The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" Part 17

Acting, then, upon this resolution, I caused the gig to be brought alongside immediately after breakfast; and ordered the axes and shovels to be pa.s.sed into her, at the same time issuing instructions for all hands except the cook and steward to get into her and go on sh.o.r.e with me. The men bustled about, nothing loth--for were they not going to get a change from the monotony of sea life, and, at the same time, provide themselves with the means of unlimited indulgence in more or less vicious enjoyment for the remainder of their lives?--and I noticed, with impotent anger, that, having at length arrived, as they supposed, at the goal of their villainous schemes, with the wealth which was to be the reward of their treachery all but within their grasp, as they believed, the restraint which they had hitherto _so_ rigorously imposed upon themselves was in a measure laid aside, and they began to reveal themselves, both in speech and in action, as the unscrupulous scoundrels that they were.

I paid no attention, however, to anything I saw or heard, leaving them to believe, if they pleased, that I regarded their behaviour as a simple ebullition of high spirits at the prospect of a little recreation ash.o.r.e; and pa.s.sing my s.e.xtant and other paraphernalia carefully down into the boat, quickly followed them and gave the order to shove off.

There were twelve of us, all told, in the boat; she was therefore pretty deep in the water. Notwithstanding which, so eager were the men to get at the treasure, that in less than ten minutes from the time of leaving the ship we were once more in the creek, and pulling toward its head or north-eastern corner, at which point I had noticed on the preceding evening that the timber appeared to be growing more thickly and heavily than elsewhere, and where, consequently, the task of penetrating it for any distance would involve the greatest labour and consume the most time.

As we drew near the sh.o.r.e at this point I observed--what had escaped my notice on the preceding evening--that a small stream of beautifully clear, crystal water came brawling down through a steep, narrow ravine, and discharged itself into the creek exactly at the spot for which we were heading, and I at once resolved to avail myself of its presence as a means of deluding the men into the belief that they were working at the right spot.

Accordingly, when the boat grounded upon the beach, I ordered everybody out of her, with the picks and shovels, and set all hands to work cutting pegs and long slender rods, under the direction of the boatswain, retaining Forbes and San Domingo, the negro, as a.s.sistants in my own especial part of the work. Within ten minutes, the fellows had cut all the pegs and rods I could possibly require; and then, looking carefully and anxiously about me, I at length fixed a stout peg, with the nicest accuracy, in the sand at its junction with the gra.s.s, and exactly at the edge of the stream. Then I sent men here and there with long wands, which I made them hold exactly perpendicular on the ground, adjusting their positions with the most finicking precision, until I had wrought them all firmly into the belief that the whole of this labour was gone through for the purpose of finding the exact spot where the treasure lay buried. Finally, I set out by compa.s.s, and indicated, by means of two long slender rods stuck upright into the sand, a line that would take them straight into the bush where it was thickest and most impenetrable, and told them to cut a straight line in that direction, exactly two thousand yards in length from a peg which I had driven at the margin of the bush.

This task I entrusted to Rogers and the six other men, who struck me as being the blackest sheep of the flock; while, with Forbes, Joe Martin, Barr, Mckinley, Christianssen, and San Domingo, I took the boat, with a sufficient supply of axes and shovels, and made the best of my way to the southern side of the small islet upon which the treasure was said to be hidden.

Upon our arrival at the desired spot, my impression of the preceding evening that it was entirely overgrown was fully confirmed, it proving to be literally impossible to find a place where a landing could be effected without first clearing away the scrub. There was this difference, however, between the growth on the islet and that at the spot where I had left the boatswain and his party at work, that whereas the latter consisted almost exclusively of huge trees, the former was composed largely of scrub, with only a few trees here and there, so that it would not be nearly so difficult to penetrate as the other. It was evident indeed to me at a glance, now that I had the full light of day to aid me in my inspection, that the growth upon the islet was of much more recent date than that upon any part of the main island in sight from that spot; a fact which tended to confirm my previous suspicion that at the time of the burial of the treasure the soil of the islet had been bare, or nearly so, of arboreal growth.

