The Island Treasure Part 23

"Well then, here's the long and short of it," said Tom, sitting down on the top of the little cliff-mound, so as to make himself as comfortable as possible, while we stood grouped around him. "You see, now, our Dutch mate's story about the n.i.g.g.e.r that the buccaneers used to bury with their treasure put me up to taking a rise out of our friend Sambo here, who, though he was artful enough to play at being a ghost and haunt the ship, as you fellows thought all through the v'yage, was yet mortal 'fraid of them same ghostesses hisself, as I well knowed!"

"Oh, Lor', Ma.s.s' Tom, dunno say dat," interrupted Sam reproachfully.

"Speak fo' true, an' shame de debble!"

"That's just what I'm doing, darkey. You know I'm speaking the truth; and I'm sure Charley and Hiram here can judge for theirselves, from what they saw not long ago!"

"Bully for ye!" cried Hiram, confirming Tom Bullover's reference to himself. "Why, ye durned n.i.g.g.e.r, ye wer a'most yeller with frit jest now, when ye kinder thought ye seed one o' them blessed ghostesses thet Tom wer a-talkin' on!"

This effectually shut up Sam; and my friend the carpenter then went on with his account of the phenomenon we had seen.

"I knew," said he, "that the darkey would be up here this arternoon, for I showed him the cave myself this mornin', afore any of you beggars aboard the ship were up or stirring. I thought it would be just a good place for him to hide in, besides preventing the skipper and that brute Flinders, or any of the other hands, from coming spying round and interfering with our diskevery, which, as you know--I means you Charley and Hiram--we wished for to keep to ourselves."

"Ay, bo," a.s.sented Hiram approvingly; "true enuff; ye acted rightly, shipmet."

"So I tells Sam to rig hisself up here as comf'ably as he could; and if he should hear any footsteps comin' nigh the place he was to strike up a tune on his banjo and frighten them away, makin' any inquisitive folk think the place was haunted by the same old ghost they knew aboard the ship."

"What a capital idea!" said I; "how did you come to think of it?"

"I thought of more than that, Charley," replied Tom, with a broad grin.

"It wasn't long arter I brought Sam here that I thought of makin' the second ghost out of the proper black man belonging to the cave, that Jan Steenbock had told us on, and which you, Hiram, said you wouldn't be frightened at nohow."

"Stow thet," growled Hiram, shaking his fist at Tom. "Carry on with yer yarn, an' don't mind me, old stick-in-the-mud!"

"I'm carryin' on, if you'll only let a feller tell his story in his own way. You know we agreed to come up here together this arternoon, and make a reg'ler up-and-down search for the buried treasure; and you told me, you rec'lect, to bring a port fire, such as we had aboard, for to light up the place."

"Thet's right enuff," said Hiram, "thet's right enuff; but, durn it all, heave ahead, bo! Heave ahead!"

"Well then," continued Tom, "I gets this blessed jigmaree of a port fire from the ship; and, having done my spell at digging out the dock, my gang finishing work at four bells, I com'd up here afore you and Charley. It were then that I thinks of having a bit of a game with old Sam, while I was waitin' for you two to join company and look for the treasure together, as we agreed atween us when we first diskivered the place."

"And you didn't intend to frighten us, Tom?" I asked him at this point; "mind, really?"

"No, I'll take my davy I didn't--that is, not at first," replied he, grinning in his usual way. "Arterwards, in course, I couldn't help it, when you and our Chickopee friend here took the bait so finely."

"Ah! I'll pay you out, bo, for it," cried Hiram, interrupting Tom, as I had done, "never you fear. I'll pay you out, my hearty, 'fore this time to-morrow come-never--both me and Cholly will tew, I guess, sirree!"

"Threaten'd men live long," observed Tom with a dry chuckle. "Still, that ain't got nothin' to do with this here yarn. I com'd up, as I were sayin', a good half-hour afore you; and, to spin out the time, I goes round to the cave by the way where we first lighted on it t'other day, and gets inside by the hole through the broken old door where we entered it afore our reaching this end."

"And then?" I asked, on Tom's pausing for a moment in his narrative--"and then?"

"Why, then I saw poor Sam, with his back turned towards me, a-sittin'

down on that rock as we called 'the ghost's pulpit,' and playin' his blessed old banjo as sweetly as you please, without thinkin' that I or any one else were within miles of him! So, seein' this were a good chance for finding whether Master Sammy, as was thought a ghost hisself aboard, liked ghosts as he didn't know of, I catches up a bit o'

sailcloth that was lying on the ground, which he'd taken up there to sarve for his bed, and, I claps this over my head and shoulders, like a picter my mother had in the parlour at home of 'Samuel and the Witch of Endor.' Then, I lights the port fire and gives a yell to rouse up the darkey, and arter that--ho-ho! my hearties, you knows what happened.

Ho-ho! it was as good as a play!"

"Golly! Me taut yer one duppy, fo' suah, Ma.s.sa Tom!" said Sam, after another chorus of laughter from all of us all round. "Me taut yer was de debble!"

"Not quite so bad as that, my hearty," mildly suggested Tom, grinning at the compliment. "Still, I don't think I made such a bad ghost altogether for a green hand!"

