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diff --git a/17741.txt b/17741.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62fb6a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/17741.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8185 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pieces of Eight, by Richard le Gallienne + +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: Pieces of Eight + +Author: Richard le Gallienne + +Release Date: February 10, 2006 [EBook #17741] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIECES OF EIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Jason Isbell, Christine D. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover] + + +PIECES OF EIGHT + + + +_Being the Authentic Narrative of a Treasure Discovered in the Bahama +Islands in the Year 1903--Now First Given to the Public_ + + + +BY RICHARD LE GALLIENNE + +[Illustration] + +_Frontispiece_ + +[Illustration: "'YOU YOUNG FOOL!' EXCLAIMED CHARLIE, 'THE WATER ROUND +HERE IS THICK WITH SHARKS!'"] + + + A.L. BURT COMPANY + Publishers New York + +Published by arrangement with Doubleday, Page & Company + + + + +_Copyright, 1918, by_ + +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +_All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign +languages, including the Scandinavian_ + +COPYRIGHT, 1917, 1918, BY THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING COMPANY + + + + +LIFE BEING OF THE NATURE BOTH OF A TREASURE-HUNT AND A PIRATICAL +EXPEDITION, I DEDICATE THIS NARRATIVE TO THE FOLLOWING SAILING +COMPANIONS OF MINE ON THIS ENTERTAINING OLD PIRATE CRAFT WE CALL THE +EARTH, IN THE HOPE THAT EACH MAY FIND HIS TREASURE, AND, AT LEAST, +ESCAPE HANGING AT THE END OF THE TRIP--TO WIT: HARRY DASH JOHNSON, SAM +NICHOLSON, BERT WILLSIE AND CHARLEY BETHEL, ALL ENGAGED IN ONE OR +ANOTHER OF THE PIRATICAL PROFESSIONS. + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +_(The following MS., the authorship of which I am not at liberty to +divulge, came to me in a curious way. Being recently present at a +performance of_ "Treasure Island" _at The Punch and Judy Theatre in New +York City, and, seated at the extreme right-hand end of the front row of +the stalls--so near to the ground-floor box that its occupants were +within but a yard or two of me, and, therefore, very clearly to be +seen--I, in common with my immediate neighbours, could not fail to +remark the very striking and beautiful woman who was the companion of a +distinguished military-looking man on the youthful side of middle age._ + +_Still young, a little past thirty, maybe, she was unusually tall and +stately of figure, and from her curious golden skin and massive black +hair, one judged her to be a Creole, possibly a Jamaican. Her face, +which was rather heavily but finely moulded, wore an expression of +somewhat poetic melancholy, a little like that of a beautiful animal, +but readily lit up with a charming smile now and again at some sally of +her companion, with whom she seemed to be on affectionate terms, and +with whom, as the play proceeded, she exchanged glances and whispered +confidences such as two who have shared an experience together--which +the play seems to bring to mind--are seen sometimes to exchange in a +theatre._ + +_But there was one particular which especially accentuated the +singularity of her appearance and was responsible for drawing upon her +an interested observation--seemed, indeed, even in her eyes to condone +it, for she, as well as her companion, was obviously conscious of +it--the two strange-looking gold ornaments which hung from her +delicately shaped ears. These continually challenged the eye, and piqued +the curiosity. Obviously they were two old coins, of thick gold, stamped +with an antique design. They were Spanish doubloons!_ + +_As, in common with the rest of the audience, I looked at this +picturesque pair, my eyes forsook the lady of the doubloons, and +fastened themselves with a half-certainty of recognition upon her +companion. Why! surely it was ---- ----, an old dare-devil comrade of +mine, whose disappearance from New York some ten years before had been +the talk of the two or three clubs to which we both belonged. A curious +blending of soldier, poet, and mining engineer, he had been popular with +all of us, and when he had disappeared without warning we were sure that +he was off on some Knight-errant business--to Mexico or the Moon!_ + +_He was, indeed, wearing that disguise of Time, which we all come +involuntarily to wear--an unfamiliar greyness of his hair at the +temples, and a moustache that would soon be a distinguished white; yet +the disguise was not sufficient to conceal the youthful vigour of his +personality from one who had known him so well as I. The more I looked +at him, the more certain I grew that it was he, and I determined to go +round to his box at the conclusion of the second act._ + +_Then, becoming absorbed in the play, I forgot him and his companion of +the doubloons for a while, and when I looked for them again, they had +vanished. However, a letter in my mail next morning told me that the +observation had not been all on my side. My eyes had not deceived me. It +was my friend--and, at dinner with him and his lady, next evening, I +heard the story of some of those lost years. Moreover, he confided to me +that a certain portion of his adventures had seemed so romantic that he +had been tempted to set them down in a narrative, merely, of course, for +the amusement of his family and friends. On our parting, he entrusted me +with this manuscript, which I found so interesting that I was able to +persuade him to consent to its publication to that larger world which it +seemed to me unfair to rob of one of those few romances that have been +really lived, and not merely conjured up out of the imaginations of +professional romancers._ + +_His consent was given with some reluctance, for, apart from a certain +risk which the publication of the manuscript would entail, it contains +also matters which my friend naturally regards as sacred--though, in +this respect, I feel sure that he can rely upon the delicacy of his +readers. He made it a condition that every precaution should be taken to +keep secret the name and identity of his wife and himself._ + +_Therefore, in presenting to the world the manuscript thus entrusted to +me, I have made various changes of detail, with the purpose of the more +surely safeguarding the privacy of my two friends; but, in all +essentials, the manuscript is printed as it came originally into my +hands._ + +R. Le G. + + + + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + Prologue vii + + + _Book I_ + + Out of the Constant East the Breeze 2 + + CHAPTER + + I. Introduces the Secretary to the Treasury + of His Britannic Majesty's Government + at Nassau 3 + + II. The Narrative of Henry P. Tobias, Ex-Pirate, + as dictated on his deathbed, + in the year of our Lord, 1859 13 + + III. In which I charter the _Maggie Darling_ 21 + + IV. In which Tom catches an enchanted fish, + and discourses of the dangers of treasure + hunting 30 + + V. In which we begin to understand our unwelcome + passenger 40 + + VI. The incident of the Captain 48 + + VII. In which the sucking fish has a chance to + show its virtue 57 + + VIII. In which I once again sit up and behold + the sun 64 + + IX. In which Tom and I attend several funerals 69 + + X. In which Tom and I seriously start in + treasure hunting 75 + + XI. An unfinished game of cards 85 + + + _Book II_ + + The dotted cays, with their little trees 92 + + I. Once more in John Saunders's snuggery 95 + + II. In which I learn something 100 + + III. In which I am afforded glimpses into + futurity--possibly useful 108 + + IV. In which we take ship once more 123 + + V. In which we enter the wilderness 141 + + VI. Duck 154 + + VII. More particulars concerning our young + companion 160 + + VIII. Better than duck 169 + + + _Book III_ + + Across the scarce-awakened sea 178 + + I. In which we gather shells--and other + matters 179 + + II. In which I catch a glimpse of a different + kind of treasure 187 + + III. Under the Influence of the Moon 193 + + IV. In which I meet a very strange individual 200 + + V. Calypso 213 + + VI. Doubloons 223 + + VII. In which the "King" dreams a dream--and + tells us about it 232 + + VIII. News! 239 + + IX. Old Friends 246 + + X. The Hidden Creek 253 + + XI. An Old Enemy 258 + + XII. In which the "King" imprisons me + with some old books and pictures 266 + + XIII. We Begin to Dig 274 + + XIV. In which I lose my way 283 + + XV. In which I pursue my studies as a Troglodyte 292 + + XVI. In which I understand the feelings of a + Ghost! 306 + + XVII. Action 315 + + XVIII. Gathering up the threads 321 + + Postscript 328 + + Epilogue By the Editor 332 + + + + +BOOK I + + + _Out of the constant East the breeze + Brings morning, like a wafted rose, + Across the glimmering lagoon, + And wakes the still palmetto trees, + And blows adrift the phantom moon, + That paler and still paler glows-- + Up with the anchor! let's be going! + O hoist the sail! and let's be going! + Glory and glee + Of the morning sea-- + Ah! let's be going!_ + + Under our keel a glass of dreams + Still fairer than the morning sky, + A jewel shot with blue and gold, + The swaying clearness streams and gleams, + A crystal mountain smoothly rolled + O'er magic gardens flowing by-- + Over we go the sea-fans waving, + Over the rainbow corals paving + The deep-sea floor; + No more, no more + Would I seek the shore + To make my grave in-- + _O sea-fans waving_! + + + + +PIECES OF EIGHT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Introduces the Secretary to the Treasury of His Britannic Majesty's +Government at Nassau, New Providence, Bahama Islands._ + + +Some few years ago--to be precise, it was during the summer of 1903--I +was paying what must have seemed like an interminable visit to my old +friend John Saunders, who at that time filled with becoming dignity the +high-sounding office of Secretary to the Treasury of His Majesty's +Government, in the quaint little town of Nassau, in the island of New +Providence, one of those Bahama Islands that lie half lost to the world +to the southeast of the Caribbean Sea and form a somewhat neglected +portion of the British West Indies. + +Time was when they had a sounding name for themselves in the world; +during the American Civil War, for instance, when the blockade-runners +made their dare-devil trips with contraband cotton, between Nassau and +South Carolina; and before that again, when the now sleepy little +harbour gave shelter to rousing freebooters and tarry pirates, tearing +in there under full sail with their loot from the Spanish Main. How +often those quiet moonlit streets must have roared with brutal revelry, +and the fierce clamour of pistol-belted scoundrels round the wine-casks +have gone up into the still, tropic night. + +But those heroic days are gone, and Nassau is given up to a sleepy trade +in sponges and tortoise-shell, and peace is no name for the drowsy tenor +of the days under the palm trees and the scarlet poincianas. A little +group of Government buildings surrounding a miniature statue of Queen +Victoria, flanked by some old Spanish cannon and murmured over by the +foliage of tropic trees, gives an air of old-world distinction to the +long Bay street, whose white houses, with their jalousied verandas, ran +the whole length of the water-front, and all the long sunny days the air +is lazy with the sound of the shuffling feet of the child-like "darky" +population and the chatter of the bean-pods of the poincianas overhead. + +Here a handful of Englishmen, clothed in the white linen suits of the +tropics, carry on the Government after the traditional manner of British +colonies from time immemorial, each of them, like my friend, not +without an English smile at the humour of the thing, supporting the +dignity of offices with impressive names--Lord Chief Justice, Attorney +General, Speaker of the House, Lord High Admiral, Colonial Secretary and +so forth--and occasionally a figure in gown and barrister's wig flits +across the green from the little courthouse, where the Lord Chief +Justice in his scarlet robes, on a dais surmounted by a gilded lion and +unicorn, sustains the majesty of British justice, with all the pomp of +Westminster or Whitehall. + +My friend the Secretary of the Treasury is a man possessing in an +uncommon degree that rare and most attractive of human qualities, +companionableness. He is a quiet man of middle age, an old white-headed +bachelor with a droll twinkling expression, speaking seldom, and then in +a curious silent fashion, as though the drowsy heat of the tropics had +soaked him through and through. With his white hair, his white clothes, +his white moustachios, his white eyelashes, over eyes that seem to hide +away among quiet mirthful wrinkles, he carries about him the sort of +silence that goes with a miller, surrounded by the white dusty quiet of +his mill. + +As we sit together in the hush of his snuggery of an evening, +surrounded by guns, fishing-lines, and old prints, there are times when +we scarcely exchange a dozen words between dinner and bed-time, and yet +we have all the time a keen and satisfying sense of companionship. It is +John Saunders's gift. Companionship seems quietly to ooze out of him, +without the need of words. He and you are there in your comfortable +arm-chairs, with a good cigar, a whisky-and-soda, or a glass of that old +port on which he prides himself, and that is all that is necessary. +Where is the need of words? + +And occasionally, we have, as third in those evening conclaves, a big +slow-smiling, broad-faced young merchant, of the same kidney. In he +drops with a nod and a smile, selects his cigar and his glass, and takes +his place in the smoke-cloud of our meditations, radiating, without the +effort of speech, that good thing--humanity; though one must not forget +the one subject on which now and again the good Charlie Webster achieves +eloquence in spite of himself--duck-shooting. That is the only subject +worth breaking the pleasant brotherhood of silence for. + +John Saunders's subject is shark-fishing. Duck-shooting and +shark-fishing. It is enough. Here, for sensible men, is a sufficient +basis for life-long friendship, and unwearying, inexhaustible +companionship. + +It was in this peace of John Saunders's snuggery, one July evening, in +1903, the three of us being duly met, and ensconced in our respective +arm-chairs, that we got on to the subject of buried treasure. We had +talked more than usual that evening--talked duck and shark till those +inexhaustible themes seemed momentarily exhausted. Then it was I who +started us off again by asking John what he knew about buried treasure. + +At this, John laughed his funny little quiet laugh, his eyes twinkling +out of his wrinkles, for all the world like mischievous mice looking out +of a cupboard, took a sip of his port, a pull at his cigar, and then: + +"Buried treasure!" he said, "well, I have little doubt that the islands +are full of it--if one only knew how to get at it." + +"Seriously?" I asked. + +"Certainly. Why not? When you come to think of it, it stands to reason. +Weren't these islands for nearly three centuries the stamping ground of +all the pirates of the Spanish Main? Morgan was here. Blackbeard was +here. The very governors themselves were little better than pirates. +This room we are sitting in was the den of one of the biggest rogues of +them all--John Tinker--the governor when Bruce was here building Fort +Montague, at the east end yonder; building it against pirates, and +little else but pirates at the Government House all the time. A great +old time Tinker gave the poor fellow. You can read all about it in his +'Memoirs.' You should read them. Great stuff. There they are," pointing +to an old quarto on some well lined shelves, for John is something of a +scholar too; "borrow them some time." + +"Yes, but I want to hear more about the treasure," interrupted I, +bringing him back to the point. + +"Well, as I was saying, Nassau was the rendezvous for all the +cut-throats of the Caribbean Sea. Here they came in with their loot, +their doubloons and pieces of eight"; and John's eyes twinkled with +enjoyment of the rich old romantic words, as though they were old port. + +"Here they squandered much of it, no doubt, but they couldn't squander +it all. Some of them were thrifty knaves too, and these, looking around +for some place of safety, would naturally think of the bush. The niggers +keep their little hoards there to this day. Fawcett, over at Andros, was +saying the other night, that he estimates that they have something like +a quarter of a million dollars buried in tin cans among the brush over +there now--" + +"It is their form of stocking," put in Charlie Webster. + +"Precisely. Well, as I was saying, those old fellows would bury their +hoards in some cave or other, and then go off--and get hanged. Their +ghosts perhaps came back. The darkies have lots of ghost-tales about +them. But their money is still here, lots of it, you bet your life." + +"Do they ever make any finds?" I asked. + +"Nothing big that I know of. A jug full of old coins now and then. I +found one a year or two ago in my garden here--buried down among the +roots of that old fig tree." + +"Then," put in Charlie, "there was that mysterious stranger over at +North Cay. He's supposed to have got away with quite a pile." + +"Tell me about him," said I. + +"Well, there used to be an old eccentric character in the town here--a +half-breed by the name of Andrews. John will remember him--" + +John nodded. + +"He used to go around all the time with a big umbrella, and muttering to +himself. We used to think him half crazy. Gone so brooding over this +very subject of buried treasure. Better look out, young man!"--smiling +at me. "He used to be always grubbing about in the bush, and they said +that he carried the umbrella, so that he could hide a machete in it--a +sort of heavy cutlass, you know, for cutting down the brush. Well, +several years ago, there came a visitor from New York, and he got thick +with the old fellow. They used to go about a lot together, and were +often off on so-called fishing trips for days on end. Actually, it is +believed, they were after something on North Cay. At all events, some +months afterward, the New Yorker disappeared as he had come, and has not +been heard from since. But since then, they have found a sort of brick +vault over there which has evidently been excavated. I have seen it +myself. A sort of walled chamber. There, it's supposed, the New Yorker +found something or other--" + +"An old tomb, most likely," interrupted John, sceptically. "There are +some like that over at Spanish Wells." + +"Maybe," said Charlie, "but that's the story for what it's worth." + +As Charlie finished, John slapped his knee. + +"The very thing for you!" he said, "why have I never thought of it +before?" + +"What do you mean, John?" we both asked. + +"Why, down at the office, I've got the very thing. A pity I haven't got +it here. You must come in and see it to-morrow." + +And he took a tantalising sip of his port. + +"What on earth is it? Why do you keep us guessing?" + +"Why, it's an old manuscript." + +"An old manuscript!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, an old document that came into my hands a short time ago. Charlie, +you remember old Wicks--old Billy Wicks--'Wrecker' Wicks, they called +him--" + +"I should say I do. A wonderful old villain--" + +"One of the greatest characters that ever lived. Oh, and shrewd as the +devil. Do you remember the story about his--" + +"But the document, for heaven's sake," I said. "The document first; the +story will keep." + +"Well, they were pulling down Wicks's own house just lately, and out of +the rafters there fell a roll of paper--now, I'm coming to it--a roll of +paper, purporting to be the account of the burying of a certain +treasure, telling the place where it is buried, and giving directions +for finding it--" + +Charlie and I exclaimed together; and John continued, with tantalising +deliberation. + +"It's in the safe, down at the office; you shall see it to-morrow. It's +a statement purporting to be made by some fellow on his deathbed--some +fellow dying out in Texas--a quondam pirate, anxious to make his peace +at the end, and to give his friends the benefit of his knowledge." + +"O John!" said I, "I sha'n't sleep a wink to-night." + +"I don't take much stock in it," said John. "I'm inclined to think it's +a hoax. Some one trying to fool the old fellow. If there'd been any +treasure, I guess one could have trusted old 'Wrecker' Wicks to get +after it.... But, boys, it's bed-time, anyhow. Come down to the office +in the morning and we'll look it over." + +So our meeting broke up for the time being, and taking my candle, I went +upstairs, to dream of caves overflowing with gold pieces, and John +Tinker, fierce and moustachioed, standing over me, a cutlass between his +teeth, and a revolver in each hand. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Narrative of Henry P. Tobias, Ex-Pirate, as Dictated on His +Deathbed, in the Year of Our Lord, 1859._ + + +The good John had scarcely made his leisurely, distinguished appearance +at his desk on the morrow, immaculately white, and breathing his +customary air of fathomless repose, when I too entered by one door, and +Charlie Webster by the other. + +"Now for the document," we both exclaimed in a breath. + +"Here it is," he said, taking up a rather grimy-looking roll of foolscap +from in front of him. + +"A little like hurricane weather," said the broadly smiling Charlie +Webster, mopping his brow. + +The room we were in, crowded with pigeon-holes and dusty documents from +ceiling to floor, looked out into an outer office, similarly dreary, and +painted a dirty blue and white, furnished with high desks and stools, +and railed off with ancient painted ironwork, forlornly decorative, +after the manner of an old-fashioned countinghouse, or shipping office. +It had something quaintly "colonial" about it, suggesting supercargoes, +and West India merchants of long ago. + +John took a look into the outer office. There was nothing to claim his +attention, so he took up the uncouthly written manuscript, which, as he +pointed out, was evidently the work of a person of very little +education, and began to read as follows: + + "_County of Travas_ + "_State of Texas_ + "_December 1859_ + + +_"I being in very poor health and cannot last long, feeling my end is +near, I make the following statement of my own free will and without +solicitation. In full exercise of all my faculties, and feel that I am +doing my duty by so doing._ + +_"My friends have shown me much kindness and taken care of me when sick, +and for their kindness I leave this statement in their hands to make the +best of it, when I will now proceed to give my statement, which is as +follows:--_ + +_"I was born in the city of Liverpool, England (on the 5th day of +December 1784). My father was a seaman and when I was young I followed +the same occupation. And it happened, that when, on a passage from Spain +to the West Indies, our ship was attacked by free-traders, as they +called themselves, but they were pirates._ + +_"We all did our best, but were overpowered, and the whole crew, except +three, were killed. I was one of the three they did not kill. They +carried us on board their ship and kept us until next day when they +asked us to join them. They tried to entice us, by showing us great +piles of money and telling us how rich we could become, and many other +ways, and they tried to get us to join them willingly, but we would not, +when they became enraged and loaded three cannon and lashed each one of +us before the mouth of each cannon and told us to take our choice to +join them, as they would touch the guns and that dam quick. It is +useless to say we accepted everything before death, so we came one of +the pirates' crew. Both of my companions were killed in less time than +six months, but I was with them for more than two years, in which time +we collected a vast quantity of money from different ships we captured +and we buried a great amount in two different lots. I helped to bury it +with my own hands. The location of which it is my purpose to point out, +so that it can be found without trouble in the Bahama Islands. After I +had been with them for more than two years, we were attacked by a large +warship and our commander told us to fight for our lives, as it would be +death if we were taken. But the guns of our ship were too small for the +warship, so our ship soon began to sink, when the man-of-war ran +alongside of our vessel and tried to bore us, but we were sinking too +fast, so she had to haul off again, when our vessel sunk with everything +on board, and I escaped by swimming under the stern of the ship, as ours +sunk, without being seen, and holding on to the ship until dark, when I +swam to a portion of the wrecked vessel floating not far away. And on +that I floated. The next morning the ship was not seen. I was picked up +by a passing vessel the next day as a shipwrecked seaman._ + +_"And let me say here, I know that no one escaped alive from our vessel +except myself and those that were taken by the man-of-war. And those +were all executed as pirates,--so I know that no other man knows of this +treasure except myself and it must be and is where we buried it until +to-day and unless you get it through this statement it will remain there +always and do no one any good._ + +_"Therefore, it is your duty to trace it up and get it for your own +benefit, as well as others, so delay not, but act as soon as possible._ + +_"I will now describe the places, locations, marks etc., etc., so +plainly that it can be found, without any trouble._ + +_"The first is a sum of one million and a half dollars--($1,500,000)--"_ + +At this point, John paused. We all took a long breath, and Charlie +Webster gave a soft whistle, and smacked his lips. + +"A million and a half dollars. What ho!" + +Then I, happening to cast my eye through the open door, caught sight of +a face gazing through the ironwork of the outer office with a fixed and +glittering expression, a face anything but prepossessing, the face of a +half-breed, deeply pock-marked, with a coarse hook nose, and +evil-looking eyes, unnaturally close together. He looked for all the +world like a turkey buzzard, eagerly hanging over offal, and it was +evident from his expression, that he had not missed a word of the +reading. + +"There is some one in the outer office," I said, and John rose and went +out. + +"Good morning, Mr. Saunders," said an unpleasantly soft and cringing +voice. + +"Good morning," said John, somewhat grumpily, "what is it you want?" + +It was some detail of account, which, being despatched, the man shuffled +off, with evident reluctance, casting a long inquisitive look at us +seated at the desk, and John, taking up the manuscript once more +resumed: + +_"... a sum of one million and one half dollars--buried at a cay known +as Dead Men's Shoes, near Nassau, in the Bahama Islands."_ + +"'Dead Men's Shoes!' I don't know any such place, do you?" interrupted +Charlie. + +"No, I don't--but, never mind, let's read it through first and discuss +it afterwards," and John went on: + +_"Buried at a cay known as Dead Men's Shoes, near Nassau, in the Bahama +Islands; about fifty feet (50 ft.) south of this Dead Men's Shoes is a +rock, on which we cut the form of a compass. And twenty feet (20 ft.) +East from the cay is another rock on which we cut a cross (X). Under +this rock it is buried four feet (4 ft.) deep._ + +_"The other is a sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000). It is buried +on what was known as Short Shrift Island; on the highest point of this +Short Shrift Island is a large cabbage wood stump and twenty feet (20 +ft.) south of that stump is the treasure, buried five feet (5 ft.) deep +and can be found without difficulty. Short Shrift Island is a place +where passing vessels stop to get fresh water. No great distance from +Nassau, so it can be easily found._ + +"_The first pod was taken from a Spanish merchant and it is in Spanish +silver dollars._ + +"_The other on Short Shrift Island is in different kinds of money, taken +from different ships of different nations--it is all good money._ + +"_Now friends, I have told you all that is necessary for you to know, to +recover these treasures and I leave it in your hands and it is my +request that when you read this, you will at once take steps to recover +it, and when you get it, it is my wish that you use it in a way most +good for yourself and others. This is all I ask._ + +"_Now thanking you for your kindness and care and with my best wishes +for your prosperity and happiness, I will close, as I am so weak I can +hardly hold the pen._ + + "_I am, truly your friend,_ + + HENRY P. TOBIAS. + +"Henry P. Tobias?" said Charlie Webster. "Never heard of him. Did you, +John?" + +"Never!" + +And then there was a stir in the outer office. Some one was asking for +the Secretary of the Treasury. So John rose. + +"I must get to work now, boys. We can talk it over to-night." And then, +handing me the manuscript: "Take it home with you, if you like, and +look it over at your leisure." + +As Charlie Webster and I passed out into the street, I noticed the +fellow of the sinister pock-marked visage standing near the window of +the inner office. The window was open, and any one standing outside, +could easily have heard everything that passed inside. As the fellow +caught my eye, he smiled unpleasantly, and slunk off down the street. + +"Who is that fellow?" I asked Charlie. "He's a queer looking specimen." + +"Yes! he's no good. Yet he's more half-witted than bad, perhaps. His +face is against him, poor devil." + +And we went our ways, till the evening, I to post home to the further +study of the narrative. There seated on the pleasant veranda, I went +over it carefully, sentence by sentence. While I was reading, some one +called me indoors. I put down the manuscript on the little bamboo table +at my side, and went in. When I returned, a few moments afterward, the +manuscript was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_In Which I Charter the "Maggie Darling."_ + + +As luck would have it, the loss, or rather the theft, of Henry P. +Tobias's narrative, was not so serious as it at first seemed, for it +fortunately chanced that John Saunders had had it copied; but the theft +remained none the less mysterious. What could be the motive of the thief +with whom--quite unreasonably and doubtless unjustly--my fancy persisted +in connecting that unprepossessing face so keenly attentive in John +Saunders's outer office, and again so plainly eavesdropping at his open +window. + +However, leaving that mystery for later solution, John Saunders, Charlie +Webster, and I spent the next evening in a general and particular +criticism of the narrative itself. There were several obvious objections +to be made against its authenticity. To start with, Tobias, at the time +of his deposition, was an old man--seventy-five years old--and it was +more than probable that his experiences as a pirate would date from his +early manhood; they were hardly likely to have taken place as late as +his fortieth year. The narrative, indeed, suggested their taking place +much earlier, and there would thus be a space of at least forty years +between the burial of the treasure and his deathbed revelation. It was +natural to ask: Why during all those years, did he not return and +retrieve the treasure for himself? Various circumstances may have +prevented him, the inability from lack of means to make the journey, or +what not; but certainly one would need to imagine circumstances of +peculiar power that should be strong enough to keep a man with so +valuable a secret in his possession so many years from taking advantage +of it. + +For a long while too the names given to the purported sites of the +treasure _caches_ puzzled us. Modern maps give no such places as "Dead +Men's Shoes" and "Short Shrift Island," but John--who is said to be +writing a learned history of the Bahamas--has been for a long time +collecting old maps, prints, and documents relating to them; and at +last, in a map dating back to 1763, we came upon one of the two names. +So far the veracity of Tobias was supported. "Dead Men's Shoes" proved +to be the old name for a certain cay some twenty miles long, about a day +and a half's sail from Nassau, one of the long string of coral islands +now known as the "Exuma Cays." But of "Short Shrift Island" we sought in +vain for a trace. + +Then the details for identification of the sites left something to be +desired in particularity. But that, I reasoned, rather made for Tobias's +veracity than otherwise. Were the document merely a hoax, as John +continued to suspect, its author would have indulged his imagination in +greater elaboration. The very simplicity of the directions argued their +authenticity. Charlie Webster was inclined to back me in this view, but +neither of my friends showed any optimism in regard to the possible +discovery of the treasure. + +The character of the brush on the out-islands alone, they said, made the +task of search well nigh hopeless. To cut one's way through twenty miles +of such stubborn thickets, would cost almost as much in labour as the +treasure was worth. And then the peculiar nature of the jagged coral +rock, like endless wastes of clinker, almost denuded of earth, would +make the task the more arduous. As well look for a particular fish in +the sea. A needle in a haystack would be easy in comparison. + +"All the same," said I, "the adventure calls me; the adventure and that +million and a half dollars--and those 'Dead Men's Shoes'--and I intend +to undertake it. I am not going to let your middle-aged scepticism +discourage me. Treasure or no treasure, there will be the excitement of +the quest, and all the fun of the sea." + +"And some duck perhaps," added Charlie. + +"And some shark-fishing for certain," said John. + + * * * * * + +The next thing was to set about chartering a boat, and engaging a crew. +In this Charlie Webster's experience was invaluable, as his friendly +zeal was untiring. + +After looking over much likely and unlikely craft, we finally decided on +a two-masted schooner of trim but solid build, the _Maggie Darling,_ 42 +feet over all and 13 beam; something under twenty tons, with an +auxiliary gasolene engine of 24 horse power, and an alleged speed of 10 +knots. A staunch, as well as a pretty, little boat, with good lines, and +high in the bows; built to face any seas. "Cross the Atlantic in her," +said the owner. Owners of boats for sale always say that. But the +_Maggie Darling_ spoke for herself, and I fell in love with her on the +spot. + +Next, the crew. + +"You will need a captain, a cook, an engineer, and a deck-hand," said +Charlie, "and I have the captain, and the cook all ready for you." + +That afternoon we rounded them all up, including the engineer and the +deck-hand, and we arranged to start, weather permitting, with the +morning tide, which set east about six o'clock on July 13, 1903. Charlie +was a little doubtful about the weather, though the glass was steady. + +"A northeaster's about due," he said, "but unless it comes before you +start, you'll be able to put in for shelter at one or two places, and +you will be inside the reef most of the way." + +Ship's stores were the next detail, and these, including fifty gallons +of gasolene, over and above the tanks and three barrels of water, being +duly got aboard, on the evening of July 12, all was ready for the start; +an evening which was naturally spent in a parting conclave in John +Saunders's snuggery. + +"Why, one important thing you've forgotten," said Charlie, as we sat +over our pipes and glasses. "Think of forgetting that. Machetes--and +spades and pickaxes. And I'd take a few sticks of dynamite along with +you too. I can let you have the lot, and, if you like, we'll get them +aboard to-night." + +"It's a pity you have to give it away that it's a treasure hunt," said +John,--"but, then you can't keep the crew from knowing. And they're a +queer lot on the subject of treasure, have some of the rummest +superstitions. I hope you won't have any trouble with them." + +"Had any experience in handling niggers?" asked Charlie. + +"Not the least." + +"That makes me wish I were coming with you. They are rum beggars. Awful +cowards, and just like a pack of children. You know about sailing +anyhow. That's a good thing. You can captain your own boat, if need be. +That's all to the good. Particularly if you strike any dirty weather. +Though they're cowards in a storm, they'll take orders better than white +men--so long as they see that you know what you are about. But let me +give you one word of advice. Be kind, of course, with them--but keep +your distance all the same. And be careful about losing your temper. You +get more out of them by coaxing--hard as it is, at times. And, by the +way, how would you like to take old 'Sailor' with you?" + +"Sailor" was a great Labrador retriever, who, at that moment, turned up +his big head, with a devoted sigh, from behind his master's chair. + +"Rather," I said. So "Sailor" was thereupon enrolled as a further +addition to the crew. + +"Of course, you needn't expect to start on time," said Charlie, with a +laugh; "you'll be lucky if the crew turns up an hour after time. But +that's all in the game. I know them--lazy beggars." + +And the morning proved the truth of Charlie's judgment. + +"Old Tom," the cook, was first on hand. I took to him at once. A simple, +kindly old "darky" of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" type, with faithfulness +written all over him, and a certain sad wisdom in his old face. + +"You'll find Tom a great cook," said Charlie, patting the old man on the +shoulder. "Many a trip we've taken together after duck, haven't we, +Tom?" said he kindly. + +"That's right, suh. That's right," said the old man, his eyes twinkling +with pleasure. + +Then came the captain--Captain Jabez Williams--a younger man, with an +intelligent, self-respecting manner, somewhat non-committal, +business-like, evidently not particularly anxious as to whether he +pleased or not, but looking competent, and civil enough, without being +sympathetic. + +Next came the engineer, a young hulking bronze giant, a splendid +physical specimen, but rather heavy and sullen and not over-intelligent +to look at. A slow-witted young animal, not suggesting any great love of +work, and rather loutish in his manners. But, he knew his engine, said +Charlie. And that was the main thing. The deck-hand proved to be a +shackly, rather silly effeminate fellow, suggesting idiocy, but +doubtless wiry and good enough for the purpose. + +While they were busy getting up the anchor of the _Maggie Darling,_ I +went down into my cabin, to arrange various odds and ends, and presently +came the captain, touching his hat. + +"There's a party," he said, "outside here, wants to know if you'll take +him as passenger to Spanish Wells." + +"We're not taking passengers," I answered, "but I'll come and look him +over." + +A man was standing up in a rowboat, leaning against the ship's side. + +"You'd do me a great favour, sir," he began to say in a soft, +ingratiating voice. + +I looked at him, with a start of recognition. He was my pock-marked +friend, who had made such an unpleasant impression on me, at John +Saunders's office. He was rather more gentlemanly looking than he had +seemed at the first view, and I saw that, though he was a half-breed, +the white blood predominated. + +"I don't want to intrude," he said, "but I have urgent need of getting +to Spanish Wells, and there's no boat going that way for a week. I've +just missed the mail." + +I looked at him, and, though I liked his looks no more than ever, I was +averse from being disobliging, and the favour asked was one often asked +and granted in those islands, where communication is difficult and +infrequent. + +"I didn't think of taking any passengers," I said. + +"I know," he said. "I know it's a great favour I ask." He spoke with a +certain cultivation of manner. "But I am willing, of course, to pay +anything you think well, for my food and my passage." + +I waived that suggestion aside, and stood irresolutely looking at him, +with no very hospitable expression in my eyes, I dare say. But really my +distaste for him was an unreasoning prejudice, and Charlie Webster's +phrase came to my mind--"His face is against him, poor devil!" + +It certainly was. + +Then at last I said, surely not overgraciously: "Very well. Get aboard. +You can help work the boat"; and with that I turned away to my cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_In Which Tom Catches an Enchanted Fish, and Discourses of the Dangers +of Treasure Hunting._ + + +The morning was a little overcast, but a brisk northeast wind soon set +the clouds moving as it went humming in our sails, and the sun, coming +out in its glory over the crystalline waters, made a fine flashing world +of it, full of exhilaration and the very breath of youth and adventure, +very uplifting to the heart. My spirits, that had been momentarily +dashed by my unwelcome passenger, rose again, and I felt kindly to all +the earth, and glad to be alive. + +I called to Tom for breakfast. + +"And you, boys, there; haven't you got a song you can put up? How about +'The _John B._ sails?'" And I led them off, the hiss and swirl of the +sea, and the wind making a brisk undertone as we sang one of the quaint +Nassau ditties: + + Come on the sloop _John B._ + My grandfather and me, + Round Nassau town we did roam; + Drinking all night, ve got in a fight, + Ve feel so break-up, ve vant to go home. + + _Chorus_ + So h'ist up the _John B._ sails, + See how the mainsail set, + Send for the captain--shore, let us go home, + Let me go home, let me go home, + I feel so break-up, I vant to go home. + + The first mate he got drunk, + Break up the people trunk, + Constable come aboard, take him away; + Mr. John--stone, leave us alone, + I feel so break-up, I vant to go home. + + _Chorus_ + So h'ist up the _John B._ sails, _etc.,_ _etc._ + +Nassau looked very pretty in the morning sunlight, with its pink and +white houses nestling among palm trees and the masts of its sponging +schooners, and soon we were abreast of the picturesque low-lying fort, +Fort Montague, that Major Bruce, nearly two hundred years ago, had had +such a time building as a protection against pirates entering from the +east end of the harbour. It looked like a veritable piece of the past, +and set the imagination dreaming of those old days of Spanish galleons +and the black flag, and brought my thoughts eagerly back to the object +of my trip, those doubloons and pieces of eight that lay in glittering +heaps somewhere out in those island wildernesses. + +We were passing cays of jagged cinder-coloured rock covered with low +bushes and occasional palms, very savage and impenetrable. Miles of such +ferocious vegetation separated me from the spot where my treasure was +lying. Certainly it was tough-looking stuff to fight one's way through; +but those sumptuous words of Henry P. Tobias's narrative kept on making +a glorious glitter in my mind: "_The first is a sum of one million and +one half dollars.... The other is a sum of one million dollars.... The +first pod was taken from a Spanish merchant and it is in Spanish silver +dollars. The other on Short Shrift Island is in different kinds of +money, taken from different ships of different nations ... it is all +good money._" + +In fact I found to my surprise that I had the haunting thing by heart, +as though it had been a piece of poetry; and over and over again it kept +on going through my head. + +Then Tom came up with my breakfast. The old fellow stood by to serve me +as I ate, with a pathetic touch of the old slavery days in his +deferential, half-fatherly manner, dropping a quaint remark every now +and again; as, when drawing my attention to the sun bursting through the +clouds, he said, "The poor man's blanket is coming out, sah"--phrases in +which there seemed a whole world of pathos to me. + +Presently, when breakfast was over, and I stood looking over the side +into the incredibly clear water, in which it seems hardly possible that +a boat can go on floating, suspended as she seems over gleaming gulfs of +liquid space, down through which at every moment it seems she must +dizzily fall, Tom drew my attention to the indescribably lovely +"sea-gardens" over which we were passing--waving purple fans, fairy +coral grottoes, and jewelled fishes, lying like a rainbow dream under +our rushing keel. Well might the early mariners people such submarine +paradises with sirens and beautiful water-witches, and imagine a fairy +realm down there far under the sea. + +As Tom and I gazed down lost in those rainbow deeps, I heard a voice at +my elbow saying with peculiarly sickening unction: + +"The wonderful works of God." + +It was my unwelcome passenger, who had silently edged up to where we +stood. I looked at him, with the question very clear in my eyes as to +what kind of disagreeable animal he was. + +"Precisely," I said, and moved away. + +I had been trying to feel more kindly toward him, wondering whether I +could summon up the decency to offer him a cigar, but "the wonderful +works of God" finished me. + +"Hello! Captain," I said presently, pointing to some sails coming up +rapidly behind us. "What's this? I thought we'd got the fastest boat in +the harbour." + +"It's the _Susan B.,_ sponger," said the Captain. + +The Captain was a man of few words. + +The _Susan B._ was a rakish-looking craft with a black hull, and she +certainly could sail. It made me feel ashamed to watch how quickly she +was overhauling us, and, as she finally came abreast and then passed us, +it seemed to me that in the usual salutations exchanged between us there +was mingled some sarcastic laughter; no doubt it was pure imagination, +but I certainly did fancy that I noticed our passenger signal to them in +a peculiar way. + +I confess that his presence was beginning to get on my nerves, and I was +ready to get "edgy" at anything or nothing--an irritated state of mind +which I presently took out on George the engineer, who did not belie his +hulking appearance, and who was for ever letting the engine stop, and +taking for ever to get it going again. One could almost have sworn he +did it on purpose. + +My language was more forcible than classical--had quite a piratical +flavour, in fact; and my friend of "the wonderful works of God" looked +up with a deprecating air. Its effect on George was nil, except perhaps +to further deepen his sulks. + +And this I did notice, after a while, that my remarks to George seemed +to have set up a certain sympathetic acquaintance between him and my +passenger, the shackly deck-hand being apparently taken in as a humble +third. They sat for'ard, talking together, and my passenger read to +them, on one occasion, from a piece of printed paper that fluttered in +the wind. They listened with fallen lower jaws and occasional attempts +to seem intelligent. + +The Captain was occupied with his helm, and the thoughts he didn't seem +to feel the necessity of sharing; a quiet, poised, probably stupid man, +for whom I could not deny the respect we must always give to content, +however simple. His hand was on the wheel, his eyes on the sails and the +horizon, and, though I was but a yard away from him, you would have said +I was not there at all, judging by his face. In fact, you would have +said that he was all alone on the ship, with nothing to think of but her +and the sea. He was a sailor, and I don't know what better to say of a +man. + +So for companionship I was thrown back upon Tom. I felt, too, that he +was my only friend on board, and a vague feeling had come over me that, +within the next few hours, I might need a friend. + +Fishing occurred to me as a way of passing the time. + +"Are we going too fast for fishing, Tom?" I asked. + +"Not too fast for a barracouta," said Tom; so we put out lines and +watched the stretched strings, and listened to the sea. After awhile, +Tom's line grew taut, and we hauled in a 5-foot barracouta, a bar of +silver with a long flat head, all speed and ferocity, and wonderful +teeth. + +"Look!" said Tom, as he pointed to a little writhing eel-like shape, +about nine inches long, attached to the belly of the barracouta. + +"A sucking fish!" said Tom. "That's good luck;" and he proceeded to turn +over the poor creature, and cut from his back, immediately below his +head, a flat inch and a half of skin lined and stamped like a rubber +sole--the device by which he held on to the belly of the barracouta much +as the circle of wet leather holds the stone in a school-boy's sling. + +"Now," he said, when he had it clean and neat in his fingers, "we must +hang this up and dry it in the northeast wind; the wind is just +right--nor'-nor'east--and there is no mascot like it, specially +when--" Old Tom hesitated, with a slyly innocent smile in his eyes. + +"What is it, Tom?" I asked. + +"Have I your permission to speak, sah?" he said. + +"Of course, you have, Tom." + +"Well, sar, then I meant to say that this particular part of a sucking +fish, properly dried in the northeast wind, is a wonderful mascot--when +you're going after treasure." Tom looked frightened again, as though he +had gone too far. + +"Who said I was going after treasure?" I asked. + +"Aren't you, sah?" replied Tom, "asking your pardon?" + +I looked for'ard where the three delegates seemed to have lost interest +for a while in their conversation and the fluttering paper, and appeared +to be noticing Tom and me. + +"Let's talk it over later on, when you bring me my dinner, Tom." + +Later, as Tom stood, serving my coffee, I took it up with him again. + +"What was that you were saying about treasure, Tom?" I asked. + +"Well, sar, what I meant was this: that going after treasure is a +dangerous business ... it's not only the living you've got to think +of--." Here Tom threw a careful eye for'ard. + +"The crew, you mean?" + +He nodded. + +"But it's the dead too." + +"The dead, Tom?" + +"Yes, sar--the dead!" + +"All right, Tom," I said, "go on." + +"Well, sar," he continued, "there was never a buried treasure yet that +didn't claim its victim. Not one or two, either. Six or eight of them, +to my knowledge--and the treasure just where it was for all that. I +das'say it sounds all foolishness, but it's true for all that. Something +or other'll come, mark my word--just when they think they've got their +hands on it: a hurricane, or a tidal wave, or an earthquake. As sure as +you live, something'll come; a rock'll fall down, or a thunderbolt, and +somebody gets killed--And, well, the ghost laughs, but the treasure +stays there all the same." + +"The ghost laughs?" I asked. + +"Eh! of course; didn't you know every treasure is guarded by a ghost? +He's got to keep watch there till the next fellow comes along, to +relieve sentry duty, so to speak. He doesn't give it away. My no! He +dassn't do that. But the minute some one else is killed, coming looking +for it, then he's free--and the new ghost has got to go on sitting +there, waiting for ever so long till some one else comes looking for +it." + +"But, what has this sucking fish got to do with it?" And I pointed to +the red membrane already drying up in Tom's hand. + +"Well, the man who carries this in his pocket won't be the next ghost," +he answered. + +"Take good care of it for me then, Tom," I said, "and when it's properly +dried, let me have it. For I've a sort of idea I may have need of it, +after all." + +And just then, old Sailor, the quietest member of the crew, put up his +head into my hands, as though to say that he had been unfairly lost +sight of. + +"Yes, and you too, old chap--that's right. Tom, and you, and I." + +And then I turned in for the night. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_In Which We Begin to Understand our Unwelcome Passenger._ + + +Charlie Webster had hinted at a nor'easter--even a hurricane. As a rule, +Charlie is a safe weather prophet. But, for once, he was mistaken. There +hadn't been much of any wind as we made a lee at sunset; but as I yawned +and looked out of my cabin soon after dawn, about 4.30 next morning, +there was no wind at all. + +There was every promise of a glorious day--calm, still, and untroubled. +But for men whose voyaging depended on sails, it was, as the lawyers +say, a _dies non._ In fact, there was no wind, and no hope of wind. + +As I stood out of the cabin hatch, however, there was enough breeze to +flutter a piece of paper that had been caught in the mainsail halyard; +it fluttered there lonely in the morning. Nothing else was astir but it +and I, and I took it up in my hand, idly. As I did so, George reared his +head for'ard-- + +"Morning, George," I said; "I guess we've got to run on gasolene to-day. +No wind in sight--so far as I can see." + +"That's right, sar," said George, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. +Presently, he came to me in his big hulking way, and said: + +"There ain't no gasolene, sir--" + +"No gasolene?" I exclaimed. + +"It's run out in the night." + +"The tanks were filled when we started, weren't they?" I asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"We can't have used them up so soon...." + +"No sir,--but some one has turned the cocks...." + +I stood dazed for a moment, wondering how this could have +happened,--then a thought slowly dawned upon me. + +"Who has charge of them?" I said. + +George looked a little stupid, then defiant. + +"I see," I said; and, suddenly, without remembering Charlie Webster's +advice not to lose your temper with a negro--I realised that this was no +accident, but a deliberate trick, something indeed in the nature of a +miniature mutiny. That fluttering paper I had picked from the halyard +lay near my breakfast table. I had only half read it. Now its import +came to me with full force. I had no firearms with me. Having a quick +temper, I have made it a habit all my life never to carry a +gun--because they go off so easily. But one most essential part of a +gentleman's education had been mine, so I applied it instantly on +George, with the result that a well-directed blow under the peak of the +jaw sent him sprawling, and for awhile speechless, in the cockpit. + +"No gasolene?" I said. + +And then my passenger--I must give him credit for the courage--put up +his head for'ard, and called out: + +"I protest against that; it's a cowardly outrage. You wouldn't dare to +do it to a white man." + +"O I see," I rejoined. "So _you_ are the author of this precious paper +here, are you? Come over here and talk it over, if you've the courage." + +"I've got the courage," he answered, in a shaking voice. + +"All right," I said; "you're safe for the present--and, George, who is +so fond of sleep, will take quite a nap for a while, I think." + +"You English brute!" he said. + +"You English brute!" he had said; and the words had impelled me to +invite him aft; for I cannot deny a certain admiration for him that had +mysteriously grown up in me. It can only have been the admiration we all +have for courage; for, certainly I cannot have suggested that he had +any other form of attractiveness. + +"Come here!" I said, "for your life is safe for the time being. I would +like to discuss this paper with you." + +He came and we read it together, fluttering as I had seen it flutter in +his fingers as he read it for'ard to the engineer and to the deck-hand. +George, meanwhile, was lying oblivious to the rhetoric with which it was +plentifully garnished, not to speak of the Latin quotations, taking that +cure of bleeding, which was the fashionable cure of a not-unintelligent +century. It began:-- + +"THINK HOW MANY WE ARE!--THINK WHAT WE COULD DO! _It isn't either that +we haven't intelligence--if only we were to use it. We don't lack +leaders--we don't lack courage--we don't lack martyrs; All are ready--_" + +I stopped reading. + +"Why don't you start then?" I asked. + +"We have a considerable organisation," he answered. + +"You have?" I said. "Why don't you use it then?" + +"We're waiting for Jamaica," he answered; "she's almost ready." + +"It sounds a pretty good idea to me," I remarked, "from your point of +view. 'From your point of view,' remember, I said; but you mustn't think +that yours is mine--not for one moment--O dear no! On the contrary, my +point of view is that of the Governor of Nassau, or his representative, +quite near by, at Harbour Island, isn't it?" + +My pock-marked friend grew a trifle green as I said this. + +"We have sails still, remember," I resumed. "George and the lost +gasolene are not everything. Five hours, with anything of a wind, would +bring us to Harbour Island, and--with this paper in my hand it would +be--what do you think yourself?--the gallows?" + +My friend grew grave at that, and seemed to be thinking hard inside, +making resolutions the full force of which I didn't understand till +later, but the immediate result of which was a graciousness of manner +which did not entirely deceive me. + +"O" he said, "I don't think you quite mean that. You're impulsive--as +when you hit that poor boy down there--" + +"Well," I observed, "I'm willing to treat you better than you deserve. +At the same time, you must admit that your manifesto, as I suppose you +would call it, is justified neither by conditions nor by your own best +sense. You yourself are far more English than you are anything else--you +know it; you know how hard it is for white men to live with black men, +and--to tell the truth--all they do for them. The mere smell of negroes +is no more pleasant to you than it is to many other white men. +Englishmen have exiled themselves, for absurdly small salaries, to try +to make life finer and cleaner for those dark--and, I'll admit, +pathetic--barbarians. You can't deny it. And you've too much sense to +deny it. So, I'll say nothing about this, if you like" (pointing to the +manuscript), "and if the wind holds, put you ashore to-morrow at Spanish +Wells. I like you in spite of myself. Is it a bargain?" + +On this we parted, and, as I thought, with a certain friendliness on +both sides. + +There was no sailing wind, so there was nothing to do but stay where we +were all day. The boys fished and lay around; and I spent most of the +time in my cabin, reading a novel, and, soon after nine, I fell asleep +in a frame of mind unaccountably trustful. + +I suppose that I had been asleep about three hours when I was disturbed +by a tremendous roar. It was Sailor (who always slept near me) out on +the cockpit with a man under his paws--his jaws at the man's throat. I +called him off, and saw that it was my pock-marked friend, with his +right hand extended in the cockpit and a revolver a few inches away from +it. So far as I knew it was the only firearm on the ship. "Let's get +hold of that first, Sailor," I said, and I slipped it into my hip +pocket. + +"It's too bad that we can't be decent to people, Sailor, isn't it? It +makes life awfully sad," I said. + +Sailor wagged his tail. + +The stars were fading on the eastern islands. + +"Wake up, Tom," I called, and, "wake up, Captain!" Meanwhile, I took out +the revolver from my hip pocket, and held it over the man I seemed to +grow more and more sorry for. + +"We've not only got a mutiny aboard," I told the captain, "but we've got +treason to the British Government. Do you want to stand for that? Or +shall I put you ashore with the rest?" + +Unruffled as usual, he had nothing to say beyond + +"Ay, ay, sir!" + +"Take this cord then," I ordered him and Tom, "and bind the hands and +feet of this pock-marked gentleman here; also of George, engineer; and +also of Theodore, the deck-hand. Bind them well. And throw them into the +dingy, with a bottle of water apiece, and a loaf of bread. By noon, +we'll have some wind, and can make our way to Harbour Island, and there +I'll have a little talk with the Commandant." + +And as I ordered, all was done. Tom and I rowed the dingy ashore, with +our three captives bound like three silly fowls, and presently threw +them ashore with precious little ceremony, I can tell you; for the coral +rock is not all it sounds in poetry. Then we got back to the _Maggie +Darling,_ with imprecations in our ears, and particularly the promises +of the pock-marked rebel, who announced the certainty of our meeting +again. + +Of course we laughed at such threats, but I confess that, as I went down +to my cabin and picked up the "manifesto," which had been forgotten in +all the turmoil, I could not escape a certain thrill as I read the +signature--for it was: "Henry P. Tobias, Jr." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_The Incident of the Captain._ + + +As we hoisted the sails and the sun came up in all his glory, the smell +of Tom's coffee seemed to my prosaic mind the best of all in that +beautiful world. I said: "Let's give 'em a song, boys,--to cheer 'em up. +How about 'Delia gone!'?" + +At this suggestion even the imperturbability of the captain broke into a +smile. He was a man hard to move, but this suggestion seemed to tickle +him. + + _Some gave a nickel, some gave a dime; + I never gave no red cent-- + She was no girl of mine. + Delia gone! Delia gone!_ + +seemed to throw him into convulsions, and I took the helm awhile to give +him a chance to recover. The exquisiteness of its appeal to the +scoundrels, so securely trussed there on the island we were swiftly +leaving behind, seemed to get him to such a degree that I was almost +afraid that he might die of laughing, as has been heard of. He laughed +as only a negro can laugh, and he kept it going so infectiously that Tom +and I got started, just watching him. Even Sailor caught the infection, +his big tongue shaking his jaws with the huge joke of it. + +I don't know what they thought had happened to us, the three poor devils +there on the jagged coral rock. At all events the laughter did us good +by relieving the tension of our feelings, and when at last we had +recovered and the captain was at the wheel again, once more sober as a +judge, you couldn't have believed such an outbreak possible of him. + +The _Maggie Darling_ was sailing so fast that it hardly seemed necessary +to trouble to call at Harbour Island; but, then, the wind might go down, +our adventure was far from over, and gasolene might at any moment be a +prime necessity. So we kept her going, with her beautiful sails filled +out against the bluest sky you can dream of, and the ripple singing at +her bow--the loveliest sight and sound in the world for a man who loves +boats and the sea. + +"Is there anything like it, Tom?" I asked. "Do you read your Bible? You +should; it's the greatest book in the world." + +Tom hastened to acquiesce. + +"You remember in the Book of Job? _Three things are wonderful to me, The +way of a ship on the sea, the way of an eagle in the air, and the way +of a man with a maid._" + +"Ay, ay, sir," said Tom, "the way of a ship on the sea--but the way of a +man with a maid--" + +"What's the matter with that, Tom?" + +"They're all very pretty--just like the boat; but you'll not find one +near so true. We're better without them, if you ask my advice. A man's +all right as long as he keeps on his boat; but the minute he lands--the +girls and the troubles begin." + +"Ah! Tom," I said; "but I think you told me you've a family--" + +"Yes, sar, but the only good one amongst them is in the churchyard, this +fifteen years." + +"Your wife, Tom?" + +"Yes, sar, but she was more than a woman. She was a saint. When I talk +of women I don't think of her. No; God be kind to her, she is a saint, +and I only wait around till she calls me." + +"Tom, allow me to shake hands with you," I said, "and call myself your +friend for ever." + +The tears rolled down the old fellow's cheeks, and I realised how little +colour really matters, and how few white men were really as white as +Tom. + +And so that night we made Harbour Island, and met that welcome that can +only be met at the lonely ends of the earth. + +The Commandant and the clergyman took me under their wings on the spot, +and, though there was a good hotel, the Commandant didn't consider it +good enough for me. + +Bless them both! I hope to be able some day to offer them the kind of +hospitality they brought me so generously in both hands; lonely men, +serving God and the British Empire, in that apparently God-forsaken +outpost of the world. + +I liked the attitude they took toward my adventure. Their comments on +"Henry P. Tobias, Jr." and the paper I had with me, were especially +enlightening. + +"The black men themselves," they both agreed, "are all right, except, of +course, here and there. It's fellows like this precious Tobias, real +white trash--the negroes' name for them is apt enough--that are the +danger for the friendship of both races. And it's the vein of a sort of +a literary idealism in a fellow like Tobias that makes him the more +dangerous. He's not all to the bad--" + +"I couldn't help thinking that too," I interrupted. + +"O! no," they said, "but he's a bit mad, too. That's his trouble. He's +got a personal, as well as an abstract, grudge against the British +Government." + +"Treasure?" I laughed. + +"How did you know?" they asked. + +"Never mind; I somehow got the idea." + +"And he thinks that by championing the nigger he can kill two birds, +see?" + +"I see," I said. "I'm sorry I didn't nab him while I had him." + +"Never mind," they rejoined; "if you stick to your present object, +you're bound to meet him again and soon. Only take a word of advice. +Have a few guns with you, for you're liable to need them. We're not +afraid about nabbing the whole bunch; but we don't want to lose good men +going after a bad man. And there's such a thing as having too much +courage." + +"I agree," I remarked. "I'll take the guns all right, but I'm afraid +I'll need some more crew. I mean I'll want an engineer, and another +deck-hand." + +And, just as I said this, there came up some one post-haste from the +village; some one, too, that wanted the clergyman, as well as me, for my +captain was ill, and at the point of death. + +It was an hour or so after dinner time, and we were just enjoying our +cigars. + +"What on earth can be the trouble?" I said, but, the three of us, +including the Commandant went. + +We found the captain lying in his berth, writhing with cramps. + +"What on earth have you been doing with yourself, Cap.?" I asked. + +"I did nothing, sir, but eat my dinner, and drink that claret you were +kind enough to give me." + +"That half-bottle of claret?" + +"Yes, sir, the very same." + +"Well, there was nothing to hurt you in that," I said. "Did you take it +half and half with water, as I told you?" + +"I did indeed, sir." + +"And what did you eat for your dinner?" + +"Some pigeon-peas, and some rainbow fish." + +"Sure, nothing else?" + +"God's truth, sir." + +"It's very funny," I said. And then as he began to writhe and stiffen, I +called out to Tom: "Get some rum, Tom, and make it boiling hot, +quick--quick!" + +And Tom did. + +"We must get him into a sweat." + +Very soon we did. Then I said to Tom: + +"What do you make out of this smell that's coming from him, Tom?" + +"Kerosene, sar," said Tom. + +"I thought the very same," I said. + +Tom beckoned me to go with him to the galley, and showed me several +quart bottles of water standing on a shelf. + +"Two of these were kerosene," he said, "and I suppose Cap. made a +mistake"; for one looked as clear as the other. + +Then I took one of them back to the captain. + +"Was it a bottle like this you mixed with the claret?" I asked. + +"Sure it was, sir," he answered, writhing hard with the cramps. + +"But my God, man!" I said. "Couldn't you tell the difference between +that and water?" + +"I thought it tasted funny, boss, but I wasn't used to claret." + +And then we had to laugh again, and I thought old Tom would die. + +"A nigger's stomach and his head," said the Commandant, "are about the +same. I really don't know which is the stronger." + +And Tom started laughing so that I believe, if the wind had been blowing +that way, you could have heard him in Nassau. + +The captain didn't die, though he came pretty near to it. In fact, he +took so long getting on his feet, that we couldn't wait for him; so we +had practically to look out for a new crew, with the exception of Tom, +and Sailor. The Commandant proved a good friend to us in this, choosing +three somewhat characterless men, with good "characters." + +"I cannot guarantee them," he said; "that's impossible, but, so far as I +know, and the parson'll bear me out, they're all quiet, good-living men. +The engineer's in love, and got it bad; he is engaged to be married, and +is all the gladder of the good pay you're offering--more than usually +comes their way--and that always keeps a man straight, at least until +after he's married." + +The Commandant was a splendid fellow, and he had a knowledge of human +nature that was almost Shakespearean, particularly when you considered +the few and poor specimens he had to study it by. + +As we said good-bye, with a spanking southwest breeze blowing, I could +see that he was a little anxious about me. + +"Take care of yourself," he said, "for you must remember none of us can +take care of you. There's no settlement where you're going--no telegraph +or wireless; you could be murdered, and none of us hear of it for a +month, or for ever. And the fellows you're after are a dangerous lot, +take my word for it. Keep a good watch on your guns, and we'll be on +the look out for the first news of you, and anything we can do we'll be +there, you bet." + +And so the _Maggie Darling_ once more bared her whiteness to the breeze, +and the world seemed once more a great world. + +"It's good to be alive, Tom," I said, "on a day like this, though we get +killed to-morrow." + +Tom agreed to this, so did Sailor; and so, I felt, did the _Maggie +Darling,_ the loveliest, proud-sailed creature that ever leaned over and +laughed in the grasp of the breeze. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_In Which the Sucking Fish Has a Chance to Show Its Virtue._ + + +The breeze was so strong that we didn't use our engine that day. +Besides, I wanted to take a little time thinking over my plans. I spent +most of the time studying the charts and pondering John P. Tobias's +narrative, which threw very little light on the situation. There was +little definite to go by but his mark of the compass engraven on a +certain rock in a wilderness of rocks; and such rocks as they were at +that. + +As I thought of that particular kind of rock, I wondered too about my +three friends, trussed like fowls, on their coral rock couches. Of +course they had long since cut each other free, and were somewhere +active and evil-doing; and the thought of their faces seemed positively +sweet to me, for of such faces are made "the bright face of danger" that +all men are born to love. + +Still the thought of that set me thinking too of my defences. I looked +well to my guns. The Commandant had made me accept the loan of a +particularly expert revolver that was, I could see, as the apple of his +eye. He must have cared for me a great deal to have lent it me, and it +was bright as the things we love. + +Then I called Tom to me: "How about that sucking fish, Tom?" I asked. + +"It's just cured, sar," he said. "I was going to offer it to you this +lunch time. It's dried out fine; couldn't be better. I'll bring it to +you this minute." And he went and was back again in a moment. "You must +wear it right over your heart," he said, "and you'll see there's not a +bullet can get near it. It's never been known for a bullet to go through +a sucking fish. Even if they come near, something in the air seems to +send them aside. It's God's truth." + +"But, Tom," I said, "how about you?" + +"I've worn one here, sar, for twenty years, and you can see for +yourself"--and he bared the brown chest beneath which beat the heart +that like nothing else in the world has made me believe in God. + +And so we went spinning along, and, if only I had the gift of words, I +could make such pictures of the islands we sailed by, the colours of the +waters, the joy of our going--the white coral sand beaches and the big +cocoanut palms leaning over them, and the white surges that curled along +and along the surf reef, over and over again, running like children to +meet each other and join each other's hands, or like piano keys rippling +white under some master's fingers. + +That night we made a good lee, and lay in a pool of stars, very tranquil +and alive with travelling lights, great globed fishes filled with soft +radiance, and dreaming glimmers and pulsating tremors of glory and +sudden errands of fire. Sailor and I stayed up quite late watching the +wonder in which we so spaciously floated, and of the two of us, I am +sure that Sailor knew more than I. + +But one thought I had which I am sure was not his, because it was born +of shallower conditions than those with which his instincts have to +deal. I thought: What treasure sunk into the sea by whatsoever lost +ship--galleons piled up and bursting with the gold and silver of Spain, +or strange triangular-sailed boats sailing from Tripoli with the +many-coloured jewels of the east, "ivory, apes, and peacocks"--what +treasure sunk there by man could be compared with the treasure already +stored there by Nature, dropped as out of the dawn and the sunset into +these unvisited waters by the lavish hand of God? What diver could hope +to distinguish among all these glories the peculiar treasures of kings? + +We awoke to a dawn that was a rose planted in the sky by the mysterious +hand that seems to love to give the fairest thing the loneliest setting. + +But there was no wind, so that day we ran on gasolene. We had some fifty +miles to go to where the narrative pointed, a smaller cay, the cay which +it will be remembered was, according to John Saunders's old map, known +in old days as "Dead Men's Shoes"--but since known by another name +which, for various reasons, I do not deem it politic to divulge--near +the end of the long cay down which we were running. + +Tom and I talked it over, and thought that it might be all the better to +take it easy that day and arrive there next morning, when, after a good +night's sleep, we should be more likely to feel rested, and ready to +grapple with whatever we had to face. + +So about twilight we dropped anchor in another quiet bay, so much like +that of the night before, as all the bays and cays are along that coast, +that you need to have sailed them from boyhood to know one from another. + +The cove we were looking for, known by the cheery name of Dead Men's +Shoes, proved farther off than we expected, so that we didn't come to it +till toward the middle of the next afternoon, an afternoon of the most +innocent gold that has ever thrown its soft radiance over an earth +inhabited for the most part by ruffians and scoundrels. + +The soft lapping beauty of its little cove, in such odd contrast to its +sinister name--sunshine on coral sand, and farther inland, the mangrove +trees, like walking laurel stepping out into the golden ripples--Ah! I +should like to try my hand on the beauty of that afternoon; but we were +not allowed to admire it long, for we were far from being alone. + +"She's changed her paint," said Tom, at my elbow. And, looking round, I +saw that our rakish schooner with the black hull was now white as a +dove; and, in that soft golden water, hardly a foot and a half deep, +five shadowy young sharks floated, with outstretched fins like huge +bats. Our engineer, who was already wading fearlessly in the water, +beautifully naked, "shooed" them off like chickens. But it was soon to +be evident that more dangerous foes waited for us on the shore. + +Yet there was seemingly nothing there but a pile of sponges, and a few +black men. The _Susan B._ had changed her colour, it was true, but she +was a well-known sponger, and I noticed no one among the group ashore +that I recognised. + +There was one foolish fellow that reminded me of my shackly deck-hand, +whom I had always thought out of his mind, standing there on his head on +the rocks, and waving his legs to attract attention. + +"Why! There's Silly Theodore," called out the captain. + +"Look out!" murmured Tom at my elbow. + +"I'm going ashore all the same, Tom," I said. + +"I'm going with you too," said the Captain. "You needn't be afraid of +me. You're the sort I like. But look after your guns. There's going to +be something doing--quiet as it looks." + +So we rowed ashore, and there was Theodore capering in front of a pile +of sponges, but no other face that I knew. But there were seven or eight +negroes whose looks I took no great liking to. + +"Like some fancy sponges to send home?" said one of these, coming up to +me. "Cost you five times as much in Nassau." + +"Certainly I'd like a few sponges," I said. + +And then Theodore came up to me, looking as though he had lost his mind +over the rather fancy silk tie I happened to be wearing. + +"Give me dat!" he said, touching it, like a crazy man. + +"I can't afford to give you that, Theodore." + +"I'd die for dat," he declared. + +"Take this handkerchief instead;" but, meanwhile, my eyes were opening. +"Take this instead, Theodore," I suggested. + +"I'd die for dat," he repeated, touching it. + +His voice and touch made me sick and afraid, just as people in a lunatic +asylum make one afraid. + +"Look out!" murmured Tom again at my elbow. + +And just then I noticed, hiding in some bushes of seven-year apple +trees, two faces I had good reason to know. + +I had barely time to pull out the Commandant's revolver from my pocket. +I knew it was to be either the pock-marked genius or the engineer. But, +for the moment, I was not to be sure which one I had hit. For, as my gun +went off, something heavy came down on my head, and for the time I was +shut off from whatever else was going on. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_In Which I Once Again Sit Up and Behold the Sun._ + + +"Which did I hit, Tom?" were my first words as I came back to the glory +of the world; but I didn't say them for a long time, and, from what Tom +told me it was a wonder I ever said them at all. + +"There he is, sar," said Tom, pointing to a long dark figure stretched +out near by. "I'm afraid he's not the man you were looking for." + +"Poor fellow!" I said; it was George, the engineer; "I'm sorry--but I +saw the muzzles of their guns sticking out of the bush there. It was +they or me." + +"That no lie, sar, and, if it hadn't been for that sucking-fish's skin, +you wouldn't be here now." + +"It didn't save me from a pretty good one on the head, Tom, did it?" + +"No, sar, but that was just it--if it hadn't been for that knock on the +head, pulling you down just that minute, that thar pock-marked fellow +would have got you. As it was, he grazed your cheek, and got one of his +own men killed by mistake--the very fellow that hit you. There he +is--over there." + +"And who's that other, Tom?" I asked, pointing to another dark figure a +few yards away. + +"That's the captain, sar." + +"The captain? O I'm sorry for that. God knows I'm sorry for that." + +"Yas, sar, he was one of the finest gentlemen I ever knowed was Captain +Tomlinson; a brave man and a good navigator. And he'd taken a powerful +fancy to you, for when you got that crack on the head, he picked up your +gun, and began blazing away, with words I should never have expected +from a religious man. The others, except our special friend--" + +"Let's call him Tobias from now on, Tom," I interposed. + +"Well him, sar, kept his nerve, but the others ran for the boats as if +the devil was after them; but the captain's gun was quicker, and only +four of them got to the _Susan B._ The other two fell on their faces, as +if something had tripped them up, in a couple of feet of water. But, +just then, Tobias hit the captain right in the heart; ah! if only he had +one of those skins--but he always laughed off such things as +superstitious. + +"There was only me and Tobias then, and the dog, for the engineer boy +had gone on his knees to the _Susan B._ fellows, at the first crack, +and begged them to take him away with them. I wouldn't have thought it +of him--for he wasn't afraid o' them sharks, sar, as you saw, but I +suppose it was thinking of his gal--anyway he went off a-praying and +blubbering with what was left of the crew of the _Susan B.,_ who seemed +too scared to notice him, and so let him come; and, as I was saying, +there was no one left but Tobias and the dog and me, and I was sure my +end was not far off, for I was never much of a shot. + +"As God is my witness, sar, I was ready to die, and there was a moment +when I thought that the time had come and Martha was calling me; but +Tobias suddenly walked away to the top of the bluff and called out to +the _Susan B._ that was just running up her sails. At his word, they put +out a boat for him, and, while he waited, he came down the hill towards +me and the dog that stood growling over you; and for sure, I thought it +was the end. But he said: 'Tell that fellow there that I'm not going to +kill a defenceless man. He might have killed me once but he didn't. It's +bound to be one of us some day or other, but despise me all he +likes--I'm not such carrion as he thinks me; and if he only likes to +keep out of my way, I'm willing to keep out of his. Tell him, when he +wakes up, that as long as he gives up going after what belongs to +me--for it was my grandfather's--he is safe, but the minute he sets his +foot or hand on what is mine, it's either his life or mine.' And then he +turned away and was rowed to the _Susan B.,_ and they soon sailed away." + +"With the black flag at the peak, I suppose, Tom," said I. "Well, that +was a fine speech, quite a flight of oratory, and I'm sure I'm obliged +to him for the life that's still worth having, in spite of this ungodly +aching in my head. But how about the poor captain there! Where does all +his eloquence come in there? He can't call it self-defence. They were +waiting ready to murder us all right behind that seven-year apple tree, +as you saw. I'm afraid the captain and the law between them are all that +is necessary to cook the goose of our friend Henry P. Tobias, Jr., +without any help from me--though, as the captain died for me, I should +prefer they allowed me to make it a personal matter." + +And then I got on my feet, and went and looked at the captain's calm +face. + +"It's the beginning of the price," said Tom. + +"The beginning of the price?" + +"It's the dead hand," continued Tom; "I told you, you'll remember, that +wherever treasure is there's a ghost of a dead man keeping guard, and +waiting till another dead man comes along to take up sentry duty so to +say." + +"That's what you said, Tom," I admitted. "Several men have been killed, +it's true, but no one's put his hand on the treasure." + +"All the worse for that!" replied Tom, shaking his head. "These are only +a beginning. The ghost is getting busy. And it makes me think that we're +coming pretty near to the treasure, or we wouldn't have had all this +happen." + +"Growing warm, you mean, as the children say?" + +"The very thing!" said Tom. "Mark me, the treasure's near by--or the +ghost wouldn't be so malicious." + +And then, looking around where the captain, and the engineer and Silly +Theodore lay, I said: + +"The first thing we've got to do is to bury these poor fellows; but +where," I added, "are the other two that fell in the water?" + +"O," said Tom, "a couple of sharks got them just before you woke up." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_In Which Tom and I Attend Several Funerals._ + + +When Tom and I came to look over the ground with a view to finding a +burial-place for the dead, I realised with grim emphasis the truth of +Charlie Webster's remarks--in those snuggery nights that seemed so +remote and far away--on the nature of the soil which would have to be +gone over in quest of my treasure. No wonder he had spoken of dynamite. + +"Why, Tom," I said, "there isn't a wheel-barrow load of real soil in a +square mile. We couldn't dig a grave for a dog in stuff like this," and, +as I spoke, the pewter-like rock under my feet clanged and echoed with a +metallic sound. + +It was indeed a terrible land from the point of view of the husbandman. +No wonder the Government couldn't dispose of it as a gift. It was a +marvel that anything had the fierce courage to grow on it at all. For +the most part it was of a grey clinker-like formation, tossed, as by +fiery convulsions, in shelves of irregular strata, with holes every few +feet suggesting the circular action of the sea--some of these holes no +more than a foot wide, and some as wide as an ordinary-sized well--and +in these was the only soil to be found. In them the strange and savage +trees--spined, and sown thick with sharp teeth--found their rootage, and +writhed about, splitting the rock into endless cracks and fissures with +their fierce effort--sea-grape, with leaves like cymbal-shaped plates of +green metal; gum-elemi trees, with trunks of glistening bronze; and +seven-year apples, with fruit like painted wood. + +Here and there was a thatch-palm, stunted, and looking like the +head-dress of some savage African warrior. Inland, the creek, all white +sand and golden sunny water at its opening, spread out far and near into +noisome swamps overgrown with mangroves. Those strangest of all trees, +that had something tender and idyllic as they stepped out into the +ripple with their fresh child-like laurel-line leaves and dangling rods +of emerald, that were really the suckers of their banyan-like roots, had +grown into an obscene and bizarre maturity, like nightmares striding out +in every direction with skeleton feet planted in festering mud, and +stretching out horned, clawing hands that seemed to take root as one +looked, and to throw out other roots of horror like a dream. + +Twilight was beginning to add to its suggestions of _diablerie,_ and +the whole land to seem more and more the abode of devils. + +"Come along, Tom, I can't stand any more of this. We'll have to leave +our funerals till to-morrow, and get aboard for the night"--for the +_Maggie Darling_ was still floating there serenely, as though men and +their violence had no existence on the planet. + +"We'd better cover them up, against the turkey-buzzards," said Tom, two +of those unsavory birds rising in the air as we returned to the shore. +We did this as well as we were able with rocks and the wreckage of an +old boat strewn on the beach, and, before we rowed aboard--Tom, and +Sailor, and I--we managed to shoot a couple of them,--_pour encourager +les autres._ + +I don't think two men were ever so glad of the morning, driving before +it the haunted night, as Tom and I; and Sailor seemed as glad as +ourselves, for he too seemed to have been troubled by bad dreams, and +woke me more than once, growling and moaning in his sleep in a +frightened way. + +After breakfast, our first thought was naturally to the sad and +disagreeable business before us. + +"I tell you what I've been thinking, sar," said Tom, as we rowed ashore, +and I managed to pull down a turkey-buzzard that rose at our +approach--happily our coverings had proved fairly effective--"I've been +thinking that the only one of the three that really matters is the +captain, and we can find sufficient soil for him in one of those big +holes." + +"How about the others?" + +"Why, to tell the truth, I was thinking that sharks are good enough for +them." + +"They deserve no better, Tom, and I think we may as well get rid of them +first. The tide's running out strong and we won't have them knocking +about for long." + +So it was done as we said, and carrying them by the feet and shoulders +to the edge of the bluff--George, and Silly Theodore, and the nameless +giant who had knocked me down so opportunely--we skilfully flung them +in, and they glided off with scarce a splash. + +"See that fin yonder!" cried Tom eagerly; and next minute one of the +floating figures was drawn under. "Got him already!" (with a certain +grim satisfaction). "That's what I call quick work." + +Then we turned to the poor captain, and carried him as gently as we +could over the rough ground to the biggest of the banana holes, as the +natives call them, and there we were able to dig him a fairly +respectable grave. + +"Do you know the funeral service, Tom?" I asked. + +"No, sar, can't say as I do, though I seem to have heard it pretty +often." + +"Wait a minute. I've got a Bible aboard, I'll go and get it." + +"I'd rather go with you, sar, if you don't mind." + +"Why, you're surely not frightened of the poor fellow here, are you, +Tom?" + +"Well, sar, I don't say as I'm exactly that; but somehow he seems kind +of lonesome; and, if you don't mind--" + +So we went off, and were back in a few moments with the Bible, and I +read those passages, from Job and the Psalms, immemorially associated +with the passage of the dead: + +_"Man, that is born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. He +cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, +and continueth not--;_ and again: + +_Behold Thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth: and mine age is as +nothing before Thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether +vanity. Surely every man walketh in a vain show: surely they are +disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall +gather them. When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou +makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is +vanity. Have mercy, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry: hold not thy peace +at my tears, for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my +fathers were--."_ + +And, by the time we had got to the end, our tears were falling like rain +into a brave man's grave. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_In Which Tom and I Seriously Start in Treasure Hunting._ + + +Tom and Sailor and I were now, to the best of our belief, alone on the +island, and a lonesomer spot it would be hard to imagine, or one touched +at certain hours with a fairer beauty--a beauty wraith-like and, like a +sea-shell, haunted with the marvel of the sea. But we, alas!--or let me +speak for myself--were sinful, misguided men, to whom the gleam and +glitter of God's making spoke all too seldom, and whose hearts were +given to the baser shining of such treasure as that of which I for one +still dreamed--with an obstinacy all the more hardened by the opposition +we had encountered, and by the menace of danger the enterprise now held +beyond peradventure--a menace, indeed, to which Tobias's words had given +the form of a precise challenge. Perhaps but for that, remembering the +count of so many dead men--men who had lost their lives in the +prosecution of my probably vain desire--I would have given the whole +thing up, and sailed the boat back to less-haunted regions, which Tom +and I might easily have done, and as Tom, I could plainly see, would +himself have preferred. + +But Tobias's challenge made such a course impossible for any man worthy +of the name, and I never gave the alternative a moment's consideration. +But I did give Tom his choice of staying or going--a choice made +possible that day by a schooner sailing close in shore and easy to +signal. Yet Tom, while making no secret of his real feelings, would not +hear of quitting. + +"I sha'n't think a cent worse of you, Tom," I assured him. "Indeed, I +won't. It's no doubt a mad business anyway, and I'm not sure I've the +right to endanger in it any other lives than my own." + +"No, sar," said Tom; "I came with you, you have treated me right, and I +am going to see you through." + +"You're the real thing; God bless you, Tom," I exclaimed. "But I doubt +if I've the right to take advantage of your goodness. I'm not sure that +I oughtn't to signal those fellows to take you off with them +willy-nilly." + +"No, sar, you wouldn't do that, I'm sure. I'm a free man, God be +praised, though my mother and father were slaves"--and he drew himself +up with pathetic pride--"and I can choose my own course, as they +couldn't. Besides, there's no one needs me at home; all my girls and +boys are well fixed; and if I have to go, perhaps there's some one needs +me more in heaven." + +"All right, Tom, and thank you; we'll say no more about it." And so we +let the schooner go by, and turned to the consideration of our plans. + +First we went over our stores, and, thanks to those poor dead mouths +that did not need to be reckoned with any more, we had plenty of +everything to last us for at least a month, not to speak of fishing, at +which Tom was an expert. + +When, however, we turned to our plans for the treasure-hunting, we soon +came to a dead stop. No plans seemed feasible in face of that rocky +wilderness, all knives to the feet, and writhing serpents of fanged and +toothed foliage to the eye, with brambles like barbed-wire fences at +every yard. + +The indications given by Tobias seemed, in the face of such a terrain, +naive to a degree. Possibly the land had changed since his day. Some +little, of course, it must have done. Tom and I went over Tobias's +directions again and again. Of course, there was the compass carved on +the rock, and the cross. There was something definite--something which, +if it was ever there at all, was there still--for in that climate the +weather leaves things unperished almost as in Egypt. + +Sitting on the highest bluff we could find, Tom and I looked around. + +"That compass is somewhere among these infernal rocks--if it ever was +carved there at all--that's one thing certain, Tom; but look at the +rocks!" + +Over twenty miles of rocks north and south, and from two to six from +east to west. A more hopeless job the mind of man could not conceive. +Tom shook his head, and scratched his greying wool. + +"I go most by the ghost, sar," he said. "All these men had never been +killed if the ghost hadn't been somewhere near. It's the ghost I go by. +Mark me, if we find the treasure it'll be by the ghost." + +"That's all very well," I laughed. "But how are we going to get the +ghost to show his hand? He's got such bloodthirsty ways with him." + +"They always have, sar," said Tom, no doubt with some ancestral shudder +of voodoo worship in his blood. "Yes, sar, they always cry out for +blood. It's all they've got to live on. They drink it like you and me +drink coffee or rum. It's terrible to hear them in the night." + +"Why, you don't mean to say you've heard them drinking it, Tom," I +asked. "That's all nonsense." + +"They'll drink any kind,--any they can get hold of,--chickens' or pigs' +or cows'; you can hear them any night near the slaughterhouse." And Tom +lowered his voice. "I heard them from the boat, the other night, when I +couldn't sleep--heard them as plain as you can hear a dog lapping water. +And it's my opinion there was two of them. But I heard them as plain as +I hear you." + +As Tom talked, I seemed to hear Ulysses telling of his meeting with +Agamemnon in Hades, and those terrible ghosts drinking from the +blood-filled trench, and I shuddered in spite of myself; for it is +almost impossible entirely to refuse credence to beliefs held with such +certitude of terror across so many centuries and by such different +people. + +"Well, Tom," I remarked, "you may be right, but of one thing I'm +certain; if the ghost's going to get any one, it sha'n't be you." + +"We've both got one good chance against them--" Tom was beginning. + +"Don't tell me again about that old sucking fish." + +"Mind you keep it safe, for all that," said Tom gravely. "I wouldn't +lose mine for a thousand pounds." + +"Well, all right, but let's forget the damned old ghosts for the +present," and I broke out into the catch we had sung on so momentous an +occasion-- + + _Some gave a nickel, some gave a dime; + But I didn't give no red cent-- + She was no girl of mine-- + Delia's gone! Delia's gone!