The growth, however, was there now, and it const.i.tuted a very formidable difficulty, for how was I to identify a point exactly one thousand feet south of the obelisk rock, unless I could move freely over the ground for the purpose of obtaining my precise bearing and distance?

Suddenly a brilliant idea struck me. Immediately opposite the point on the islet at which I wished to land, there was a broad strip of sandy beach, const.i.tuting indeed part of the margin of the basin, of which the islet formed the centre. Would it be possible to make my measurements from that point? There could be no harm in trying, at all events, and we accordingly pulled across the water, landing at a part of the beach that looked eminently promising. The first thing was to determine the direction of a line running due south from the topmost pinnacle of the obelisk rock, and after a few trials with the compa.s.s, I got this. My next act was to erect a line perpendicular to this along the sandy margin of the basin, which I accomplished with the aid of my s.e.xtant, taking care to make this second line as long as the nature of the ground would allow. Then, driving a peg into the sand at the intersection of these two lines, and another at the farther extremity of my second line, I had a right-angled triangle, whereof the two pegs and the obelisk rock marked the angles. I had now only to measure very carefully my second line, which I did by means of a surveyor's tape measure, bought at Sydney for the purpose, and to take the angle between the perpendicular and the hypothenuse of my triangle, when I had the means of calculating all or any of the elements of the triangle that I desired. In this way, then, I ascertained that the pinnacle of the obelisk rock was exactly six thousand four hundred and seventy-seven feet due north of the peg I had driven into the sand to mark the intersection of my two lines.

Then, returning to this same peg, I sent Forbes away to the islet in the boat, with instructions to set up one of the oars, with a white pocket-handkerchief attached to it, on the sh.o.r.e of the islet at the precise spot I should indicate to him by signal. This spot I arranged to be exactly in line with the peg and the obelisk rock; all three points, therefore, were in one straight line, the bearing of which was due north and south, while its northern extremity was the obelisk rock.

My next task was to take an angle to the oar from the peg at which I had taken the angle to the obelisk rock, which enabled me to determine that the oar was three thousand eight hundred and two feet from the intersecting peg, and consequently two thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet from the obelisk rock. This completed all the data I required; for I had now only to drive a bold, conspicuous staff into the sand in place of my intersecting peg, and another into the ground on the islet where the oar now stood, and by cutting back into the scrub for a distance of one thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet toward the obelisk rock, using these two staves as guides to keep their line straight, the workers would reach a spot exactly a thousand feet south from the obelisk rock; or, in other words, the hiding-place of the treasure. The two guiding-staves were soon fixed, and then, leaving Forbes to superintend the operations of Joe, Barr, and Mckinley, I replaced my instruments in the boat and, with Christianssen and San Domingo at the oars, paddled on board the barque for the purpose of bringing Sir Edgar and the whole of his party on sh.o.r.e, in order that they might indulge in a run on the beautiful sandy strand of the basin, and enjoy a nearer view of the entrancing loveliness of this exquisite gem of the Pacific.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

THE FINDING OF THE TREASURE: AND WHAT FOLLOWED.

Knowing that there was work enough to occupy the party on the islet for probably the next two days, I did not consider it necessary to keep a watch upon their labours, but left them with Forbes in charge, and joined the Desmond party in a ramble over the island. This, by following the ravines, the bottoms of which were comparatively free from undergrowth, we found less difficult of accomplishment than we had antic.i.p.ated; and although the toil of clambering up the steep acclivities, and over the smooth boulders that in many places enc.u.mbered the way, proved rather trying to our unaccustomed limbs, we nevertheless managed to make our way to the summit of "the Nose," as we called it, from whence we obtained a superb panoramic view of the entire island.

