The Island Treasure Part 28

"I ain't got no skear 'bout thet," replied Hiram, with a defiant laugh.

"Guess, we air all on us pretty wa-al season'd to them ghostesses by this time, both aboard ship an' ash.o.r.e, an' I don't care a cuss fur the hull bilin' on them, I reckon!"

"Shtop!--listen!"--whispered Jan Steenbock, in his deep, impressive voice, as another vivid flash of lightning lit up the cave for a brief instant, making it all the darker afterwards. This was followed by a second crashing peal of thunder, as if the very heavens were coming down and were rattling about our ears; while the ground heaved up beneath our feet violently, with its former jerky motion.--"Ze sbirrits of eefel vas valk abroat in ze shtorm."

Even as he spoke, his solemn tones sending a thrill through my heart, there came a still more violent shock of earthquake, which was succeeded by a tremendous grinding, thumping noise from the back of the cave; and then, all of a sudden, a large black body bounded past us through the entrance close to where we stood. The rush of air knocked us all down flat on our backs, as this object, whatever it was, made its way out, and, finally, we could hear it, a second later, plunged into the sea below at the foot of the declivity.

"Bress de Lor'!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sam, in greater terror than ever. "Dere's de duppy, fo' suah! Hole on ter me, Cholly! Hole on! I'se mighty 'fraid! Hole on ter me, for de Lor's sake, sonny!"

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE JUDGMENT OF FATE.

We were all speechless, and could see nothing as we scrambled to our feet in the darkness, for the cave was now filled with a thick dust, that nearly suffocated us as well as blinded us--filling our eyes, and mouths, and nostrils.

Presently, the dust settled down; and, then, we found that the cavern was no longer dark, for the crash which had so startled us at first was occasioned by a portion of the roof breaking away, which let in the daylight from above, right immediately over the big rock in the centre that Tom had called "the pulpit."

The rock, however, had disappeared, and this was, doubtless, the mysterious body that had rushed by us through the mouth of the cave, so frightening Sam.

But something more surprising still had happened.

The earthquake, in rending the rock, had upheaved all the earth around it, and there, beneath, in a large cavity, was a collection of old oaken chests, bound round, apparently, with heavy clamps of iron, similar to those used by our forefathers a couple of centuries ago for the storage of their goods and chattels--boxes that could defy alike the ravages of age and the ordinary wear and tear of time, the carpenters and builders of bygone days making things to last, and not merely to sell, as in modern years!

"Hooray!" cried Hiram, springing towards one of the chests, which had been crushed open by a piece of detached rock from the roof of the cave, thus disclosing to view a lot of glittering ingots of gold, with a crucifix and some little images of the same precious metal, like the Madonna figure we had first discovered. "Hyar's the boocaneer treesor, I guess, at last!"

"I vas mooch sorry," said Jan Steenbock, shaking his head solemnly, as we gathered round the hole and eagerly inspected its contents, noticing that there were seven or eight of the large chests within the cavity, besides the broken one and a number of smaller ones, along with pieces of armour and a collection of old guns and pistols, all heaped up together. "I vas mooch sorry. It vas bringt us bat look, like it did to ze schgooners, and Cap'en Shackzon, and all ze crew of zo sheep I vas zail in befores!"

"Why, old hoss," asked Hiram, all excitement, "I guess we air all friends hyar, an' 'll go share an' share alike; so thaar's no fear on a muss happenin' atween us, like thaar wer with ye an' them durned cut-throat Spaniards. Why shu'd it bring us bad luck, hey?"

"I vas avraid of ze curse," replied the other. "It vas hoonted mit bloot, and vas bringt harm to every ones! I vill not touch it meinselfs--no, nevaire!"

"Guess I will, though," retorted Hiram. "I ain't afeard o' no n.i.g.g.e.r ez was buried two hundred year ago; no, nor on his ghostess neither. What say ye, Sam, consarnin' this brother darkey o' yourn?"

"Golly, Ma.s.sa Hiram!" said Sam, grinning from ear to ear at the sight of the gold. "I'se tink I'se hab claim to de lot, if it am belong to de n.i.g.g.e.r family. Ho-ho-ho!"

With that we all laughed; whereupon the skipper, whom we had forgotten for the moment, made a movement where he still lay on the floor of the cave by the entrance, opening his eyes and trying to get up, which, of course, he was unable to do, from our having tied his legs together.

"Hillo!" he called out. "Whaar am I?"

His voice now seemed quite rational, and on Tom going up to him, he found that the delirium had left him, and that he was quite sober and in his senses again, so he unloosed him, helping him on to his feet.

Strange to say, Captain Snaggs did not utter a word about finding himself tied, nor did he seem in any way surprised at being there amongst us. He was not angry either a bit now!

He simply walked up to where we stood and, looking down at the hole with the chests piled up in it, as if following out a concentrated train of thought which had been simmering in his brain before his fit, exclaimed--

"Thaar it air, jest ez I told ye, an' ez the buccaneer cap'n told me.

Thaar it air all right, I reckon; an' now we must see about gettin' it down to the shep."

This staggered us somewhat; but Tom Bullover thought it best to humour him.

"How would you like it took down to the sh.o.r.e, cap'en?" he asked, deferentially. "Shall I go and fetch some of the hands, sir?"