_ + +And it did one good to hear Tom's honest laughter resounding in that +beautiful haunted wilderness, as the song brought back to both of us the +memories of that morning which already seemed so long ago. + +"I wonder what's become of our friend of 'the wonderful works of God,'" +I queried. + +"Wherever he is, he's up to no good, we may be sure of that," answered +Tom. + +At last we decided to try a plan that was really no plan at all; that is +to say, to seek more or less at random, till we consumed all our stores +except just enough to take us home. Meanwhile, we would, each of us, +every day, cut a sort of radiating swathe, working single-handed, from +the cove entrance. Thus we would prospect as much of the country as +possible in a sort of fan, both of us keeping our eyes open for a +compass carved on a rock. In this way we might hope to cover no +inconsiderable stretch of the country in the three weeks, and, moreover, +the country most likely to give some results, as being that lying in a +semi-circle from the little harbour where the ships would have lain. It +wasn't much of a plan perhaps, but it seemed the most possible among +impossibles. + +So the next morning, bright and early, we started work, I letting Tom +take Sailor with him as company and protection against the spirits of +the waste; also we took a revolver apiece and cartridge belts, and it +seemed to me that the old fellow showed no little courage to go alone at +all, with such hair-raising beliefs as he had. We each took food and a +flask of rum and water to last us the day, and we promised to halloo now +and again to each other for company, as soon as we got out of sight of +each other. This, however, did not happen the first day. Of course, we +carried a machete and a mattock apiece, though the latter was but little +use, and, if either of us should find any spot worth dynamiting, we +agreed to let the other know. + +Harder work than we had undertaken no men have ever set their hands to. +It would have broken the back of the most able-bodied navvy; and when we +reached the boat at sunset, we had scarce strength left to eat our +supper and roll into our bunks. A machete is a heavy weapon that needs +no little skill in handling with economy of force, and Tom, who had been +brought up to it, was, in spite of his years, a better practitioner than +I. + +I have already hinted at the kind of devil's underbrush we had to cut +our way through, but no words can do justice to the almost intelligent +stubbornness with which those weird growths opposed us. It really seemed +as though they were inspired by a diabolic will-force pitting itself +against our wills, vegetable incarnations of evil strength and fury and +cunning. + +Battalions of actual serpents could scarcely have been harder to fight +than these writhing, tormented shapes that shrieked and hissed and bled +strangely under our strokes, and seemed to swarm with new life at each +onset! And the rock was almost more terrible to grapple with than they. +Jagged and pointed, it was like needles and razors to walk on; and it +was brittle as it was hard. While it could sometimes resist a hammer, it +would at others smash under our feet like a tea-cup. It looked like some +metallic dross long since vomited up from the furnaces of hell. + +Only once in a while was a softer, limestone, formation--like the pit +in which we had buried the captain--with hints at honeycombing, and +possibilities that invariably came to nothing. Now again we would come +upon a rock of this kind that seemed for a second to hint at mysterious +markings made by the hand of man, but they proved to be nothing but some +decorative sea-fossilisation, making an accidental pattern, like the +marking you sometimes come across on some old weathered stone on a moor. +Nothing that the fondest fancy could twist into the likeness of a +compass or a cross! + +Day after day, Tom and I returned home dead-beat, with hardly a tired +word to exchange with each other. + +We had now been at it for about a fortnight, and I loved the old chap +more every day for the grit and courage with which he supported our +terrible labours and kept up his spirits. We had long since passed out +of sight of each other, and much time was necessarily wasted by our +going to and from the place where we left off each day. Many a time I +hallooed to the old man to keep his heart up, and received back his +cheery halloo far and far away. + +Once or twice we had made fancied discoveries which we called off the +other to see, and once or twice we had tried some blasting on rocks +that seemed to suggest mysterious tunnellings into the earth. But it had +all proved a vain thing and a weariness of the flesh. And the ghost of +John P. Tobias still kept his secret. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_An Unfinished Game of Cards._ + + +One evening, as I returned to the ship unusually worn-out and +disheartened, I asked Tom how the stores were holding out. He answered +cheerfully that they would last another week, and leave us enough to get +home. + +"Well, shall we stick out the other week, or not, Tom? I don't want to +kill you, and I confess I'm nearly all in myself." + +"May as well stick it out, sar, now we've gone so far. Then we'll have +done all we can, and there's a certain satisfaction in doing that, sar." + +Good old Tom! and I believe that the wise old man had the thought +behind, that, perhaps, when there was evidently nothing more to be done, +I might get rid of the bee in my bonnet, and once more settle down to +the business of a reasonable being. + +So next morning we went at it again; and the next, and the next again, +and then on the fourth day, when our week was drawing to its close, +something at last happened to change the grim monotony of our days. + +It was shortly after the lunch hour. Tom and I, who were now working too +far apart to hear each other's halloes, had fired our revolvers once or +twice to show that all was right with us. But, for no reason I can give, +I suddenly got a feeling that all was not right with the old man, so I +fired my revolver, and gave him time for a reply. But there was no +answer. Again I fired. Still no answer. I was on the point of firing +again, when I heard something coming through the brush behind me. It was +Sailor racing toward me over the jagged rocks. Evidently there was +something wrong. + +"Something wrong with old Tom, Sailor?" I asked, as though he could +answer me. And indeed he did answer as plainly as dog could do, wagging +his tail and whining, and turning to go back with me in the direction +whence he had come. + +But I stopped to shoot off my revolver again. Still no answer. + +"Off we go then, old chap," and as he ran ahead, I followed him as fast +as I could over those damnable rocks. + +It took me the best part of an hour to get to where Tom had been +working. It was an extent of those more porous limestone rocks of which +I have spoken, almost cliff-like in height, and covering a considerable +area. Sailor brushed his way ahead, pushing through the scrub with +canine importance. Presently, at the top of a slight elevation, I came +among the bushes to a softer spot where the soil had given way, and saw +that it was the mouth of a shaft like a wide chimney flue, the earth of +which had evidently recently fallen in. Here Sailor stopped and whined, +pawing the earth, and, at the same time, I heard a moaning underneath. + +"Is that you, Tom?" I called. Thank God, the old chap was not dead at +all events. + +"Thank the Lord, it's you, sar," he cried. "I'm all right, but I've had +a bad fall--and I can't seem able to move." + +"Hold on and keep up your heart--I'll be with you in a minute," I called +down to him. + +"Mind yourself, sar," he called cheerily, and, indeed, it was a problem +to get down to him without precipitating the loose earth and rock that +were ready to make a landslide down the hole, and perhaps bury him for +ever. + +But, looking about, I found another natural tunnel in the side of the +hill. Into this I was able to worm myself, and in the dim light found +the old man, and put my flask to his lips. + +"Anything broken, do you think?" + +Tom didn't think so. He had evidently been stunned by his fall, and +another pull at my flask set him on his feet. But, as I helped him up, +and, striking a light, we began to look around the hole he had tumbled +into, he gave a piercing shriek, and fell on his knees, jabbering with +fear. + +"The ghosts! the ghosts!" he screamed. + +And the sight that met our eyes was certainly one to try the nerves. We +had evidently stumbled upon a series of fairly lofty chambers hollowed +out long ago first by the sea, and probably further shaped by +man--caverns supported here and there by rude columns of the same rock, +and dimly lit from above in one or two places by holes like mine shafts, +down one of which fell masses of snake-like roots of the fig tree, a +species of banyan. + +Within the circle of this light two figures sat at a table--one with his +hat tilted slightly, and one leaning sideways in his chair in a careless +sort of attitude. They seemed to be playing cards, and they were +strangely white--for they were skeletons. + +I stood hushed, while Tom's teeth rattled at my side. The fantastic awe +of the thing was beyond telling. And, then, not without a qualm or two, +which I should be a liar to deny, I went and stood nearer to them. +Nearly all their clothes had fallen away, hanging but in shreds here +and there. That the hat had so jauntily kept its place was one of those +grim touches Death, that terrible humorist, loves to add to his jests. +The cards, which had apparently just been dealt, had suffered scarcely +from decay--only a little dirt had sifted down upon them, as it had into +the rum glasses that stood too at each man's side. And, as I looked at +the skeleton jauntily facing me, I noticed that a bullet hole had been +made as clean as if by a drill in his forehead of bone--while, turning +to examine more closely his silent partner, I noticed a rusty sailor's +knife hanging from the ribs where the lungs had been. Then I looked on +the floor and found the key to the whole story. For there, within a few +yards, stood a heavy sailor's chest, strongly bound around with iron. +Its lid was thrown back, and a few coins lay scattered at the bottom, +while a few lay about on the floor. I picked them up. + +They were pieces of eight! + +Meanwhile, Tom had stopped jabbering, and had come nearer, looking on in +awed silence. I showed him the pieces of eight. + +"I guess these are all we'll see of one of John P. Tobias's treasure, +Tom," I said. "And it looks as if these poor fellows saw as little of it +as ourselves. Can't you imagine them with it there at their +feet--perhaps playing to divide it on a gamble; and, meanwhile, the +other fellows stealing in through some of these rabbit runs--one with a +knife, the other with a gun--and then: off with the loot and up with the +sails. Poor devils! It strikes me as a very pretty tragedy--doesn't it +you?" + +Suddenly--perhaps with the vibration of our voices--the hat toppled off +the head of the fellow facing us, in the most weird and comical +fashion--and that was too much for Tom, and he screamed and made for the +exit hole. But I waited a minute to replace the hat on the rakish one's +head. As I was likely often to think of him in the future, I preferred +to remember him as at the moment of our first strange acquaintance. + + + + +BOOK II + + + + + _The dotted cays, + With their little trees, + Lie all about on the crystal floor; + Nothing but beauty-- + Far off is duty, + Far off the folk of the busy shore._ + + _The mangroves stride + In the coloured tide, + With leafy crests that will soon be isles; + And all is lonely-- + White sea-sand only, + Angel-pure for untrodden miles._ + + _In sunny bays + The young shark plays, + Among the ripples and nets of light; + And the conch-shell crawls + Through the glimmering halls + The coral builds for the Infinite._ + + _And every gem + In His diadem, + From flaming topaz to moon-hushed pearl, + Glitters and glances + In swaying dances + Of waters adream like the eyes of a girl._ + + _The sea and the stars, + And the ghostly bars + Of the shoals all bright 'neath the feet of the moon; + The night that glistens, + And stops and listens + To the half-heard beat of an endless tune._ + + _Here Solitude + To itself doth brood, + At the furthest verge of the reef-spilt foam; + And the world's lone ends + Are met as friends, + And the homeless heart is at last at home._ + + + + +BOOK II + +CHAPTER I + +_Once More in John Saunders's Snuggery._ + + +Need I say that it was a great occasion when I was once more back safe +in John Saunders's snuggery, telling my story to my two friends, +comfortably enfolded in a cloud of tobacco smoke, John with his old port +at his elbow, and Charlie Webster and I flanked by our whiskies and +soda, all just as if I had never stirred from my easy chair, instead of +having spent an exciting month or so among sharks, dead men, +blood-lapping ghosts, card-playing skeletons and such like? + +My friends listened to my yarn in characteristic fashion, John +Saunders's eyes more like mice peeping out of a cupboard than ever, and +Charlie Webster's huge bulk poised almost threateningly, as it were, +with the keenness of his attention. His deep-set kind brown eyes glowed +like a boy's as I went on, but by their dangerous kindling at certain +points of the story, those dealing with our pock-marked friend, Henry +P. Tobias, Jr., I soon realised where, for him, the chief interest of +the story lay. + +"The ---- rebel!" he roared out once or twice, using an adjective +peculiarly English. + +When I come to think of it, perhaps there is no one in His Britannic +Majesty's dominions so wholeheartedly English as Charlie Webster. He is +an Englishman of a larger mould than we are accustomed to to-day. He +seems rather to belong to a former more rugged era--an Englishman say of +Elizabeth's or Nelson's day; big, rough, and simple, honest to the core, +slow to anger, but terrible when roused--a true heart of oak, a man with +massive, slow-moving, but immensely efficient, "governing" brain. A born +commander, utterly without fear, yet always cool-headed and never rash. +If there are more Englishmen like him, I don't think you will find them +in London or anywhere in the British Isles. You must go for them to the +British colonies. There, rather than at home, the sacred faith in the +British Empire is still kept passionately alive. And, at all events, +Charlie Webster may truly be said to have one article of faith--the +glory of the British Empire. To him, therefore, the one unforgivable sin +is treason against that; as probably to die for England--after having +notched a good account of her enemies on his unerring rifle--would be +for him not merely a crown of glory, but the purest and completest joy +that could happen to him. + +Therefore it was--somewhat, I will own, to my disappointment--that for +him my story had but one moral--the treason of Henry P. Tobias, Jr. The +treasure might as well have had no existence, so far as he was +concerned, and the grim climax in the cave drew nothing from him but a +preoccupied nod. And John Saunders was little more satisfactory. Both of +them allowed me to end in silence. They both seemed to be thinking +deeply. + +"Well?" I said, somewhat dashed, as one whose story has fallen down on +an anti-climax. Still no response. + +"I must say you two are a great audience," I said presently, perhaps +rather childishly nettled. + +"What's happened to your imagination!" + +"It's a very serious matter," said John Saunders, and I realised that it +was not my crony, but the Secretary to the Treasury of his Britannic +Majesty's Government at Nassau that was talking. As he spoke, he looked +across at Charlie Webster, almost as if forgetting me. "Something should +be done about it, eh, Charlie?" he continued. + +"---- traitor!" roared Charlie, once more employing that British +adjective. And then he turned to me: + +"Look here, old pal, I'll make a bargain with you, if you like. I +suppose you're keen for that other treasure, now, eh?" + +"I am," said I, rather stiffly. + +"Well then, I'll go after it with you--on one condition. You can keep +the treasure, if you'll give me Tobias!" + +"Give you Tobias?" I laughed. + +"Yes! if you go after the treasure, he'll probably keep his word, and go +after you. Now it would do my heart good to get him, as you had the +chance of doing that afternoon. Whatever were you doing to miss him?" + +"I proposed to myself the satisfaction of making good that mistake," I +said, "on our next meeting. I feel I owe it to the poor old captain." + +"Never mind; hand the captain's rights over to me--and I'll help you all +I know with your treasure. Besides, Tobias is a job for an +Englishman--eh, John? It's a matter of 'King and Country' with me. With +you it would be mere private vengeance. With me it will be an execution; +with you it would be a murder. Isn't that so, John?" + +"Exactly," John nodded. + +"Since you were away," Charlie began again, "I've bought the prettiest +yawl you ever set eyes on--the _Flamingo_--forty-five over all, and this +time the very fastest boat in the harbour. Yes! she's faster even than +the _Susan B._ Now, I've a holiday due me in about a fortnight. Say the +word, and the _Flamingo's_ yours for a couple of months, and her captain +too. I make only that one condition." + +"All right, Charlie," I agreed, "he's yours." + +Whereat Charlie shot out a huge paw like a shoulder of mutton, and +grabbed my hand with as much fervour as though I had saved his life, or +done him some other unimaginable kindness. And, as he did so, his old +broad sweet smile came back again. He was thinking of Tobias. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_In Which I Learn Something._ + + +While Charlie Webster was arranging his affairs so that he might be able +to take his holiday with a free mind, I busied myself with provisioning +the _Flamingo,_ and in casually chatting with one and another along the +water front, in the hope of gathering some hint that might guide us on +our coming expedition. I thought it possible, too, that chance might +thus bring me some information as to the recent movements of Tobias. + +In this way, I made the acquaintance of several old salts, both white +and black, one or two of whom time and their neighbours had invested +with a legendary savour of the old "wrecking days," which, if rumour +speaks true, are not entirely vanished from the remoter corners of the +islands. But either their romantic haloes were entirely due to +imaginative gossip, or they themselves were too shrewd to be drawn, for +I got nothing out of them to my purpose. They seemed to be more +interested in talking religion than the sea, and as navigators of +Biblical deep seas little visited except by professional theologians +they were remarkable. Generally speaking, indeed, piety would seem to +have taken the place of piracy among the sea-going population of Nassau; +a fact in which, no doubt, right-thinking folk will rejoice, but which +I, I am ashamed to say, found disappointing. + +Those who would master the art of talking to the Nassau negro should +first brush up on their Bibles; for a pious salutation might almost be +said to be Nassau etiquette for opening a conversation. Of course, this +applies mainly to negroes or those "conchs" in whom negro blood +predominates. The average white man in Nassau must not be considered as +implicated in this statement, for he seems to take his religion much as +the average white man takes it in any other part of the world. + +One afternoon, in the course of these rather fruitless if interesting +investigations among the picturesque shipyards of Bay Street, I had +wandered farther along that historic water front than is customary with +sight-seeing pedestrians; had left behind the white palm-shaded houses, +the bazaars of the sellers of tortoise-shell, the negro grog-shops and +cabins, and had come to where the road begins to be left alone with the +sea, except for a few country houses here and there among the +surrounding scrub--when my eye was caught by a little store that seemed +to have strayed away from the others--a small timber erection painted in +blue and white with a sort of sea-wildness and loneliness about it, and +with large naive lettering across its lintel announcing itself as an +"Emporium" (I think that was the word) "of Marine Curiosities." + +A bladder-shaped fish, set thick with spines like a hedgehog, swung in +the breeze over the doorway, and the windows on each side of the doorway +displayed, without any attempt at arrangement, all sorts of motley +treasures of the sea: purple sea-fans; coral in every fairy shape, white +as sea-foam; conches patterned like some tessellated pavement of old +Rome; monster star-fish, sharks' teeth, pink pearls, and shells of every +imaginable convolution and iridescence, and many a weird and lovely +thing which I had not the knowledge to name; objects, indeed, familiar +enough in Nassau, but here amassed and presented with this attractive +difference--that they had not been absurdly polished out of recognition, +or tortured into horrible "artistic" shapes of brooch, or earring, or +paper-knife, or ash-tray, but had been left with all their simple +sea-magic upon them--as they might have been heaped up by the sea itself +in some moonlit grotto, paved with white sand. + +I pushed open the door. There was no one there. The little store was +evidently left to take care of itself. Inside, it was like an old +curiosity shop of the sea, every available inch of space, rough tables +and walls, littered and hung with the queer and lovely bric-a-brac of +the sea. Presently a tiny girl came in as it seemed from nowhere, and +said she would fetch her father. In a moment or two he came, a tall +weathered Englishman of the sailor type, brown and lean, with lonely +blue eyes. + +"You don't seem afraid of thieves," I remarked. + +"It ain't a jewelry store," he said, with the curious soft sing-song +intonation of the Nassau "conch." + +"That's just what I was thinking it was," I said. + +"I know what you mean," he replied, his lonely face lighting up as faces +do at unexpected understanding in a stranger. "Of course, there are some +that feel that way, but they're few and far between." + +"Not enough to make a fortune out of?" + +"O! I do pretty well," he said; "I mustn't complain. Money's not +everything, you see, in a business like this. There's going after the +things, you know. One's got to count that in too." + +I looked at him in some surprise. I had met something even rarer than +the things he traded in. I had met a merchant of dreams, to whom the +mere handling of his merchandise seemed sufficient profit: "There's +going after the things, you know. One's got to count that in too." + +Naturally we were neck-deep in talk in a moment. I wanted to hear all he +cared to tell me about "going after the things"--such "things"!--and he +was nothing loth, as he took up one strange or beautiful object after +another, his face aglow, and he quite evidently without a thought of +doing business, and told me all about them--how and where he got them, +and so forth. + +"But," he said presently, encouraged by my unfeigned interest, "I should +like to show you a few rarer things I have in the house, and which I +wouldn't sell, or even show to every one. If you'd honour me by taking a +cup of tea, we might look them over." + +So we left the little store, with its door unlocked as I had found it, +and a few steps brought us to a little house I had not before noticed, +with a neat garden in front of it, all the garden beds symmetrically +bordered with conch-shells. Shells were evidently the simple-hearted +fellow's mania, his revelation of the beauty of the world. Here in a +neat parlour, also much decorated with shells, tea was served to us by +the little girl I had first seen and an elder sister, who, I gathered, +made all the lonely dreamer's family. Then, shyly pressing on me a +cigar, he turned to show me the promised treasures. He also told me more +of his manner of finding them, and of the long trips which he had to +take in seeking them, to out-of-the-way cays and in dangerous waters. + +All this I really believe the reader would find as attractive as I did; +still, as I am under an implied contract to tell him a story, I am not +going to palm off on him merely descriptive or informative matter, +except in so far as such matter is necessary, and I have only introduced +him to my dreamer in "marine curiosities" for a very pertinent reason, +which will immediately appear. + +He was showing me the last and rarest of his specimens. He had kept, he +said, the best to the last. To me, as a layman, it was not nearly so +attractive as other things he had shown me--little more to my eye than a +rather commonplace though pretty shell; but he explained--and he gave me +its learned name, which I confess has escaped me, owing, doubtless, to +what he was next to say--that it was found, or had so far been found, +only in one spot in the islands, a lovely, seldom-visited cay several +miles to the north-east of Andros Island. + +"What is it called?" I asked, for it was part of our plan for Charlie to +do a little duck-shooting on Andros, before we tackled the business of +Tobias and the treasure. + +"It's called ---- Cay nowadays," he answered, "but it used to be called +Short Shrift Island." + +"Short Shrift Island!" I cried, in spite of myself, immediately annoyed +at my lack of presence of mind. + +"Certainly," he rejoined, looking a little surprised, but evidently +without suspicion. He was too simple, and too taken up with his shell. + +"It is such an odd name," I said, trying to recover myself. + +"Yes! those old pirate chaps certainly did think up some of the rummiest +names." + +"One of the pirate haunts, was it?" I queried with assumed indifference. + +"Supposed to be. But one hears that of every other cay in the Bahamas. I +take no stock in such yarns. My shells are all the treasure I expect to +find." + +"What did you call that shell?" I asked. + +He told me the name again, but again I forgot it immediately. Of course +I had asked it only for the sake of learning more precisely about Short +Shrift Island. He told me innocently enough just where it lay. + +"Are you going after it?" he laughed. + +"After what?" I enquired in alarm. + +"The ----"; (again he mentioned the name of the shell.) + +"O! well," I replied, "I am going on a duck-shooting trip to Andros +before long, and I thought I might drop around to your cay and pick a +few of them up for you." + +"It would be mighty kind of you, but they're not easy to find. I'll tell +you just exactly--" He went off, dear fellow, into the minutest +description of the habitats of ----, while all the time I was eager to +rush off to Charlie Webster and John Saunders, and shout into their +ears--as, later, I did, at the first possible moment, that evening: +"I've found our missing cay! What's the matter with your old maps, John? +Short Shrift Island is ----; (I mentioned the name of a cay, which, as +in the case of "Dead Men's Shoes," I am unable to divulge.) + +"Maybe!" said Charlie, "maybe! We can try it. But," he added, "did you +find out anything about Tobias?" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_In Which I am Afforded Glimpses into Futurity--Possibly Useful._ + + +Two or three evenings before we were due to sail, at one of our snuggery +conclaves, I put the question whether any one had ever tried the +divining rod in hunting for treasure in the islands. Charlie took his +pipe out of his mouth, the more comfortably to beam his big brotherly +smile at me. + +"What a kid you are!" he said. "You want the whole bag of tricks, eh?" + +But I retorted that he was quite behind the times if he considered the +divining rod an exploded superstition. Its efficacy in finding water, I +reminded him, was now admitted by the most sceptical science, and I was +able to inform him that a great American railway company paid a yearly +salary to a "dowser" to guide it in the construction of new roads +through a country where water was scarce and hard to find. + +Old John nodded, blinking his mischievous eyes. He had more sympathy +than Charlie with the foolishness of old romance. It was true enough, he +said, and added that he knew the man I wanted, a half-crazy old negro +back there in Grant's Town--the negro quarter spreading out into the +brush behind the ridge on which the town of Nassau proper is built. + +"He calls himself a 'king,'" he added, "and the natives do, I believe, +regard him as the head of a certain tribe. Another tribe has its 'queen' +whom they take much more seriously. You must not forget that it is not +so long ago since they all came from Africa, and the oldest negroes +still speak their strange African languages, and keep up their old +beliefs and practices. 'Obeah,' of course, is still actively practised. + +"Why," he resumed presently, "I may even be said to practise it myself; +for I protect that part of my grounds here that abuts on Grant's Town by +hanging up things in bottles along the fences, which frighten away at +least a percentage of would-be trespassers. You should go and see the +old man, if only for fun. The lads call him 'Old King Coffee'--a memory +I suppose of the Ashantee War. Any one will tell you where he lives. He +is something of a witch-doctor as well as 'king,' and manages to make a +little out of charms, philtres and such like, I'm told--enough to keep +him in rum anyway. He has a name too as a preacher--among the Holy +Jumpers!--but he's getting too old to do much preaching nowadays. He +may be a little off his head, but I think he's more of a shrewd old +fraud. Go and see him for fun anyway." + +So, next morning, I went. + +I had hardly been prepared for the plunge into "Darkest Africa" which I +found myself taking, as, leaving Government House behind, perched on the +crest of its white ridge, I walked a few yards inland and entered a +region which, for all its green palms, made a similar sudden impression +of pervading blackness on the mind which one gets on suddenly entering a +coal-mining district, after travelling through fields and meadows. + +There were far more blacks than whites down on Bay Street, but here +there were nothing but blacks on every side. The wood of the +cabins--most of them neat enough and pleasantly situated in their little +gardens of bananas and cocoa-nut palms--was black, as with age or coal +dust; and the very foliage, in its suggestion of savage scenes in one's +old picture-books, suggested "natives." The innumerable smart little +pigs that seemed free of the place were black. The innumerable goats, +too, were black. And everywhere, mixed in with the pigs and the goats, +were the blackest of picaninnies. Everywhere black faces peered from +black squares of windows, most of them cheery and round and prosperous +looking, but here and there a tragically old crone with witch-like white +hair. + +The roads ran in every direction, and along them everywhere were figures +of black women shuffling with burdens on their heads, or groups of +girls, audaciously merry, most of them bonny, here and there almost a +beauty. There were churches, and dance-halls, and saloons--all +radiating, so to say, a prosperous blackness. It was from these +dance-halls that there came at night that droning and braying of +barbaric music, as from some mysterious "heart of darkness," as one +turned to sleep in one's civilised Nassau beds--a music that kept on and +on into the inner blackness of the night. + +At first the effect of the whole scene was a little sinister, even a +little frightening. The strangeness of Africa, the African jungle, was +here, and one was a white man in it all alone among grinning savage +faces. But for the figures about one being clothed, the illusion had +been complete; but for that and the kind-hearted salutations from comely +white-turbaned mammies which soon sprang up about me, and the groups of +elfish children that laughingly blocked one's progress with +requests--not in any weird African dialect but in excellent +national-school English--for "a copper please." + +This request was not above the maidenly dignity of quite big and buxom +lasses. One of these, a really superb young creature, not too liberally +clothed to rob one's eyes of her noble contours, caught my attention by +the singularity of something she carried. It was an enormous axe, the +shining blade balanced easily on her head, and the handle jutting out +horizontally like some savage head-dress. She looked like a beautiful +young headswoman. Even she asked for "a copper, please," but with a +saucy coquetry befitting her adolescence. + +"A big girl like you too!" I ventured. She gave a fine savage laugh, +without in the least jeopardising the balance of the axe. + +"I'll give you one if you'll tell me where the 'King' lives," said I. + +"Ole King Coffee?" she asked, and then fell into a very agony of negro +laughter. The poor old king was evidently the best of all possible jokes +to this irreverent young beauty. Then, recovering, she put her finger to +her lips, suggesting silence, and said: + +"Come along, I'll show you!" + +And, walking by my side, lithe as a young animal, evidently without +giving a thought to her gleaming headdress, she had soon brought me to a +cabin much like the rest, though perhaps a little poorer looking. +Stopping a little short of it, she once more put her finger to her lips. + +"Shh! There he is!" and she shook all over again with suppressed +giggles. + +I gave her a sixpence and told her to be a good girl. Then I advanced up +a little strip of garden to where I had caught a glimpse of a venerable +white-haired negro seated at the window, as if for exhibition, with a +great open book in his hands. This he appeared to be reading with great +solemnity, through enormous goggles, though I thought I caught a +side-glint of his eye, as though he had taken a swift reconnoitring +glance in my direction--a glance which apparently had but deepened his +attention and increased the dignity of his demeanour. That dignity +indeed was magnificent, and was evidently meant to convey to the +passers-by and the world at large that they were in the presence of +royalty. + +As I approached the doorway, my eye was caught by a massive decoration +glittering immediately above it. It was a design of large gilt wooden +letters which I couldn't make out at first, as it had been turned upside +down. I didn't realise its meaning till afterward, but I may as well +tell the reader now. + +Shortly before, King Coffee, feeling in need of some insignia to blazon +forth his rank, had appealed to a friend of his, a kindly American +visitor, who practically kept the old fellow alive with his bounty. This +kind friend was a wag too, and couldn't resist the idea that had come to +him. The old man wanted something that glittered. So the American had +bethought him of those big lettered signs which on the face of saloons +brighten the American landscape--signs announcing somebody or other's +"extra." This it was that now glittered in front of me as--the royal +arms! + +That it was upside down merely added to its mysterious impressiveness +for the passer-by, and in no way afflicted the old king since, in spite +of that imposing book at the window, he was quite unable to read. That +book, a huge, much-gilded family Bible, was merely another portion of +the insignia--presented by the same kind friend; as also was the +magnificent frock coat, three sizes too big for the shrunken old figure, +in which I found him--installed, shall I say?--as I presently stood +before him in response to a dignified inclination of his head, welcoming +me, at the window. + +Remembering that he was not merely royal, but pious also, I made my +salutation at once courtier-like and sanctimonious. + +"Good day to Your Majesty," I said; "God's good, God looks after his +servants." + +"De Lord is merciful," he answered gravely; "God takes care of his +children. Be seated, sar, and please excuse my not rising, my rheumatism +is a sore affliction to me. But de Lord is good, de Lord giveth and de +Lord He taketh away--and de holy text includes rheumatism too--as I have +told my poor wandering flock many a Sabbath evening." + +And he smiled in a sly self-satisfied way at his pious pun. "The old +fellow is far from being crazy," I said to myself. + +I was not long in getting to the subject of my visit. The old man +listened to me with great composure, but with a marked accession of +mysterious importance in his manner. So mediaeval astrologers drew down +their brows with a solemn assumption of supernatural wisdom when +consulted by some noble client--noble, but pitiably mortal in the +presence of their hidden knowledge. He had put his book down as I +talked. I noticed that he had been holding it--like his royal +arms--upside down. + +"It's true, sar," he said, when I had finished, "I could find it for +you. I could find it for you, sure enough; and I'm de only man in all de +islands dat could. But I should have to go wid you, and it's de Lord's +will to keep me here in dis chair wid rheumatics. O! I don't murmur. It +is de Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. De rods has turned +in dese old hands many a time, and I have faith in de Lord dey would +turn again--yes. I'd find it for you; sure enough. I'd find it if any +man could--and it was de Lord's will. But mebbe I can see it for you +widout moving from dis chair. For when de Lord takes away one gift from +his servants, he gives dem another. It is His will dat dese 'ere old +legs are stiff and can carry me round no more. So wot does de good Lord +do? He says: 'Nebber mind dem ole legs; nebber mind dem ole weary eyes; +sit jus' whar yuh are,' says de Lord, 'nebber min' no movin' round.' De +Lord do wondrous things to his faithful followers; He opens de eyes of +de spirit, so, having no eyes, dey shall see. Hallelujah! Glory be to de +Lord!--see down into de bowels of de earth, see thousands of miles away +just as plain as dis room--" + +He had worked himself up to a sort of religious ecstasy, as I had seen +the revivalist sect he belonged to, known as the Holy Jumpers, do at +their curious services. + +"Do you mean, brother, that the Lord has given you second sight?" + +"Dat am it! Glory to His name, Hallelujah!" he answered. "I look in a +glass ball--so; and if de spirit helps me I can see clear as a picture +far under de ground, far, far away over de sea. It's de Lord's truth, +sar--Blessed be His Name!" + +I asked him whether he would look into his crystal for me. With a burst +of profanity, as unexpected as it was vivid, he cursed "dem boys" that +had stolen from him a priceless crystal which once had belonged to his +old royal mother, who, before him, had had the same gift of the spirit. +But, he added--turning to a table by his side, and lifting from it a +large cut-glass decanter of considerable capacity, though at present +void of contents--that he had found that gazing into the large glass +ball of its stopper produced almost equally good results at times. + +He said this with perfect solemnity, though, as he placed the decanter +on top of his Bible in front of him, I observed, with an inner smile, +that he tilted it slightly on one side, as though remarking, strictly to +himself, that, save for a drain of dark-coloured liquid in one corner, +it was painfully empty. + +Then, with a sigh, he applied himself to his business of seer. First, he +asked me to be kind enough to shut the door. + +We had to be very quiet, he declared; the spirit could work only in deep +silence. And he asked me to be kind enough to close my eyes. Then I +heard his voice muttering, in a strange tongue, a queer dark gobbling +kind of words, which may have been ancient African spell-words, or sheer +gibberish such as magicians in all times and places have employed to +mystify their consultants. + +I looked at him through the corner of my eye--as, doubtless, he had +anticipated, for he was glaring with an air of inspired abstraction into +the ball of the decanter stopper. So we sat silent for, I suppose, some +ten minutes. Then I heard him give another deep sigh. Opening my eyes, I +saw him slowly shaking his head. + +"De spirits don't seem communicable dis afternoon," he muttered, once +more tilting the decanter slightly on one side and observing it drearily +as before. + +I had been rather slow, indeed, in taking the hint, but I determined to +take it, and see what would happen. + +"Do you think, Your Majesty," I asked, with as serious a face as I +could assume, "the spirits might work better--if the decanter were to be +filled?" + +The old man looked at me a little cautiously, as though wondering how to +take me. I tried to keep grave, but I couldn't quite suppress a twinkle; +catching it, he took courage--seemed to feel that he could trust me. +Slapping his knee, he let himself go in a rush of that deep, chuckling, +gurgling, child-like negro laughter which is one of the most appealing +gifts of his pathetic race. + +"Mebbe, sar; mebbe. Spirits is curious things; dey need inspiration +sometimes, just like ourselves." + +"What kind of inspiration, do you think, gets the best results, Your +Majesty?" + +"Well, sar, I can't say as dey is very particular, but I'se noticed dey +do seem powerful 'tached to just plain good old Jamaica rum." + +"They shall have it," I said. + +I had noticed that there was a saloon a few yards away, so before many +more minutes had passed, I had been there and come back again, and the +decanter stood ruddily filled, ready for the resumption of our _seance._ +But before we began, I of course accepted the seer's invitation to join +him and the spirits in a friendly libation. + +Then--I having closed my eyes--we began again, and it was astonishing +with what rapidity the thick-coming pictures began to crowd upon that +inner vision with which the Lord had endowed his faithful follower! + +Of course, I was inclined now to take the whole thing as an amusing +imposture; but presently, watching his face and the curious "seeing" +expression of his eyes, and noting the exactitude of one or two of his +pictures, I began to feel that, however much he might be inventing or +elaborating, there was some substratum of truth in what he was telling +me. I had had sufficient experience of mediums and clairvoyants to know +that, except in cases of absolute fraud, there was usually--beneath a +certain amount of conscious "imaginativeness"--a mysterious gift at +work, independent of their volition; something they did see, for which +they themselves could not account, and over which they had no control. +And as he proceeded I became more and more convinced that this was the +case also with Old King Coffee. + +The first pictures that came to him were merely pictures, though +astonishingly clear ones, of Webster's boat, the _Flamingo,_ of Webster +himself, and of the men and the old dog Sailor; but in all this he might +have been visualising from actual knowledge. Yet the details were +curiously exact. We were all bathed in moonlight, he said--very bright +moonlight, moonlight you could read by. Pictures of us out at sea, +passing coral islands and so forth followed, all general in character. +But presently, his gaze becoming more fixed: + +"I see you anchored under a little settlement. You are rowing ashore. +Dere are little pathways running up among de coral rock, and a few white +houses. And, yes! Dere is a man in overalls, on de roof of a building, +seeming like a little schoolhouse. He waves to you; he is getting down +from de roof to meet you. But his face is in a mist, I can't see him +right. Now he is gone." + +He stopped and waited awhile. Then he resumed: + +"Seems to be a forest; big, big trees--not like Nassau trees--and thick +brush everywhere; all choked up so thick and dark, can't see nut'n. Wait +a minute, dough. Dere seems to be old houses all sunk in and los', like +old ruins. Can't see dem right for de brush. And wait--Lord love you, +sar, but I'se afraid--I seem to see a big light coming up trough de +brush from far under de ground--just like you see old rotten wood +shining in de dark--deep, deep down. Didn't I tell you de Lord gave me +eyes to see into de bowels of de earth?--it's de bowels of de earth for +sure--all lit up and shining. Praise de Lord!--it am de gold, for +certain, all hidden away and shining dere under de ground--" + +"Can't you see it closer, clearer?" I exclaimed involuntarily; "get some +idea of the place it's in?" + +The old man gazed with a renewed intensity. + +"No," he said presently, and his disappointed tone seemed to me the best +evidence yet of his truth, "I only see a little golden mist deep, deep +down under de ground; now it is fading away. It's gone; I can only see +de woods and de ruins again." + +This brought his visions to an end. The spirits obstinately refused to +make any more pictures, though the old man continued to gaze on in the +decanter stopper for fully five minutes. + +"De wind of de spirit bloweth as it listeth," said he at length, with +the note of a more genuine piety in his voice than at the beginning; and +there was a certain hushed gravity in his manner as we said good-bye, +which made me feel that there had been something in his visions that had +even surprised and solemnised himself. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_In Which We Take Ship Once More._ + + +The discovery which--through my friend the dealer in "marine +curiosities"--I had made, or believed myself to have made, of the +situation of Henry P. Tobias's second "pod" of treasure, fitted in +exactly with Charlie Webster's wishes for our trip, small stock as he +affected to take in it at the moment. + +As the reader may recall, "Short Shrift Island" lay a few miles to the +northwest of Andros Island. Now Andros is a great haunt of wild duck, +not to speak of that more august bird, the flamingo. Attraction number +one for the good Charlie. Then, though it is some hundred and fifty +miles long and some fifty miles broad at its broadest, it has never yet, +it is said, been entirely explored. + +Its centre is still a mystery. The natives declare it to be haunted, or +at all events inhabited by some strange people no one has yet approached +close enough to see. You can see their houses, they say, from a +distance, but as you approach them, they disappear. Here, therefore, +seemed an excellent place for Tobias to take cover in. Charlie's +duck-shooting preserves, endless marl lakes islanded with mangrove +copses, lay on the fringe of this mysterious region. So Andros was +plainly marked out for our destination. + +But, when Charlie was ready for the start, the wind, which is of the +essence of any such contract in the Bahamas, was contrary. It had been +blowing stormily from the southwest, the direction we were bound for, +for several days, and nothing with sails had, for a week, felt like +venturing out across the surf-swept bar. It is but forty miles across +the Tongue of Ocean which divides the shores of New Providence and +Andros, but you need to pick your weather for that, if you don't want to +join the numerous craft that have vanished in that brief but fateful +strip of water. However, the wind was liable to change any minute now, +Charlie said, so he warned me to hold myself in readiness to jump aboard +at an hour's notice. + +The summons came at last. I had been out for dinner, and returned home +about ten to find the message: "Be ready to sail at midnight." + +There was a thrilling suddenness about it that appealed to one's +imagination. Here I had been expecting a landsman's bed, with a book and +a reading-lamp, surrounded by the friendly security of houses; instead, +I was to go faring with the night wind into the mystery of the sea. + +It was a night of fitful moonlight, and Nassau, with its white houses +and white streets, seemed very hushed and spectral as I made my way down +to the wharf, vivid in black and silver. + +There is always something mysterious about starting a journey at night, +even though it be nothing more out-of-the-way than catching a midnight +train out of the city; and the simple business of our embarkation +breathed an air of romantic secrecy. The moon seemed to have her finger +on her lip, and we talked in lowered voices as though we were bound on +some midnight raid. The night seemed to be charged with the expectancy +of the unknown, and Sailor, who, of course, was to be a fellow-voyager, +whined restlessly from the wharf side at the little yawl that awaited us +in the whispering, lapping water. + +Sailor had watched his master getting his guns ready for some days, and, +doubtless, memories stirred in him of Scotch moors they had shot over +together. He raised his head to the night wind, and sniffed impatiently, +as though he already scented the wild duck on Andros Island. He was +impatient, like the rest of us, because, though it was an hour past +sailing-time, we had still to collect two of the crew. The same old +story! I marvelled at the good humour with which Charlie--who is really +a sleeping volcano of berserker rage--took it. But he reminded me of his +old advice as I started for my first trip: "No use getting mad with +niggers--till you positively have to!" + +Well, the two loiterers turned up at last, and, all preliminaries being +at length disposed of, we threw off the mooring ropes, and presently +there was heard that most exhilarating of sounds, to any one who loves +sea-faring, the rippling of the ropes through the blocks as our mainsail +began to rise up high against the moon which was beginning to look out +over the huge block of the Colonial Hotel, the sea-wall of which ran +along as far as our mooring. A few lights in its windows here and there +broke the blank darkness of its facade, glimmering through the avenues +of royal palms. I am thus explicit because of something that presently +happened, and which stayed the mainsail in its rippling ascent. + +A tall figure was running along the sea-wall from the direction of the +hotel, calling out, a little breathlessly, in a rich young voice as it +ran: + +"Wait a minute there, you fellows! Wait a minute!" + +We were already moving, parallel with the wall, and at least twelve feet +away from it, by the time the figure--that of a tall boy, cow-boy +hatted, and picturesquely outlined in the half light--stopped just ahead +of us. "Like the herald Mercury," I said to myself. He raised something +that looked like a bag in his right hand, calling out "catch" as he did +so; and, a moment after, before a word could be spoken, he took a flying +leap and landed amongst us, plump in the cock-pit, and was clutching +first one of us and then the other, to keep his balance. + +"Did it, by Jove!" he exclaimed in a beautiful English accent, and then +started laughing as only absurd dare-devil youngsters can. + +"Forgive me!" he said, as soon as he could get his breath, "but I had to +do it. Heaven knows what the old man will say!" + +He seemed to take it all for granted in a delightful, nonchalant way, so +that the angry protest which had already started from Charlie's lips +stopped in the middle. That fearless leap had taken his heart. + +"You're something of a long jump!" said Charlie. + +"O! I have done my twenty-two and an eighth on a broad running jump, but +I had no chance for a run there," answered the lad, carelessly. + +"But suppose you'd hit the water instead of the deck?" + +"What of it? Can't one swim?" + +"I guess you're all right, young man," said Charlie, softened; "but ... +well, we're not taking passengers." + +The words had a familiar sound. They were the very ones I had used to +Tobias, as he stood with his hand on the gunwale of the _Maggie +Darling._ I rapidly conveyed the coincidence--and the difference--to +Charlie. It struck me as odd, I'll admit, that our second start, in this +respect, should be so like the first. Meanwhile, the young man was +answering, or rather pleading, in a boyish way. + +"Don't call me a passenger; I'll help work the boat. I'm strong, you'll +see--not afraid of hard work; and anyway, won't you help a chap to an +adventure?... I'll tell the truth. I heard--never mind _how_--about your +trip, and I'm just nutty about buried treasure. Come, be a sport; I've +been watching for you all day. Pretty late starting, aren't you?... We +can let the old guv'nor know, somehow ... and it won't kill him to tear +his hair for a day or two. He knows I can take care of myself." + +"Well!" said Charlie, after thinking awhile in his slow way, "we'll +think it over. You can come along till the morning. Then I can get a +good look at you. If I don't like your looks, we'll still be able to put +you off at West End; and if I do--well--right-ho!" + +"My looks!" exclaimed our young stranger, with a peculiar mellow laugh. + +"What's the joke?" demanded Charlie. + +"O! I only wondered what my looks had to do with it!" + +"Well," laughed Charlie, entering into the spirit of the lad, "you might +be pock-marked for all I know in this light--and I have a peculiar +prejudice against pock-marked gentlemen." + +"Unfeeling of you!" retorted the boy. "Anyhow," he added, with the same +curiously attractive laugh, "I'm not pock-marked." + +"We'll see at sunrise," said Charlie. "Now, boys," he shouted, "go ahead +with the sails." + +Once more there was that rippling of the ropes through the blocks, as +our mainsail rose up high against the moon and filled proudly with the +steady northeast breeze we had been waiting for. The water began to talk +along our sides, and the immense freshness of the nocturnal sea took us +in its huge embrace. The spray began to fly over our bows as we nosed +into the glassy rollers, one of which, on the starboard side, admonished +us, by half swallowing us, that only the mighty-limbed immortals might +dance with safety on the bar that night, and that it were wise for even +45-foot yawls to hug the land till daylight. So, reluctantly, we kept +the shadowy coast-line for our companion, as we steered for the +southwestern end of the island; to our right, companions more of our +mood, parallel ridges of savage whiteness, where the surf boiled and +gleamed along the coral shoals. + +How good it seemed to all of us to be out thus in the freedom of the +night and the sea--not least to the great noble-headed hound sitting up +on his haunches, keen and watchful by the steersman's side. What a +strange waste of a life so short to be sleeping there on the land, when +one might be out and away on such business as ours! + +So two or three hours went by, as we plunged on, to the seething sound +of the water, and the singing of our sails, and all the various rumour +of wind and sea. After all, it was a good music to sleep to, and, for +all my scorn of sleeping landsmen, an irresistible drowsiness stretched +me out on the roof of the little cabin, wonderfully rocked into +forgetfulness. + +My nap came to an end suddenly, as though some one had flung me out +through a door of blue and gold into a new-born world. There was the +sun rising, the moon still on duty, and the morning star divinely naked +in the heaven. And, with these glories, there rushed in again upon my +ears the lovely zest and turmoil of the sea, heaving huge and tumultuous +about us in gleaming hills and foam-flecked valleys. + +And there was Charlie, his broad face beaming with boyish happiness, and +something like a fatherly gentleness in his eyes, as he watched his +companion at the tiller, whom, for a half-asleep moment of waking, I +couldn't account for, till our start all came back to me, when I +realised that it was our young scapegrace of over-night. Charlie and he +evidently were on the best of terms already. + +"Nice sailor you are!" Charlie laughed, as I sat up rubbing my eyes. +"Falling asleep on watch! Our young friend here is worth ten of you." + +I smiled good morning to our young passenger. + +"How about the court-martial on his looks you spoke of last night, +Charlie?" I asked. + +"Well, he's not pock-marked, at all events, is he?--he told the truth so +far. But I've still a question or two to ask him before we leave West +End. We'll have breakfast first--to give him courage." + +The lad made a humorous face to suggest his fear of the ordeal; as he +did so, I took a good look at him. Charlie might easily have said a +little more about his looks, had it been in his line, for, so far from +being only "not pock-marked," he was something more like a young Apollo: +some six feet in height, upstanding like the statue of a Greek athlete; +a rich olive skin, through which the pink of youth came and went; and +splendid blue-green eyes, fearless, and yet shy as a lad's eyes often +are--at that moment of development when a good-looking lad, in spite of +his height and muscles, has something of the bloom and purity of a girl, +without in the least suggesting effeminacy. So, many tall athletic +girls, for a brief period, suggest boys--without there being the least +danger of mistake as to their real sex. + +He was evidently very young--scarcely more than eighteen--and had a +great tendency to blush, for all his attempt at nonchalant grown-up +airs. He was the very embodiment of youth, in its sun-tipped morning +flower. What Charlie could have to "question" this artless young +being--as incapable of plotting, it seemed to me, as a young +faun--passed my conjecture; but, as Charlie had given me a quiet wink, +as he spoke of the after-breakfast examination, I suspected that it was +one of those jokes of his which are apt to have something of the +simplicity and roughness of seafaring tradition. + +Meanwhile, old Tom had been busy with breakfast, and soon the smells of +coffee and freshly made "johnny-cake" and frying bacon competed not +unsuccessfully with the various fragrances of the morning. Is there +anything to match for zest a breakfast like that of ours at dawn on the +open sea? + +Breakfast over, Charlie filled his pipe, assuming, as he did so, a +judicial aspect. I filled mine, and our young friend followed suit by +taking a silver cigarette-case from his pocket, and striking a match on +the leg of his khaki knickerbockers with a professional air. + +"All set?" asked Charlie, and, after a slight pause, he went on: + +"Now, young man, you can see we are nearing the end of the island. +Another half-mile will bring us to West End. Whether we put you ashore +there, or take you along, depends on your answers to my questions." + +"Fire away," answered the youth, blowing a cloud of cigarette smoke in a +delicate spiral up into the morning sky; "but I've really told you all I +have to tell." + +"No; you haven't told us how you came to know of our trip, what we were +supposed to be after, and when we were starting." + +"That's true!" flushed the lad, momentarily losing his composure. Then, +partly regaining it: "Is it necessary to answer that question?" + +"Absolutely," answered Charlie, beginning to look really serious. + +"Because, if you don't mind ... well, I'd just as soon not." + +The boy's cheeks were burning with confusion, and he looked more than +ever like a girl. + +"For that very reason, I want to know. We are out on a more serious +business than perhaps you realise, and your answer may mean more to us +than you think." + +"I'm sure it cannot be of such importance to you. Really it's nothing--a +mere accident; and, besides, it's hardly fair for me to tell. I should +have to give away a friend, and that, I'm sure you'll agree, is not +cricket." + +The boy had such a true innocent air, not to speak of his taking ways +which had already quite won my heart, that I protested with Charlie on +his behalf. But Charlie was adamant. He'd got Tobias so on the brain +that there was no reasoning with him, and the very innocent air of the +lad seemed to have deepened his suspicions. + +"I'm sorry, but I shall have to insist," replied Charlie, looking very +grim, and more and more like an Elizabethan sea-rover. + +"All right, then," answered the youth, looking him straight in the eyes, +"put me ashore." + +"No; I won't do that now, either," declared Charlie, sternly setting his +jaw. "I'll put you in irons, rather--and keep you on bread and +water--till you answer my questions." + +"You will, eh?" retorted the youth, flashing fire from his fine eyes. +And as he spoke, quick as thought, he leaped up on to the gunwale, and, +without hesitation, dived into the great glassy rollers. + +But Charlie was quick too. Like a flash, he grabbed one of the boy's +ankles, so that the beautiful dive was spoiled; and there was the boy, +hanging by an imprisoned leg over the ship's side, a helpless +captive--his arms in the water and his leg struggling vainly to get +free. But he might as well have struggled against the grip of Hercules. +In another moment Charlie had him hauled aboard again, his eyes full of +tears of boyish rage and humiliation. + +"You young fool!" exclaimed Charlie. "The water round here is thick with +sharks; you wouldn't have gone fifty yards without one of them getting +you." ... + +"Sharks!" gasped out the boy, contemptuously. "I know more about sharks +than you do." + +"You seem to know a good many things I don't," said Charlie, whose +grimness had evidently relaxed a little at the lad's display of mettle. +Meanwhile, my temper was beginning to rise on behalf of our young +passenger. + +"I tell you what, Charlie," I interposed; "if you are going to keep this +up, you'd better count me out on this trip and set us both ashore at +West End. You're making a fool of yourself. The lad's all right. Any one +can see with half an eye there's no harm in him." + +The boy shot me a warm glance of gratitude. + +"All right," agreed Charlie, beginning to lose his temper too, "I'm +damned if I don't." And, his hand on the tiller, he made as if to turn +the boat about and tack for the shore. + +"No! no!" cried the boy, springing between us, and appealingly laying +one hand on Charlie's shoulder, the other on mine. "You mustn't let me +spoil your trip. I'll compromise. And, skipper, I'll tell your friend +here all there is to tell--everything--I swear--if you will leave it to +his judgment." + +Charlie gloomed for a moment or two, thinking it over, while I stood +aloof with an injured air. + +"Right-O," agreed Charlie at last; so our passenger and I thereupon +withdrew for our conference. + +It was soon over, and I couldn't help laughing aloud at the simplicity +of it all. + +"Just as I told you, Charlie," I exclaimed; "it's innocence itself." +Turning to the lad, I said: "Dear boy, there is really no need to keep +such a small secret as that from the skipper here. You'll really have to +let me tell him." + +The boy nodded acquiescence. + +"All the same, I gave my word," he said + +When I told Charlie the innocent secret, he laughed as I had done, and +his usual good humour instantly returned. + +"But to think, you young scapegrace," he exclaimed, "that you might +either have been eaten by a shark, or have broken up an old friendship, +for such nonsense as that." And, turning to me, and stretching out his +huge paw, "My hand, old man; forgive my bad temper." + +"Mine too," said I. + +So harmony was restored, and the stubbornly held secret had merely +amounted to this: Our lad was acquainted with my conchologist, and had +paid him a visit the very afternoon I did, had in fact seen me leaving +the house. Answering to the boy's romantic talk of buried treasure and +so forth, the shell enthusiast had thought no harm to tell him of our +projected trip; and that was the whole of the mysterious matter. + +Yet the day was not to end without a little incident which, slight +though indeed it was, was momentarily to arouse Charlie's suspicions of +our charming young companion once more. + +By this we had shaken off the unwelcome convoy of the coast-line, and, +having had a thrilling minute or two running the gauntlet of the great +combers of the southwest bar, we were at last really out to sea, making +our dash under a good sailing breeze, with the engine going, too, across +the Tongue of Ocean. + +This Tongue of Ocean is but a narrow strip of sea--so narrow indeed that +you scarcely lose sight of one coast before you sight the other--yet the +oldest sailors cross it with fear, for its appalling depth within its +narrow boundaries make it subject to sudden "rages" in certain winds. +Even Charlie, who must have made the trip half a hundred times, scanned +the western horizon with an anxious eye. + +Presently, in the far southwest, tiny points like a row of pins began +very faintly to range themselves along the sky-line. They were palm +trees, though you could not make them out to be such, or anything in +particular, till long after. One darker point seemed closer than the +rest. + +"There's High Cay!" rang out the rich young voice of our passenger, whom +we'd half forgotten in our tense scanning of the horizon. Charlie and I +both turned to him together in surprise--and his face certainly betrayed +the confusion of one who has let something slip involuntarily. + +"Ho! ho! young man," cried Charlie, his face darkening again, "what do +you know about High Cay? I thought this was your first trip." + +"So it is," answered the boy, with a flush of evident annoyance, "on the +sea." + +"What do you mean by 'on the sea'?" + +"I mean that I've done it many a time--on the chart. I know every bluff +and reef and shoal and cay around Andros from Morgan's Bluff to +Washerwoman's Cut--" + +"You do, eh?" + +"On the chart. Why, I've studied charts since I was a kid, and gone +every kind of voyage you can think of--playing at buccaneering or +whaling, or discovering the North Pole. Every kid does that." + +"They do, eh?" said Charlie, evidently quite unimpressed. "_I_ never +did." + +"That's because you've about as much imagination as a turnip in that +head of yours," I broke in, in defence of my young Apollo. + +"Maybe, if you're so smart," continued Charlie, paying no attention to +me, "you can navigate us through the North Bight?" + +"Maybe!" answered our youngster pertly, with an odd little smile. He had +evidently recovered his nerve, and seemed to take pleasure in piquing +Charlie's bearish suspicions. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_In Which We Enter the Wilderness._ + + +Andros, as no other of the islands, is surrounded by a ring of reefs +stretching all around its coasts. The waters inside this ring are seldom +more than a fathom or two deep, and, spreading out for miles and miles +above a level coral floor, give something of the effect of a vast +natural swimming-bath. Frequently there is no more than four or five +feet of water, and in calm weather it would be almost possible to walk +for miles across this strange sea-bottom. + +Darker and solider grew the point on which our eyes were set, till at +length we were up with a thick-set, little scrub-covered island which, +compared with the low level of the line of coast stretching dimly behind +it, rose high and rocky out of the water. Hence its name, "High Cay," +and its importance along a coast where such definite landmarks are few. + +We were now inside the breakwater of the reefs, and the rolling swell of +ocean gave way at once to a millpond calmness. Through this we sped +along for some ten miles or so, following a low, barren coast-line till +at length, to our right, the water began to spread out inland like a +lake. We were at the entrance of North Bight, one of the three bights +which, dotted with numerous low-lying cays, breaks up Andros Island in +the middle, and allows a passage through a mazelike archipelago direct +to the northwest end of Cuba. Here on the northwest shore is a small and +very lonely settlement--one of the two or three settlements on the +else-deserted island--Behring's Point. + +Here we dropped anchor, and Charlie, who had some business ashore, +proposed our landing with him; but here again our passenger aroused his +suspicions--though Heaven knows why--by preferring to remain aboard. If +Charlie has a fault, it is a pig-headed determination to have his own +way--but our passenger was politely obstinate. + +"Please let me off," he requested, in his most top-lofty English accent. +"You can see for yourself that there's nothing of interest--nothing but +a beastly lot of nigger cabins, and dirty coral rock that will cut your +boots to pieces. I'd much rather smoke and wait for you in peace;" and, +taking out his case and lighting a cigarette, he waved it gaily to us as +we rowed off. + +He had certainly been right about Behring's Point--Charlie was absurdly +certain that he had known it before, and had some reason for not +landing--for a more forlorn and poverty-stricken foot-hold of humanity +could hardly be conceived; a poor little cluster of negro cabins, +indeed, scrambling up from the beach, and with no streets but craggy +pathways in and out among the grey clinker-like coral rock. + +But it was touching to find even here that, though the whole worldly +goods of the community would scarcely have fetched ten dollars, the +souls of men were still held worth caring for--one handsome youth's +contempt notwithstanding--for presently we came upon a pretty little +church, with a schoolhouse near by, while from the roof of an adjacent +building we were hailed by a pleasant-faced white man, busy with some +shingling. + +It was the good priest of the little place, Father Serapion, disguised +in overalls and the honest grime of his labour; like a true Benedictine, +praying with his strong and skilful hands. He was down from his roof in +a moment, a youngish man with the face of a practical dreamer, strangely +happy-looking in what would seem to most an appalling isolation; there +alone, month after month, with his black flock. But evidently his was no +such thought, for he showed us with pride the new schoolhouse he was +building out of the coral limestone with his own hands, as he had built +the church, every stone of it, and the picturesque well, and the +rampart-like wall round the churchyard. His garden, too, he was very +proud of, as he well might be, wrested as it was out of the solid rock. + +Father Serapion and Charlie were old friends, and, when we had accepted +the Father's invitation to step into his neat little house--also built +with his own hands--and dissipate with him to the extent of some grape +juice and an excellent cigar, Charlie took occasion to confide in him +with regard to Tobias, and, to his huge delight, discovered that a man +answering very closely to his description had dropped in there with a +large sponger two days before. He had only stopped long enough to buy +rum at the little store near the landing, and had been off again through +the bight, sailing west. He might have been making for Cuba or for a +hiding-place--of which there were plenty on the western shore of the +island itself. Father Serapion, who knew Charlie Webster's shooting +ground, promised to send a swift messenger, should anything further of +interest to us come to his knowledge within the next week or so. As he +was, naturally, in close touch with the natives, this was not unlikely. + +And then we had to bid the good priest farewell--not without a reverent +hush in our hearts as we pondered on the marvel of noble lives thus +unselfishly devoted, and as we thought, too, of the loneliness that +would once more close around him when we were gone. + +It was not until we had left him that I suddenly recalled King Coffee's +first vision. Clearly, Father Serapion was the man in overalls shingling +the roof! If only his other visions should prove as true! + +Then we sailed away from Behring's Point, due west through the North +Bight. But we had spent too much time with the good Father, and in +various pottering about--making another landing at a lone cabin in +search of fresh vegetables and further loading up our much-enduring +craft with three flat-bottomed skiffs, for duck-shooting, marvellously +lashed to the sides of the cabin deck--to do much more sailing that day. +So at sunset we dropped anchor under the lee of Big Wood Cay, and, long +before the moon rose, the whole boat's crew was wondrously asleep. + +Morning found us sailing through a maze of low-lying desert islands of a +bewildering sameness of shape and size, with practically nothing to +distinguish one from another. Even with long experience of them, one is +liable to go astray; indeed Charlie and the captain had several +friendly disputes, and exchanged bets, as to which was which. Then, too, +the curious milky colour of the water (in strange contrast to the +jewel-like clearness of the outer sea) makes it hard to keep clear of +the coral shoals that shelve out capriciously from every island. In the +daylight, the deeper water is seen in a bluish track (something like the +"bluing" used in laundry work), edged on either side by "the white +water." One has to keep a sharp lookout every foot of the way, and many +a time our keel gave an ominous grating, and we escaped some nasty +ledges by the mere mercy of Heaven. + +We had tried bathing at sunrise, but the water was not deep enough to +swim in. So we had paddled around picking up "conches"--those great +ornamental shells which house with such fanciful magnificence an animal +something like our winkle, the hard white flesh of which, cut up fine, +makes an excellent salad; that is, as old Tom made it. + +There is no fishing to speak of in these inclosed waters; nothing to go +after except sponges, which you see dotting the coral floor in black +patches. We gathered one or two, but the sponge in its natural state is +not an agreeable object. It is like a mass of slimy india-rubber, and +has to "die" and rot out its animal life, which it does with a +protesting perfume of great power, the sponge of our bath-tubs being the +macerated skeleton of the once living sponge. + +We had hoped to reach our camp, out on the other side of the island, +that evening, but that dodging the shoals and sticking in the mud had +considerably delayed us. Besides, though Charlie and the captain both +hated to admit it, we had lost our way. We had been looking all +afternoon for Little Wood Cay, but as I said before, one cay was so much +like another--all alike flat, low-lying, desolate islands covered with a +uniform scrub and marked by no large trees--not unbeautiful if one has a +taste for melancholy levels, but unpicturesquely depressing and hopeless +for eyes craving more featured and coloured "scenery." + +So night began to fall, and, as there is no sailing in such waters at +night, we once more cast anchor under a gloomy, black shape of land, +exceedingly lonesome and forgotten-looking, which we agreed to call +"Little Wood Cay"--till morning. + +Soon all were asleep except Sailor and me. I lay awake for a long time +watching the square yard of stars that shone down through the hatch in +our cabin ceiling like a little window looking into eternity, while the +waters lapped and lapped outside, and the night talked strangely to +itself. It was a wonderful meeting-place of august lonely things--that +nameless, dark island, that shadowy water heaving vast and mournful, +that cry of the wind, that swaying vault of the stars, and, framed in +the cabin doorway, the great black head of the old dog, grave and +moveless and wondering. + +Next morning Charlie and the captain were forced to own up that the +island, discovered to the day, was not Little Wood Cay. No humiliation +goes deeper with a sailing man than having to ask his way. Besides, who +was there to ask in that solitude? Doubtless a cormorant flying overhead +knew it, but no one thought to ask him. + +However, we were in luck, for, after sailing about a bit, we came upon +two lonely negroes standing up in their boats and thrusting long poles +into the water. They were sponging--most melancholy of occupations--and +they looked forlorn enough in the still dawn. But they had a smile for +our plight. It was evidently a good joke to have mistaken Sapodilla Cay +for Little Wood Cay. Of course, we should have gone--"so." And "so" we +presently went, not without rewarding them for their information with +two generous drinks of old Jamaica rum. I never before saw two men so +grateful for a drink. Their faces positively shone with happiness. +Certainly it must have seemed as if that rum had fallen out of the sky, +the last thing those chilled and lonesome men could have hoped for out +there in the inhospitable solitude. + +One of our reasons for seeking Little Wood Cay, which it proved had been +close by all the time, was that it is one of the few cays where one can +get fresh water. "Good water here," says the chart. We wanted to refill +some of our jars, and so we landed there, glad to stretch our legs, +while old Tom cooked our breakfast on the beach, under a sapodilla tree. +The vegetation was a little more varied and genial than we had yet seen, +and some small white flowers, growing in long lines, as if they had been +planted, wafted a very sweet fragrance across our breakfast table of +white coral sand. While we were eating, two or three little lizards with +tails curiously twirled round and round, like a St. Catherine wheel, +made themselves friendly, and ate pieces of bread from our hands without +fear. + +Now that we knew where we were, it was clear, but by no means careless +sailing to our camp. By noon we had made the trip through the bight and, +passing out of a narrow creek known as Loggerhead Creek, were on the +southwest side of the island. A hundred and fifty miles or so of +straight sailing would have brought us to Cuba, but our way lay north +up the coast, as we had come down the other. Here was the same white +water as the day before, with the bluish track showing the deeper +channel; the same long, monotonous coast; the same dwarf, rusty-green +scrub; not a sign of life anywhere. Nothing but the endless +blue-streaked white water and the endless desert shore. We were making +for what is known as the Wide Opening, a sort of estuary into which a +listless stream or two crawl through mangrove bushes from the interior +swamps. + +But there is one startlingly pleasant river, curiously out of place in +its desolate surroundings, which, after running through several miles of +marl swamps, enters upon an oasis of fresher foliage and even such +stately timber as mahogany, lignum vitae, and horseflesh; and it was in +this oasis, at the close of the third day out, we found ourselves. Here, +a short distance from the bank, on some slightly ascending rocky ground, +under the spreading shade of something like a stretch of woodland, +Charlie, several years ago, had built a rough log shanty for his +camp--one of two or three camps he had thus scattered for himself up and +down the "out islands," where nearly all the land is no man's, and so +every man's, land. The particular camp at which we had now arrived he +had not visited for a long time. + +"Last time I was here," said Charlie, laughing, as, having dropped +anchor, we rowed ashore, "I thought of what seemed to me an infallible +test of the loneliness of the place. Let's see how it has worked." + +The log shanty stood before us, doorless, comfortably tucked in under an +umbrella-headed tamarind tree. There was no furniture in it but a rough +table. On the table was a bottle, fallen over on its side. This Charlie +snatched up, with a cry of satisfaction. + +"What do you think of this?" he said. "Not a soul has been here but the +turkey-buzzards. The beggars knocked this over, but otherwise it is just +as I left it. Do you want better proof than this?"--and he held out the +bottle for me to look at. + +It was a quart of Scotch whisky, corked and sealed as it had left the +distillery. And it had been there for two years! The more the reader +ponders this striking fact, the better will he be able to realise the +depth of the solitude in which we now found ourselves. While the boys +slung the beds, and Tom busied himself with dinner, we sat and smoked, +and savoured together our satisfaction in our complete and grandiose +isolation. + +"It might well be weeks before any one could find us!" said my friend, +eager as a boy lapping up horrors from his favourite author. "Yes, +weeks!" And then he added: "It was creeks like this the old pirates used +to hide in." + +And so we talked of pirates and buried treasure, while the sun set like +a flight of flamingoes over a scene that was indeed like a picture torn +from a Boy's Own Book of Adventure. + +Then Tom brought us our dinner, and the dark began to settle down upon +us, thrillingly lonely, and full of strange, desolate cries of night +creatures from the mangrove swamps that surrounded our little oasis for +miles. Not even when Tom and I had been alone on "Dead Men's Shoes" had +I felt so utterly out of and beyond the world. + +Charlie smacked his big smiling lips at the savage solitude of it. + +"It's great to get away from everything--like this--isn't it?" he +remarked, looking round with huge satisfaction into the homeless haunted +wild, with its brooding blackness as of primeval chaos. + +Sailor lay at our feet, dreaming of to-morrow's duck. His master's +thoughts were evidently in the same direction. + +"How are you with a gun?" he asked, turning to the boy. + +"O! I won't brag. I had better wait till to-morrow. But, of course, you +will have to lend me a gun." + +"I have a beauty for you--just your weight," replied Charlie, his face +beaming as it did only at the thought of his guns, which he kept +polished like jewels and guarded as jealously as a violinist his violin, +or an Arab his harem. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Duck._ + + +Dawn was just breaking as I felt Charlie's great paw on my shoulder next +morning. He was very serious. For a moment, as I sat up, still half +asleep, I thought he had news of Tobias. But it was only duck. He had +heard a great quacking during the night, and was impatient to make a +start. So was Sailor. + +I was scarcely dressed when Tom arrived with breakfast, and in a few +minutes we had shouldered our guns, and were crossing the half mile of +peaty waste that divided us from the marl lakes from which the night +wind had carried that provocative quacking. Ahead of us, the crew were +carrying the skiffs on their shoulders, and very soon we were each +seated in regulation fashion on a canvas chair in front of our +respective skiffs, with our guns across our knees, and a negro behind us +to do the poling. + +Charlie went ahead, with Sailor standing in the bow quivering with +excitement. The necessity of absolute silence, of course, had been +impressed upon us all by the most severe of all sportsmen. But the +admonition was scarcely necessary, for, as the sun rose, the scene that +spread before us was beautiful enough to have hushed the most garrulous +tongue. Far and near stretched misty levels of milkwhite water, in which +the mangrove trees made countless islands, sometimes of considerable +extent, impenetrable coppices often thirty or forty feet high. From +horizon to horizon there was nothing but white water and these +coppice-islands of laurel green--one so like another that I marvelled +how Charlie expected to find his way back to camp again in the evening. +As the sun rose, flooding the wide floors with lonely splendour, it +smote upon what at first I took to be gleaming clouds of purest silver +unrolling before it. It was an angelic host of white herons soaring and +circling, stainless spirits of the dawn high up in the fathomless blue. +As we stole silently along in our skiffs, it seemed to me that we were +invading some sanctuary of morning, "occult, withdrawn," at the far +limits of the world. + +I looked around to see how it was all affecting my young friend. He was +close behind, almost at my shoulder--his beautiful young face like that +of a Greek god in a dream. + +"Isn't it wonderful?" he mused, in that voice like a musical instrument. +My heart went out to him in gratitude, for, as I caught sight of +Charlie's serious figure ahead--with no thought, I was sure, but duck--I +realised how lonely I would have been amid all that solemn morning +without my young fellow-worshipper. + +Presently, the herons alighted on one of the near-by mangrove coppices, +and it was as though the green bushes had suddenly been clothed with +miraculous white flowers--or been buried under a fall of virgin snow. +High up against the sun, several larger birds were uncouthly gambolling +in morning joy. It was hard to believe that they were pelicans--such +different birds they seemed from their foolish moping fellows at the +Zoo. And ah! yonder, riding innocent of danger, filling the morning air +with their peaceful quacking, a huge glittering fleet of--teal. + +At the sight, Charlie turned with solemn warning hand--at which I heard +my young friend behind me smothering his profane laughter--and made +various signs by which Tom (who was poling me) and I understood that our +job, and also that of my companion, was to steal behind one mangrove +copse after another till we had got on the other side of that +unsuspecting squadron--which might then be expected to take flight in +Charlie's direction and rush by him in a terrified whirlwind. This not +very easy feat of stalking we were able to accomplish, thereby winning +Charlie's immense approval and putting him a splendid temper for the +rest of the day; for, as the wild cloud swept over him, he was able to +bring down no less than seven. Like a true sportsman, in telling the +story afterward in John Saunders's snuggery, he averred that the number +was nine! + +I don't know who was happier; he, or Sailor, again and again splashing +through the water and returning with a bird in his mouth. As for me, I'm +afraid I am but a half-hearted sportsman, for I noticed that, as the +bang-bang-bang of the gun shivered the silence like a crystal mirror, +those white spirits of the morning, till then massed in dazzling purity +on the mangrove coppice, rose once more in a silver cloud and vanished. +It was as though beauty were leaving the world. + +And once more I was thankful for the presence of dreaming and worshipful +youth. + +"I shall hate him in a minute," said the boy, but just then came across +the water to him Charlie's jovial challenge to show his marksmanship, +and he took it forthwith with the same nonchalant skill as he did +everything, making, by long odds, as Charlie generously admitted, the +most brilliant shot of the day. + +Now duck-hunting, while exciting enough in itself, makes unexciting +reading, and when I have recorded that Charlie's bag for the day was no +less than seven and a half dozen (I am not sure that our figures will +agree) and related one curious incident of the day, I shall leave the +reader to imagine the rest. The incident was this: + +Early in the afternoon, Charlie had made one notable killing (five, I +think it was; he will correct me if I am wrong), but one of the birds, +not quite dead, had fluttered away into a particularly dense coppice. +Sailor had been sent in after it, but, after a lot of fussing about, +came out without his bird. Twice Charlie sent him in; with the same +result. So, growing impatient, he got out of his skiff, went splashing +through the marl water himself, and disappeared in the coppice. +Presently we heard his big laugh, and the next second, his gun. A moment +or two after, he reappeared, shouldering a huge black snake. No wonder +Sailor had been unable to find his bird, for, as Charlie had entered the +coppice, the first thing he saw was this snake coiled up in the centre, +with a curious protuberance bulging out his neck. Flying from Charlie's +gun, the unfortunate duck had landed right into the jaws of the snake! +As Charlie ripped open the snake's side--there, sure enough, was the +duck. So he was added to the day's bag; and, if he was among those Tom +cooked for dinner when we reached camp again that evening, he had the +somewhat unusual experience of being eaten twice in one day. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_More Particularly Concerns Our Young Companion._ + + +The days that now followed for a week might be said to be accurate +copies of that first day. Had one kept a diary, it would have been +necessary to write only: "ditto," "ditto," "ditto" under the happenings +of the first. Wonderful dawn--ditto; white herons and pelicans--ditto; +duck--ditto. But they were none the less delightful for that--for there +is a sameness that is far indeed from monotony--though I will confess +that, for my own tastes, toward the week-end, the carnage of duck began +to partake a little of that latter quality. Still, Charlie and Sailor +were so happy that I wouldn't have let them suspect that for the world. + +Besides, I had my wonderful young friend, to whom I grew daily more +attached. He and I, of course, were of the same mind on the subject of +duck, and, as often as possible, would give Charlie the slip and explore +the ins and outs of the mangrove islands--merely for beauty's sake, or +in study of the queer forms of life dimly and uncouthly climbing the +ladder of being in those strange solitudes. In these comradely hours +together, I found myself feeling drawn to him as I can imagine a young +father is drawn to a young son; and sometimes I seemed to see in his +eyes the suggestion of a confidence he was on the edge of making me--a +whimsical, pondering expression, as though wondering whether he dare to +tell me or not. + +"What is it, Jack?" I asked him for once when, early in our +acquaintance, we had asked him what we were to call him, he had answered +with a laugh: "O! call me Jack--Jack Harkaway." We had laughed, +reminding him of the schoolboy hero of that name and he had answered: +"Never mind. One name is as good as another. That is my name when I go +on adventures. Tell me your adventure names. I don't want your prosaic +every-day names." "Well," I had replied, entering into the lad's humour, +"my friend here is Sir Francis Drake, and I, well--I'm Sir Henry +Morgan." + +"What is it, Jack?" I repeated. + +But he shook his head. + +"No!" he replied, "I like you ever so much--and I wish I could; but I +mustn't." + +"Somebody else's secret again?" I ventured. + +"Yes!" And he added: "This time it's mine too. But--some day perhaps; +who knows?--" He broke off in boyish confusion. + +"All right, dear Jack," I said, patting his shoulder, "take your own +time. We're friends anyway." + +"That we are," responded the lad, with a fine glow. + +We left it so at the moment, and had ourselves poled in the direction of +Charlie's voice, which was breaking mirror after mirror of exquisite +lagoon-like silence with demands for our return to camp. He evidently +had shot all the duck he wanted, for that day, and was beginning to be +hungry for dinner. + +Yet, I mustn't be too hard on Charlie, for, as we know, even Charlie had +another object in his trip besides duck. As a certain poet brutally puts +it, he had anticipated also "the hunting of man." In addition, though it +is against the law of those Britannic islands, he had promised me a +flamingo or two for decorative purposes. However, flamingoes and Tobias +alike kept out of gunshot, and, as the week grew toward its end, Charlie +began to grow a little restive. + +"It looks," he murmured one evening, as we had completed our fourteenth +meal of roast duck, and were musing over our after-duck cigars, "it +looks as if I am not going to have any use for this." + +He had taken a paper from his pocket. It was a warrant with which he had +provided himself, empowering him to arrest the said Henry P. Tobias, or +the person passing under that name, on two counts: First, that of +seditious practices, with intent to spread treason among His Majesty's +subjects, and, second, that of wilful murder on the high seas. I should +say that, following my recital of the eventful cruise of the _Maggie +Darling,_ old Tom and I had been required to make sworn depositions of +Tobias's share in the happenings of that cruise, the murder of the +captain and so forth, and I too had surrendered as evidence that +eloquent manifesto which I had seen Tobias reading to the ill-fated +George and "Silly" Theodore, and had afterward discussed with him. + +The probabilities were that the Government would treat Tobias's case as +that of a dangerous madman, rather than as a hanging matter, but, +whatever its point of view, it was clearly undesirable for such an +individual to remain at large. So the governing powers in Nassau, with +whom Charlie Webster was _persona grata,_ had been glad to take +advantage of his enthusiastic patriotism and invest him with +constabulary powers, hoping that he might have an opportunity of using +them. Personally, he was rather ashamed of having to employ such tame +legal methods. From his point of view, shooting at sight was all that +Tobias deserved, and to give him a trial by jury was an absurdity of +legal red-tape. In this respect he agreed with the great Mr. Pickwick, +that "the law is a hass." It was always England's way, he said, and, if +she didn't mind, this leniency to traitors would some day be her +undoing! + +Charlie put the despised, yet precious, warrant back into his pocket, +and gazed disgustedly across the creek, where the loveliest of young +moons was rising behind a frieze of the homeless, barbaric brush. + +"There was never such a place in the world," he asserted, "to hide +in--or get lost in--or to starve in. I have often thought that it would +make the most effective prison in the world. Instead of spending good +public money in housing and feeding scoundrels behind bars, and paying +officials to keep them there, supporting expensive establishments at +Dartmoor and so forth, why doesn't the British Government export her +convicts over here, land them on one of those mangrove shoals, and--give +them their freedom! Five per cent. might succeed in escaping. The +mangrove swamps would look after the rest." + +As I have said, Charlie was a terrifying patriot. For most offences he +had the humanity of a vast forgiveness. He was, generally speaking, the +softest-hearted man I have ever met. But for any breach of the sacred +laws of England he was something like a Spanish Inquisitor. England, in +fact, was his religion. I have heard of worse. + +The young moon rose and rose, while Charlie sat in the dusk of our +shanty, like a meditative mountain, saying nothing, the glowing end of +his cigar occasionally hinting at the circumference of his broad +Elizabethan face. + +"I'll get him, all the same," he said presently, coming out of a sort of +trance, in which, as I understood later, his mind had been making a +geographical survey of our neighbourhood, going up and down every creek +and corner on a radius of fifty miles. + +"If," he added, "he knows this island better than I do, I'll give him +this warrant to eat for his breakfast.... But let's turn in. I'll think +it out by the morning. Night brings counsel." + +So we sought our respective cots; but I had scarcely begun to undress, +when a foolish accident for which I was responsible happened, an +accident that might have had serious consequences, and which, as a +matter of fact did have--though not at the moment. + +As I told the reader at the beginning of this story, I am not accustomed +to guns--being too afraid of my bad temper. Charlie knew this, and was +all the time cautioning me about holding my gun right and so on, and +especially about shaking out any unused cartridges at the end of the +day's shoot. + +Well, this special night, I had forgotten his warnings. Neglecting +everything a man should do to his gun when he is finished with it for +the day, I had left two cartridges in it, left the trigger on the +hair-brink of eternity, and other enormities for which Charlie +presently, and quite rightly, abashed me with profanity; in short, my +big toe tripped over the beast as it stood carelessly against the wall +of my cabin, and, as it fell, I received the contents in the fleshy part +of my shoulder. + +The explosion brought the whole crew out of their shanty, in a state of +gesticulating nature, and, as Charlie, growling like a bear, was helping +to bring first aid, suddenly our young friend Jack--whose romantic youth +preferred sleeping outside in a hammock slung between two palm +trees--put him aside. + +"I know better how to do this than you, Sir Francis," he said, laughing. + +"Same as the sharks, eh?" said Charlie. + +"Just the same ... but, let's have a look at your medicine chest, and +give me the lint quick." + +So Jack took charge, and acted with such confidence and skill,--finally +binding up my wound, which was but a slight one--that Charlie stood by +dumbfounded and with a curious soft look in his face which I didn't +understand till later. The tears came into my eyes at the wonderful +tenderness of the lad, as he bent over me. + +"Do I hurt you?" he kept saying. "You and I are pals, you know." + +"You don't hurt me a bit, dear Jack," I answered; "what a clever lad you +are!" + +Then Jack looked up for a moment, and caught Charlie's wondering look; +and, it seemed to me that he changed colour, and looked frightened. + +"Sir Francis is jealous," he said; "but I've finished now. I guess +you'll sleep all right after that dose I gave you. Good night...." And +he slipped away. + +Jack had proved himself a practised surgeon, and, as he predicted, I +slept well--so well and so far into next morning that Charlie at last +had to waken me. + +"What do you think?" were his first words. + +"Why, what?" I asked, sitting up, and wincing from my wounded shoulder. + +"Our young friend has skipped in the night!" + +"'Skipped?'" I exclaimed, with a curious ache at my heart. + +"Sure enough! Gone off on that little nigger sloop that dropped in here +yesterday afternoon, I guess." + +"You don't mean it?" + +"No doubt of it--I wonder whether you've had the same thought as I +had." + +"What do you mean?" + +"You know I always said there was a mystery about that boy?" + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Did you notice the way he bound your shoulder last night?" + +"What of it?" + +"Did you ever see a man bind a wound like that?