That the place was uninhabited we could now no longer doubt; for although from our lofty standpoint we had the whole surface of the island spread out like a map beneath us, there was nowhere any break whatever in the dense vegetation which flourished so luxuriantly on the rich soil; nothing whatever to indicate the existence of cleared and cultivated patches, as there certainly would have been, had the island been inhabited. Nor did we observe any sign or trace whatever of animals of any sort; birds seemed to be the only living creatures inhabiting this lovely spot, and they appeared to swarm in thousands wherever we happened to come upon a comparatively open s.p.a.ce. Fruits of several kinds abounded on the island, among the most abundant being bananas, mangoes, breadfruit, and cocoa-nuts. We were also fortunate enough to come upon several granadilla vines, the product of which was just ripe, and we accordingly loaded ourselves with as many of these delicious fruits as we could carry.

Our return journey was effected by a somewhat shorter route than that which we had followed on our outward way, and eventually we hit upon a ravine down which brawled a small stream of deliciously sweet crystal-clear water, following which we came out upon the margin of the basin at the point where Rogers and his party were working. Despite the intense heat and a perfect plague of mosquitoes the fellows were toiling as if for life, and had already succeeded in clearing a line of fully a hundred feet in length. I critically examined their work, p.r.o.nounced it all right, and we then went on to the islet, Sir Edgar and I discussing by the way the distracting question of how the crew were to be dealt with in the event of our finding the treasure. The question seemed to resolve itself into this--that the men must either be taken away in the ship, or left on the island; and if the former, they would certainly have to be taken as prisoners, since, if free, they would a.s.suredly seize the ship, even if they had to murder me in order to accomplish their purpose. As prisoners, however, they would be worse than useless; they would be a continual menace and source of anxiety. Sir Edgar consequently agreed with me that I should be fully justified in leaving them--or, at all events, the worst of them--behind; and this I at length determined to do; watching my opportunity to divide them up into small parties, upon some pretext, and making prisoners of them in detail; thus minimising the risk of a fight and its too probable accompaniment, loss of life. There would be no likelihood whatever of the rascals starving in such a land of plenty as the island had proved to be; they could not possibly suffer any very serious discomfort in so genial a climate; and, the treasure once secured, it would be no difficult matter to arrange for their speedy rescue. This matter settled, I felt somewhat easier in my mind, and now only required an opportunity to discuss and arrange the details with Forbes and Joe.

On reaching the islet we found that here, too, wonderful progress had been made, the party under Forbes having already cleared a line through the scrub of very nearly four hundred feet in length. This was due to the fact that they had hitherto encountered no trees in the actual line of their work, though several had been very narrowly missed. It was apparent, however, that on the morrow they would be less fortunate; for which I was by no means sorry, as it would lengthen the duration of the work, and afford me a better opportunity for completing my plans. That same evening, after dinner, Forbes, Sir Edgar, and I discussed the matter in detail, and finally completed certain arrangements that appeared to us to promise a fairly satisfactory solution of the whole difficulty. On the following day I found an opportunity to communicate to Joe the pith of these arrangements--which were to be put into operation as soon as ever the treasure, if found, should be safely placed on board the barque--and he cheerfully undertook to maintain a constant watch for my signals, and to be ready for action whenever I should make them.

The next three days pa.s.sed uneventfully away, the men working perhaps not quite so hard as they had at the outset, but still making fairly good progress. The party on the islet had reached to within eighty feet of their goal when they knocked off that night; and now, for the first time, I think, I began to fully realise the momentous character of the issues that were probably to be decided within the next twenty-four hours. Would the treasure be found? Hitherto it had never occurred to me to seriously reflect that there might possibly be an unfavourable reply to this question; but now that only a few short hours lay between me and certainty, I suddenly began to comprehend how much depended upon whether that reply should prove to be Yea or Nay; and an almost uncontrollable impatience to have the matter definitely decided took possession of me, rendering sleep that night an impossibility. But, even with the impatient, though time may lag upon leaden wings, he pa.s.ses at last; and the morning at length dawned upon me with my nerves quieted and steadied by exhaustion and the reaction from the night's intolerable excitement.

