The Golden Magnet Part 34

I tore open the case and showed him the sixteen golden ingots remaining.

"And you found all that, Harry! My boy, you were fortunate indeed."

"All that, Uncle!" I said with a smile. "That is not a hundredth part.

I am rich. I? No! We are rich; and now I want your advice. What are we to do? for I've hidden my treasure again till I can fetch it away in safety."

"You have done well, then," he said gravely. "But is not this some delusion, my boy?"

"Are these delusive, Uncle?" I exclaimed, clinking together two of the sonorous little bars. "Were those delusive which Garcia has carried off? No, Uncle, I thought once it must be a dream; but it is a solid reality. I have found the treasures of one of the temples of the Sun-- ingots, plates, sheets, cups, and two great shields besides, all of solid metal."

"Harry," said my uncle, "it sounds like a wild invention from some story-teller's pen, and I should laugh in your face but for the proofs you have given me. But you must not stay here in this country. It is as much yours as any lucky adventurer's, but your right would be disputed in a hundred quarters; while, as for the Indians--"

"Disputed, Uncle?" I said interrupting him. "Disputed if it were known. You know it."

"Does any one else?" said my uncle anxiously.

"Tom was with me. We found it together," I said, "and he helped me to conceal it again. But I could trust him with my life. In fact, Uncle,"

I said laughing, "we owe one another half-a-dozen lives over our discovery, for either I was saving his life or he was saving mine all the time."

"But the Indians, Harry--the Indians! That is a sacred treasure--the treasure devoted to their G.o.ds, hence its remaining so long untouched.

If they knew that you had taken it, no part of South America would hold you free from their vengeance. They would have your life, sooner or later."

"Pleasant place this, certainly, Uncle," I said laughing; "what with Garcia and the Indians."

"I don't think it could become known from those ingots," said my uncle musingly, "though Garcia will rack his brains to find out how you became possessed of them. And yet I don't know; you see they have two or three characters stamped on them that the Indians might know. But were you seen?"

"Coming from the place, Uncle? Yes, I suppose I must have been watched constantly. But all the same, I have the treasure hidden away; and as to the risk from the Indians, I don't feel much alarmed; and you may depend upon it that they are in the most profound--What's that?"

My uncle uttered an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n at the same moment, for as I spoke, rapid as the dart of a serpent, a dark shadowy arm was pa.s.sed under the blind close to the little table where we sat, and on looking there were but fifteen of the little ingots left.

"Stop here! I'll go," I exclaimed.

In an instant I had torn aside the blind, pushed open the jalousie, and leaped out into the outer sunshine, to stand in the glare, looking this way and that way, but in vain: there were flowers, and trees, and the bright glare, but not a soul in sight.

I stood for an instant to think; and then, feeling for my pistol to see if it was there if wanted, I dashed across the plantation towards the forest, peering in every direction, but without avail; and at last, more troubled than I cared to own, I returned, dripping with perspiration, to the hacienda, to meet Tom.

"Say, Mas'r Harry, what's the good o' running yourself all away, like so much b.u.t.ter? 'Tain't good for the const.i.tution."

"Have you seen any Indians lurking about to-day, Tom, anywhere near the place?"

"Not half a one, Mas'r Harry, because why? I've been fast asleep ever since I saw the Don off the premises."

"Keep a good look-out, Tom," I cried.

Then I hurried in to my uncle, who looked troubled.

"I don't like that, Harry," he said. "There were eavesdroppers close at hand. I thought I would go too, but I saw nothing. Not a man had been out of the yard. But there, take the gold up to your room and lock it in the big chest; the key is in it. I put it here for safety till you got back, and--confound!"

We gazed in blank astonishment, for as my uncle opened his secretary and laid bare my leather case, which he had locked and strapped up, there it was with the straps cut through, the lock cut out, and the fifteen ingots gone!

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

BARS WITHOUT BOLTS.

As soon as my uncle had recovered from his astonishment he took out and loaded a couple of brace of pistols, laying one pair ready to hand and placing the others in his pockets.

