The Secret of the Sands Part 2

"That," replied I, "is just the point upon which I want your advice. If this story be true--"

"No fear about that," said Bob. "It's true enough. The thing's as plain and circ.u.mstantial as the ship's course when it's p.r.i.c.ked off upon the chart. There ain't a kink in the yarn from end to end; it's all coiled down as neat and snug as a new hawser in the ropemaker's yard; and besides, dyin' men don't spin yarns with no truth in 'em, just for divarsion's sake like."

"Well," said I, "I am disposed, with you, to think that the story _is_ quite true; the man could have no object in telling it if it were not so. The question is, what is to be done in the matter?"

"Done!" exclaimed Ada, "why, what _should_ be done, Harry, except that you go to this island, dig up the gold, bring it home, and live like a gentleman ever afterwards?"

This was Ada's great ambition; that I should be placed in the position of a gentleman. She had a theory--whence derived I know not--that it was my destiny to become a man of unbounded means; and that my life was to be pa.s.sed in an atmosphere of splendour and luxury only equalled by that enjoyed by the most favoured heroes of the "Arabian Nights." And this was an entirely disinterested feeling on her part too; for though she would often laughingly prophesy what would happen "when I should become a rich man," I never knew her to utter a word which suggested the idea that _she_ would in any way be a gainer by my acquisition of wealth.

"More easily said than done, pet," replied I, patting her soft cheek.

"What is to become of you whilst I am gone?"

"Why, I shall stay here with Mrs Moseley (our housekeeper) until your return, and be the first to welcome you back," said she.

"Well," replied I, "I think suitable arrangements for your comfort and safety could be made without much difficulty; but," said I, appealing to Bob, "how is this gold to be got at and brought home in safety? I have not the means of purchasing a ship of my own; and if I had, do you think it would be safe to trust so much treasure with a crew, picked up though ever so carefully?"

"Ah! now you 'pawls me," replied Bob, rubbing the back of his head reflectively. "I've sailed with crews as you might ha' trusted with untold gold, at least I've thowt so at the time I was with 'em; but mayhap, if temptation was throwed in their way, they mightn't be able to stand out agin it; there's no gettin' to the bottom o' the heart o' man.

As to the ship, that's easy enough. If you ain't got the cash to _buy_, you can always _charter_?"

"True," said I, "and if I could _make sure_ of finding a sufficient number of thorough good men, that is the course I should be inclined to pursue. Do you think, Bob, that by diligent search we could find some six or eight really reliable men? The craft need not be a large one, you know--"

"There you've hit the solution of the enigmy, as the schoolmaster said,"

replied Bob, bringing his clenched fist down upon my knee with an emphasis which impressed me for the remainder of the evening: "How much of that gold now do you reckon would make your fortune, lad? you're pretty good at figures; just cipher it up and let's hear?"

"How much!" exclaimed I; "oh, a very small portion of the whole cargo would satisfy me if I had it here at this moment."

"How much?" persisted Bob. "Would a _ton_ of it be enough for you, boy?"

"Yes, indeed," laughed I; "a ton of pure gold--why, what do you suppose that would be worth, Bob?"

"Hain't much of a idee," replied he.

"A ton of pure gold," said I, "is worth over one hundred thousand pounds, Bob; I believe one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds is nearer it's value; though I cannot say for certain."

"Then," said Bob, "if we can manage to get, say, a couple of tons of it home, you will be satisfied--eh?"

"Perfectly," I replied; "but how do you propose to accomplish this?" for I saw he had a scheme to bring forward.

"Nothing easier," replied Bob. "Build a little craft big enough to accommodate the two of us; with room to stow away our grub and water, and the two tons of gold; and up anchor and away."

"But," said I, "you forget that this island is somewhere in the Pacific.

Such a craft as you speak of would be totally unfit for the voyage we contemplate."

"Why?" inquired Bob.

"Why?" repeated I, astonished at the question. "Simply because we should never get across the Bay of Biscay in her, to say nothing of the remainder of the voyage."

"Why not?" demanded Bob, rather pugnaciously.

"Do you mean to say," I retorted, "that you can sit there and propose in cold blood such a hair-brained scheme as that we two should undertake a voyage to the Pacific in a mere _boat_?"