As it was confidently expected that, if the treasure really existed, and still reposed in its alleged hiding-place, it would that day be found, the ladies determined to go on sh.o.r.e to witness its disinterment, taking the nursemaids and children with them in order that the latter might enjoy what would probably prove to be their last opportunity for a ramble on the lovely island. Accordingly, the party being a large one, both gigs were manned, and all hands of us, even to the cook and steward, went ash.o.r.e, leaving the ship to take care of herself; the wind being a gentle breeze from the eastward, or somewhat off the land, with a fine, settled look about the weather. Rogers and his party resumed their usual work at the head of the basin; and Forbes, with his gang, vigorously attacked the narrow belt of scrub that still interposed between them and their goal.

It happened, however, that this bit of scrub was more thickly dotted with trees than any other portion that they had yet met with, so that it was four o'clock in the afternoon before a very careful final measurement a.s.sured us that the most laborious part of our task had come to an end. The ground, however, was still covered with _debris_, which had to be cleared away before the actual digging operations could be commenced, and this occupied fully another hour. By this time the evening shadows had begun to climb up the hillsides; nevertheless the men seized their picks and shovels, and, with renewed energy, began to turn up the ground.

They toiled thus for an hour, by which time they had excavated a hole some three feet deep in the centre, and I had actually, with great reluctance, given the word to knock off, when Barr, driving his pick deep into the ground, where he intended to leave it that night, struck upon something harder than soil.

"Hurrah, boys," he exclaimed, "here's something at last! Stick to it, and let's see what it is before we leave it."

At it again they accordingly went, with such desperate vigour that the perspiration literally poured _off_ their arms and down their necks, and in a few minutes they succeeded in laying bare the top of a solid timber chest, strongly bound with iron. They were very anxious to get this chest out of the ground, there and then; but on attempting to clear the earth away from round about it, it was found that the chest was only one of several others all packed closely together, so that it would be necessary to reach one of the outer chests before any of them could be conveniently moved. We were consequently compelled to content ourselves that night with the knowledge that we had found _something_, and to wait until the next morning to ascertain the value of our discovery.

The following sunrise found us once more _en route_ for the sh.o.r.e, this time provided with a couple of spare studding-sail booms to act as sheers for the more convenient hoisting out of the chests, together with such rope, blocks, etcetera, as we should require for the purpose. The size of the chests, however, was such as would probably tax the strength of the entire party to handle them, and I was therefore reluctantly compelled to call in the a.s.sistance of Rogers and his party.

Even thus reinforced, it soon became apparent that a heavy task lay before us, and it was not until the boatswain was piping to breakfast that the first chest was successfully broken out and raised to the surface.

Breakfast was soon over that morning, and then the question arose, how were such ponderous chests to be conveyed to the ship? They measured, roughly, about two and a half feet square, and were so heavy that eight men--all who could conveniently get round one of them--could not raise the weight from the ground, much less carry it along a narrow path c.u.mbered with stumps and prostrate trunks of trees. Greatly as I disliked such a proceeding, it seemed that there was no alternative but to break open each chest, and convey its contents piecemeal to the boats; and this course was therefore perforce adopted.

The task of merely breaking open the chests proved to be one of no ordinary difficulty; for they were constructed of solid oak, nearly three inches thick, so well made, and so strongly bound with iron, that I could not help surmising that they must have been the chests in which the Spaniards had originally stowed the treasure, and specially made for the purpose. They were black with age; but the timber was perfectly sound, while the iron bands, though more than half eaten away with rust, were still stout enough to give us an immense amount of trouble.

At length, however, the first chest was broken open, and was found to contain sixty-four bricks or ingots of solid silver! They were arranged in four tiers of sixteen bricks each, exactly fitting the chest, and each brick weighed about a quarter of a hundredweight. Each chest, therefore, if all contained the same precious metal, would represent the value of sixteen hundredweight of silver. How many chests there were we did not yet know; but it was evident that there were several. Some said there were eight or nine, but I thought there must be more, judging by the way in which they were arranged in the ground.

The men were now divided into two working parties, one of which, under my supervision, carried the silver to one of the boats, while the other, under Forbes, proceeded to break out and open another chest. The contents of one chest I considered a sufficient load for the gig, and accordingly, as soon as this amount had been placed in her, we shoved off for the ship; my crew consisting of Joe, the Norwegian, the negro, and an American named Barr. On arriving alongside the silver was simply pa.s.sed up the side and pitched down the after-hatchway upon the ballast, for the present.