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean simply that the mystery about our Jack Harkaway was just this: +Jack Harkaway was no boy at all--but just a girl; a brick of a +dare-devil girl!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Better Than Duck._ + + +Charlie Webster's discovery--if discovery it was--of "Jack Harkaway's" +true sex seemed so far plausible in that it accounted not only for much +that had seemed mysterious about him and his manner, but also (though +this I did not mention to Charlie) it accounted for certain dim feelings +of my own, of which, before, I had been scarcely conscious. + +But we were not long left to continue our speculations, being presently +interrupted by the arrival of exciting news--news which, I need hardly +say, promptly drove all thought of "Jack Harkaway" out of Charlie +Webster's head, though it was not so soon to be banished from mine. + +The news came in the form of a note from Father Serapion. He had sent it +by the captain of a sponging schooner, who, in turn, had sent it by two +of his men in a rowboat, not being able to venture up the creek himself +owing to the northeast wind which was blowing so hard, that, as +sometimes happens on that coast, he might have been left high and dry. + +Father Serapion's note simply confirmed his conjecture that it was +Tobias who had bought rum at Behring's Point, and that he was probably +somewhere in the network of creeks and marl lagoons in our +neighbourhood. Telling Tom to give the men a good breakfast, Charlie +thought the news over. + +"I'll tell you what we'll do," he said presently. "I'm going to leave +you here--and I'm going to charter the sponger out there. This river we +are on comes out of a sound that spreads directly south--Turner's Sound. +Turner's Sound has two outlets: this, and Goose River ten miles down the +shore. Now, if Tobias is inside here, he can only get out either down +here, or down Goose River. I am going down in the sponger to the mouth +of Goose River, to keep watch there; and you must stay where you are, +and keep watch here. Between the two of us, a week will starve him out. +Or, if not, I'll chase after him up Goose River; and in that case, he'll +have to come down here--and it will be up to you, for I don't believe +he'll have the nerve to try walking across the marl ponds to the east +coast." + +So it was settled, and, presently, Charlie went along with two of his +best guns and Sailor, in the rowboat, and I saw him no more for a week. +Meanwhile, I kept watch and studied the scenery, and old Tom and I +talked about the strange people who inhabited the interior--those houses +that moved away into the mist as soon as you caught sight of them. Some +day old Tom and I are going to explore the interior, for he is not so +much afraid of ghosts as he was, since we tried them out together. + +At the end of the week, the wind was blowing strong from the west and +the tides ran high. About noon we caught sight of triumphant sails +making up the river. It was Charlie back again. + +"Got him!" was all he said, as he rowed ashore. + +Sailor was with him in the rowboat, but I noticed that he was limping, +going on three legs. + +"Yes!" said Charlie. "It's lucky for Tobias he only got Sailor's foot, +or, by the living God, I'd have stood my trial for manslaughter, or +whatever they call it. It'll soon be all right, old man," he said, +taking Sailor's wounded paw in his hand, "soon be all right." Sailor +wagged his tail vigorously, to show that a gunshot through one of his +legs was a mere nothing. + +"Yes!" said Charlie, as we sat at lunch in the shack, under the tamarind +tree; "we've got him safe there under decks all right; chained up like +a buoy. If he can get away, I'll believe in the Devil." + +"Won't you tell me about it?" I asked. + +"Not much to tell; too easy altogether. I waited a couple of days at the +mouth of Goose River. Then I got tired, and left the sponger with the +captain and two or three men, while I went up the river with a couple of +guns and Sailor, and a man to pole the skiff--just for some +duck-shooting, you know. We lay low, for two days, on the marshes, and +then Sailor got sniffing the wind one morning, as if there was something +around he didn't care much for. The day before, we had heard firing a +mile or so inland, and had come upon some duck that some one or other +had shot and hadn't had time to pick up. So, that morning, I let Sailor +lead the way. We had been out about an hour, and were stealing under the +lee of a big mangrove island, after some duck we had sighted a little to +the eastward, when, suddenly, apparently without anything to alarm them, +they rose from the water and came flying in our direction. But evidently +something, or somebody, had startled them. They came right by me. It was +hard luck not to be able to take a shot at them. I could have got a +dozen of them at least." + +"Probably more," I suggested. + +"I really believe I could," agreed Charlie, in entire innocence. "Well, +as I have said, it was hard luck; but Sailor seemed to have something on +his mind, beside duck. As we poled along silently in the direction from +which the duck had risen, he grew more and more excited, and, at last, +as we neared a certain mangrove copse to which all the time he had been +pointing, he barked two or three times, and, I let him go. Poor old +fellow!" + +As he told the story, Sailor, who seemed to understand every word, +rubbed his head against his master's hand. + +"He went into the mangroves, just as he'd go after duck, but he'd hardly +gone in, when there were two shots, and he came out limping, making for +me. But, by this, I was close up to the mangroves myself, and in another +minute, I was inside; and there, just like that old black snake you +remember, was Tobias--his gun at his shoulder. He had a pot at me, but, +before he could try another, I knocked him down with my +fist--and--Well, we've got him all right. And now you can go after +your treasure, as soon as you like. I'll take him over to Nassau, and +you can fool around for the next month or so. Of course we'll need you +at the trial, but that won't come off for a couple of months. Meanwhile, +you can let me know where you are, in case I should need to get hold of +you." + +"All right, old man," I said, "but I wish you were coming along with +me." + +"I've got all the treasure I want," laughed Charlie. "But don't you want +to come and interview our friend? He might give you some pointers on +your treasure hunt." + +"How does he take it?" I asked. + +"Pretty cool. He talked a little big at first, but now he sits with his +head between his hands, and you can't get a word out of him. Something +up his sleeve, I dare say." + +"I don't think I'll bother to see him, Charlie," I said. "I'm kind of +sorry for him." Charlie looked at me. + +"Sorry for him?" + +"Yes! In fact, I rather like him." + +"Like him?" Charlie bellowed; "the pock-marked swine!" + +"I grant," I said, smiling, and recalling Charlie's own words of long +ago, "that his face is against him." + +"Rather like him? You must be crazy! You certainly have the rummiest +taste." + +"At least you'll admit this much, Charlie," I said; "he has courage--and +I respect courage even in a cockroach--particularly, perhaps, in a +cockroach ..." + +"He's a cockroach, all right," said Charlie. + +"Maybe," I assented. "I don't pretend to love him, but--" + +"If you don't mind," interrupted Charlie, "we'll let it go at 'but'--". +And he rose. "The tide's beginning to run out. Send me word where you +are, as soon as you get a chance; and good luck to you, old chap, and +your doubloons and pieces of eight!" + +Then we walked down to his row-boat, and soon he was aboard the sponger. +Her sails ran up, and they were off down stream--poor Tobias, manacled, +somewhere between decks. + +"See you in Nassau!" I shouted. + +"Right-O!" came back the voice of the straightest and simplest +Englishman in the world. + + + + +BOOK III + + + + + _Across the scarce-awakened sea, + With white sail flowing, + And morning glowing, + I come to thee--I come to thee._ + + _Past lonely beaches, + And gleaming reaches, + And long reefs foaming, + Homing--homing-- + A-done with roaming, + I come to thee._ + + _The moon is failing, + A petal sailing + Down in the west + That bends o'er thee; + And the stars are hiding, + As we go gliding + Back to the nest, + Ah! back to thee._ + + + + +BOOK III + +CHAPTER I + +_In Which We Gather Shells--and Other Matters._ + + +With Charlie gone, and duck-shooting not being one of my passions, there +was nothing to detain me in Andros. So we were soon under way, out of +the river, and heading north up the western shore of the big monotonous +island. We had some fifty miles to make before we reached its northern +extremity--and, all the way, we seldom had more than two fathoms of +water, and the coast was the same interminable line of mangroves and +thatch palms, with occasional clumps of pine trees, and here and there +the mouth of a creek, leading into duck-haunted swamps. + +It was evident that the island kept its head above water with +difficulty, and that the course we were running over was all the time +aspiring to be dry land, right away from the coast to the Florida +channel. For miles west and north, it would have been impossible to find +more than three fathoms. As I said of the east coast, inside the reef, +it was a vast swimming bath, but of greater dimensions, a swimming bath +with a floor of alabaster, and water that seemed to be made of dissolved +moonstones. + +For a while, our going seemed very much as though we were sailing a big +toy-boat in an illimitable porcelain bathtub. There were no rocks to +look out for, no shoals in what was really one vast shoal, and all was +smooth as milk. All the afternoon, till the sun set and the stars came +out and we dropped our anchor in a luminous nothingness, a child could +have navigated us; but, when the next day brought us up to the northwest +corner of Andros, we found ourselves face to face with a variety of +difficulties: glimmering sandbars, reaches of moon-white shoals, patches +of half-made land with pines struggling knee-deep in the tide; here and +there a mile of mangroves, and delusive channels of blue water; beauty +everywhere spreading out her sweeping laces of foam--a welter of a world +still in its making, with no clear passages for any craft drawing more +than a canoe. Loveliness everywhere--again the waving purple fans, and +the heraldic fish, and the branching coral mysteriously making the +world. Loveliness everywhere!--in fact a labyrinth of beauty with no way +out. + +And the captain, like nearly every captain I have met in the Bahamas, +knew as little about it as I did. Charlie had been right; you must know +how to sail your own boat when you hoist your sails in Bahaman waters. I +confess that I began to regret Charlie's preoccupation with Tobias--for, +in spite of his missing his way that day in the North Bight, Charlie +seems to know his way in the dark wherever one happens to be on the sea. + +However, there was really nothing to worry us. There was no wind. The +weather was calm, and there was lots of time. At last, after studying +the chart and talking it over with Tom, who though he had only shipped +as cook, was the best sailor on board, we decided to run north, and take +a channel described on the chart as "very intricate." + +At last we came to a little foam-fringed cay, where it was conceivable +that the shyest and rarest of shells would choose to make its home--a +tiny aristocrat, driven out of the broad tideways by the coarser +ambitions and the ruder strength of great molluscs that feed and grow +fat and house themselves in crude convolutions of uncouthly striving +horn; a little lonely shore, kissed with the white innocence of the sea, +where pearls might secretly make themselves perfect, untroubled by the +great doings of wind and tide--merely rocked into beauty by ripple and +beam, with a teardrop falling, once in a while, into their dim growing +hearts, from some wavering distant star. + +It was impossible to imagine a cay better answering to my conchologist's +description of Short Shrift Island. Its situation and general character, +too, bore out the surmise. On landing, also, we found that it answered +in two important particulars to Tobias's narrative. We found, as he had +declared, that there was good water there for passing ships. Also, we +found, in addition to the usual scrub, that cabbage-wood trees grew +there very plentifully, particularly, as he said, on the highest part of +the island. Our conjectures were presently confirmed by the captain of a +little sponging boat that, an hour after our arrival, put in for water. +Yes, he said, it was ---- Cay (giving it the name by which it was +generally known, and by which the conchologist had first mentioned it to +me). So, having talked it all over with Tom, I decided that here we +would stay for a time, and try our luck. + +But, first, having heard from the sponging captain, that he was en +route for Nassau, I gave him a letter to Charlie Webster, telling him of +our whereabouts, in case he should have sudden need of me with regard to +Tobias. + +It was too late to begin treasure-hunting that day, but Tom and I made +an early start, the following morning, prospecting the island--I having +set the men to work gathering shells, in the hope of being able to +oblige my shell-loving friend. The island was but a small cay compared +with that of Dead Men's Shoes,--on which we had so memorably laboured +side by side--some five miles long and two broad. It was a pretty little +island, rising here and there into low hills, and surprising us now and +again with belts of pine trees. But, of course, the cabbage-wood tree +was our special tree; and, as I said before, this grew plentifully. All +too plentifully, indeed; and cabbage-wood stumps, alas! were scarcely +more rare. + +The reader may recall that Tobias's narrative, in reference to his +second "pod" of one million dollars, had run: "_On the highest point of +this Short Shrift Island is a large cabbage-wood stump, and twenty feet +south of that stump is the treasure, buried five feet deep and can be +found without difficulty._" But which was the highest point? There were +several hillocks that might claim to be that--all about equal in height. + +We visited them all in succession. There was a "large cabbage-wood +stump" on each and all of them! It had seemed an absurdly inadequate +direction, even as we had talked the narrative over in John Saunders's +snuggery. But, confronted with so many "large cabbage-wood stumps," one +began to suspect Henry P. Tobias of having been a humourist, and to +wonder whether John Saunders was not right after all, and the whole +manuscript merely a hoax for the benefit of buried-treasure cranks like +myself. + +However, as the high points of the island were only seven in all, it was +no difficult matter to try them all out, one by one, as we had plenty of +time and plenty of hands for the work. For, of course, it would have +been idle to attempt any concealment of my object from the crew. +Therefore, I took them from their shell-gathering, and, having duly +measured out twenty feet south from each promising cabbage-wood stump, +set them to work. They worked with a will, for I promised them a +generous share of whatever we found. + +Alas! it was an inexpensive promise, for, when we had duly turned up the +ground, not only twenty feet, but thirty, forty, and fifty feet, not +only south but north, east and west of the various cabbage-wood stumps +on the seven various eminences, we were none of us the richer by a +single piece of eight. Then we tried the other cabbage-wood stumps on +lower ground, and any other likely looking spots, till, after working +for nearly a fortnight, we must have dug up most of the island. + +And then Tom came to me with the news that our provisions were beginning +to give out. As it was, he said, before we returned to Nassau, we should +have to put in at Flying Fish Cove--a small settlement on the larger +island some five miles to the nor'ard,--for the purchase of various +necessities. + +"All right, Tom," I said, "I guess the game is up! Let's start out +to-morrow morning." + +And then I betook myself, like the great philosopher, to gathering +shells on the sea-shore, finding some specimens which, to my unlearned +eye, seemed identical with that shell so dear to the learned +conchologist's heart. + +The following afternoon we put in at Flying Fish Cove, a neat little +settlement, with a pretty show of sponging craft at anchor, a few +prosperous-looking houses on the hill-side, and a sprinkling of white, +or half-white, people in the streets. I instructed Tom and the Captain +to stock in whatever we needed. We would lie there that night, and in +the morning we would make a start, homeward-bound, for Nassau. + +"You may as well have your sucking fish back, Tom," I said, laughing in +self-disgust. "I shall have no more need of it. I am through with +treasure-hunting." + +"I'd keep it a little longer, sar," answered Tom; "you never know." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_In Which I Catch a Glimpse of a Different Kind of Treasure._ + + +I had, as I have said, made up my mind to start on the homeward trip +early the following morning, but something happened that very evening to +change my plans. I had dropped into the little settlement's one store, +to buy some tobacco, the only kind that Charlie Webster--who carried his +British loyalty into the smallest concerns of life, declared fit to +smoke--some English plug of uncommon strength, not to say ferocity, a +real manly tobacco such as one might imagine the favourite chew of +pirates and smugglers. + +I stayed chatting with the storekeeper--a lean, astute-looking +Englishman, with the un-English name of Sweeney--who made a pretty good +thing of selling his motley merchandise to the poor natives, on the good +old business principle of supplying goods of the poorest possible +quality at the highest possible prices. He was said to hold a mortgage +on the lives of half the population, by letting them have goods on +credit against their prospective wages from sponging trips, he himself +being the owner of three or four sponging sloops, and so doubly insured +against loss. His low-ceilinged, black-beamed store, dimly lit with +kerosene lamps, was a wilderness of the most unattractive merchandise +the mind of man can conceive, lying in heaps on trestles, hanging from +the rafters, and cluttering up every available inch of space, so that +narrow lanes only were left among dangling tinware, coils of rope, +coarse bedding, barrels in which very unappetising pork lay steeping in +brine, other barrels overflowing with grimy looking "grits" and sailors' +biscuits, drums of kerosene and turpentine, cans of paint, jostling +clusters of bananas, strings of onions, dried fish, canned meats, loaves +of coarse bread, tea and coffee, and other simple groceries. + +Two rough planks laid on barrels made the counter, up to which from time +to time rather worn-looking, spiritless negro women and girls would come +to make their purchases, and then shuffle off again in their listless +way. Once in a while a sturdy negro would drop in for tobacco, with a +more independent, well-fed air. The Englishman served them all with a +certain contemptuous indifference in which one somehow felt the presence +of the whip-hand. + +While he was thus attending a little group of such customers, I had +wandered toward the back of the store, curiously examining the thousand +and one commodities which supplied the strange needs of humanity here in +this lost corner of the world; and, thus occupied, I was diverted by a +voice like sudden music, a voice oddly rich and laughing and confident +for such grim and sinister surroundings. It was one, too, which I seemed +to have heard before, and not so very long ago. When I turned in its +direction, I was immediately arrested, as one always is by any splendour +of vitality; for a startling contrast indeed--to the spiritless, furtive +figures that had been coming and going hitherto--was this superb young +creature, tall and lithe with proudly carried head on glorious +shoulders. Her skin was a golden olive, and it had been hard to say +which was the more intensely black--her hair, or the proud eyes which, +turning presently in my direction, seemed to strike upon me as with an +actual impact of soft fire. I swear I could feel them touch me, as it +were, with a warm ray, the radiating glow of her fragrant vitality +enfolding me as in a burning golden cloud. + +I wondered whether her glance enfolded everything she looked on in the +same way. Perhaps it was but the unconsciously exerted force of her +superb young womanhood intensely alive. Yet--there was too a significant +wild shyness about her. My presence seemed at once to put her on her +guard. The music of her voice was suddenly hushed, as though she had +hurriedly, almost in terror, thrown a robe of reticence about an +impulsive naturalness not to be displayed before strangers. As for the +storekeeper, he was evidently a familiar acquaintance. He had known +her--he said, after she was gone--since she was a little girl. + +While he spoke, my eyes had accidentally fallen on the coin still in his +hand, with which she had just paid him. + +"Excuse me," I said, "but that is a curious-looking coin." + +I thought that a shade of annoyance passed over his face, as though he +had been better pleased if I had not noticed it. However, it was too +late, and he handed it to me to examine--a large antique-looking gold +coin. + +"Why!" I said, "this is a Spanish doubloon!" + +"That's what it is," said the Englishman laconically. + +"But doesn't it strike you as strange that she should pay her bills with +Spanish doubloons?" I asked. + +"It did at first," he answered; and then, as if annoyed with himself, he +was attempting to retrieve an expression that carried an implication he +evidently didn't wish me to retain, he added: "Of course, she doesn't +always pay in Spanish doubloons." + +"But she does sometimes?" + +"O! once in a great while," he answered, evasively. "I suppose they have +a few old coins in the family, and use them when they run out of +others." + +It was as lame an explanation as well could be, and no one could doubt +that, whatever his reason for so doing, he was lying. + +"But haven't you trouble in disposing of them?" I enquired. + +"Gold is always gold," he answered, "and we don't see enough of it here +to be particular as to whose head is stamped upon it, or what date. +Besides, as I said, it isn't as if I got many of them; and you can +always dispose of them as curiosities." + +"Will you sell me this one?" I asked. + +"I see no harm in your having it," he said, "but I'd just as soon you +didn't mention where you got it." + +"Certainly," I answered, disguising my wonder at his secretiveness. +"What is it worth?" + +He named the sum of sixteen dollars and seventy-five cents. Having paid +him that amount, I bade him good-night, glad to be alone with my eager, +glowing thoughts. These I took with me to a bit of coral beach made +doubly white by the moon, rustled over by giant palms, and whispered to +by the vast living jewel of the sea. Surely my thoughts had a brightness +to match even this glitter of the night. I took out my strange doubloon, +and flashed it in the moon. + +But, brightly as it shone, it hardly seemed as bright as it would have +seemed a short while back; or, perhaps, it were truer to say that in +another, newer aspect it shone a hundred times more brightly. The +adventure to which it called me was no longer single and simple as +before, but a gloriously confused goal of cloudy splendours, the burning +core of which--suddenly raying out, and then lost again in +brightness--were the eyes of a mysterious girl. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Under the Influence of the Moon._ + + +My days now began to drift rather aimlessly, as without apparent purpose +I continued to linger on an island that might well seem to have little +attraction to a stranger--how little I could see by the mystification of +the good Tom, in whom, for once, of course, I could not confide. Yet I +had a vague purpose; or, at least, I had a feeling that, if I waited on, +something would develop in the direction of my hopes. That doubloon +still suggested that it was the key to a door of fascinating mystery to +which Chance might at any moment direct me. + +And--why not admit it?--apart from my buried treasure, to the possible +discovery of which the doubloon seemed to point, I was possessed with a +growing desire for another glimpse of those haunting eyes. They needed +not their association with the mysterious gold, they were magnetic +enough to draw any man, with even the rudiments of imagination, along +the path of the unknown. All the paths out of the little settlement were +paths into the unknown, and, day after day, I followed one or another +of them out into the wilderness, taking a gun with me, as an ostensible +excuse for any spying eye, and bringing back with me occasional bags of +the wild pigeons which were plentiful on the island. + +One day I had thus wandered unusually far afield, and at nightfall found +myself still several miles from home, on a rocky path overhanging the +sea. The coast-line had been gradually mounting in a series of +precipitous headlands, at the foot of which the sea made a low booming +that suggested hidden caves. Looking over the edge in places, one could +see that it had hollowed out the porous rock well under the base of the +cliffs, and here and there fallen masses of boulder told of a gradual +encroachment which, in course of time, would topple down into the abyss +the precarious pathway on which I stood. Inland the usual level scrub +gave place to a stretch of wild forest, very dense, and composed of +trees of many varieties, loftier than was usual on the island. + +There was no sign of habitation anywhere. It was a wild and lonely +place, and presently over its savage beauty stole the glamour of the +moon rising far over the sea. I sat down on a ledge of the cliffs, and +watched the moonlight grow in intensity, as the darkness of the woods +deepened behind me. It was a night full of witchcraft; a night on which +the stars, the moon, and the sea together seemed hinting at some +wonderful thing about to happen. + +Far down in the clear water I could see the giant sea-fans waving in a +moony twilight, touched eerily in those glassy depths with sudden rays +of the spectral light; soft bowers of phosphorescence spread a secret +radiance about dimly branching coral groves. And, all the while, the +path of the moon over the sea was growing stronger--laying, it would +seem, an even firmer pathway of silver stretching to the very foot of +the cliff-side. + +I am not given to quoting poetry, but involuntarily there came to my +mind some lines remembered from boyhood: + + If on some balmy summer night + You rowed across the moon-path white, + And saw the shining sea grow fair + With silver scales and golden hair-- + What would you do? + +"What would you do?" I repeated dreamily, thinking very likely as I said +them, of two eyes of mysteriously enfolding fire; and then, as if the +fairy night were matching the words with a challenge, what was this +bright wonder suddenly present on one of the boulders far down beneath +me?--a tall shape of witchcraft whiteness, standing, full in the moon, +like a statue in luminous marble of some goddess of antiquity. Only once +before, and but for a moment, had I seen a woman's form so proudly +flowerlike in its superb erectness! + +My eyes and my heart together told me it was she; and, as she hung +poised over the edge of the water, in the attitude of one about to dive, +a turn of her head gave me that longed-for glimpse of those living eyes +filled with moonlight. She stood another moment, still as the night, in +her loveliness; and the next, she had dived directly into the path of +the moon. I saw her eyes moon-filled again, as she came to the surface, +and began to swim--not, as one might have expected, out from the land, +but directly in toward the unseen base of the cliffs. The moon-path +_did_ lead to a golden door in the rocks, I said to myself, and she was +about to enter it. It was a secret door known only to herself; and then, +for the first time that night, I thought of that doubloon. + +Perhaps if I had not thought of it, I should not have done what then I +did. There will, doubtless, be those who will censure me. If so, I am +afraid they must. At all events, it was the thought of that doubloon +that swayed the balance of my hesitation in taking the moon-path in the +track of that bright apparition. The pursuit of my hidden treasure had +long been so fixed an idea in my mind that a scruple would have had to +be strong indeed to withstand my impulse to follow up so exciting a +clue. (When, alas! has the pursuit of gold heeded any scruples?) Or it +is quite possible that a radically different inclination held this +materialistic excuse as a cloak for itself. A moment of such glamorous +excitement may well account for some confused psychology. + +I leave it to others who, less fortunate than I, were not exposed to the +breathless enchantments of that immortal night, those sorceries of a +situation lovely as the wildest dreams of the heart. I looked about for +a way down to the edge of the sea. It was not easy to find, but after +much perilous scrambling, I at length found myself on the boulder which +had so lately been the pedestal of that Radiance; and, in another +moment, I had dived into the moon-path and was swimming toward the +mysterious golden door. + +Before me the rocks opened in a deep narrow crevasse, a long rift, +evidently slashing back into the cliff, beneath the road on which I had +been treading. I could see the moonlit water vanishing into a sort of +gleaming lane between the vast overhanging walls. In a few moments I was +near the entrance, but, as yet, I could not touch bottom with my feet, +and so I swam on into the giant portal, into a twilight which was still +luminous with reflections, and to which my eyes readily accustomed +themselves. + +Presently I felt my feet rest lightly on firm sand, and, still shoulder +deep in the water, I walked on another yard or two--to be brought to a +sudden stop. There she was coming toward me, breast high in that watery +tunnel! The moon, continuing its serene ascension, lit her up with a +sudden beam. O! shape of bloom and glory! + +For a moment we both stood looking at each other, as if transfixed. Then +she gave a frightened cry, and put her hands up to her bosom; as she did +so, a stream of something bright--like gold pieces--fell from her mouth, +and two like streams from her opened hands. Then, as quick as light, she +had darted past me, and dived into the moon-path beyond. She must have +swam under the water a long way, for when I saw her dark head rise again +in the glimmering path, it was at a distance of many yards. + +I had no thought of following her, but stood in a dream among the watery +gleams and echoes. + +So, once in a lifetime, for a few fortunate ones, all the various magics +of the earth, all the mysterious hints and promises of her loveliness +that make the heart overflow with a prophetic sense of some supernatural +happiness on the brink of coming to pass, combine in one supreme shape +of beauty, given to us by divine ordering, on the starlit summit of one +immortal hour. + +For me had come that hour of wonder; for me out of that tropic sea, into +whose flawless deeps my eyes had so often gone adream, had risen the +creature of miracle. + +O! shape of moonlit marble! O! holiness of this night of moon and stars +and sea! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_In Which I Meet a Very Strange Individual._ + + +Yes! I was in love. Yet I hope, and think, that the reader will not +resent this unexpected incursion into the realms of sentiment when he +considers that my sudden attack was not, like most such sudden attacks, +an interruption in the robuster course of events, but, instead, +curiously in the direct line of my purpose. Because the eyes of an +unknown girl had thus suddenly enthralled me, I was not, therefore, to +lose sight of that purpose. + +On the contrary, they had suddenly shone out on the pathway along which +I had been blindly groping. But for the accident of being in the dirty +little store at so psychological a moment, hearing that strangely +familiar voice and catching sight of that mysterious doubloon as well as +those mysterious eyes, I should have set sail that very night, and given +up John P. Tobias's second treasure in final disgust. As it was, I was +now warmly on the track of some treasure--whether his or not--with two +bright eyes further to point the way. Never surely did a man's love and +his purpose make so practical a conjunction. + +When I reached my lodging at last in the early morning following that +night of wonders, my eyes and heart were not so dazed with that vision +in the cave that I did not vividly recall one important detail of the +strange picture--those streams of gold that had suddenly poured out of +the mouth and hands of the lovely apparition. + +Need I say that over and over again the picture kept coming before +me?--haunting me like that princess from my childhood's fairy-book, from +whose mouth, as she spoke, poured all manner of precious stones. We all +remember that--and had I not seen the very thing itself with my own +grown-up eyes? No wonder it all seemed like a dream, when, late next +forenoon, I woke from a deep sleep that had been long in overtaking me. +Yet, there immediately in my mind's eye, without any shadow of doubt, +was the beautiful picture once more, vivid and exact in every detail. +Without doubting the evidence of my senses, I was forced to believe +that, by the oddest piece of luck, I had stumbled upon the hiding-place +of that hoard of doubloons, on which my fair unknown drew from time to +time as she would out of a bank. + +But who was she?--and where was her home? There had seemed no sign of +habitation near the wild place where I had come upon her, though, of +course, a solitary house might easily have escaped my notice hidden +among all that foliage, particularly at nightfall. + +To be sure, I had but to enquire of the storekeeper to learn all I +wanted; but I was averse from betraying my interest to him or to any one +in the settlement--for, after all, it was my own affair, and hers. So I +determined to pursue my policy of watching and waiting, letting a day or +two elapse before I again went out wandering with my gun. + +Probably she would be making another trip to the settlement, before +long. Doubtless, it was for that purpose that she was visiting her very +original safety-deposit vault when I had come so embarrassingly upon +her. + +However, inaction, in the circumstances, was difficult, and when two +days had gone without bringing any sign of her, I determined to follow +the trail of my last expedition, and find out whether that strip of +rocky coast, with its hidden cavern, actually did stand firm somewhere +on the solid earth, or was merely a phantom coast fronting + + "The foam of perilous seas in faery-land forlorn." + +As a matter of fact, I did find it, after having lost my way in the +thick brush several times before doing so. I reckoned, when at last I +emerged upon it, that it was a distance of some six or seven miles from +the settlement, though, owing to my ignorance of the way, it had taken +me a whole morning to cover it. Did _she_ have to thread these thorny +thickets every time she came to the little town? No; doubtless she was +acquainted with some easier and shorter path. + +However, here was the cliff-bastioned sea-front, and down there was the +boulder on which she had stood like a statue in the moonlight. I craned +my neck over the edge of the cliffs to catch sight of the entrance to +her cave--but in vain. Nor was there apparent any way of reaching it +from above. Evidently it was only approachable from the sea. + +Then I looked about for some signs of a house; but, though it was full +noon-day, the forest presented an unbroken front of close-growing trees, +and a rich confusion of various foliage uncommon on those islands. I +counted at least a dozen varieties, among which were horseflesh, wild +tamarind, redwood, pigeon-plum, poison wood, gum-elemi, fig, logwood, +and mahogany. + +Evidently there was an unusually thick layer of soil over the coral rock +in this part of the island, which was in the main composed of the usual +clinker and scrub--where it was not mangrove swamp. Yet in spite of +appearances, it was certain that there must be some sort of dwelling +there-about, and not so very far off either--unless, indeed, my +mysterious girl was but a mermaid after all. + +So I left the craggy bluff facing the sea, and plunged into the woods. I +had no idea how dark it was going to be, but, coming out of the sun, I +was at once bewildered by the deep and complicated gloom of massed +branches overhead, and the denser darkness of shrubs and vines so +intricately interwoven, as almost to make a solid wall about one. Then +the atmosphere was so close and airless that a fear of suffocation +combined at once with the other fear of being swallowed up in all this +savage green life, without hope of finding one's way out again into the +sun. I had fought my way in but a very few yards when both these fears +clutched hold of me with a sudden horror, and the perspiration poured +from me; I could no longer distinguish between the way I had come and +any other part of the wood! Indeed, there was no way anywhere! + +It was now only a question of sturdy fighting and squirming one's way +through the meshes of a gigantic basketwork of every variety of +fantastic branch and stem and stout strangling thorn-set vine, made the +denser with snaky roots--not merely twisting about one's feet, but +dropping from the boughs in nooses and festoons for one's neck; +air-plants too, like birds' nests, further choking up the meshes, and +hanging moss, like rotting carpets, adding still more to the murk and +curious squalor of a foul fertility where beauty, like humanity, found +it impossible to breathe. + +I must have battled through this veritable inferno of vegetation for at +least an hour--though it seemed a life-time. Clouds of particularly +unpleasant midges filled my eyes, not to speak of mosquitoes, and a +peculiar kind of persistent stinging fly was adding to my miseries, when +at last, begrimed and dripping with sweat, I stumbled out, with a cry of +thankfulness, on to comparatively fresh air, and something like a broad +avenue running north and south through the wood. It was indeed densely +overgrown, and had evidently not been used for many years. Still, it was +comparatively passable, and one could at least see the sky, and take +long breaths once more. + +The rock here emerged again in places through the scanty soil, but it +had evidently been levelled here and there, so as to make it serve as a +rough but practicable road, though plainly it was years since any +vehicles had passed that way. Still, there was no sign of a house +anywhere. Presently, however, as I stumbled along, I noticed something +looming darkly through the matted forest on my left, that suggested +walls. Looking closer, I saw that it was the ruin of a small stone +cottage, roofless, and indescribably swallowed up in the pitiless scrub. +And then, near by, I descried another such ruin, and still another--all, +as it were, sunk in the terrible gloom of the vegetation, as sometimes, +at low tide, one can discern the walls of a ruined village at the bottom +of the sea. + +As I struggled on, and my eyes grew accustomed to looking for them, I +detected still more of these ruins, of various shapes and sizes, +impenetrably smothered but a few yards inward on each side of the road. + +Evidently I had come upon a long-abandoned settlement, and presently, on +some slightly higher ground to the left, I thought I could make out the +half-submerged walls of a much more ambitious edifice. Looking closer, I +noted, with a thrill of surprise, the beginning of a very narrow path, +not more than a foot wide, leading up through the scrub in its +direction. Narrow as it was, it had clearly been kept open by the +not-infrequent passage of feet. With a certain eerie feeling, I edged my +way into it, and, after following it for a hundred yards or so, found +myself close to the roofless ruin of a spacious stone house with +something of the appearance of an old English manor house. Mullioned +windows, finely masoned, opened in the shattered wall, and an elaborate +stone staircase, in the interstices of which stout shrubs were growing, +gave, or once had given, an entrance through an arched doorway--an +entrance now stoutly disputed by the glistening trunk of a gum-elemi +tree and endless matted rope-like roots of giant vines and creepers that +writhed like serpents over the whole edifice. Forcing my way up this +staircase, I found myself in a stone hall some sixty feet long, at one +end of which yawned a huge fireplace, its flue mounting up through a +finely carved chimney, still standing firmly at the top of the southern +gable. Sockets in the walls, on either side, where massive beams had +once lodged, showed that the building had been in three stories, though +all the floors had fallen in and made a mound of rubble in the centre of +the hall where I stood. + +At my entrance something moved furtively out of the fireplace, and shot +with a rustle into the surrounding woods. It looked like a small +alligator, and was indeed an iguana, one of the few reptiles of these +islands. + +At the base of a tall fig tree--flourishing in one of the corners, its +dense, wide branching top making a literal roof for the otherwise +roofless hall--an enormous ant's nest was plastered, a black excrescence +looking like burnt paper, and which crumbled like soft crisp cinder as I +poked it with the barrel of my gun, to the dismay of its myriad little +red inhabitants--the only denizens it would seem of this +once-magnificent hall. + +How had this almost baronial magnificence come to be in this far-away +corner of a desert island? At first I concluded that here was a relic of +the brief colonial prosperity of the Bahamas, when its cotton lords +lived like princes, with a slave population for retainers--days when +even the bootblacks in Nassau played pitch-and-toss with gold pieces; +but as I considered further, it seemed to me that the style of the +architecture and the age of the building suggested an earlier date. +Could it be that this had been the home of one of those early +eighteenth-century pirates who took pride in flaunting the luxury and +pomp of princes, and who had perhaps made this his headquarters and +stronghold for the storage of his loot on the return from his forays on +the Spanish Main? This, as the more spirited conjecture, I naturally +preferred, and, in default of exact information, decided to accept. + +Who knows but that in this hall where the iguana lurked and the ants +laboured at their commonwealth, the redoubtable "Blackbeard"--known in +private life as Edward Teach--had held his famous "Satanic" revels, +decked out in the absurd finery of crimson damask waistcoat and +breeches, a red feather in his hat, and a diamond cross hanging from a +gold chain at his neck? There, perhaps, glass in hand, and "doxy on his +knee," he had roared out many a blood-curdling ditty in the choice +society of ruffians only less ruffianly than himself. Perhaps, too, this +other spacious building adjacent to the great hall, and connected with +it by a ruinous covered way, had been the sybarite's "harem"; for +"Blackbeard"--like that other famous gentleman whose beard was +blue--collected from his unfortunate captive ships treasure other than +doubloons and pieces of eight, and prided himself on his fine taste in +ladies. + +The more I pondered upon this fancy, and remarked the extent of the +ruins--including several subsidiary out-houses--and noted, too, one or +two choked stone staircases that seemed to descend into the bowels of +the earth, the more plausible it seemed. In one or two places where I +suspected underground cellars--dungeons for unhappy captives belike, or +strong vaults for the storage of the treasure--I tested the floors by +dropping heavy stones, and they seemed unmistakably to reverberate with +a hollow rumbling sound; but I could find no present way of getting down +into them. As I said, the staircases that promised an entrance into them +were choked with debris. But I promised myself to come some other day, +with pick and shovel, and make an attempt at exploring them. + +Meanwhile, after poking about in as much of the ruins as I could +penetrate, I stepped out through a gap in one of the walls and found +myself again on the path by which I had entered. I noticed that it still +ran on farther north, as having a destination beyond. So leaving the +haunted ruins behind, I pushed on, and had gone but a short distance +when the path began to descend slightly from the ridge on which the +ruins stood; and there, in a broad square hollow before me, was the +welcome living green of a flourishing plantation of cocoanut palms! It +was evidently of considerable extent--a quarter of a mile or so, I +judged--and the palms were very thick and planted close together. To my +surprise, too, I observed, as at length the path brought me to them +after a sharp descent, that they were fenced in by a high bamboo +stockade, for the most part in good condition, but here and there broken +down with decay. + +Through one of these gaps I presently made my way, and found myself +among the soaring columns of the palms, hung aloft with clusters of the +great green nuts. Fallen palm fronds made a carpet for my feet--very +pleasant after the rough and tangled way I had travelled, and now and +again one of the cocoa nuts would fall down with a thud amid the green +silence. One of these, which narrowly missed my head, suggested that +here I had the opportunity of quenching very agreeably the thirst of +which I had become suddenly aware. My claspknife soon made an opening +through the tough shell, and, seated on the ground, I set my mouth to +it, and, raising the nut above my head, allowed the "milk"--cool as +spring water--to gurgle deliciously down my parched throat. When at +length I had drained it, and my head once more returned to its natural +angle, I was suddenly made aware that my poaching had not gone +unobserved. + +"Ha! ha!" called a pleasant voice, evidently belonging to a man of an +unusually tall and lean figure who was approaching me through the palm +trunks; "so you have discovered my hidden paradise--my Alcinoues garden, +so to say"; and he quoted two well-known lines of Homer in the original +Greek, adding: "or if you prefer it in Pope's translation, which I +think,--don't you?