"Yes, I guess thet'll be the best plan," replied Captain Snaggs, as easy as you please, and as if only talking about some ordinary thing, and he were giving his usual orders. "Wait a minnit, though. I guess I'll come with ye ez soon as I've toted up the hull lot, fur thaar ain't no fear of any c.o.o.n walkin' off with the plunder while we're away, an' I want to see how the shep's gettin' on. I reckon she ought to be pretty near afloat by now."

There seemed a method in his madness, even if he were yet mad, for he carefully jotted down the number of chests in his pocket-book; and then, turning away as composedly as possible, he made his way down to the beach by our old path, just as if he had been in the habit of going that way every day of his life and it was quite familiar to him.

"Come on, men!" cried he. "Follow me!"

So, down we all tramped after him in single file to the sh.o.r.e, where we found a stranger thing had happened since our long absence, which, long as it seemed from the series of occurrences that had happened, the one succeeding the other in rapid succession, was not long in reality.

However, it appeared months since we had left the ship; for, in the short s.p.a.ce of time, comparatively speaking, that we had been away, all around her had been altered, and she more than anything.

Instead of her being high and dry ash.o.r.e, with her bows up in the air between the two hillocks where they had been wedged, there she was now afloat, placidly riding on the smooth waters of the harbour by her anchors, which had been laid out, it may be remembered, the morning after she stranded.

This was a far more providential circ.u.mstance than our finding the treasure; for even Mr Steenbock, sanguine as he had been at first when he suggested digging the dock under her, had begun to have fears of our eventually getting her off again into her native element--the operation taking longer than he had expected, for the water at the last had penetrated through the coffer-dam, thus preventing the men from digging out the after part of the trench under the keel piece, between the main and mizzen-chains.

Now, through the effects of the earthquake, we were fortunately saved all farther trouble on this score.

The skipper did not appear the least surprised at what had happened, displaying the same nonchalance as he did when gazing down into the cavity where the buccaneers' gold was stowed--as if he had dreamt it all beforehand and everything was turning out exactly according to the sequence of his dream!

As we got nearer, we saw that a number of the men were grouped about the sh.o.r.e, collecting a lot of stray gear, which they were taking off to the ship in the jolly-boat; so, calling to these, Captain Snaggs asked where Mr Flinders was.

"He's gone aboard bad," said one of the hands, with a sn.i.g.g.e.r, whereat they all laughed. "He don't feel all right this arternoon, sir, an' he went into his cabin afore the ship floated."

"I guess, then, we'd better go aboard, too," replied the skipper, quite quiet like. "It's gettin' late now, an' we'll break off work till to-morrow. We'll then set about gettin' the sticks up on her agen, my men, as well as hoist the stores aboard; fur, I means to sail out of this hyar harbour afore the end of the week!"

The hands gave a hearty hurrah at this, as if the idea pleased them, for they must have been quite sick of the place by this time; and the skipper therefore ordered Jan Steenbock and Tom, with Hiram, Sam, and I, to come off with him in the boat, telling us when we presently got aboard not to mention about the treasure to any one yet, as it might prevent the men working and rigging the ship, getting her ready for sea.

This we promised to do, keeping our word easily enough, as we did not find it difficult to hold our tongues in the matter, considering the lot there was for all hands to talk about concerning Sam's restoration to life, after being supposed dead so long. Several of the hands, though, persisted that they knew of the deception all along, and had not been taken in by the ghost business; but this was all brag on their part, for I am sure they thoroughly believed in it at the time, just the same as Morris Jones and Hiram and I did--only Tom being in the secret from first to last!

In the course of the next four days, all the hands working with a will, even more energetically than they had done when dismantling her, the _Denver City_ had her rigging up all ataunto again, while her graceful yards were crossed, and most of her cargo got aboard, all ready to sail.

During this time, the skipper had said not a word about the treasure, nor did he speak of sending up any one to fetch it; and so, as none of us had been back to the cave since quitting it with the captain, after the earthquake and our discovery of the h.o.a.rd, Hiram and Tom, with Sam and I, stole away late on the afternoon of the fourth day to see whether the boxes were all right--Jan Steenbock being the only one of the original party present when it was found who did not accompany us; but he said he knew it would be unlucky, for him, at all events, and so he preferred stopping away.

So it was that only we four went, though Jan came with us part of the way from the ship, sitting down by the spring which had been the haunt of the doves, to await our return.

Jan did not have to remain there long alone.

No sooner had we got to the cave than we found that the treacherous skipper had antic.i.p.ated and out-reached us; for, from the hurried look we took, we could see that every single chest and box had been removed, and that all were now probably stored in the captain's own cabin. No doubt, too, by-and-by, he would swear that we had no hand in finding them, whence, of course, it must follow from his reasoning, we were not ent.i.tled to any share in the proceeds from the treasure!

This was a pretty state of things, each and all of us thought; and, boiling with indignation, we rushed back to Jan to tell him the news.

But, we met with but sorry sympathy from him.

"You vas mooch bettaire off," he said stolidly--"mooch bettaire off mitout ze accursed stoof! It vas bringt harm to Cap'en Shackzon, and ze crew of ze schgooners dat I vas in; and, markt mine vorts, it vas bringt harms to Cap'en Schnaggs, as zertain as I vas here and dere!"

"I'm durned, though, if I don't make him suffer fur it, if he don't sh.e.l.l out!" cried Hiram hotly, as we all resumed the path back to the sh.o.r.e, much more quickly than we had gone up to the cave. "I'll give him goss!"