The ladies, who had elected to remain on board this day on account of the heat, were so filled with excitement and delight at the sight of the silver and the news of our find, that they could no longer remain quietly where they were; they must needs go ash.o.r.e once more and see all this wealth brought out of the ground; and accordingly, upon our return pa.s.sage, they went with us, taking the maids and children with them.

On our arrival at the islet we found the second gig awaiting us, with her cargo in her, which the other party had just finished loading; so we left the one boat, and took the other, treating this cargo as we had the last; and so the work went merrily on until the men's dinner-time, by which time we had raised and transported eight boxes of silver. And it had by this time been ascertained that there were eight more still to be dealt with!

A hurried meal was s.n.a.t.c.hed, and the work was resumed, three more of the chests being disposed of by three o'clock in the afternoon. Then another surprise met us. The next chest contained _gold_ instead of silver; the ingots being only nine in number, somewhat larger than the silver ingots, and weighing, as nearly as we could estimate, about one hundredweight each. Each of these gold ingots was neatly wrapped and sewn into a covering of hide. On our return from the ship, after conveying this precious cargo on board, we were met with the news that two other chests, since opened, also contained gold; and, not to detain the reader necessarily, it eventually proved that the remaining cases, two in number, likewise contained the same precious metal. The total find thus consisted of eleven chests containing seven hundred and four ingots of silver, and five chests containing one hundred and thirty-five ingots of gold.

All through the long, hot afternoon the work went on with unremitting energy, for it soon became apparent that darkness would be upon us before the last of the treasure could be moved. I was just completing the transfer of the third chest of gold to the ship when the sun sank in a perfect blaze of splendour below the horizon, and a few of the brighter stars were already twinkling in the zenith when we ranged up alongside the other boat at the landing-place upon the islet.

As I stepped out of the light boat into the loaded one, and directed my crew to follow, one of the men--an Irishman, named O'Connor--touched his forehead in the approved sh.e.l.l-back style, and observed--

"Av ye plaise, sor, Misther Forbes was sayin' would ye be so kind as to sthep along to the houle afore ye makes your next thrip to the ship?

He's afther wantin' to shpake to ye."

"Oh, very good," said I; and, stepping ash.o.r.e, I directed Joe to go across to the other side of the basin to fetch the ladies and children, who had crossed earlier in the afternoon, and now stood waiting to be conveyed back to the ship, and then went groping my way along the dark, uneven path toward the hole. The man O'Connor and somebody else--who it was I could not distinguish in the gloom--were stumbling along in front of me, and making very poor headway, I thought, for I quickly overtook them. They were in my way, working along as they were, two abreast, for the path was very narrow; so I said to them--"Here, let me pa.s.s, you two; I am in a hurry!" They stepped aside without a word, one to one side of the pathway and one to the other; and as I pa.s.sed between them one of them cried, "Now!" and, before I could even so much as think, they both flung themselves upon me and bore me to the ground, one of them springing upon me from behind, with his arms round my neck and his knee into the small of my back, while the other dashed himself upon his knees on my chest, and gripped me by the throat by one hand, as he pressed the cold muzzle of a revolver to my temple with the other.

"A single worrud or a movement, and I'll pull the thrigger on ye, as sure as death!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed O'Connor, between his set teeth, as he tightened his grip upon my throat. "Now, Bill, feel ov his pockets and take his barkers away, av he has anny, while I hould him. Now, listen to what I'm tellin' ye. The others--that's Misther Forbes and the gintleman--is already tuk, so ye needn't be expectin' any help from thim; and as we've got such a hape of goold and silver out ov this houle, we're goin' to be contint wid it, and intind to take the thriflin' liberty of borryin' the ship to carry it away wid us; you can have the rest yourselves, and much good may it do ye. Ah, that's right, Bill," as the latter extracted a brace of loaded revolvers from my jacket pocket; "just feel, while ye're about it, av he has a knife, and take that from him, too. Now, are ye sure that's all?" as the other man--who now proved to be Rogers--took my knife away also. "Very well.