--remains the best: + + "Close to the gates a spacious garden lies, + From storms defended and inclement skies-- + +"and so on. Alas! for an old man's memory! It grows shorter and +shorter--like his life, eh? Never mind, you are welcome, sir stranger, +mysteriously tossed up here like Ulysses, on our island coast." + +I gazed with natural wonderment at this strange individual, who thus in +the heart of the wilderness had saluted me with a meticulously pure +English accent, and welcomed me in a quotation from Homer in the +original Greek. Who, in the devil's name, was this odd character who, I +saw, as I looked closer at him, was, as he had hinted, quite an old man, +though his unusual erectness and sprightliness of manner, lent him an +illusive air of youth? Who on earth was he?--and how did he happen in +the middle of this haunted wood? + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Calypso._ + + +Of course a glance, and the first sound of his voice, had told me that I +had to do with a gentleman, one of those vagabond English gentlemen in +exile who form a type peculiar, I think, to the English race; men that +are a curious combination of aristocrat and gipsy, soldier, scholar, and +philosopher; men of good family, who have drifted everywhere, seen and +seen through everything, but in all their wanderings have never lost +their sense and habit of "form," their boyish zest in living, their +humorous stoicism, and, above all, their lordly accent. + +"Now that you have found us, Sir Ulysses"--continued my eccentric host, +motioning me, with an indescribably princely wave of the hand to +accompany him--"you must certainly give us the pleasure of your company +to luncheon. Visitors are as rare as black swans on this _Ultima Thule_ +of ours--though, by the way, the black swan, _cygnus atratus,_ is +nothing like so rare as the ancients believed. I have shot them myself +out in Australia. Still they are rare enough for the purpose of +imagery, though really not so rare as a human being one can talk +intelligently to on this island." + +Talk! My friend, indeed, very evidently was a talker--one of those +fantastic monologists to whom an audience is little more than a symbol. +I saw that there was no need for me to do any of the talking. He was +more than glad to do it all. Plainly his encounter with me was to him +like a spring in a thirsty land. + +"Solitude," he continued, "is perhaps the final need of the human soul. +After a while, when we have run the gamut of all our ardours and our +dreams, solitude comes to seem the one excellent thing, the _summum +bonum._" + +I murmured that he certainly seemed to have come to the right place for +it. + +"Very true, indeed," he assented, with a courtly inclination of his +head, as though I had said something profound; "very true, indeed, and +yet, wasn't it the great Bacon who said: 'Whoever is delighted with +solitude is either a beast or a god'?--and this particular solitude, I +confess, sometimes seems to me a little too much like that enforced +solitude of the Pontic marshes of which Ovid wailed and whimpered in the +deaf ears of Augustus." + +I could not help noticing at last as he talked on with this fantastic +magnificence, the odd contrast between his speech and the almost +equally fantastic poverty of his clothing. The suit he wore, though +still preserving a certain elegance of cut, was so worn and patched and +stained that a negro would hardly have accepted it as a gift; and his +almost painful emaciation gave him generally the appearance of an +animated framework of rags and bones, startlingly embodying the voice +and the manners of a prince. Yet the shabby tie about his neck was bound +by a ring, in which was set a turquoise of great size and beauty. +Evidently he was a being of droll contrasts, and I prepared myself to be +surprised at nothing concerning him. + +Presently, as we loitered on through the palms, we came upon two negroes +chopping away with their machetes, trimming up the debris of broken and +decaying palm fans. They were both sturdy, ferocious-looking fellows, +but one of them was a veritable giant. + +"Behold my bodyguard!" said my magnificent friend, with the usual +possessive wave of his hand; "my Switzers, my Janissaries, so to say." + +The negroes stopped working, touched their great straw hats, and flashed +their splendid teeth in a delighted smile. Evidently they were used to +their master's way of talking, and were devoted to him. + +"This chap here is Erebus," said my host, and the appropriateness of the +name was apparent, for he was certainly the blackest negro I had ever +seen, as superbly black as some women are superbly white. + +"And this is Samson. Let's have a look at your muscles, Samson--there's +a good boy!" + +And, with grins of pleasure, Samson proudly stripped off his thin calico +jacket and exposed a torso of terrifying power, but beautiful in its +play of muscles as that of a god. + + "But since my name is Hercules, the man + Who owes me hatred hides it if he can, + +"eh, Samson?" was his master's characteristic comment. + +"Yaas, sar!" said Samson, as pleased as a flattered bulldog, and +understanding the compliment precisely in the same instinctive fashion. + +Leaving Samson and Erebus to continue their savage play with their +machetes, we walked on through the palms, which here gave a particularly +jungle-like appearance to the scene, from the fact of their being bowed +out from their roots, and sweeping upward in great curves. One +involuntarily looked for a man-eating tiger at any moment, standing +striped and splendid in one of the openings. + +Then suddenly to the right, there came a flash of level green, +suggesting lawns, and the outlines of a house, partly covered with +brilliant purple flowers--a marvellous splash of colour. + +"_Bougainvillea! Bougainvillea spectabilis_--of course, you know it. Was +there ever such a purple? Not Solomon in all his glory, _et cetera._ And +here we are at the house of King Alcinoues--a humble version of it +indeed." + +It was evidently quite impossible for my friend to speak otherwise than +in images, picturesque scraps from the coloured rag-bag of a mind stored +with memories of the classics, all manner of romantic literature, and +tags of Greek and Latin which he mouthed with the relish of an epicure. + +It was a large rambling stucco house, somewhat decayed looking, and +evidently built on the ruins of an older building. We came upon it at a +broad Italian-looking loggia, supported by stone pillars bowered in with +vines--very cool and pleasant--with mossy slabs for its floor, here and +there tropical ferns set out in tubs, some wicker chairs standing about, +and a table at one side on which two little barelegged negro girls were +busy setting out yellow fruit, and other appurtenances of luncheon, on a +dazzling white cloth. + +"Has your mistress returned yet, my children?" asked the master. + +"No, sar," said the older girl, with a giggle, twisting and grimacing +with embarrassment. + +"My daughter," explained my host, "has gone to the town on an errand. +She will be back at any moment. Meanwhile, I shall introduce you to a +cooling drink of my own manufacture, with a basis of that cocoanut milk +which I need not ask you whether you appreciate, recalling the pleasant +circumstance of our first acquaintance." + +Motioning me to a seat, and pushing toward me a box of cigarettes, he +went indoors, leaving me to take in the stretch of beautiful garden in +front of me, the trees of which seemed literally to be hung with +gold--for they were mainly of orange and grapefruit ranged round a +spacious beautifully-kept lawn with the regularity of sumptuous +decoration. In the middle of the lawn, a little rock foundation threw up +a jet of silver, falling with a tinkling murmur into a broad circular +basin from which emerged the broad leaves and splendid pink blossoms of +an Egyptian lotus. Certainly it was no far-fetched allusion of my +classical friend to speak of the garden of Alcinoues; particularly +connected as it was in my mind with the white beach of a desert isle, +and that marble statue in the moonlight. + +As I sat dreaming, bathed in the golden-green light of the orange +trees, and lulled by the tinkling of the fountain, my host returned with +our drinks, his learned disquisition on which I will spare the reader, +highly interesting and characteristic though it was. + +Suffice it that it was a drink, whatever its ingredients--and there was +certainly somewhere a powerful "stick" in it--that seemed to have been +drawn from some cool grotto of the virgin earth, so thrillingly cold and +invigorating it was. + +While we were slowly sipping it, and smoking our cigarettes, in an +unwonted pause of my friend's fanciful verbosity, I almost jumped in my +chair at the sound of a voice indoors. It was instantly followed by a +light and rapid tread, and the sound of a woman's dress. Then a tall +beautiful young woman emerged on the loggia. + +"Ah! there you are!" cried my host, as we both rose; and then turning to +me, "this is my daughter--Calypso. Her real name I assure you--none of +my nonsense--doesn't she look it? Allow me, my dear, to introduce--Mr. +Ulysses!"--for we had not yet exchanged each other's names.... + +I am a wretched actor, and I am bound to say that she proved herself no +better. For she gave a decided start as she turned those glowing eyes on +me, and the lovely olive of her cheeks glowed as with submerged +rose-colour. Our embarrassment did not escape the father. + +"Why you know each other already!" he exclaimed, with natural surprise. + +"Not exactly,"--I was grateful for the sudden nerve with which I was +able to hasten to the relief of her lovely distress--"but possibly +Miss--Calypso recalls as naturally as I do, our momentary meeting in +Sweeney's store, one evening. I had no expectation, of course, that we +should meet again under such pleasant circumstances as this." + +She gave me a grateful look as she took my hand, and with it--or was it +only my eager imagination?--a shy little pressure, again as of +gratitude. + +I had tried to get into my voice my assurance that, of course, I +remembered no other more recent meeting--though, naturally, as she had +given that little start in the doorway, there had flashed on me again +the picture of her standing, moonlit, in another resounding doorway, and +of the wild start she had given then, as the golden pieces streamed from +her lovely surprised mouth, and her lifted hands. And her eyes--I could +have sworn--were the living eyes of Jack Harkaway! Had she a brother, I +wondered. Yet my mind was too dazzled and confused with her nearness to +pursue the speculation. + +As we sat down to luncheon, waited upon by the little barelegged black +children--waited on, too, surprisingly well, despite the contortions of +their primitive embarrassment--my host once more resumed his character +of the classic king welcoming the storm-tossed stranger to his board. + +"Far wanderer," he said, raising his glass to me, "eat of what our board +affords, welcome without question of name and nation. But if, when the +food and wine have done their genial office, and the weariness of your +journeying has fallen from you, you should feel stirred to tell us +somewhat of yourself and your wanderings, what manner of men call you +kinsman, in what fair land is your home and the place of your loved +ones, be sure that we shall count the tale good hearing, and, for our +part, make exchange in like fashion of ourselves and the passage of our +days in this lonely isle." + +We all laughed as he ended--himself with a whinny of laughter. For, odd +as such discourse may sound in the reading, it was uttered so +whimsically, and in so spirited and humorous a style that I assure you +it was very captivating. + +"You should have been an actor, my lord Alcinoues," I said, laughing. I +seemed already curiously at home, seated there at that table with this +fantastic stranger and that being out of fairyland, toward whom I dared +only turn my eyes now and again by stealth. The strange fellow had such +a way with him, and his talk made you feel that he had known you all +your life. + +"Ah! I have had my dreams. I have had my dreams!" he answered, his eyes +gazing with a momentary wistfulness across the orange trees. + +Then we talked at random, as friendly strangers talk over luncheon, +though we were glad enough that he should do all the talking--wonderful, +iridescent, madcap talk, such as a man here and there in ten thousand, +gifted with perhaps the most attractive of all human gifts, has at his +command. + +And, every now and again, my eyes, falling on the paradoxical squalor of +his clothing, would remind me of the enigma of this courtly vagabond; +though--need I say it?--my eyes and my heart had other business than +with him, throughout that wonderful meal, enfolded as I felt myself once +more in that golden cloud of magnetic vitality, which had at first swept +over me, as with a breath of perfumed fire, among the salt pork and the +tinware of Sweeney's store. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Doubloons._ + + +Luncheon over, the Lady Calypso, with a stately inclination of her +lovely head, left us to our wine and our cigars. For, as I realised, we +were very much in England, in spite of all the orange trees and the +palms, the England of two or three generations ago, and but seldom +nowadays to be found in England itself. + +The time had come, after the Homeric formula which my host had +whimsically applied to the situation, for the far-travelled guest to +declare himself, and I saw in my host's eye a courteous invitation to +begin. While his fantastic tongue had gone a-wagging from China to Peru, +I had been pondering what account to give of myself, and I had decided, +for various reasons--of which the Lady Calypso was, of course, first, +but the open-hearted charm of her father a close second--to tell him the +whole of my story. Whatever his and her particular secret was, it was +evident to me that it was an innocent and honourable one; and, besides, +I may have had a notion that before long I was to have a family interest +in it. So I began--starting in with a little prelude in the manner of +my host, just to enter into the spirit of the game: + +"My Lord Alcinoues; your guest, the far wanderer, having partaken of your +golden hospitality, is now fain to open his heart to you, and tell you +of himself and his race, his home and his loved ones across the +wine-dark sea, and such of his adventures as may give pleasure to your +ears" ... though, having no talents in that direction, I was glad enough +to abandon my lame attempt at his Homeric style for a plain +straightforward narrative of the events of the past three months. + +I had not, however, proceeded very far, when, with a courteous raising +of his hand, King Alcinoues suggested a pause. + +"If you would not mind," he said, "I would like my daughter to hear this +too, for it is of the very stuff of romantic adventure in which she +delights. She is a brave girl, and, as I often tell her, would have made +a very spirited dare-devil boy, if she hadn't happened to be born a +girl." + +This phrase seemed to flash a light upon the questionings that had +stirred at the back of my mind since I had first heard that voice in +Sweeney's store. + +"By the way, dear King," I said, assuming a casual manner, "do you +happen to have a son?" + +"No!" he answered, "Calypso is my only child." + +"Very strange!" I said, "we met a whimsical lad in our travels whom I +would have sworn was her brother." + +"That's odd!" said the "King" imperturbably, "but no! I have no son"; +and he seemed to say it with a certain sadness. + +Then Calypso came in to join my audience, having, meanwhile, taken the +opportunity of twining a scarlet hibiscus among her luxuriant dark +curls. I should certainly have told the story better without her, yet I +was glad--how glad!--to have her seated there, an attentive presence in +a simple gown, white as the seafoam--from which, there was no further +doubt in my mind, she had magically sprung. + +I gave them the whole story, much as I had told it in John Saunders's +snuggery--John P. Tobias, Jr.; dear old Tom and his sucking fish, his +ghosts, sharks, skeletons, and all; and when I had finished, I found +that the interest of my story was once more chiefly centred in my +pock-marked friend of "The wonderful works of God." + +"I should like to meet your pock-marked friend," said King Alcinoues, +"and I have a notion that, with you as a bait, I shall not long be +denied the pleasure." + +"I am inclined to think that I have seen him already," said Calypso, +using her honey-golden voice for the base purpose of mentioning him. + +"Impossible!" I cried, "he is long since safe in Nassau gaol." + +"O! not lately," she answered to our interrogative surprise, and giving +a swift embarrassed look at her father, which I at once connected with +the secret of the doubloons. + +"Seriously, Calypso?" asked her father, with a certain stern affection, +as thinking of her safety. "On one of your errands to town?" + +And then, turning to me, he said: + +"Sir Ulysses, you have spoken well, and your speech has been that free, +open-hearted speech that wins its way alike among the Hyperboreans that +dwell in frozen twilight near the northern star, and those dwarfed and +swarthy intelligences that blacken in the fierce sunlight of that +fearful axle we call the equator. Therefore, I will make return to you +of speech no less frank and true ..." + +He took a puff at his cigar, and then continued: + +"I should not risk this confession, but that it is easy to see that you +belong to the race of Eternal Children, to which, you may have realised, +my daughter and I also belong. This adventure of yours after buried +treasure has not seriously been for the doubloons and pieces of eight, +the million dollars, and the million and a half dollars themselves, but +for the fun of going after them, sailing the unknown seas, coral +islands, and all that sort of blessed moonshine. Well, Calypso and I are +just like that, and I am going to tell you something exciting--we too +have our buried treasure. It is nothing like so magnificent in amount as +yours, or your Henry P. Tobias's--and where it is at this particular +moment I know as little as yourself. In fact it is Calypso's secret...." + +I looked across at Calypso, but her eyes were far beyond capture, in +un-plummeted seas. + +"I will show you presently where I found it, among the rocks near +by--now a haunt of wild bees. + +"Can you ever forget that passage in the Georgics? It makes the honey +taste sweeter to me every time I taste it. We must have some of it for +dinner, by the way, Calypso." + +I could not help laughing, and so, for a moment, breaking up the story. +The dear fellow! Was there any business of human importance from which +he could not be diverted by a quotation from Homer or Virgil or +Shakespeare? But he was soon in the saddle again. + +"Well," he resumed, "one day, some seven years ago, in a little cave +below the orange trees, grubbing about as I am fond of doing, I came +upon a beautiful old box of beaten copper, sunk deep among the roots of +a fig tree. It was strong, but it seemed too dainty for a pirate--some +great lady's jewel box more likely--Calypso shall show it to us +presently. On opening it--what do you think? It spilled over with golden +doubloons--among which were submerged some fine jewels, such as this tie +ring you see me wearing. Actually, it was no great treasure, at a +monetary calculation--certainly no fortune--but from our romantic point +of view, as belonging to the race of Eternal Children, it was El Dorado, +Aladdin's lamp, the mines of Peru, the whole sunken Spanish Main, +glimmering fifty fathoms deep in mother-of-pearl and the moon. It was +the very Secret Rose of Romance; and, also, mark you, it was some +money--O! perhaps, all told, it might be some five thousand guineas, +or--what would you say?--twenty-five odd thousand dollars; Calypso knows +better than I, and she, as I said, alone knows where it is now hid, and +how much of it now remains." + +He paused to relight his cigar, while Calypso and I--Well, he began +again: + +"Now my daughter and I," and he paused to look at her fondly, "though +of the race of Eternal Children, are not without some of the innocent +wisdom which Holy Writ countenances as the self-protection of the +innocent--Calypso, I may say, is particularly endowed with this quality, +needing it as she does especially for the guardianship for her foolish +talkative old father, who, by the way, is almost at the end of his tale. +So, when this old chest flashed its bewildering dazzle upon us, we, +being poor folk, were not more dazzled than afraid. For--like the poor +man in the fable--such good fortune was all too likely to be our +undoing, should it come to the ears of the great, or the indigent +criminal. The 'great' in our thought was, I am ashamed to say, the +sacred British Treasury, by an ancient law of which, forty per cent. of +all 'treasure-trove' belongs to His Majesty the King. The 'indigent +criminal' was represented by--well, our coloured (and not so very much +coloured) neighbours. Of course, we ought to have sent the whole +treasure to your friend, John Saunders, of His Britannic Majesty's +Government at Nassau, but--Well, we didn't. Some day, perhaps, you +will put in a word for us with him, as you drink his old port, in the +snuggery. Meanwhile, we had an idea, Calypso and I--" + +He paused--for Calypso had involuntarily made a gesture, as though +pleading to be spared the whole revelation--and then with a smile, +continued: + +"We determined to hide away our little hoard where it would be safe from +our neighbours, and dispose of it according to our needs with a certain +tradesman in the town whom we thought we could trust--a tradesman, who, +by the way, quite naturally levies a little tax upon us for his +security. No blame to him! I have lived far too long to be hard on human +nature." + +"John Sweeney?" I asked, looking over at Calypso, with eyes that dared +at last to smile. + +"The very same, my Lord Ulysses," answered my friend. + +And so I came to understand that Mr. Sweeney's reluctance in selling me +that doubloon was not so sinister as it had, at the moment, appeared; +that it had in fact come of a loyalty which was already for me the most +precious of all loyalties. + +"Then," said I, "as a fitting conclusion to the confidence you have +reposed in me, my Lord Alcinoues; if Miss Calypso would have the kindness +to let us have a sight of that chest of beaten copper of which you +spoke, I would like to restore this, that was once a part of its +contents, wherever the rest of them" (and I confess that I paused a +moment) "may be in hiding." + +And I took from my pocket the sacred doubloon that I had bought from +John Sweeney--may Heaven have mercy upon his soul!--for sixteen dollars +and seventy-five cents, on that immortal evening. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_In Which the "King" Dreams a Dream--and Tells Us About It._ + + +The afternoon, under the spell of its various magic, had been passing +all too swiftly, and at length I grew reluctantly aware that it was time +for me to be returning once more to the solid, not to say squalid, +earth; but, as I made a beginning of my farewell address, King Alcinoues +raised his hand with a gesture that could not be denied. It was not to +be heard of, he said. I must be their guest till to-morrow, sans +argument. To begin with, for all the golden light still in the garden, +with that silver wand of the fountain laid upon the stillness like a +charm, it was already night among the palms, he said, and blacker than +our friend Erebus in the woods--and there was no moon. + +"No moon?" I said, and, though the remark was meaningless, one might +have thought, from Calypso's face--in which rose colour fought with a +suggestion of submerged laughter--that it had a meaning. + +If I had found it difficult going at high noon, he continued, with an +immense sunlight overhead, how was I going to find it with the sun gone +head-long into the sea, as was about to happen in a few moments. When +the light that is in thee has become darkness, how great is that +darkness! _Si ergo lumen quod in te est tenebrae sunt, ipsae tenebrae +quantae erunt!_ And he settled it, as he settled everything, with a +whimsical quotation. + +He had not yet, he said, shown me that haunt of the wild bees, where the +golden honey now took the place of that treasure of golden money; and +there were also other curiosities of the place he desired to show me. +And that led me--his invitation being accepted without further +parley--to mention the idea I had conceived as I came along, of +exploring those curious old ruined buildings. Need I say that the mere +suggestion was enough to set him aflame? I might have known that here, +of all men, was my man for such an enterprise. He had meant to do it +himself for how many years--but age, with stealing step, _et cetera._ + +However, with youth--so he was pleased to flatter me--to lend him the +sap of energy, why who knows? And in a moment he had us both akindle +with his imaginations of what might--"might"! what a word to use!--no! +what, without question, _must_ lie unsunned in those dark underground +vaults, barricaded with all that deviltry of vegetation, and guarded by +the coils of a three-headed dragon with carbuncles for eyes--eyes that +never slept--for the advantage of three heads to treasure-guarding +dragons, he explained, was that they divided the twenty-four hours into +watches of eight hours each as the ugly beast kept ward over that heap +of gold--bars of it, drifts of it, banks of it minted into gleaming +coins--doubloons, doubloons, doubloons--so that the darkness was bright +as day with the shine of it, or as the bottom of the sea, where a +Spanish galleon lies sunk among the corals and the gliding water snakes. + +"O King!" I laughed, "but indeed you have the heart of a child!" + +"To-morrow," he announced, "to-morrow we shall begin--there is not a +moment to lose. We will send Samson with a message to your +captain--there is no need for you to go yourself; time is too +precious--and in a week, who knows but that Monte Cristo shall seem like +a pauper and a penny gaff in comparison with the fantasies of our +fearful wealth. Even Calypso's secret hoard will pale before the romance +of our subterranean millions--I mean billions--and poor Henry Tobias +will need neither hangman's rope nor your friend Webster's cartridges +for his quietus. At the mere rumour of our fortune, he will suddenly +turn a green so violent that death will be instantaneous." + +So, for that evening, all was laughingly decided. In a week's time, it +was agreed, we should have difficulty in recognising each other. We +should be so disguised in cloth of gold, and so blinding to look upon +with rings and ropes of pearls. As our dear "King" got off something like +this for our good-night, my eyes involuntarily fell upon his present +garments--far from being cloth of gold. Why? I wondered. There was no +real financial reason, it was evident, for these penitential rags. But I +remembered that I had known two other millionaires--millionaires not +merely of the imagination--whom it had been impossible to separate from a +certain beloved old coat that had been their familiar for more than +twenty years. It was some odd kink somewhere in the make-up of the +"King," one more trait of his engaging humanity. + +When we met at breakfast next morning, glad to see one another again as +few people are at breakfast, it was evident that, so far as the "King" +was concerned, our dream had lost nothing in the night watches. On the +contrary, its wings had grown to an amazing span and iridescence. It +was so impatient for flight, that its feet had to be chained to the +ground--the wise Calypso's doing--with a little plain prose, a detail or +two of preliminary arrangement, and then.... + +Calypso, it transpired, had certain household matters--of which the +"King" of course, was ever divinely oblivious--that would take her on an +errand into the town. Those disposed of, we two eternal children were at +liberty to be as foolish as we pleased. The "King" bowed his uncrowned +head, as kings, from time immemorial have bowed their diadems before the +quiet command of the domesticities; and it was arranged that I should be +Calypso's escort on her errand. + +So we set forth in the freshness of the morning, and the woods that had +been so black and bewildering at my coming opened before us in easy +paths, and all that tropical squalor that had been foul with sweat and +insects seemed strangely vernal to me, so that I could hardly believe +that I had trodden that way before. And for our companion all the way +along--or, at least, for my other companion--was the Wonder of the +World, the beautiful strangeness of living, and that marvel of a man's +days upon the earth which lies in not knowing what a day shall bring +forth, if only we have a little patience with Time--Time, with those +gold keys at his girdle, ready, at any turn of the way, to unlock the +hidden treasure that is to be the meaning of our lives. + +How should I try to express what it was to walk by her side, knowing all +that we both knew?--knowing, or giddily believing that I knew, how her +heart, with every breath she took, vibrated like a living flower, with +waves of colour, changing from moment to moment like a happy trembling +dawn. To know--yet not to say! Yes! we were both at that divine moment +which hangs like a dew-drop in the morning sun--ah! all too ready to +fall. O! keep it poised, in that miraculous balance, 'twixt Time and +Eternity--for this crystal made of light and dew is the meaning of the +life of man and woman upon the earth. + +As we came to the borders of the wood, near the edge of the little town, +we called a counsel of two. As the outcome of it, we concluded that, +having in mind the "King's" ambitious plans for our cloth-of-gold +future, and for other obvious reasons, it was better that she went into +the town alone--I to await her in the shadow of the mahogany tree. + +As she turned to leave me, she drew up from her bosom a little bag that +hung by a silver chain, and, opening it, drew out, with a laugh--a +golden doubloon! + +I sprang toward her; but she was too quick for me, and laughingly +vanished through an opening in the trees. I was not to kiss her that +day. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_News!_ + + +Calypso was so long coming back that I began to grow anxious--was, +indeed, on the point of going into the town in search of her; when she +suddenly appeared, rather out of breath, and evidently a little +excited--as though, in fact, she had been running away from something. +She caught me by the arm, with a laugh: + +"Do you want to see your friend Tobias?" she said. + +"Tobias! Impossible!" + +"Come here," and she led me a yard or two back the way she had come, and +then cautiously looked through the trees. + +"Gone!" she said, "but he was there a minute or two ago--or at least +some one that is his photograph--and, of course, he's there yet, hidden +in the brush, and probably got his eyes on us all the time. Did you see +that seven-year apple tree move?" + +"His favourite tree," I laughed. + +"Hardly strong enough to hang him on though." And I realised that she +was King Alcinoues's daughter. + +We crouched lower for a moment or two, but the seven-year apple tree +didn't move again, and we agreed that there was no use in waiting for +Tobias to show his hand. + +"He is too good a poker-player," I said. + +"Like his skeletons, eh?" she said. + +"But what made you think it was Tobias?" I asked, "and how did it all +happen?" + +"I could hardly fail to recognise him from your flattering description," +she answered, "and indeed it all happened rather like another experience +of mine. I had gone into Sweeney's store--you remember?--and was just +paying my bill." + +"In the usual coinage?" I ventured. She gave me a long, whimsical +smile--once more her father's daughter. + +"That, I'm afraid, was the trouble," she answered; "for, as I laid my +money down on the counter, I suddenly noticed that there was a person at +the back of the store ..." + +"A person?" I interrupted. + +"Yes! suppose we say 'a pock-marked person'; was it you?" + +"What a memory you have for details," I parried, "and then?" + +"Well! I took my change and managed to whisper a word to Sweeney--a good +friend, remember--and came out. I took a short cut back, but the +'person' that had stood in the back of the store seemed to know the way +almost better than I--so well that he had got ahead of me. He was +walking quietly this way, and so slowly that I had at last to overtake +him. He said nothing, just watched me, as if interested in the way I was +going--but, I'm ashamed to say, he rather frightened me! And here I am." + +"Do you really think he saw the--doubloon--like that other 'person'?" I +asked. + +"There's no doubt of it." + +"Well, then," I said, "let's hurry home, and talk it over with the +'King.'" + +The "King," as I had realised, was a practical "romantic" and at once +took the matter seriously, leaving--as might have surprised some of +those who had only heard him talk--his conversational fantasies on the +theme to come later. + +Calypso, however, had the first word. + +"I always told you, Dad," she said;--and the word "Dad" on the lips of +that big statuesque girl--who always seemed ready to take that inspired +framework of rags and bones and talking music into her protecting +arms--seemed the quaintest of paradoxes--, "I always told you, Dad, what +would happen, with your fairy-tales of the doubloons." + +"Quite true, my dear," he answered, "but isn't a fairy-tale worth paying +for?--worth a little trouble? And remember, if you will allow me, two +things about fairy-tales: there must always be some evil fairy in them, +some dragon or such like; and there is always--a happy ending. Now the +dragon enters at last--in the form of Tobias; and we should be happy on +that very account. It shows that the race of dragons is not, as I +feared, extinct. And as for the happy ending, we will arrange it, after +lunch--for which, by the way, you are somewhat late." + +After lunch, the "King" resumed, but in a brief and entirely practical +vein: + +"We are about to be besieged," he said. "The woods, probably, are +already thick with spies. For the moment, we must suspend operations on +our Golconda"--his name for the ruins that we were to excavate--"and, as +our present purpose--yours no less than ours, friend Ulysses--is to +confuse Tobias, my suggestion is this: That you walk with me a mile or +two to the nor'ard. There is an entertaining mangrove swamp I should +like to show you, and also, you can give me your opinion of an idea of +mine that you will understand all the better when I have taken you over +the ground." + +So we walked beyond the pines, down onto a long interminable flat land +of marl marshes and mangrove trees--so like that in which Charlie +Webster had shot the snake and the wild duck--that only Charlie could +have seen any difference. + +"Now," said the "King," "do you see a sort of river there, overgrown +with mangroves and palmettos?" + +"Yes," I answered, "almost--though it's so choked up it's almost +impossible to say." + +"Well," said the "King," "that's the idea; you haven't forgotten those +old ruins we are going to explore. You remember how choked up they are. +Well, this was the covered water-way, the secret creek, by which the +pirates--John Teach, or whoever it was, perhaps John P. Tobias +himself--used to land their loot. It's so overgrown nowadays that no one +can find the entrance but myself and a friend or two; do you +understand?" + +We walked a little farther, and then at length came to the bank of the +creek the "King" had indicated. This we followed for half a mile or so, +till we met the fresh murmur of the sea. + +"We needn't go any farther," said the "King." "It's the same all the way +along to the mouth--all over-grown as you see, all the way, right out to +the 'white water' as they call it--which is four miles of shoal sand +that is seldom deeper than two fathoms, and which a nor'easter is +liable to blow dry for a week on end. Naturally it's a hard place to +find, and a hard place to get off!--and only two or three persons +besides Sweeney--all of them our friends--know the way in. Tobias may +know of it; but to know it is one thing, to find it is another matter. I +could hardly be sure of it myself--if I were standing in from the sea, +with nothing but the long palmetto-fringed coast-line to go by. + +"Now, you see it? I brought you here, because words--" + +"Even yours, dear 'King,'" I laughed. + +"--could not explain what I suggest for us to do. You are interested +in Tobias. Tobias is interested in you. I am interested in you both. And +Calypso and I have a treasure to guard." + +"I have still a treasure to seek," I said, half to myself. + +"Good enough," said the "King." "Now, to be practical. We can assume +that Tobias is on the watch. I don't mean that he's around here just +now, for, before we left, I spoke to Samson and Erebus and they will +pass the word to four men blacker than themselves; therefore we can +assume that this square mile or so is for the moment 'to ourselves.' But +beyond our fence you may rely that Tobias and his myrmidons--is that +the word?" he asked with a concession to his natural foolishness--"are +there." + +"So," he went on, "I want you to go down to your boat to-morrow morning +to say good-bye to the commandant, the parson, and the postmaster; to +haul up your sail and head for Nassau. Call in on Sweeney on the way, +buy an extra box of cartridges, and say '_Dieu et mon Droit_'--it is our +password; he will understand, but, if he shouldn't, explain, in your own +way, that you come from me, and that we rely upon him to look out for +our interest. Then head straight for Nassau; but, about eight o'clock, +or anywhere around twilight, turn about and head--well, we'll map it out +on the chart at home--anywhere up to eight miles along the coast, till +you come to a light, low down right on the edge of the water. As soon as +you see it, drop anchor; then wait till morning--the very beginning of +dawn. As soon as you can see land, look out for Samson--within a hundred +yards of you--all the land will look alike to you. Only make the Captain +head straight for Samson, and just as you think you are going to run +ashore--Well, you will see!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Old Friends._ + + +Next morning I did as the "King" had told me to do. The whole programme +was carried out just as he had planned it. I made my good-byes in the +settlement, as we had arranged, not forgetting to say "_Dieu et mon +Droit_" to Sweeney, and watching with some humorous intent how he would +take it. He took it quietly, as a man in a signal box takes a signal, +with about as much emotion, and with just the same necessary +seriousness. But I suppose he felt that the circumstances justified a +slight heightening of his usual indifference to all mortal things. + +"Tell the boss," he said--of course he meant the "King"--"that we are +looking after him. Nothing'll slip through here, if we can help it. Good +luck!" + +So I went down to the boat--to old Tom once more, and the rest of our +little crew, who had long since exhausted the attractions of their life +ashore, and were glad, as I was, to "H'ist up the _John B._ Sail." We +sang that classic chanty, as we went out with all our canvas spread to +a lively northeast breeze--and I realised once more how good the sea was +for all manner of men, whatever their colour, for we all livened up and +shook off our land-laziness again, spry and laughing, and as keen as the +jib stretching out like a gull's wing into the rush and spray of the +sea. + +Down in my cabin, I looked over some mail that had been waiting for me +at the post-office. Amongst it was a crisp, characteristic word from +Charlie Webster--for whom the gun will ever be mightier than the pen: + +"_Tobias escaped--just heard he is on your island--watch out. Will +follow in a day or two._" + +I came out on deck about sunset. We were running along with all our +sails drawing like a dream. I looked back at the captain, proud and +quiet and happy there at the helm, and nodded a smile to him, which he +returned with a flash of his teeth. He loved his boat; he asked nothing +better than to watch her behaving just as she was doing. And the other +boys seemed quiet and happy too, lying along the sides of the house, +ready for the captain's order, but meanwhile content to look up at the +great sails, and down again at the sea. + +We were a ship and a ship's crew all at peace with one another, and +contented with ourselves--rushing and singing and spraying through the +water. We were all friends--sea, and sails, and crew together. I +couldn't help thinking that a mutiny would be hard to arrange under such +a combination of influences. + +Tom was sitting forward, plaiting a rope. For all our experiences +together, he never implied that he was anything more than the ship's +cook, with the privilege of waiting upon me in the cabin at my meals. +But, of course, he knew that I had quite another valuation of him, and, +as our eyes met, I beckoned to him to draw closer to me. + +"Tom," I said, "I have found my treasure." + +"You don't say so, sar." + +"Yes! Tom, and I rely upon you to help me to guard it. There are no +ghosts, this time, Tom," I added--as he said nothing, but waited for me +to go on--"and no need of our sucking fish...." + +"Are you sure, sar?" he asked, adding: "You can never be sure about +ghosts--they are always around somewhere. And a sucking fish is liable +at any moment to be useful." + +I opened my shirt in answer. + +"There it is still, Tom; I agree with you. We won't take any unnecessary +chances." + +This comforted the old man more than any one could have imagined. + +"It's all right then, sar?" he said. "It will come out all right now, +I'm sure--though, as I wanted to say"--and he hesitated--"I had hoped +that you had forgotten those treasures that--" + +"Go on, Tom." + +"That moth and rust do corrupt." + +"I know, dear old Tom, but neither moth nor rust can ever corrupt the +treasure I meant--the treasure I have already found." + +"You have found the treasure, sar?" asked Tom, in natural bewilderment. + +"Yes, Tom, and I am going to show it to you--to-morrow." + +The old man waited, as a mortal might wait till it pleased his god to +speak a little more clearly. + +"Quite true, Tom," I continued; "you shall see my treasure to-morrow; +meanwhile, read this note." Tom was so much to me that I wanted him to +know all about the details of the enterprise we shared together, and in +which he risked his life no less than I risked mine. + +Tom took out his spectacles from some recess of his trousers, and +applied himself to Charlie Webster's note, as though it had been the +Bible. He read it as slowly indeed as if it had been Sanscrit, and then +folded it and handed it back to me without a word. But there was quite a +young smile in his old eyes. + +"'The wonderful works of God,'" he said presently. "I guess, sar, we +shall soon be able to ask him what he meant by that expression." + +Then, as sunlight had almost gone, and the stars were trying to come out +overhead, and the boys were stringing out our lanterns, I surprised our +captain by telling him that I had changed my mind, and that I didn't +want to make Nassau that night, but wanted to head back again, but a +point or so to the south'ard. He demurred a little, because, as he said, +he was not quite sure of his course. We ought to have had a pilot, and +the shoals--so much he knew--were bad that way, all "white water," +particularly in a northeast wind. This only confirmed what the "King" +had said. So, admitting that I knew all the captain said, I ordered him +to do as I told him. + +So we ruffled it along, making two or three "legs"--I sitting abaft the +jib boom, with my back against the mainmast, watching out for Samson and +his light. + +Soon the long dark shore loomed ahead of us. I had reckoned it out about +right. But the Captain announced that we were in shoal water. + +"How many feet?" I asked, and a boy threw out the lead. + +"Sixteen and a half," he said. + +"Go ahead," I called out. + +"Do you want to go aground?" asked the Captain. + +For answer, I pushed him aside and took the wheel. I had caught the +smallest glimmer, like a night-light, floating on the water. + +"Drop the anchor," I called. + +The light in shore was clear and near at hand, about one hundred yards +away, and there was the big murmur and commotion of the long breakers +over the dancing shoals. We rolled a good deal, and the Captain moodily +took my suggestion of throwing out three anchors and cradling them; +though, as he said, with the way the northeast was blowing, we should +soon be on dry land. It was true enough. The tide was running out very +fast, and the white sand coming ever nearer to our eyes in the +moonlight; and Samson's light, there, was keeping white and steady. With +the thought of my treasure and the "King" so near by, it was hard to +resist the temptation to plunge in and follow my heart ashore. But I +managed to control the boyish impulse, and presently we were all snug, +and some of us snoring, below decks, rocked in the long swells of the +shoal water that gleamed milkily like an animated moonstone under the +stars--old Sailor curled up at my feet, just like old times. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_The Hidden Creek._ + + +I woke just as dawn was waking too, very still and windless; for the +threatening nor'easter had changed its mind, and the world was as quiet +as though there weren't a human being in it. Near by, stretched the long +low coast-line, nothing but level brush, with an occasional thatch-palm +lifting up a shock-head against the quickening sky. Out to sea, the +level plains of lucent water spread like a vast floor, immensely +vacant--not a sail or even a wing to mar the perfect void. + +As the light grew, I scanned the shore to see whether I could detect the +entrance of the hidden creek; but, though I swept it up and down again +and again, it continued to justify the "King's" boast. There was no sign +of an opening anywhere. Nothing but a straight line of brush, with +mangroves here and there stepping down in their fantastic way into the +water. And yet we were but a hundred yards from the shore. Certainly +"Blackbeard"--if the haunt had really been his--had known his business; +for an enemy could have sought him all day along this coast and found +no clue to his hiding-place. + +But, presently, as my eyes kept on seeking, a figure rose, tall and +black near the water's edge, a little to our left, and shot up a long +arm by way of signal. It was Samson; and evidently the mouth of the +creek was right there in front of us--under our very noses, so to +say--and yet it was impossible to make it out. However, at this signal, +I stirred up the still-sleeping crew, and presently we had the anchors +up, and the engine started at the slowest possible speed. + +The tide was beginning to run in, so we needed very little way on us. I +pointed out Samson to the captain, and, following the "King's" +instructions, told him to steer straight for the negro. He grumbled not +a little. Of course, if I wanted to run aground, it was none of his +affair--etc., etc. Then I stationed the sturdiest of the two deck-hands +on the port bow with a long oar, while I took the starboard with +another. Very slowly and cautiously we made in, pointing straight for a +thick growth of mangrove bushes. Samson stood there and called: + +"All right, sar. Keep straight on. You'll see your way in a minute." + +And, sure enough, when we were barely fifty feet away from the shore, +and there seemed nothing for it but to run dead aground, low down +through the floating mangrove branches we caught sight of a narrow gleam +starting inland, and in another moment or two our decks were swept with +foliage as the _Flamingo_ rustled in, like a bird to cover, through an +opening in the bushes barely twice her beam; and there before us, +snaking through the brush, was a lane of water which immediately began +to broaden between palmetto-fringed banks, and was evidently deep enough +for a much larger vessel. + +"Plenty of water, sar," hallooed Samson from the bank, grinning a huge +welcome. "Keep a-going after me," and he started trotting along the +creek-side. + +As we pushed into the glassy channel, I standing at the bow, my eyes +were arrested by a tremendous flashing commotion in the water to the +right and left of us--like the fierce zigzagging of steel blades, or the +ferocious play of submerged lightning. It was a select company of +houndfish and sharks that we had disturbed, lying hellishly in wait +there for the prey of the incoming tide. It was a curiously sinister +sight, as though one had come upon a nest of water-devils in council, +and the fancy jumped into my mind that here were the spirits of Teach +and his crew once more evilly embodied and condemned to haunt for ever +this gloomy scene of their crimes. + +Samson went trotting along the twisting banks, we cautiously feeling our +way after him, for something like a quarter of a mile; and then, coming +round a sudden bend, the creek opened out into a sort of basin. On the +left bank stood two large palmetto shanties. Samson indicated that there +was our anchorage; and then, as we were almost alongside of them, the +cheery halloos of a well-known voice hailed us. It was the "King"; and, +as I answered his welcome, the morning suddenly sang for me--for there +too was Calypso, at his side. + +The water ran so deep at the creek's side that we were able to moor the +_Flamingo_ right up against the bank, and, when I had jumped ashore and +greeted my friends, and the "King" had executed a brief characteristic +fantasia on the manifest advantages of having a hidden pirate's creek in +the family, he unfolded his plans, or rather that portion of them that +was necessary at the moment. + +The crew of the _Flamingo,_ he said, had better stay where they were for +the present. If they were tired of sleeping aboard, there were his two +palmetto palaces, with couches of down on which to stretch their +limbs--and, for amusement--poor devils!--he swept his eyes whimsically +around that dreariest of landscapes--they might exercise their +imaginations by pretending, after the manner of John Teach, that they +were on an excursion to Hades--this was the famous River Acheron--and so +on. But, seriously, he ended, we would find some way of keeping them +from committing hari-kari and, meanwhile, we would leave them in peace, +and stroll along toward breakfast. + +At that moment, Sailor rubbed his head against my knee. + +"Ah!" said the "King," "the heroic canine! He, of course, must not be +left behind. We may very well need you in our counsels, eh, old fellow?" +and he made friends with Sailor in a moment, as only a man who loves +dogs can. + +I believe I was second in Sailor's affection from that moment of his +meeting the "King." But then, who wouldn't have been? + +So then, after a reassuring word or two with Tom and the Captain, we +went our ways toward breakfast--the "King's" tongue and Sailor's wagging +happily in concert every inch of the way. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_An Old Enemy._ + + +Charlie Webster's laconic note was naturally our chief topic over +breakfast. "_Tobias escaped--just heard he is on your island. Watch out. +Will follow in a day or two._" The "King" read it out, when I handed him +the note across the table. + +"Your friend writes like a true man of action," he added, "like +Caesar--and also the electric telegraph. We must send word to Sweeney to +be on the look-out for him. I will send Samson the Redoubtable with a +message to him this morning. Meanwhile, we will smoke and think." + +Then for the next hour the "King" thought--aloud; while Calypso and I +sat and listened, occasionally throwing in a parenthesis of comment or +suggestion. It was evident, we all agreed, that Calypso had been right. +It had been Tobias and none other whose evil eye had sent her so +breathless back to me, waiting in the shadow of the woods; and it was +the same evil eye that had fallen vulture-like on her golden doubloon +exposed on Sweeney's counter. + +Now what were we to think of Tobias?--what really were his notions +about this supposititious treasure?--and what was likely to be his plan +of action? Had he really any private knowledge of the whereabouts of his +alleged ancestral treasure?--or was his first authentic hint of its +whereabouts derived from the manuscript--first overheard while +eavesdropping at John Saunders's office, and afterward purloined from +John Saunders's verandah? + +There seemed little doubt that this second surmise was correct; for, if +he had had any previous knowledge, he would have had no need of the +manuscript and long ago he would have gone after the treasure for +himself, and found it or not, as the case might be. Probably there was a +tradition in his family of the existence somewhere of his grandfather's +treasure; but that tradition was very likely the sum of his inheritance; +and doubtless it was the mere accident of his dropping into Saunders's +office that morning which had set him on the track. + +It was also likely, indeed practically certain, that he had been able to +make no more out of the manuscript than I had; that he had concluded +that I had somehow or other unearthed more about it than he; and that, +therefore, his most promising clue to its discovery would be my actions. +To keep me in sight was the first step. So far so good. + +But thus far, it would appear to him, I had had no very positive +success. Otherwise, I would not still be on the quest. He had probably +been aware of my movements, and may have been lying hidden on the island +longer than we suspected. From some of his spies he had heard of my +presence in the settlement, and, chance having directed him to Sweeney's +store at the moment of Calypso's ringing down that Spanish gold on the +counter, he had somehow connected Calypso's doubloon with me. + +At all events, it was clear that there were such coins on the island in +somebody's possession. Then, when he had watched Calypso on her way +home--and, without any doubt, been the spectator of our meeting at the +edge of the wood though we had been unable to catch sight of him--there +would, of course, be a suspicion in his mind that my quest might at last +be approaching success, and that his ancestral millions might be almost +in my hands. That there might be some other treasure on the island with +which neither he nor his grandfather had any concern would not occur to +him, nor would it be likely to trouble him if it did. My presence was +enough to prove that the treasure was his--for was it not his treasure +that I was after? Logic irrefutable! How was he to know that all the +treasure so far discovered was that modest hoard--unearthed, as I had +heard, in the garden--the present whereabouts of which was known only to +Calypso. The "King" had interrupted himself at this point of argument. + +"By the way, Calypso, where is it?" he asked unexpectedly, to the sudden +confusion of both of us. "Isn't it time you revealed your mysterious +Aladdin's cave?" + +At the word "cave" the submerged rose in Calypso's cheeks almost came to +the surface of their beautiful olive. + +"Cave!" she countered manfully, "who said it was a cave?" + +"It was merely a figure of speech, which--if I may say so, my +dear--might apply with equal fitness, say--to a silk stocking." + +And Calypso laughed through another tide of rose-colour. + +"No, Dad, not that either. Never mind where it is. It is perfectly safe, +I assure you." + +"But _are_ you sure, my dear? Wouldn't it be safer, after all, here in +the house? How can you be certain that no one but yourself will +accidentally discover it?" + +"I am absolutely certain that _no one will,_" she answered, with an +emphasis on the last three words which sent a thrill through me, for I +knew that it was meant for me. Indeed, as she spoke, she furtively gave +me one of those glances of soft fire which had burnt straight through to +my heart in Sweeney's store--a sort of blended challenge and appeal. + +"Of course, Dad," she added, "if you insist--you shall have it. But +seriously I think it is safer where it is, and if I were to fetch it, +how can I be sure that no one"--she paused, with a meaning which I, of +course, understood--"Tobias, for instance, would see me going--and +follow me." + +"To be sure--to be sure," said the "King." "What do you think, friend +Ulysses?" + +"I think it more than likely that she might be followed," I answered, +"and I quite agree with Miss Calypso. I certainly wouldn't advise her to +visit her treasure just now--with the woods probably full of eyes. In +fact," I added, smiling frankly at her, "I could scarcely answer for +myself even--for I confess that she has filled me with an overpowering +curiosity." + +And in my heart I stood once more amid the watery gleams and echoes of +that moonlit cavern, struck dumb before that shining princess from +whose mouth and hands had fallen those strange streams of gold. + +"So be it then," said the "King"; "and now to consider what our friend +here graphically speaks of as those eyes in the woods. 'The woods were +full of eyes.' Ah! friend Ulysses, you evidently share my taste for the +romantic phrase. Who cares how often it has been used? It is all the +better for that. Like old wine, it has gained with age. One's whole +boyhood seems to be in a phrase like that--Dumas, Scott, Fenimore +Cooper. How often, I wonder, has that divine phrase been written--'the +woods were full of eyes.' And now to think that we are actually living +it--an old boy like myself even. 'The woods were full of eyes.' Bravo! +Ulysses, for it is still a brave and gallant world!" + +The "King" then made a determined descent into the practical. The woods, +most probably, _were_ full of eyes. In plain prose, we were almost +certainly being watched. Unless--unless, indeed, my bogus departure for +Nassau had fooled Tobias as we had hoped. But, even so, with that lure +of Calypso's doubloon ever before him, it was too probable that he would +not leave the neighbourhood without some further investigation--"an +investigation," the "King" explained, "which might well take the form +of a midnight raid; murdered in our beds, and so forth." + +That being so, being in fact almost a certainty--the "King" spoke as +though he would be a much disappointed man otherwise--we must look to +our garrison. After all, besides ourselves, we had but Samson and +Erebus, and their dark brethren of doubtful courage, while Tobias +probably had command of a round dozen of doughty desperadoes. On the +whole, perhaps, he said, it might be best to avail ourselves of the crew +of the _Flamingo_--"under cover of the dark," he repeated with a smile. + +Yes! that must be the first step. We must get them up there that night, +under cover of the dark; keep them well hidden, and--well! await +developments. Charlie Webster might be expected any moment with his +reinforcements, and then!--"Lay on, Macduff!" + +While we had been talking, Samson had long since been on his way with +the word to Sweeney to look out for Webster, and, as he had been +admonished to hurry back, it was scarcely noon when he returned, +bringing in exchange a verbal message from Sweeney. + +"The pock-marked party," ran the message as delivered by Samson, "had +left the harbour in his sloop that morning. Yes, sar!" + +"Ha! ha!" laughed the "King," turning to me. "So two can play at that +game, says Henry P. Tobias, Jr. But if we haven't fooled him, let's make +sure that he hasn't fooled us. We'll bring up your crew all the +same--what do you think?" + +"Under cover of the dark," I assented. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_In Which the "King" Imprisons Me with Some Old Books and Pictures._ + + +Nothing further transpired that day, and, at nightfall, we brought the +crew of the _Flamingo_ up to the house--all but two of them, whom we +left on guard. Two out of six was rather more than we had bargained for, +but we found that none of them had the courage to face the night there +in that dismal swamp alone--and we couldn't blame them, for a more +devil-haunted desolation could not be imagined even in the daylight, and +the mere thought of what might go on there after dark was enough to +uncurl the wool on the head of the bravest negro. And we agreed, too, +that the watch should be changed nightly, a fresh pair going on duty +each evening. + +Then there was nothing to do but sit down and await events--amongst +them, the coming of Charlie Webster. + +In regard to this, we had decided that it would be as well that, instead +of disembarking at the settlement, he should come and join the +_Flamingo_ in the hidden creek; so Samson was once more despatched down +to Sweeney with a letter for him to hand to Charlie on his arrival, +giving him direction how to find us. Meanwhile, our two men on the +_Flamingo_ could keep watch for him by day, and have a light burning for +him at the entrance of the creek by night. + +The "King's" instructions to me were that I was not to show my nose +outside the house. Possibly I might expose the tip of it once in a +while, for a little exercise in the garden--where all this time the +little silver fountain went on playing amid the golden hush of the +orange trees, filling the lotus flowers with big pearls of spray. But, +most of the day, I must regard myself as a prisoner, with the entire +freedom of his study--a large airy room on the second floor, well +furnished with all manner of books, old prints, strange fishes in glass +cases, rods, guns, pipe-racks, curiosities of every kind from various +parts of the world--India, the South Seas, Australia, not forgetting +London and Paris--and all the flotsam and jetsam of a far-wandered man, +who--as the "King" remarked, introducing their autobiographic display +with a comprehensive wave of his hand--had, like that other wanderer +unbeloved of all schoolboys, the pious AEneas, been so much tossed about +on land and sea--_vi superum, saevae memorem Junonis ob iram_--that he +might found his city and bring safe his household gods from Latium. +Touching his hand lightly on a row of old quartos, in the stout calfskin +and tarnished gold dear to bookmen, he said: + +"These I recommend to you in your enforced leisure." + +They were a collection of old French voyages--Dampier and +others--embellished with copper-plate maps and quaint engravings of the +fauna and flora of the world, still in all the romantic virginity of its +first discovery. + +"This," he said, pointing to a stout old jar of Devonshire ware, "is +some excellent English tobacco--my one extravagance; and here," pointing +to a pipe-rack, "are some well-tried friends from that same 'dear, dear +land,' 'sceptred isle of kings,' and so forth. And now I am going to +leave you, while I go with Samson and Erebus on a little reconnoitring +tour around our domains." + +So he left me, and I settled down to a pipe and a volume of Dampier; +but, interesting as I found the sturdy old pages, my thoughts, and +perhaps particularly my heart, were too much in the present for my +attention long to be held by even so adventurous a past; so, laying the +book down, I rose from my chair, and made a tour of inspection of the +various eloquent objects about the room--objects which made a sort of +chronicle in bric-a-brac of my fantastic friend's earthly pilgrimage, +and here and there seemed to hint at the story of his strange soul. + +Among the books, for example, was a fine copy of Homer, with the arms of +a well-known English college stamped on the binding, and near by was the +faded photograph of a beautiful old Elizabethan house, with mouldering +garden walls, and a moat brimming with water-lilies surrounding it. +Hanging close by it, was another faded photograph, of a tall stately old +lady, who, at a glance, I surmised must be the "King's" mother. As I +looked at it, my eyes involuntarily sought the garden with its palms and +its orange trees. Far indeed had the son of her heart wandered, like so +many sons of stately English mothers, from that lilied moat and those +old gables, and the proud old eyes that would look on her son no more +forever. + +And then in my privileged inspection of these sacred symbols, carried +across so many storm-tossed seas from that far-away Latium, I came upon +another photograph, hanging over the writing-desk--a tall, +Spanish-looking young woman of remarkable beauty. It needed but one +glance to realise that here was Calypso's mother; and, as was natural, +I stood a long time scanning the countenance that was so like the face +which, from my first sight of it, had seemed the loveliest in the world. +This was a flower that had been the mother of a flower. It was a face +more primitive in its beauty, a little less touched with race, than the +one I loved, but the same fearless natural nobility was in it, and the +figure had the same wild grace of pose, the same lithe strength of +carriage. + +As I stood looking at it, lost in thought, I heard the "King's" voice +behind me. His step was so light that I had not heard him enter the +room. + +"You are looking at Calypso's mother!" he said. "She was a beautiful +creature. I will tell you of her some day, Ulysses." + +And indeed, that very night, as we sat over our pipes, he told me; and +without a word of his, I knew that the loneliness of his heart had +singled me out for his friend, since, for all his love of speech, he was +not the man to speak easily of the deep things of his heart. + +"Beauty is a very mysterious thing, friend Ulysses," he began, his eyes +musing on the face above his desk, "as our old friends of the Siege of +Troy knew all too well. The eternal Helen! And in nothing is the +divinity of youth so clearly shown as in its worship of beauty, its +faith that there is nothing the world holds--the power and the glory, +the riches and the honours--nothing so well worth fighting for as a +beautiful face. When the world was young, the whole world thought that +too. Now we make ignoble war for markets, but the Greeks made nobler +warfare--for a beautiful face-- + + "The face that launched a thousand ships, + And burnt the topless towers of Ilium. + +"So is it still with every young man. 'Fair Helen! make me immortal with +a kiss' is still his cry. Titles and broad lands, and all such earthly +gear--what are these to a youth, with his eyes on the face of the +eternal Helen?--that face we meet once and once only, and either win--to +lose all the rest, or lose--and win what? What is there to win if that +be lost? So, at all events, it was with me, who, after winging away from +those old gables yonder on all the adventurous winds of the seven seas, +and having in truth looked into many a fair face in every corner of the +globe, suddenly, in a certain little island of the French West Indies, +came upon the face I had been unconsciously seeking. + +"So, long years before my coming, had it befallen also with a certain +young French nobleman, out there on military service, who had set eyes +on Calypso's grandmother in the streets of that quaint little town, +where the French soul seems almost more at home than in France itself. +All had seemed nothing to him--his ancestral ties, his brilliant +future--compared with that glory of a woman. He married her and settled +down for good, the world well lost, in that dream island. And the dream +he had been faithful to remained faithful to him. He seems to have been +a singularly happy man. I never saw him, for he was dead when I set foot +on his island--destined, though I knew it not, to live his life again in +the love of his daughter. + +"She and her mother were living quietly on the small fortune he had left +them, in an old palm-shaded house backed by purple mountains, and sung +to by the sea. The soul of old France seemed to haunt that old house +like a perfume, taking on a richer colour and drawing a more ardent life +from the passionate tropic soul that enfolded it. Both had mysteriously +met and become visibly embodied in the lovely girl, in whose veins the +best blood of France blended with the molten gold of tropic suns. So, as +had happened with her mother, again it happened with her--she took the +wandering man to her heart"--he paused--"held him there for some happy +years"--he paused again--"and the rest is--Calypso." + +We did not speak for a long time after he had ended, but his confidence +had touched me so nearly that I felt I owed him my heart in exchange, +and it was hard not to cry out: "And now I love Calypso. Once more the +far-wandered man has found the great light on a lonely shore." + +But I felt that to speak yet--believer in the miracle of love though he +had declared himself to be--would seem as though I set too slight a +value on the miracle itself. + +There should be a long hush before we speak, when a star has fallen out +of heaven into our hearts. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_We Begin to Dig._ + + +Two or three days went by, but as yet there was no news of either +Charlie Webster or Tobias. Nothing further had been heard of the latter +in the settlement, and a careful patrolling of the neighbourhood +revealed no signs of him. Either his sailing away was a bona-fide +performance, or he was lying low in some other part of the +island--which, of course, would not be a difficult thing for him to do, +as most of it was wilderness--and as, also, there were one or two coves +on the deserted northern side where he could easily bide his time. +Between that coast and us, however, lay some ten miles of scrub and +mangrove swamps, and it was manifestly out of the question to patrol +them too. There was nothing to do but watch and wait. + +"_Vigile et ora,_" said the "King." + +But in spite of that counsel, watching and praying was not much in the +"King's" temperament. Besides, as I could see, he was anxious to begin +operations on John Teach's ruined mansion, and was impatient of the +delay. + +"With Golconda and Potosi beneath our very feet," he exclaimed at last, +"to be held up by this scurvy pock-marked ruffian, I swear 'I like it +not.' No news from your duck-shooting friend either. It is a slow-moving +world, and the Bird of Time has either lost his wings, or been captured +as a specimen on behalf of the Smithsonian Institute." + +At last there came a message from Charlie Webster, another of his +Caesarian notes: "Sorry delayed a few days longer. Any news?" + +That seemed to decide the "King." + +"What do you say, Ulysses," he said, "if we begin digging to-morrow? +There are ten of us--with as many guns, four revolvers and plenty of +machetes--not counting Calypso, who is an excellent shot herself." + +I agreed that nothing would please me better--so, an early hour of the +following morning found us with the whole garrison--excepting Samson, +whom it had been thought wise to leave at home as a bodyguard for +Calypso--lined up at the old ruined mansion, with picks and shovels and +machetes, ready to commence operations. + +The first thing was to get rid of the immense web, which, as I have +already described, the forest had woven with diabolic ingenuity all +around, and in and out the skeleton of the sturdy old masonry. Till +that was done, it was impossible to get any notion of the ground plan of +the several connected buildings. So the first day was taken up with the +chopping and slashing of vegetable serpents, the tearing out of roots +that writhed as if with conscious life, the shearing away of all manner +of haunted leafage, all those dense fierce growths with which Nature +loves to proclaim her luxuriant victory over the work of man's hands--as +soon, so to say, as his back is turned for a moment--like a stealthy +savage foe ever on the watch in the surrounding darkness and only +waiting for the hushing of human voices, for the cessation of human +footsteps, to rush in and overwhelm. + +"'I passed by the walls of Balclutha and they were desolate'" quoted the +"King," touched, as a less reflective mind must have been, by this +sinister triumph of those tireless natural forces that neither slumber +nor sleep. + +"Here," said he, "is the future of London and Paris--in miniature. The +flora and fauna will be different. There will be none of these nasty +centipedes" (he had just crushed one with his foot), "and oaks, beeches, +and other such friendly trees will take the place of these outlandish +monstrosities. That pretty creature, the wild rose, will fill the +desolation with her sweet breath, but the incredible desolation will be +there; and as we here to-day watch this gum-elemi tree, flourishing +where the good Teach 'gloried and drank deep,' so the men of future days +will hear the bittern booming in the Rue de la Paix and their children +will go a-blackberrying in Trafalgar Square. Selah!" + +Two days we were at it with axe and machete--wearisome work which gave +Tom and me occasion to exchange memories of the month we had put in +together on the Dead Men's Shoes. We smiled at each other, as the other +fellows groaned and sweated. It seemed child's play to us, after what we +had gone through. + +"They should have been with us, Tom, shouldn't they? They'd have known +what work is;" and I added, for the fun of watching his face: "I wonder +whether we'll find any gentlemen playing poker downstairs, Tom." + +"God forbid, sar! God forbid!" he exclaimed, with a look of terror. + +The next step was the clearing away of the mounds of fallen masonry and +various rubbish, which still lay between us and our fortune--tedious +preliminaries which chafed the boyish heart of the "King." To tell the +truth, I believe we had both expected to uncover a glittering hoard with +the first stroke of the pick. + +"'And metals cry to me to be delivered!'" quoted the "King," +whimsically, fuming as he took his long strides, hither and thither amid +the rubbish-heaps, so slow to disappear and reveal those underground +passages and hidden vaults, by which the fancies of both of us were +obsessed. + +We had worked for a week before we made a clearance of the ground floor. +Then at last we came upon a solidly built stone staircase, winding +downward. After clearing away the debris with which it was choked to a +depth of some twenty or thirty steps, we came to a stout wooden door +studded with nails. + +"The dungeon at last," said the "King." + +"The kitchens, I bet," said I. + +After some battering, the door gave way with a crash, a mouldering +breath as of the grave met our nostrils, and a cloud of bats flew in our +faces, and set the negroes screaming. A huge cavernous blackness was +before us. The "King" called for lanterns. + +As we raised these above our heads, and peered into the darkness, we +both gave a laugh. + +"'_Yo--ho--ho--and a bottle of rum,_'" sang the "King." + +For all along the walls stood, or lay prone on trestles, a silent +company of hogsheads, festooned with cobwebs, like huge black wings. It +was the pirate's wine cellar! + + * * * * * + +Such was our discovery for that day, but there is another matter which I +must mention--the fact that, somehow, the news of our excavation seemed +to have got down to the settlement. It is a curious fact, as the "King" +observed, that if a man should start to dig for gold in the centre of +Sahara, with no possible means of communicating with his fellows, on the +third day, there would not fail to be some one to drop in and remark on +the fineness of the weather. So it was with us. As a general thing, not +once in a month did a human being wander into that wilderness where the +"King" had made his home. There was nothing to bring them there, and, as +I have made clear, the way was not easy. Yet we had hardly begun work +when one and another idle nigger strolled in from the settlement, and +stood grinning his curiosity at our labours. + +"I believe it's them black parrots has told them," said old Tom, +pointing to a bird common in the islands--something like a small crow +with a parrot's beak. "They're very knowing birds." + +I saw that Tom was serious. So I tried to draw him out. + +"What language do they speak, Tom?" I asked. + +"Them, sar? They speak Egyptian," he answered, with perfect solemnity. + +"Egyptian!" + +"Yes, sar," said Tom. + +"Egyptian?--but who's going to understand them?" + +"There's always some old wise man or woman in every village, sar, who +understands them. You remember old King Coffee in Grant's Town?" + +"Does he know Egyptian?" + +"O yaas, sar! He knows 'gyptian right enough. And he could tell you +every word them birds says--if he's a mind to." + +"I wonder if Tobias knows Egyptian, Tom?" + +"I wouldn't be at all surprised, sar," he answered; "he looks like that +kind of man," and he added something about the Prince of the Powers of +the Air, and suggested that Tobias had probably sold his soul to the +devil, and had, therefore, the advantage of us in superior sources of +information. + +"He's not unlike one of those black parrots himself, is he, Tom?" I +added, for Tom's words had conjured up a picture for me of Tobias, with +his great beak, and his close-set evil eyes, and a familiar in the form +of a black parrot perched on his shoulders, whispering into one of his +ugly ears. + +However, we continued with our digging, and Tobias continued to make no +sign. + +But, at the close of the third day from our discovery of John Teach's +wine cellar, something happened which set at rest the question of +Tobias's knowledge of Egyptian, and proved that he was all too well +served by his aerial messengers. The three days had been uneventful. We +had made no more discoveries, beyond the opening up of various prosaic +offices and cellars that may once have harboured loot but were now empty +of everything but bats and centipedes. But, toward evening of the third +day, we came upon a passage leading out of one of these cellars; it had +such a promising appearance that we kept at work later than usual, and +the sun had set and night was rapidly falling as we turned homeward. + +As we came in sight of the house, we were struck by the peculiar hush +about it, and there were no lights in the windows. + +"No lights!" the "King" and I exclaimed together, involuntarily hurrying +our steps, with a foreboding of we knew not what in our hearts. As we +crossed the lawn, the house loomed up dark and still, and the door +opening on to the loggia was a square of blackness, in a gloom of +shadows hardly less profound. Not a sound, not a sign of life! + +"Calypso!" we both cried out, as we rushed across the loggia. "Calypso! +where are you?--but there was no answer; and then, I, being ahead of the +"King," stumbled over something dark lying across the doorway. + +"Good God! what is this?" I cried, and, bending down, I saw that it was +Samson. + +The "King" struck a match. Yes! it was Samson, poor fellow, with a +dagger firmly planted in his heart. + +Near by, something white caught my eye attached to the lintel of the +doorway. It was a piece of paper held there with a sailor's knife. I +tore it off in a frenzy, and--the "King" striking another match--we read +it together. It bore but a few words, written all in capital letters +with a coarse pencil: + +"WILL RETURN THE LADY IN EXCHANGE FOR THE TREASURE," and it was signed +"H.P.T." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_In Which I Lose My Way._ + + +I stood a full minute with the astonishing paper in my hand, too stunned +to speak or move. It seemed too incredible an outrage to realise. Then a +torrent of feelings swept over me--wild fear for her I loved, and +impotent fury against the miscreant who had dared even to conceive so +foul a sacrilege. To think of her beauty subject to such coarse +ruffianism! I pictured her bound and gagged and carried along through +the brush in the bestial grasp of filthy negroes, and it seemed as +though my brain would burst at the thought. + +"The audacity of the fellow!" exclaimed the "King," who was the first to +recover. + +"But Calypso!" I cried. + +The "King" laid his hand on my shoulder, reassuringly. + +"Don't be afraid for her," he said. "I know my daughter." + +"But I love her!" I cried, thus blurting out in my anguish what I had +designed to reveal in some tranquil chosen hour. + +"I have loved her for twenty years," said the "King," exasperatingly +calm. "'Jack Harkaway' can take care of himself." + +I was not even astonished at the time. + +"But something must be done," I cried. "I will go to the commandant at +once and rouse the settlement. Give me a lantern," I called to one of +the negroes, who by this had come up to us, and were standing around in +a terrified group. I waited only for it to be lit, and then, without a +word, dashed wildly into the forest. + +"Hadn't you better take some one with you?" I heard the "King" call +after me, but I was too distraught to reply, plunging headforemost +through the tangled darkness--my brain boiling like a cauldron with +anger and a thousand fears, and my heart stung too with wild unreasoning +remorse. After all, it was my doing. + +"To think! to think! to think!" I cried aloud--leaving the rest +unspoken. + +I meant that it had all come of my insensate pursuit of that filthy +treasure, when all the time the only treasure I coveted was Calypso +herself. Poor old ignorant Tom had been right, after all. Nothing good +came of such enterprises. There was a curse upon them from the +beginning. And then, as I thought of Tobias, my body shook so that I +could hardly keep on walking, and, next minute, my hatred of him so +nerved me up again that I ran on through the brush, like a madman, my +clothes clutched at by the devilish vines and torn at every yard. + +I fled past the scene of our excavations, looking more haunted than ever +in the flashing gleam of the lantern. With an oath, I left them behind, +as the accursed cause of all this evil; but I cannot have gone by them +many yards when suddenly I felt the ground giving way beneath me with a +violent jerk. My arms went up in a wild effort to save myself, and then, +in a panic of fright, I felt myself shooting downward, as one might fall +down the shaft of a mine. Vainly I clutched at rocky walls as I sped +down in the earth-smelling darkness. I seemed to be falling forever, and +for a moment my head cleared and I had time to think of the crash that +was coming, at the end of my fall--a crash which, I said to myself, must +mean death. It came with sudden crunching pain, a swift tightening round +my heart, as though black ropes were being lashed tightly about it, +squeezing out my breath; then entire blackness engulfed me, and I knew +no more. + + * * * * * + +How long I lay there in the darkness I cannot tell. All I remember is my +suddenly opening my eyes on intense blackness, and vaguely wondering +where I was. My head felt strangely clear and alive, but for a moment I +could remember nothing. I was conscious only of a strong earthy smell, +and my eyes felt so keen that, as the phrase goes, they seemed to make +darkness visible. They seemed, too, to see themselves, as rings of light +in the blackness. My head, too, seemed entirely detached from my body, +of which, so far, I was unconscious. But, presently, the realisation of +it returned, and involuntarily I tried to move--to find, with a sort of +indifferent mild surprise, that it was impossible. + +So there I lay, oddly content, in the dark--the pungent smell of the +earth my only sensation, and my head uselessly clear. + +Then, bit by bit, it all came back to me, like returning circulation in +a numbed limb; but as yet dreamily, as something long ago and far away. +Then I found myself partly risen, leaning on my elbow, and looking +about--into nothingness. Then feeling seemed slowly to be coming back to +the rest of me. My head was no longer isolated. It was part of a heavy +something that lay inert on the ground, and was beginning to feel +numbly--to ache dully. Then I found that I could move one of my legs, +then the other, and eventually, with a mighty effort, I could almost +raise myself. But, for the moment, I had to fall back. + +The remembrance of what had happened began to grow in force and keenness +and, of a sudden, the thought of Calypso smote me like a sword! Spurred +to desperate effort, I stood up on the instant and leaned against a +rocky wall. Miracle of miracles! I could stand. I was not dead, after +all. I was not, indeed, so far as I could tell, seriously hurt. Badly +bruised, of course--but no bones broken. It seemed incredible, but it +was so. The realisation made me feel weak again, and I sat down with my +back propped up against the rock, and waited for more strength. + +Slowly my thoughts fumbled around the situation. Then, as by force of +habit, my hand went to my pocket. God be praised! I had matches, and I +cried with thankfulness, out of very weakness. But I still sat on in the +dark for a while. I felt very tired. After thinking about it for a long +time, I took out my precious match-box, which unconsciously I had been +hugging with my hand, and struck a light, looking about me in a dazed +fashion. The match burnt down to my fingers, and I threw it away, as the +flame stung me. I had seen something of my surroundings, enough to last +my tired brain for a minute or two. I was at the bottom of a sort of +crevasse, a narrow cleft in the rocks which continued on in a slanting +downward chasm into the darkness. It was a natural corridor, with a +floor of white sand. The sand had accounted for my coming off without +any broken bones. + +After another minute or two, I struck another match, and lo! another +miracle. There was my lantern lying beside me. The glass of it was +broken, but that was no matter. As I lit the wick, my hopes leapt up +with the flame. At the worst, I had light. + +"_Lux in tenebris!_" I seemed to hear the voice of the +"King"--inextinguishably gay; and, at the thought of him, my inertia +passed. What could he be thinking? His daughter spirited away, and now I +too mysteriously vanished. What was happening up there, all this time? +Up there! How far was it to "up there"? How far had I fallen? All about +me was so terribly still and shut away. I could believe myself at the +very centre of the earth, and it seemed ages ago, aeons of time, since I +had last seen the "King." What time was it? I felt for my watch. I found +but the wreck of it. It was the only thing that had suffered. It was +smashed to smithereens. + +Then I moved myself again, and, taking up the lantern, raised it aloft, +but the chasm down which I had fallen went up and up in a slanting +direction, and lost itself in darkness. Bringing the lantern down to the +level again, I examined the rock corridor. Behind me, as before me, it +continued--a long, deep fissure, splitting its way through the earth. I +limped my way along some yards of the section that lay before me, but it +seemed to me that it was growing narrower as it went on, as though it +were coming to an end; and indeed, after a while, I came to a place too +narrow for me to pass. + +I swung my lantern aloft, seeking the possibilities of a climb, but +everywhere it was sheer, without a ledge or protuberance of any kind to +take advantage of, and it was utterly devoid of vegetation--not a sign +of a friendly shrub or root to hold by. + +So I turned back to try my luck in the other direction. But first I +shouted and shouted with all my might. I could not be far away from the +ruins, and there was a chance of some one hearing me. However, I had +little faith in my effort, and was too tired to keep it up; so I turned +with my lantern toward the other end of the corridor. And here it was +easy going, along a gently-graded descent, covered, as I have said, with +white sand, in which shells were here and there embedded. My heart beat +wildly. Perhaps I had only to walk on a little farther to come out on +the sea--for here certainly the sea had been once, whether or not it +came up there any more. Vain hope!--for when I had followed the corridor +some fifty yards or so, it suddenly widened out for a few yards into +something of a cavern, and then as suddenly narrowed into a mere slit, +and so came to an end. + +The deadening of my spark of hope weakened me. I slid down, with my back +against the rock, and gave way to despair. As I looked up at the smooth +implacable walls that imprisoned me, I felt like some poor insect +clinging to the side of a bowl partly filled with water. How frantically +the poor creature claws and claws the polished sides, at each effort +slipping nearer and nearer to the fatal flood. + +I had sense enough to know that I was too tired to think profitably, and +drowsiness coming over me told me that an hour or two's sleep would give +me the strength I needed to renew with a will, and more chance of +success, my efforts to escape. + +Light was too precious to waste, so I blew out my lantern, and, curling +up on the sand, almost instantly fell asleep. But, before I lapsed into +unconsciousness, I had clutched hold of one sustaining thought in the +darkness--the assurance of Calypso's safety, so confidently announced by +her father: "Don't be afraid for her. I know my daughter." Whatever +happened to me, she would come out all right. As her brave shape flashed +before my mind's eye, down there under the earth, I could have no doubt +of that. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +_In Which I Pursue My Studies as a Troglodyte._ + + +My instinct had been right in giving way to my drowsiness, for I woke up +from my sleep a new man. How long I had been there, of course, I had no +means of knowing; but I fancy I must have slept a good while, for I felt +so refreshed and full of determination to tackle my escape in good +earnest. + +It is remarkable how rest sharpens one's perceptions. When we are weary, +we only half see what we look at, and the very thing we are desperately +seeking may be right under our nose and we quite unaware. + +So I had hardly relit my lantern, when its rays revealed something which +it seemed impossible for any one with eyes, however weary, to have +overlooked. + +In the right-hand corner of the little cavern, five or six feet above my +head, was a dark hole, like the entrance to a tunnel, or, more properly +speaking, a good-sized burrow--for it was scarcely more than a yard in +diameter. It seemed to be something more than a mere cavity in the rock, +for, when I flashed my lantern up to it, I could see no end. To climb +up to it, at first, seemed difficult; but providentially, I had a stout +claspknife in my pocket, and with this I cut a step or two in the porous +rock, and so managed it. Lying flat on my stomach, I looked in. + +It was, as I had thought, a narrow natural tunnel, snaking through the +rocks--as often happens in those curious fantastic coral formations--for +all the world, indeed, as if it had been made ages ago by some monstrous +primeval serpent, a giant worm-hole no less, leading--Heaven alone knew +where. + +There was just room to crawl along it on all fours, so I started +cautiously, making sure I had my precious matches, and my jackknife all +safe. + +After all, I said to myself, I was no worse off than thousands of poor +devils in mines. I had myself snaked through just such passages in +coal-mines. Still, I confess that the choking sense of being shut in +this earth-smelling tube, like a fox in a drain, and the sudden +realisation of the appalling tonnage of superincumbent earth above +me--liable at any moment to loosen, and, as with a giant thumb, press +out my poor little insect existence--made the sweat pour from me and my +heart stand still. I had to shut my eyes for a moment and command myself +back to calmness and courage, before I could go on. Above all things I +had to blindfold my imagination, the last companion for such a +situation. + +After this first flurry of fear, I went on crawling in a methodical way, +allowing no thought to enter my mind that did not concern the yard or +two of earth immediately ahead of me. So I progressed, I should say, for +some twenty or thirty yards when, to my inexpressible relief, I came +out, still on all fours, onto a spreading floor; then, standing up, I +perceived that I was in a cave of considerable loftiness, and some forty +feet or so across. It was good to breathe again such comparatively free +air; yet, as I looked about and made the circuit of the walls, I saw +that I had but exchanged one prison for another. There was this +difference, however: whereas there had only been one passageway from the +cave I had just left, there were several similar outlets from that in +which I now stood. Two or three of them proved to be nothing but alcoves +that ran a few yards and then stopped. + +But there were two close by each other which seemed to continue on. +There was not much choice between them, but, as both made in the same +direction, as far as I could judge the direction in which I had so far +progressed, I decided to take the larger one. It proved to be a passage +much like the tunnel I had already traversed, only a little roomier, +and therefore it was easier going, and it, too, brought me out, as had +the other, on another cavern--but one considerably larger in extent. + +Here, however, I speedily perceived that it was not a case of one +cavern, but several--opening out, by natural archways one into another. +I walked eagerly through them, scanning their ceilings for sign of some +outlet into the upper air; but in vain. Still, after the strangling +embrace of those tunnels, it was good to have so much space to breathe +and walk about in. In fact, I had stumbled on something like a Monte +Cristo suite of underground apartments. And here for a moment I released +my imagination from her blinders, and allowed her to play around these +strange halls. And in one of her suggestions there was some comfort. It +was hardly likely that caverns of such extent had waited for me to +discover them. They must surely have been known to Teach, or whatever +buccaneer it was who had occupied the ruined mansion not so very far +above-ground. What better place could be conceived for his business? It +was even likely--more than likely, almost certain--that there was some +secret passageway connecting this series of caves with the old house--if +one could only find it. And so the dear creature prattled on to me, +till I thought it was time to blindfold her again--and return to +business. + +Still, there was something in what she had said, and I set about the +more carefully to examine every nook and corner. And, if I didn't find +anything so splendid as she had dreamed, I did presently find evidence +that, as she had said, I was not the first human being to stand where +now I stood. Two iron staples imbedded in one of the walls, with rusting +chains and manacles attached, were melancholy proof of one of the uses +to which the place had once been put. Melancholy for certain unhappy +souls long since free of all mortal chains, but for me--need I say +it?--exceedingly joyous. For if there had been a way to bring prisoners +here, it was none the less evident that there had been a way to take +them out. But how and where? Again I searched every nook and cranny. +There was no sign of entrance anywhere. + +Then a thought occurred to me. What if the entrance were after the +manner of a mediaeval oubliette--through the ceiling! There was a thought +indeed to send one's hopes soaring. I ran in my eagerness through one +cavern after another, holding my lantern aloft. That must be the +solution. There could be no other way. I sought and sought, but alas! it +was a false hope, and I threw myself down in a corner in despair, +deciding that the prisoners must have been forced to crawl in as I +had--though it was hardly like jailers to put themselves to such +inconvenience. + +I leaned back against the wall and gazed listlessly upward. Next moment +I had bounded to my feet again. Surely I had seen some short regular +lines running up the face of the rock, like a ladder. I raised my +lantern. Sure enough, they were iron rounds set in the face of the rock, +and they mounted up till I lost them in the obscurity, for the cave here +must have been forty feet high. Blessed heaven! I was saved! + +But alas! they did not begin till some six feet above my head, and the +wall was sheer. How was I to reach the lowest rung? The rock was too +sheer for me to cut steps in, as I had done farther back. I looked about +me. Again the luck was with me. In one of the caves I had noticed some +broken pieces of fallen rock. They were terribly heavy, but despair lent +me strength, and after an hour or two's work, I had managed to roll +several of them to the foot of the ladder, and--with an effort of which +I would not have believed myself capable--had been able to build them +one on top of another against the wall. So, I found myself able to grasp +the lowest rung with my hands. Then, fastening the lantern round my +neck with my necktie, I prepared to mount. + +The climb was not difficult, once I had managed to get my feet on the +first rung of the ladder, but there was always the chance that one of +the rungs might have rusted loose with time, in which case, of course, +it would have given way in my grasp, and I should have been precipitated +backward to certain death below. + +However, the man who had mortised them had done an honest piece of work, +and they proved as firm as on the day they were placed there. Up and up +I went, till I must have been forty feet above the floor, and, then, as +I neared the roof, instead of coming to a trap door, as I had +conjectured, I found that the ladder came to an end at the edge of a +narrow ledge, running along the ceiling much as a clerestory runs near +the roof of some old churches. On to this I managed to climb. It was +barely a yard wide, and the impending roof did not permit of one's +standing erect. It was a dizzy situation, and it seemed safest to crawl +along on all fours, holding the lantern in front of me. Presently it +brought me up sharp in a narrow recess. It had come to an end. + +Yes! but imagine my joy! it had come to an end at a low archway rudely +cut in the rock. Deep set in the archway was a stout wooden door. My +first thought was that I was trapped again, but, to my infinite surprise +and gratitude, it proved to be slightly ajar, and a vigorous push sent +it grinding back on its hinges. What next! I wondered. At all events, I +was no longer lost in the bowels of the earth; step by step, I was +coming nearer to the frontiers of humanity. + +But I was certainly not prepared for what next met my eyes, as I pushed +through the low doorway with my lantern, and looked around. Yes! indeed, +man had certainly been here, man, too, very purposeful and businesslike. +I was in a sort of low narrow gallery, some forty feet long, to which +the arching rock made a crypt-like ceiling. At my first glance, I saw +that there was another door at the far end similar to the one I had +entered by; and on the left side of the gallery, built of rough stones +from the low ceiling to the floor, was a series of compartments, each +with locked wooden door. They were strong and grim looking, and might +have been taken for prison cells, or family vaults, or possibly +wine-bins. The massive locks were red with rust, and there was plainly +no possibility of my opening them. + +On the other side of the gallery there was a litter of old chains, and +some boards, probably left over from the doors. Yes! and there were two +old flintlock guns, and several cutlasses, all eaten away with rust, +also a rough seaman's chest open and falling to pieces. At the sight of +that, a wild thought flashed through my brain. What if--Good God!--What +if this was John Teach's treasury!--behind those grim doors. I threw +myself with all my force against one and then the other. For the moment +I forgot that my paramount business was to escape. But I might as well +have hurled myself against the solid rock. And, at that moment, I +noticed that the place was darker than it had been. My lantern was going +out. In a moment or two, I should be in the pitch dark, and I had +discovered that the door at the end of the gallery was as solid as the +others. + +I was to be trapped, after all; and I pictured myself slowly dying there +of hunger--the pangs of which I was already beginning to feel--and some +one, years hence, finding me there, a mouldering skeleton--some one who +would break open those doors, uncover those gleaming hoards, and +moralise on the irony of my end; condemned to die there of starvation, +with the treasure I had so long sought on the other side of those +unyielding doors. Old Tom's words suddenly flashed over me, and I could +feel my hair literally beginning to rise. "There never was a buried +treasure yet that didn't claim its victim." Great God!--and I was to be +the ghost, and keep guard in this terrible tomb till the next dead man +came along to relieve me of my sentry duty! + +Frantically I turned up the wick of my lantern at the thought--but it +was no use; it was plainly going out. I examined my match-box; I had +still a dozen or so matches left. And then my eye fell on that shattered +chest. There were those boards, too. At all events I could build a fire +and make torches of slivers of wood, so long as the wood lasted. + +And then I had an idea. Why not make the fire against the door at the +end of the gallery, and so burn my way through. Bravo! My spirits rose +at the thought, and I set to at once--splitting some small kindling with +my knife. In a few minutes I had quite a sprightly little fire going at +the bottom of the door; but I saw that I should have to be extravagant +with my wood if the fire was to be effective. However, it was neck or +nothing; so I piled on beams and boards till my fire roared like a +furnace, and presently I had the joy of seeing it begin to take hold of +the door--which, after a short time, began to crackle and splutter in a +very cheering fashion. + +Whatever lay beyond, it was evident that I should soon be able to break +my way through the obstacle, and, indeed, so it proved; for, presently, +I used one of the boards as a battering ram, and, to my inexpressible +joy, it went crashing through, with a shower of sparks, and it was but +the work of a few more minutes before the whole door fell flaming down, +and I was able to leap through the doorway into the darkness on the +other side. + +As I stood there, peering ahead, and holding aloft a burning +stick--which proved, however, a poor substitute for my lantern--a +wonderful sound smote my ears. I could not believe it, and my knees +shook beneath me. It was the sound of the sea. + +Yes! it was no illusion. It was the sound that the sea makes singing and +echoing through hollow caves--the sound I heard that night as I stood at +the moonlit door of Calypso's cavern, and saw that vision which my heart +nearly broke to remember. Calypso! O Calypso! where was she at this +moment? Pray God that she was indeed safe, as her father had said. But I +had to will her from my mind, to keep from going mad. + +And my poor torch had gone out, having, however, given me light enough +to see that the door which I had just burnt through let out on to a +narrow platform on the side of a rock that went slanting down into a +chasm of blackness, through which, as in a great shell, boomed that +murmuring of the sea. It had a perilous ugly look, and it was plain that +it would be foolhardy to attempt it at the moment without a light; and +my fire was dying down. Besides, I was beginning to feel lightheaded and +worn out, partly from lack of food, no doubt. + +As there was no food to be had, I recalled the old French proverb, "He +eats who sleeps"--or something to that effect--and I determined to +husband my strength once more with a brief rest. However, as I turned to +throw some more wood on my fire--preparing to indulge myself with a +little camp-fire cheerfulness as I dozed off--my eyes fell once more on +that grim line of locked doors; and my curiosity, and an idea, made me +wakeful again. I had burned down one door--why not another? Why not, +indeed? + +So I raked over my fire to the family vault nearest to me, and presently +had it roaring and licking against the stout door. It was, apparently, +not so solid as the gallery door had been. At all events, it kindled +more easily, and it was not long before I had the satisfaction of +battering that down too. + +As I did so, I caught sight of something in the interior that made me +laugh aloud and behave generally like a madman. Of course, I didn't +believe my eyes--but they persisted in declaring, nevertheless, that +there in front of me was a great iron-bound oaken chest, to begin with. +It might not, of course, contain anything but bones--but it might--! The +thing was too absurd. I must have fallen asleep--must be already +dreaming! But no! I was labouring with all my strength to open it with +one of those rusty cutlasses. It was a tough job, but my strength was as +the strength of ten, for the old treasure-hunting lust was upon me, and +I had forgotten everything else in the world. + +At last, with a great wooden groan, as though its heart were breaking at +having to give up its secret at last, it crashed open. I fell on my +knees as though I had been struck by lightning, for it was literally +brimming over with silver and gold pieces--doubloons and pieces of +eight; English and French coins, too--guineas and louis d'or: "all"--as +Tobias's manuscript had said--"all good money." + +For a while I knelt over it, dazed and blinded, lost; then I slowly +plunged my hands into it, and let the pieces pour and pour through them, +literally bathing them in gold and silver, as I had read of misers +doing. + +Meanwhile, I talked insanely to myself, made all sorts of inarticulate +noises, sang shreds of old songs. Rising at length, I capered up and +down the gallery, talking aloud to the "King" as though he had been +there, and anon breaking out again into absurd song, roaring it out at +the top of my voice, laughing and war-whooping between: + + "There was chest on chest of Spanish gold, + With a ton of plate in the middle hold, + And the cabin's riot of loot untold." + +Then suddenly I broke out into an Irish jig--never having had any notion +of doing such a thing before. + +In fact I behaved as I have read of men doing, whom a sudden fortune has +bereft of reason. For the time, at all events, I was a gibbering madman. +Certainly, there was to be no sleep for me that night! But, in the full +tide of my frenzy, I suddenly noticed something that brought me up +sharp. Out beyond the doorway it was growing light. It was only a dim +tremulous suffusion of it, indeed, but it was real daylight--oozing in +from somewhere or other--the blessed, blessed, daylight! God be +praised! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_In Which I Understand the Feelings of a Ghost!_ + + +So, I surmised, I had been underground a whole day and two nights, and +this was the morning of the second day after Calypso's disappearance. +What had been happening to her all this time! My flesh crept at the +thought, and, with that daylight stealing in like a living presence, and +the sound and breath of the sea, my anguish returned a hundredfold. It +was like coming to, after an anaesthetic, for I realised that, actively +as I had been occupied in trying to escape, I had been, all the time, +under a curious numbing spell. Just as my ears had seemed muffled with a +silence that was more than the stillest silence above ground; silence +that was itself a captive, airless and gasping, so to say, with the +awful pressure of all that oblivious earth above and around; a silence +that made me realise with a dreadful reality what had been a mere phrase +before, "the silence of the grave"; silence literally buried alive, with +eyes fixed in a trance of horror; just in the same way, all my feelings +of mind and heart, memory and emotion, had likewise been deadened, as +with some heavy narcotic of indifference, so that I felt and yet did +not feel--remembered and yet did not remember. + +The events of a few hours before, and the dearly loved friends taking +part in them, seemed infinitely remote, for all their clearness, as when +we see a figure waving to us from a distance, and know that it is +calling to us, but yet we cannot hear a word. Even so one lies back in +the grip of a deadly sickness, and all that formerly had been so +important and moving seems like a picture, definite yet remote, in which +one has no part any more. + +I think one would die soon and easily underground, as creatures in a +vacuum, for the will to live has so little to nourish itself on. One's +whole nature falls into a catalepsy; all one's faculties seem asleep, +save the animal impulse to escape--an impulse that would soon grow weary +too. So, it seemed to me, as I saw a little light and drew the breath of +the living world once more, that even my love for Calypso had, so to +say, been in a state of suspended animation during an entombment which +was heavy with the poppy of the grave, and made me understand why the +dead forget us so soon. + +But now, as I stood on the little rocky platform outside the door +through which I had burned my way, and looked down into the glimmering +chasm beneath, and heard the fresh voice of the sea huskily rumbling and +reverberating about hidden grottoes and channels, all that Calypso was +to me came back with the keenness of a sword through my heart. Ah! there +was my treasure--as I had known when my eyes first beheld her--compared +with which that gold and silver in there, whose gleam had made me +momentarily distraught, was but so much dust and ashes. Ardently as I +had sought it, what was it compared to one glance of her eyes? What if, +in the same hour, I had lost my true treasure, and found the false? At +the thought, that glittering heap became abhorrent to me, and, without +looking back, I sought for some way by which I could descend. + +As my eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, I saw that there were some +shallow steps cut diagonally in the rock, and down these I had soon made +my way, to find myself in a roomy corridor, so much like that in which I +had seen Calypso standing in the moonlight, that, for a moment, I +dreamed it was the same, and started to run down it, thinking, indeed, +that my troubles were over--that in another moment I would emerge +through that enchanted door and face the sea. The more so, as the sand +was wet under my feet, showing that the tide had but recently left it. + +But alas! instead of a broad shining doorway, and open arms of freedom +widespread for me to leap into, I came at last to a mere long narrow +slit--through which I could gaze as a man gazes through a prison window +at the sky. + +The entrance had once been wide and free, but a mass of rock had fallen +from above and blocked it up, leaving only a long crack through which +the tides passed to and fro. + +I was still in my trap; it seemed more terrible than ever, now that I +could see freedom so close and shining, her very robe rustling within a +few feet of me, her very voice calling to me, singing the morning song +of the sea. But in the caverns behind me, I heard another mocking song, +and I felt a cold breath on my cheek, for Death stood by my side a-grin. + +"The treasure!" he whispered, "I need you to guard that. The treasure +you have risked all to win--the treasure for which you have lost--your +treasure! You cannot escape. Go back and count your gold. 'It is all +good money'! Ha! ha! 'it is all good money'!" + +The illusion seemed so real to me that I cried aloud: "I will not die! I +will not die!"--cried it so loud, that any one in a passing boat might +have heard me, and shuddered, wondering what poor ghost it was wailing +among the rocks. + +But the fright had done me good, and I nerved myself for another effort. +I examined the long crevice through which the sea was glittering so +near. It was not so narrow as at first it had seemed, and I reckoned +that it was some twenty feet through. On my side, it was a little over a +foot across. Wouldn't it be possible to wedge myself through? I tried it +at the opening, and found, that, with my arms extended sidewise, it was +comparatively easy to enter it, though it was something of a tight fit. +If it only kept the same width all through, I ought to be able to manage +it, inch by inch, if it took all day. But, did it? On the contrary, it +seemed to me that it narrowed slightly toward the middle, and--judging +by the way the light fell on the other side--that it widened out again +farther on. + +If only I could wriggle past that contraction in the middle, I should be +safe. And if I stuck fast midway! But the more I measured the width with +my eye, the less the narrowing seemed to be. To be so slightly +perceptible, it could hardly be enough to make much difference. Caution +whispered that it might be enough to make the difference between life +and death. But already my choice of those two august alternatives was +so limited as hardly to be called a choice. On the one hand, I could +worm my way back through the caves and tunnels through which I had +passed, and try my luck again at the other end. + +"With half-a-dozen matches!" sneered a voice that sounded like +Tobias's--"Precisely" ... and the horror of it was more than I dared +face again any way. So there was nothing for it but this aperture, +hardly wider than one of those deep stone slits that stood for windows +in a Norman castle. It was my last chance, and I meant to take it like a +man. + +I stood for a moment nerving myself and taking deep breaths, as though I +expected to take but few more. Then, my left arm extended, I entered +sidewise, and began to edge myself along. It was easy enough for a yard +or two, after which it was plain that it was beginning to narrow. Very +slightly indeed, but still a little. However, I could still go on, +and--I could still go back. I went on--more slowly it is true, yet still +I progressed. But the rock was perceptibly closer to me. I had to +struggle harder. It was beginning to hug me--very gently--but it was +beginning. + +I paused to take breath. I could not turn my head to look back, but I +judged that I had come over a third of the way. I was coming up to the +waist that I had feared, but I could still go on--very slowly, scarce +more than an inch at every effort; yet every inch counted, and I had +lots of time. My feet and head were free--which was the main thing. +Another good push or two, and I should be at the waist--should know my +fate. + +I gave the good push or two, and suddenly the arms of the rock were +around me. Tight and close, this time, they hugged me. They held me +fast, like a rude lover, and would not let me go. My knees and feet were +fast, and the walls on each side pressed my cheeks. My head too was +fast. I could not move an inch forward--and it was too late to go back! + +Panic swept over me. I felt that my hair must be turning white. +Presently I ceased to struggle. But the rocks held me in their giant +embrace. There was no need for me to do anything. I could go on resting +there--it was very comfortable--till-- + +And then I felt something touching my feet, running away and then +touching them again. O God! It was the incoming tide! It would--And then +I prepared myself to die. I suppose I was lightheaded, with the strain +and the lack of food, for, after the first panic, I found myself +dreamily, almost luxuriously, making pictures of how brave men had died +in the past--brave women too. I fancied myself in one and another +situation. But the picture that persisted was that of the Conciergerie +during the French Revolution. I was a noble, talking gaily to beautiful +ladies also under the shadow of death, and, right in the middle of a +jest, a gloomy fellow had just come in--to lead me to the guillotine. +The door was opening, and I kissed my hand in farewell-- + +Then the picture vanished, as I felt the swish of the tide round my +ankles. It would soon be up to my knees-- + +It _was_ up to my knees--it was creeping past them--and it was making +that hollow song in the caves behind me that had seemed so kind to me +that very morning, the song it had made to Calypso ... that far-off +night under the moon. + +I turned my eyes over the sea--I could move _them,_ at all events; how +gloriously it was shining out there! And here was I, helpless, with arms +extended, as one crucified. I closed my eyes in anguish, and let my body +relax; perhaps I dozed, or perhaps I fainted--but, suddenly, what was +that that had aroused me, summoned me back to life? It seemed a short, +sharp sound--then another, and then another--surely it was the sound of +firing! I opened my eyes and looked out to sea, and then I gave a great +cry: + +"Calypso! Calypso!" I cried. "Calypso!"--and it seemed as though a +giant's strength were in me--that I could rend the rocks apart. I made a +mighty effort, and, whether or not my relaxing had made a readjustment +of my position, I found that for some reason I could move forward again, +and, with one desperate wriggle, I had my head through the narrow space. +To wrench my shoulders and legs after it was comparatively easy, and, in +a moment, I was safe on the outer side, where, as I had surmised, the +aperture did widen out again. Within a few moments, I was on the edge of +the sea, had dived, and was swimming madly toward-- + +But let me tell what I had seen, as I hung there, so helpless, in that +crevice in the rocks. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_Action._ + + +I had seen, close in shore, a two-masted schooner under full sail +sweeping by, as if pursued, and three negroes kneeling on deck, with +levelled rifles. As I looked, a shot rang out, from my right, where I +could not see, and one of the negroes rolled over. Another shot, and the +negro next him fell sprawling with his arms over the bulwark. + +At that moment, two other negroes emerged from the cabin hatchway, half +dragging and half carrying a woman. She was struggling bravely, but in +vain. The negroes--evidently acting under orders of a white man, who +stood over them with a revolver--were dragging her toward the mainmast. +Her head was bare, her hair in disorder, and one shoulder from which her +dress had been torn in the struggle, gleamed white in the sunlight. Yet +her eyes were flashing splendid scornful fires at her captors; and her +laughter of defiance came ringing to me over the sea. It was then that I +had cried "Calypso!" and wrenched myself free. + +The next moment there came dashing in sight a sloop also under full +canvas, and at its bow, a huge white man, with a levelled rifle that +still smoked. At a glance, I knew him for Charlie Webster. He had been +about to fire again, but, as the man dragged Calypso for'ard, he paused, +calm as a rock, waiting, with his keen sportsman's eyes on Tobias--for, +of course, it was he. + +"You--coward!" I heard his voice roar across the rapidly diminishing +distance between the two boats, for the sloop was running with power as +well as sails. + +Meanwhile, the men had lashed Calypso to the mast, and even in my agony +my eyes recorded the glory of her beauty as she stood proudly there--the +great sails spread above her, and the sea for her background. + +"Now, do your worst," cried Tobias, his evil face white as wax in the +sunlight. + +"Fire, fire--don't be afraid," rang out Calypso's voice, like singing +gold. At the same instant, as she called, Tobias sprang toward her with +raised revolver. + +"Another word, and I fire," shouted the voice of the brute. + +But the rifle that never missed its mark spoke again. Tobias's arm fell +shattered, and he staggered away screaming. Still once more, Charlie +Webster's gun spoke, and the staggering figure fell with a crash on the +deck. + +"Now, boys, ready," I heard Charlie's voice roar out again, as the sloop +tore alongside the schooner--where the rest of the negro crew with +raised arms had fallen on their knees, crying for mercy. + +All this I saw from the water, as I swam wildly toward the two boats, +which now had closed on each other, a mass of thundering canvas, and +screaming and cursing men--and Calypso there, like a beautiful statue, +still lashed to the mast, a proud smile on her lovely lips. + +Another moment, and Charlie had sprung aboard, and, seizing a knife from +one of the screaming negroes, he cut her free. + +His deep calm voice came to me over the water. + +"That's what I call courage," he said. "I could never have done it." + +The "King" had been right. He knew his daughter. + +By this I was nearing the boats, though as yet no one had seen me. They +were all too busy with the confusion on deck, where four men lay dead, +and three others still kept up their gibberish of fear. + +I saw Calypso and Charlie Webster stand a moment looking down at the +figure of Tobias, prostrate at their feet. + +"I am sorry I had to kill him," I heard Charlie's deep growl. "I meant +to keep him for the hangman." + +But suddenly I saw him start forward and stamp heavily on something. + +"No, you don't," I heard him roar--and I learned afterward that Tobias, +though mortally wounded, was not yet dead, and that, as the two had +stood looking down on him, they had seen his hand furtively moving +toward the fallen revolver that lay a few inches from him on the deck. +Just as he had grasped it, Charlie's heavy boot had come down on his +wrist. But Tobias was still game. + +"Not alive, you English brute!" he was heard to groan out, and, +snatching free his wrist too swiftly to be prevented, he had gathered up +all his remaining strength, and hurled himself over the side into the +sea. + +I was but a dozen yards away from him, as he fell; and, as he rose +again, it was for his dying eyes to fix with a glare upon me. They +dilated with terror, as though he had seen a ghost. Then he gave one +strange scream, and fell back into the sea, and we saw him no more. + + * * * * * + +It will be easier for the reader to imagine, than for me to describe, +the look on the faces of Calypso and Charlie Webster when they saw me +appear at almost the same spot where poor Tobias had just gone bubbling +down. Words I had none, for I was at the end of my strength, and I broke +down and sobbed like a child. + +"Thank God you are safe--my treasure, my treasure!" was all I could say, +after they had lifted me aboard, and I lay face down on the deck, at her +feet. Swiftly she knelt by my side, and caressed my shoulder with her +dear hand. + +All of which--particularly my reference to "my treasure"--must have been +much to the bewilderment of the good simple-hearted Charlie, towering, +innocent-eyed, above us. I believe I stayed a little longer at her feet +than I really had need to, for the comfort of her being so near and +kind; but, presently, we were all aroused by a voice from the cliffs +above. It was the "King," with his bodyguard, Erebus and the crew of the +_Flamingo_--no Samson, alas! The sound of the firing had reached them in +the woods, and they had come hurrying to discover its cause. + +So we deferred asking our questions, and telling our several stories, +till we were pulled ashore. + +As Calypso was folded in her father's arms, he turned to me: + +"Didn't I tell you that I knew my daughter?" he said. + +"And I told you something too, O King," I replied--my eyes daring at +last to rest on Calypso with the love and pride of my heart. + +"And where on earth have _you_ been, young man?" he asked, laughing. +"Did Tobias kidnap you too?" + +It was very hard, as you will have seen, to astonish the "King." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +_Gathering Up the Threads._ + + +But, though it was hard to astonish and almost impossible to alarm the +"King," his sense of wonder was quite another matter, and the boyish +delight with which he listened to our several stories would have made it +worth while to undergo tenfold the perils we had faced. And the best of +it was that we each had a new audience in the others--for none of us +knew what had happened to the rest, and how it chanced that we should +all come to meet at that moment of crisis on the sea. Our stories, said +the "King," were quite in the manner of "The Arabian Nights," +dovetailing one into the other. + +"And now," he added, "we will begin with the Story of the Murdered Slave +and the Stolen Lady." + +Calypso told her story simply and in a few words. The first part of it, +of which the poor murdered Samson had been the eloquent witness, needed +no further telling. He had done his brave best--poor fellow--but Tobias +had had six men with him, and it was soon over. Her they had gagged and +bound and carried in a sort of improvised sedan-chair; Tobias had done +the thing with a certain style and--she had to admit--with absolute +courtesy. + +When they had gone a mile or two from the house, he had had the gag +taken from her mouth, and, on her promise not to attempt to escape +(which was, of course, quite impossible) he had also had her unbound, so +that her hurried journey through the woods was made as comfortable as +possible. Certainly it had not been without its spice of romance, for +four of the men had carried lanterns, and their progress must have had a +very picturesque effect lighting up the blackness of the strange trees. + +Tobias had walked at her side the whole way, without speaking a word. + +They were making, she had gathered--and as we had surmised--for the +northern shore, and, after about a three hours' march, she heard the +sound of the sea. On the schooner she had found a cabin all nicely +prepared for her--even dainty toilet necessaries--and an excellent +dinner was served, on some quite pretty china, to her alone. Poor Tobias +had seemed bent on showing--as he had said to Tom--that he was not the +"carrion" we had thought him. + +After dinner, Tobias had respectfully asked leave for a few words with +her. He had apologised for his action, but explained that it was +necessary--the only way he had left, he said, of protecting his own +interests, and safeguarding a treasure which belonged to him and no one +else, if it belonged to any living man. It had seemed to her that it was +a monomania with him. His eyes had gleamed so, as he spoke of it, that +she had felt a little frightened for the first time--for he seemed like +a madman on the subject. + +While he had been talking, she had made up her mind what she would do. +She would tell him the plain truth about her doubloons, and offer him +what remained of them as a ransom. This she did, and was able at last +half to persuade him that, so far as any one knew, that was all the +treasure there was, and that the digging among the ruins of the old +house was a mere fancy of her father's. There might be something there +or not--and she went so far as to give her word of honour that, if +anything was found, he should have his share of it. + +It was rather a woman's way, she admitted, but she thought that, so long +as she kept Tobias near the island, some favouring incident might happen +at any moment--that the proffered ransom, in fact, might prove the bait +to a trap. + +Tobias had seemed impressed, and promised his answer in the morning, +leaving her to sleep--with a sentry at her cabin door. She had slept +soundly, and wakened only at dawn. As soon as she was up, Tobias had +come to her, saying that he had accepted her offer, and asking her to +direct him to her treasure. + +This she had done, and, to avoid passing the settlement, they had taken +the course round the eastern end of the island. As they had approached +the cave (and here Calypso turned a quizzical smile on me, which no one, +of course, understood but ourselves), a sloop was seen approaching them +from the westward ... and here she stopped and turned to Charlie +Webster. + +"Now," said the "King," "we shall hear the Story of Apollo--or, let us +say, rather Ajax--the Far-Darter--He of the Arrow that never missed its +mark." + +And Charlie Webster, more at home with deeds than words, blushed and +blushed through his part of the story, telling how--having called at the +settlement--he had got our message from Sweeney, and was making up the +coast for the hidden creek. He had spied what he felt sure was Tobias's +schooner--had called on him "In the King's Name" to surrender--("I had +in my pocket the warrant for his arrest," said Charlie, with innocent +pride--"the d----d scoundrel") but had been answered with bullets. He +had been terribly frightened, he owned, when Calypso had been brought on +deck, but she had given him courage--he paused to beam on her, a +broad-faced admiration, for which he could find no words--and, as he had +never yet missed a flying duck at--I forget how many yards Charlie +mentioned--well ... perhaps he oughtn't to have risked it--And so his +story came to an end, amid reassuring applause. + +"Now," said the "King," "for the Story of the Disappearing Gentleman and +the Lighted Lantern." + +And then I told my story as it is already known to the reader, and I +have to confess that, when I came to the chestful of doubloons and +pieces of eight, I had a very attentive audience. But, at first, the +"King" shook his head with an amused smile. + +"Ulysses is romancing for the benefit of my romantic second childhood," +he said, and then, after his favourite manner he added-- + + "I might not this believe + Without the sensible and true avouch of mine own eyes ..." + +Then, he was for starting off that very night. But, reminded of the +difficult seclusion in which the treasure still lay, he was persuaded to +wait till the morrow. + +"At dawn then," he said, "to-morrow--'what time, the rosy-footed dawn' +... so be it. And now I am going to talk to Ajax the Far-Darter of +duck-shooting." + +"But wait!" I cried. "Why did 'Jack Harkaway' go to Nassau?" + +Calypso blushed. The "King" chuckled. + +"I prefer not to be known in Nassau, yet some of my business has to be +done there. Nor is it safe for beauty like Calypso's to go unprotected. +So from time to time, 'Jack Harkaway' goes for us both! And now enough +of explanations!"; and he launched into talk of game and sport in +various parts of the world, to the huge delight of the great +simple-hearted Charlie. + +But, after a time, other matters claimed the attention of his other +auditors. During the flow of his discourse night had fallen. Calypso and +I perceived that we were forgotten--so, by an impulse that seemed to be +one, we rose and left them there, and stole out into the garden where +the little fountain was dancing like a spirit under the moon, and the +orange trees gave out their perfume on the night breeze. I took her +hand, and we walked softly out into the moonlight, and looked down at +the closed lotuses in the little pool. And then we took courage to look +into each other's eyes. + +"Calypso," I said, "when are you going to show me where you keep your +doubloons?"--and I added, in a whisper, "Jack--when am I going to see +you in boy's clothes again?" + +And, with that, she was in my arms, and I felt her heart beating against +my side. + +"O! my treasure," I said--ever so softly--"Calypso, my treasure." + + + + +POSTSCRIPT + + +Now, such readers as have been "gentle" enough to follow me so far in my +story, may possibly desire to be told what lay behind those other locked +doors in the underground gallery where I so nearly laid my bones. + +I should like nothing better than to gratify their legitimate curiosity. +But, perhaps, they will not have forgotten my friend John Saunders, +Secretary to the Treasury of His Britannic Majesty's Government at +Nassau. + +John is a good friend, but he is a man of very rigid principles and a +great stickler in regard to any matters pertaining to the interests and +duties of his office. Were I to divulge--as, I confess, my pen is +itching to do--the dazzling--I will even say blinding--contents of these +other grim compartments (particularly if I were to give any hint of +their value in bullion), no feelings of friendship would for one second +weigh with him as against his duty to the august Government he so +faithfully serves. He may suspect what he likes, but, so long as he +actually knows nothing, we may rely on his inactivity. In fact, I know +that he has no wish to be told--so far he will go with us, but no +further--and, as we wish neither to sully his fine probity, nor, on the +other hand, to disgorge our "illgotten gains"--for which, after all, +each one of us risked his life (and for which one life, most precious of +all, was placed in such terrible jeopardy)--gains too which His +Britannic Majesty is quite rich enough to do without--the readers must +pardon me my caution, and draw upon his imagination for what I must not +tell him. + +This, however, I will say: he cannot well imagine too vividly or too +magnificently, and that, in fact, he may accept those hyperboles +fancifully indulged in by the "King" as very slightly overshooting the +mark. We do not, indeed, go disguised in cloth of gold, nor are we +blinding to look upon with rings and ropes of pearls. It does not happen +to be our western fashion to be so garmented. But--well--I won't say +that we couldn't do so if we were so minded. + +Nor will I say, either, that the "King" does not occasionally, in +private, masquerade in some such splendour; though, as a rule, he still +prefers that shabby tatterdemalion costume which we have still to accept +as a vagary of his fantastic nature. He is still the same Eternal Child, +and his latest make-believe has been to fit up those caverns, through +which so miserably I wormed my way, with the grandiose luxury of the +Count of Monte Cristo; that, as he says, the prophecy might be fulfilled +which said: "Monte Cristo shall seem like a pauper and a penny gaff in +comparison with the fantasies of our fearful wealth." + +Those caverns, we afterward discovered, did actually communicate with +Blackbeard's ruined mansion, and the "King," who has now rebuilt that +mansion and lives in it in semi-feudal state with Calypso and me, is +able to pass from one to the other by underground passages which are an +unfailing source of romantic satisfaction to his dear, absurd soul. + +As to whether or not the mansion and the treasure were actually +Blackbeard's--that is, Edward Teach's--we are yet in doubt, though we +prefer to believe that they were. At all events, we never found any +evidence to connect them at all with Henry P. Tobias, whose second +treasure, we have every reason to think, still remains undiscovered. + +As for the sinister and ill-fated Henry P. Tobias, Jr., we have since +learned--through Charlie Webster, who every now and again drops in with +sailors from his sloop and carries off the "King" for duck-shooting--that +his real name was quite different; he must have assumed, as a _nom de +guerre,_ the name we knew him by, to give colour to his claim. I am +afraid, therefore, that he was a plain scoundrel, after all, though it +seemed to me that I saw gleams in him of something better, and I shall +always feel a sort of kindness toward him for the saving grace of gallant +courtesy with which he invested his rascally abduction of Calypso. + +Calypso.... She and I, just for fun, sometimes drop into Sweeney's +store, and, when she has made her purchases, she draws up from her bosom +a little bag, and, looking softly at me, lays down on the counter--a +golden doubloon; and Sweeney--who, doubtless, thinks us all a little +crazy--smiles indulgently on our make-believe. + +Sometimes, on our way home, we come upon Tom in the plantations, +superintending a gang of the "King's" janissaries--among whom Erebus is +still the blackest--for Tom is now the Lord High Steward of our estate. +He beams on us in a fatherly way, and I lay my hand significantly on my +leftside--to his huge delight. He flashes his white teeth and wags his +head from side to side with inarticulate enjoyment of the allusion. For +who knows? He may be right. In so mysterious a world the smallest cause +may lead up to the most august results and there is nothing too +wonderful to happen. + + + + +EPILOGUE BY THE EDITOR + + +_It remains for me, as sponsor for the foregoing narrative, reluctantly +to add a second postscript to that of its author, bringing the fortunes +of himself and his friends a little nearer to the present year of grace. +Not that anything untoward has happened to any of them. Their lives are +still lived happily in the sun, and their treasure is still +safe--somewhere carefully out of the sun. But neither their lives nor +their treasure are where my friend's postscript left them. They are, +indeed, very much nearer New York than at that writing._ + +_As a matter of fact, after King Alcinoues had played but a short time at +being the Count of Monte Cristo in his underground palace, it gradually +was borne in upon his essentially common-sense mind, as upon the minds +of Calypso and her husband, that their secret was known to too many for +its absolute safety. Kindly coloured people indeed, and a very friendly +"Secretary to the British Treasury" ... still, there was no knowing, +and, on all accounts, they gradually came to the unromantic conclusion +that the safe deposit vaults of New York were more reliable than +limestone caverns filled with the sound of sea. This conclusion explains +the presence of my friend and his Lady of the Doubloons in the box of +the Punch and Judy Theatre that, to me, eventful evening._ + +_Since then, I myself have made a pilgrimage to all the places that play +a part in this romance. I have crawled my way through those caves in +which my friend came so near to leaving his bones, looked into those +vaults once glittering with pieces of eight and all that other +undivulged treasure-trove, wedged myself as far as I dared into that +slit in the rocks, looking out like a narrow window on the sea._ + +_All those places are real; any one, with a mind to, can find them; but, +should any one care to undertake the pilgrimage, he will note, as I did, +that those baronial halls of Edward Teach--for a while the playground of +King Alcinoues--are rapidly being reclaimed by the savage wilderness, +fiercely swallowed minute by minute by the fanged and serpentine +vegetation--which, after all, was only stayed for a moment, and which, +humanly speaking, will now submerge them for all eternity._ + +_Once more, to employ one of the favourite quotations of King Alcinoues, +"I PASSED BY THE WALLS OF BALCLUTHA, AND THEY WERE DESOLATE." The King, +I may be allowed to add, finds New York quite a good place to talk +in--though he is frank in saying that he prefers a coral island._ + +R. Le G. + + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: +List of A.L. Burt Company's Popular Copyright Fiction removed. +Dash lengths standardised. +Page 262: Changed intance to instance +Page 295: Changed Monto Cristo to Monte Cristo. +Page 102: Changed mooonlit (non dialogue) to moonlit. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pieces of Eight, by Richard le Gallienne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIECES OF EIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 17741.txt or 17741.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/7/4/17741/ + +Produced by Jason Isbell, Christine D. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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