The Golden Magnet Part 48

That melting down was like a nightmare to me, and over and over again I used to ask myself whether the gold were worth all this trouble. Slave, slave, slave, till our fingers were sore; and now I would be blistering my hands with a small-toothed saw which Tom had bought one day and brought home in triumph for cutting through the gold, and next time toiling away with a great file.

Yes, it seemed as if we were working ourselves to death for this bright yellow metal; and several times over, without being led up to it by me, Tom quite took my view.

"S'pose this here stuff's going to be very useful, Mas'r Harry," he said.

"Useful, Tom?"

"Ay! I mean I hope it's going to be worth all this work and trouble.

My word, Mas'r Harry, soap-boiling's nothing to this!"

"Tired, Tom?" I said.

"Tired, Mas'r Harry? Not I! But I tell you what I am, and that's hot."

"Yes, it is hot work, Tom," I said.

"Ay, Mas'r Harry, that's just what it is, 'specially when you gets ladling out the soup and pouring it into the moulds. Fine rich soup, ain't it?" he said with a grin.

"The richest of the rich, Tom."

"Ah! it is, Mas'r Harry; but it is hot work, and no mistake, and it sets me thinking a deal."

"Well, Tom, what of?" I asked, for we were waiting for the melting.

"'Bout setting up soap-boiling out here, Mas'r Harry," he said, grinning.

"Well, what about it, Tom?"

"'Twouldn't do, Mas'r Harry," said Tom. "First of all, the work would be a deal too hot; second of all, the trade wouldn't pay, 'cause the people look as if they never washed. No, Mas'r Harry, I don't think the folks here are fond of soap."

Two months of hard toil did we spend over that melting down. For first of all, there was the preparation of the furnace; and a very hard task that was, there being such difficulty in getting proper materials.

Stone seemed to go first into scales, and then into powder. The bricks we obtained cracked; and it was not until my uncle had mixed up some clay in a peculiar manner, and beaten it up into bricks of a big, rough shape, that we managed to get on. These bricks we built up into the furnace, and then slowly dried by leaving in a small fire; and this we increased till it was hot enough to burn the rough bricks, which, as we increased the fire to a furious pitch, seemed to fuse the whole together into a solid ma.s.s.

Then we had our hiding-place to dig out; and all this work had to be done in such a secret way that it used to make me think of Baron Trenck in prison, so careful and watchful were we in all we did.

Industry mastered it all though at last; and, weary as Tom must have been of his job, he began to feel at last that the gold was worth working for.

"I usen't to think so at one time, Mas'r Harry," he said; "but since I've been working away here, melting of myself away almost as fast as I melted gold, it's seemed to me as if, when I get home, and Sally Smith knows as I'm a gentleman with a large income of two pound a week, she may be a bit more civil like to me."

"Very likely, Tom," I said smiling.

"That's just what I say, Mas'r Harry--very likely; that is, you know, if there's anything more left of me than the ivory."

"Ivory, Tom?" I said, wondering what he meant.

"Yes, Mas'r Harry--the bones, you know. Don't you see, I mean if I ain't melted all away."

Two months, I say, had it taken before the rich metal was all reduced to neat little bars ready for packing up.

Then we had to discuss the question of the size and material of the cases in which we were to carry home our treasure so as not to excite suspicion.

"We must risk suspicion and inquiry too," said my uncle. "Our way now, Harry, is to get the stuff packed up and go straight away."

"I should do it quite openly," said Lilla quietly, "and if inquiries are made you can say that the chests in which it is packed contain gold. No one can be suspicious then. The people will only think that you are very rich, and be the more respectful."

"You are right, Lilla," said my uncle. "We can show our ingots--I mean your ingots, Harry. No one can prove how you came by them."

The result was that we boldly ordered some little cases to be made of the strongest South American oak, and corded together and bound firmly with hoop-iron; and into these, bedding them neatly with the finest sawdust, we packed the little shining bars.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

OUR TROUBLESOME BURDEN.

By the time we felt that we might very well make a start for home, we found out that though Lilla's advice had seemed so good, it would not do to act upon, and she laughingly owned that she was wrong.

For, feeling the necessity for obtaining a little spare cash in hand, my uncle undertook to dispose of half a dozen of the little bars of gold, and the adventures were such that he came back to me to say that we should have to be very careful.

"It would never do to attempt a pa.s.sage in a Spanish vessel boldly, my boy. The very sound of the word _gold_ seems to fill the people full of suspicion, and the dealer I went to to-day has been questioning me in all sorts of ways. He thinks, evidently, that I have discovered a rich gold mine somewhere, and is boiling with curiosity to know where."

"And you did not tell him, Uncle," I said laughing.

"No, my boy; but seriously, we must not make these people suspicious.

We have to pa.s.s through their custom-house places if we go in the regular way, and if we attempt that, depend upon it we shall be stopped, and have to give the fullest of explanations as to where the gold was obtained, before we are allowed to quit the country, even if we are then."

"Depend upon it, Uncle, we should not be allowed to go then. How vexatious!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "After all this trouble it will be hard if we are stopped now! We will not be," I cried, with a stamp of the foot.

"I have succeeded so far, and if I fail it shall not be for want of foresight."

"What do you mean, Harry?" said my uncle, who seemed to be pleased with my energy and determination.

"I mean, Uncle, that if the treasure is lost it shall be through storm and shipwreck, not from the scheming of men. If they know of our rich treasure they will plan to get it away from us. Well, we must scheme harder to save it.

"Here, let's take Tom into consultation," I said after a pause, and Tom was called in. "Here, Tom," I said, "we've got all the gold packed, how are we to get it away?"

"How are you to get it away, Mas'r Harry?" he said, giving his head a rub, not that it itched, but so as to clear his thoughts, I suppose.

"Yes. How are we to get it away?"

"Stick direction cards on, same as we did with the soap boxes at home, and shove it aboard ship."

"To be stopped as something contraband. No, Tom, that won't do. They would want to know what it was."

"Serve them same as we did the Injins," said Tom grinning: "pretend as they are all forsles and stigmy tights, as you called 'em, Mas'r Harry."

"That may do for Indians, but it will never do for people who are civilised. No, Tom, if you cannot give better advice than that, it is of no use."

"That's the best I've got, Mas'r Harry," said Tom. "I never was a good one that way. You tell me what to do and I'll do it. And as for sticking to you--There, Mas'r Landell, sir, haven't I stuck to Mas'r Harry through thick and thin?"