"Don't ye kinder think ye frit me, bo!" declaimed Hiram vehemently. "It wer the sight o' thet durned n.i.g.g.e.r thaar, a-sottin' an playin' his banjo--him ez we all thought ez ded ez a coffin nail, an' buried fathoms below the sea, an' which all on us hed b'leeved ter hev haunted the shep fur the hull v'y'ge. Ay, thet it wer, streenger, what ez frit me an'

made me fall all of a heap, an' thaar I lies till Cholly an' the durned n.i.g.g.e.r riz me up agen by tumblin' athwart my hawse!"

"I think I was the most frightened of all," I now frankly confessed, on Hiram thus bravely acknowledging his own terror. "I really for the moment believed that I was actually looking at two real, distinct ghosts, or spirits--the one that of Sam, which you, Tom and Hiram, know I already thought I had seen before on board the ship; and the second apparition that of the negro slave which Mr Steenbock told us of. But, how is it that Sam is here at all--how did he escape?"

"Let him tell his yarn in his own way, the same as I have done mine,"

replied Tom. "Ax him."

"Now Sam," said I, "tell us all about it."

"Ay, dew," chimed in Hiram; "fire away, ye old black son of a gun!"

"All right, Ma.s.s' Hiram an' yer, too, Cholly. I'se tell you de trute, de hole trute, an' nuffin' but de trute, s'help me!"

"Carry on, you blooming old crocodile, carry on!"

Taking Tom Bullover's words in the sense in which they were meant, as a sort of friendly encouragement to proceed, Sam, nothing loath to air his long-silent tongue, soon satisfied the eager curiosity of Hiram and myself--giving us a full account of his adventures from the time that we saw him drop from the rigging, when all the crew, with the solitary exception of his ally the carpenter, believed him to have been murdered and his body lost overboard.

"I'se specks," he commenced, "dat yer all 'members when de cap'en shake him billy-goat beard, an' shoot dis pore n.i.g.g.ah in de tumjon, an' I'se drop inter de bottom ob de sea, hey?"

"Yes," replied Hiram; while I added: "But, how on earth did you manage to save your life and get on board again?"

"Dis chile cleberer dan yer tinks," replied Sam proudly. "When de cap'en shoot, I'se jump one side like de Bobolink bird, an' de bullet, dat he tink go troo my tumjon, go in de air. I'se make one big miscalkerfation, dough, fo' my han' mis de riggin' when I'se stretch up to catch him, an' I'se tumble inter de water."

"Poor Sam!" said I. "Your heart must have come right into your mouth, eh?"

"Inter my mout, sonny?" he repeated after me. "Bress yer, it come up inter my mout, an' I'se swaller it agen, an' him go right down to de pit ob my tumjon! Lor', Cholly, I'se tink I wer drown, fo' suah, an' nebbah come up no moah, fo' de wave come ober my head an' ebberyting! Den, jest as I'se sc.r.a.pe along de side ob de ship an' wash away aft in de wake astern, I'se catch holt ob de end ob de boom-sheet, dat was tow oberboard."

"Ye hev got thet durned lubber Jim Chowder to thank fur thet," said Hiram, interrupting him to explain this fortunate circ.u.mstance, which I now recollected Captain Snaggs alluding to when I was waiting at table in the cabin the same evening, before the tragic occurrence happened.

"It's the fust time I ever recomembers ez how an unsailorlike act like thet ever did good to airy a soul!"

"Nebbah yer min' dat, Mas' Hiram," rejoined Sam, with much heartiness.

"I'se allers tink afore dat Jim Chowder one pore cuss, but now I'se pray fo' him ebbery day ob my life!"

"Ay, bo," said Tom, with affected gravity; "and for me to, eh?"

"I will, suah," answered Sam, in the same serious way in which he had previously spoken, not wishing to joke about the matter. "But, Jim Chowder or no Jim Chowder, who ebbah let dat rope tow oberboard was sabe my life! I'se catch holt ob him an' climb on ter de rudder chain, where I'se hang wid my head out ob de water till it was come dark, an' de night grow ober de sea. Den, when I'se tink de cap'en drink nuff rum to get drunk, an' not fo' see me come on board agen, I'se let my ole leg wash up wid de wave to de sill ob de stern port; an' den, when I'se look an see dere was n.o.body in de cabin, I'se smash de gla.s.s ob de window an'

climb inside."

"And then it was, I suppose," said I, taking up the burden of his story, "that I took your real self, as you crept through the cabin, for your ghost?"

"Dat troo, Cholly. Yer see me, dough, by de light ob de moon, fo' I'se take care blow out de swing lamp in cabin, dat n.o.body might see nuffin.

I'se reel glad, dough, dat I'se able friten de cap'en an' make him tink see um duppy!"

"Wa-all, I guess ye come out o' that smart enuff," said Hiram, with a hearty thump of approval that doubled up poor Sam, more effectually than his convulsions of laughter had previously done. "But, whaar did ye manage ter stow yerself when ye comed out o' the cabin?"

"I'se creep along de deck, keepin' under de lee ob de moonlight; an' den when n.o.body was lookin' I'se go forwards an' crawl down into the forepeak. Den, it was dat Ma.s.s' Tom hyar see me."

"And a pretty fine fright you gave me too!" said that worthy, bursting out into another laugh at the recollection. "It was the next mornin', as I went down into the sail room under the forepeak, to fetch up a spare tops'le, when I comes across my joker here. I caught hold at first of his frizzy head, thinking it were a mop one of the hands had forgotten below; but when I turned my lantern there I seed Sam, who I thought miles astern, safe and snug in old Davy Jones' locker. Lord!

shipmates, you could ha' knocked me down with a feather and club-hauled me for a nincomp.o.o.p!"