Pieces of Eight Part 24

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 a.s.sume 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 pa.s.s the word to four men blacker than themselves; therefore we can a.s.sume 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 Na.s.sau. Call in on Sweeney on the way, buy an extra box of cartridges, and say '_Dieu et mon Droit_'--it is our pa.s.sword; 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 Na.s.sau; 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 ash.o.r.e--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 circ.u.mstances 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 ash.o.r.e, and were glad, as I was, to "H'ist up the _John B._ Sail." We sang that cla.s.sic 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d,'" 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 Na.s.sau 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 sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.e 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 ash.o.r.e. 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.