Now, captin dear, ye may get upon your feet; but--understand me--av ye attimpts to lay hands upon either ov us, the other'll shoot ye through the head widout waitin' to say, 'By your lave.' Arrah, now, it's kilt he is, I do belave!" as the fellow rose from my prostrate body and saw that I made no movement--for all this time he had kept so tight a hold upon my throat that he fairly strangled me, and, though I still, in a dreamy way, heard him speaking, my strength had entirely left me, and I was scarcely conscious of my surroundings.

"I'll fire a shot to let the others know that it's all right, and then we'll have to carry him as far as the boats," remarked Rogers. "Perhaps a dip in the water may bring him round."

Such extreme measures, however, proved unnecessary; for, my throat once released, my senses began to come back to me, and by the time that we had reached the sh.o.r.e of the islet I was once more able to stand.

Arrived here, I was compelled to enter the empty gig, and was carried across to the opposite sh.o.r.e of the creek, where the ladies still remained; my order to bring them across having been countermanded in a whisper by one of the men, the moment that I had turned my back. On reaching the other side I was ordered out of the boat, a loaded revolver being exhibited as a hint to me to hasten my movements; but, as I stumbled forward over the thwarts, Joe offered me the support of his arm, murmuring in my ear, as I stepped out on the sand--

"Cheer up, cap'n! This here's a most unexpected move, and no mistake; but the ship ain't gone yet; and, from what I heard pa.s.sin' among the others, just now, afore you come up, I ain't by no means sure as they'll leave to-night. Some of 'em is that greedy that they wants to stop and have a shy at the other treasure; and if they does, there's no knowin'

what may happen betwixt now and then. And if they makes up their minds to go, _I_ don't go with 'em. I'll slip overboard, and swim ash.o.r.e, if there's no other way of joinin' you."

I had only time to murmur a word of thanks for this expression of sympathy, when he left me and returned to the boat, which immediately shoved off for the islet.

The ladies--who, with the nursemaids and children, still stood waiting to be conveyed to the ship--saw, by the actions of the men, that there was something amiss, and now approached me, inquiring anxiously what was the matter. Of course, I had no alternative but to explain to them that the men had risen in mutiny, and had seized the ship; and, although I made as light of it as I could, it was a sorry tale at best that I had to tell them. I was still in the midst of my story when the phosph.o.r.escent flash of oars became visible in the black shadow of the islet, and presently the outline of the boat, telling dark upon the starlit surface of the still water, was seen approaching. As she drew near, the voice of Rogers came pealing across the water--

"Sh.o.r.e ahoy! just walk a bit farther back from the water's edge, there, or we shall be obliged to fire. We're about to land Sir Edgar; and if there's any sign of a rush at the boat, we shall shoot to kill. So if you don't want to be hurt, you'd better stand well back."

"Hold on there a moment," I answered back, disregarding the threat.

"Surely, men, you do not intend to abandon us here, unarmed; without a shelter from the weather, and with only the clothes we stand up in?"

"Oh, you'll do well enough, I don't doubt," replied Rogers, brutally.

"You don't want arms, because there's n.o.body nor nothing here that'll hurt you; you don't need clothes, because the climate's so warm that you can do without 'em; and, as to a shelter, why, we've left all the axes and shovels ash.o.r.e; you're welcome to them, and if you can't build a house with such tools as that, you deserves to go without. There's plenty of fruit, and plenty of good water, so you won't starve; and, lastly, there's a chance for you to get all the treasure that's in that other hole--if we decides that we don't want it ourselves."

"What?" I exclaimed, indignantly, "after stealing my ship and my treasure from me, will you not go to the small trouble of pa.s.sing the ladies' and children's clothing into a boat, and sending it--"

"Well, if you _won't_ stand back, take that!" interrupted Rogers; and as the word left his lips there was a flash, a sharp report, and a bullet went singing close past my ear.