"Harry, my lad," he then said seriously, "we have entered upon something that will take all our wits to compa.s.s. We have cunning people to deal with; but Englishmen have brains of their own, and perhaps we can circ.u.mvent those who are against us. I wonder whether Garcia will get safe home with his share."

I was too much put out to think or care much about Garcia just then.

Certainly I did think it a good thing that he had been paid off, and the princ.i.p.al current of my thoughts just then tended to a congratulatory point as I thought of how much more serious the loss might have been.

That I had done right in concealing the treasure was evident; and there it must lie, I thought, until I could bear it at once away out of the country.

My musings were interrupted by my uncle.

"Harry," he said, "I'd give something if the women were away from here.

I hope I am magnifying the trouble; but I fear that we are going to be between two fires; and, at present I hardly know what course to pursue.

I'm afraid of your gold, my lad, but a prince's fortune must not be slighted; and my conscience does not much upbraid me with respect to helping you to secure it. But we must not pa.s.s over this robbery in silence. That was done by no one here, I am sure. We must try and put an end to eavesdropping so close at hand, or more strange things may happen. Now, take my advice: both you and Tom go well armed, don't stir many yards from the plantation; and now come with me and let us carefully search the place inside and out. Nearly a hundred ounces of gold taken within the last few minutes, and part even from under our eyes. It won't do, Harry--it won't do!"

Tom was called in, armed, and then the place was thoroughly searched inside and out, but without avail; not a trace could be seen, till, after a few minutes' thought, my uncle made a sign to me, placed Tom in one position, me in another, and then disappeared into the house.

Five minutes after there was a loud cry, the sharp crack of a pistol, and what seemed like some beast of prey leaped from one of the upper windows full twelve feet to the ground, about half-way between Tom and myself.

With a rush we made for the falling object, grasping it as it fell to the earth; but the next instant I was sent staggering back, as the Indian--for such it was--bounded up, striking me in the chest with his hand; while, when I gathered myself together again, Tom was standing alone, and my uncle came running out holding a handkerchief to his face, which had recommenced bleeding.

"Did you stop him?" he said.

"Stop!" cried Tom. "It was like trying to stop a thing made of quicksilver. But," he continued with a grin, "I've got his skin; he left that in my hands, and I say, Mas'r Harry, if he wasn't made of quicksilver he was of gold."

For at that moment, as Tom shook the dark native cloth garment left in his hands by the fleeing Indian, the sixteen ingots fell to the ground, to be instantly secured.

"Harry," said my uncle, "I told you we had to deal with a cunning enemy.

That fellow was in the s.p.a.ce between the ceiling and roof of my bed-room. How he got there I can't tell; but," he added with a shudder, "I fear if he had not been dislodged some of us would not have seen the morning's light."

"But pursuit, Uncle," I cried. "Let us try and overtake him."

"No--no," he said uneasily. "We should only be led into a trap in the forest, and we are too weak for that. I'm afraid, Harry, that this affair is going to a.s.sume dimensions greater than we think for. It is evident that the Indians suspected you of having been at their sacred treasure, and despatched a spy to watch if their suspicions were correct. I tried to bring him down, but I had only a momentary glance and I must have missed him. No, Harry, there must be no pursuit but plenty of scheming for defence, if we wish to hold that which we have got. As I said before, there is no knowing where this will end. Which way did he go?"

"Right away towards the forest, sir," said Tom.

"Perhaps only to slip back and watch by some other path," muttered my uncle. "Give me the bars, Harry, and I'll take them in, while you and Tom walk cautiously round before coming to me. Go one each way, right round, so as to meet again here, and then come in and we will talk matters over a little. But stay--tell me--did you see anything of the Indians, do you say, as you came back?"

I repeated the incident of being surrounded, and the way in which Tom presented a stalact.i.te to the princ.i.p.al man.

My uncle smiled grimly.

"Tom," he said, "you must look out, or that stalact.i.te will come back with interest. I'm afraid that we English do not give the Indians credit for all the brain they possess. They may have once been a simple, childlike race, but long oppression has roused something more in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. You must look out, lads--look out."