, in savage haste a
+ninth gun roared out its greeting. He could not still be mistaken. He
+turned appealingly to his friend. The eyes of the admiral were fixed
+upon the war-ship. Again a gun shattered the silence. Was it a jest?
+Were they laughing at him? Marshall flushed miserably. He gave a swift
+glance toward the others. They were smiling. Then it was a jest. Behind
+his back, something of which they all were cognizant was going forward.
+The face of Livingstone alone betrayed a like bewilderment to his own.
+But the others, who knew, were mocking him.
+
+For the thirteenth time a gun shook the brooding swamp land of Porto
+Banos. And then, and not until then, did the flag crawl slowly from the
+mast-head. Mary Cairns broke the tenseness by bursting into tears. But
+Marshall saw that every one else, save she and Livingstone, were still
+smiling. Even the bluejackets in charge of the launch were grinning
+at him. He was beset by smiling faces. And then from the war-ship,
+unchecked, came, against all regulations, three long, splendid cheers.
+
+Marshall felt his lips quivering, the warm tears forcing their way to
+his eyes. He turned beseechingly to his friend. His voice trembled.
+
+"Charles," he begged, "are they laughing at me?"
+
+Eagerly, before the other would answer, Senator Hanley tossed his cigar
+into the water and, scrambling forward, seized Marshall by the hand.
+
+"Mr. Marshall," he cried, "our President has great faith in Abraham
+Lincoln's judgment of men. And this salute means that this morning
+he appointed you our new minister to The Hague. I'm one of those
+politicians who keeps his word. I TOLD YOU I'd take your tin sign away
+from you by sunset. I've done it!"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's My Buried Treasure, by Richard Harding Davis
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