"I do," replied Bob emphatically. "That's a simple way out of all your difficulties. The craft will be your own; there will be no risk of the crew rising upon us for the sake of our cargo; and n.o.body to say 'What are we doing here?' or 'What do you want there?' Why, it will be a mere pleasure trip from end to end, all play and no work, leastways none to speak on!"

"But, my dear fellow, _do_ be serious," protested I. "You know, as well as I do, that we should be swamped the first time we fell in with a capful of wind."

"Maybe we should, if we went to work like a couple of know-nothing land-lubbers," retorted Bob; "but if we went to work like seamen, as we are, I should like to know what's to purvent our sailing round the world if we like! Answer me that."

"Come, Bob, old man, let us hear the full extent of your proposition,"

said I. "I know that, whatever it may be, it will be the proposal of a thorough seaman, for if any one could carry out the wild scheme you have suggested, you are the man."

"'Tain't such a very wild scheme neither," replied Bob. "Answer me this. How many people was saved from the _London_ when she foundered in the Bay of Biscay?"

"Nineteen, if I remember rightly," replied I.

"Very well; now if a small boat of about twenty-five feet long or thereabouts, _open_, mind you, from stem to starn, could live twenty hours with nineteen people in her, as the _London's_ pinnace did, in weather that the old ship herself couldn't stand up agin, how long will a full-decked boat of, say, thirty to thirty-five feet long, carefully constructed, and in good trim, live with only two men in her? And warn't I," continued he, "nineteen days _alone_ in an open boat in the South Atlantic; and didn't I make a v'y'ge of a thousand miles in her afore I struck soundings at Saint Helena?"

This last question referred to an adventure which had befallen Bob in his younger days, on an occasion when he had been cruelly deserted in a sinking ship by the rest of the crew, and had made his escape, as described by himself, after enduring unheard-of suffering.

"Then," questioned I, "you seriously entertain the belief that the scheme you have suggested is practicable?"

"With ease and comfort," replied Bob. "Now look here, Harry. You can afford to build a craft such as I have described, and fit her out for the v'y'ge, and still leave money enough at home to keep sauce-box here"

(indicating Ada, who was to him as the apple of his eye) "comfortable and happy like till we come back. You've a rare eye for a sea-boat, and mine ain't bad, for that matter; let's draught her out ourselves, since it's our own lives as we are going to trust in her; and if we don't turn out, between us, as pretty a sea-boat as ever floated, why, turn to and lay me up in ordinary for the rest of my days for a useless old hulk, that's all. A boat thirty feet long, decked all over, and carefully designed, _can't_ sink, boy, because we can easily arrange matters so as to keep her dry inside; she'll ride as light as a gull and as dry as a bone when big ships is making bad weather of it, and as for the matter of capsizing, bein' run down, or cast away, why they're dangers as we are liable to in any ship, and must be guarded against in every craft, large or small; and our little barkie would carry comfortable all we should want for the v'y'ge, for we could touch here and there out and home to make good deficiencies, and we two are men enough to handle her in all weathers. Rig her as a cutter, boy. I was once't aboard a cutter yacht in a trip up the Mediterranean, and you've no idea what a handy rig it is, once you're used to it. And the way them cutters 'll hug the wind--why 'twould make a difference of nigh on a couple of thousand miles, out and home, in the length of the pa.s.sage."

I began to be infected with Bob's enthusiasm. The scheme, which had at first appeared to me as the very acme of fool-hardiness, now, under the influence of Bob's eloquence, gradually a.s.sumed an appearance of reasonableness, and a promising prospect of success, which was very fascinating. Nevertheless, I could not but remember that the proposed voyage would take us into lat.i.tudes subject to the most frightful and sudden tempests, and I could not help thinking (as I pointed out to Bob) that our c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l would stand but a poor chance in a cyclone or a black squall.

"Look here, Harry, my boy," remarked Bob gravely, "as I propose to ship on this here v'y'ge as chief mate, I ain't likely to forget that there's such dangers as them you've just mentioned. But suppose you was to cork up a bottle, or clap the lid on an empty biscuit-tin, and heave 'em overboard, do you think they'd live through one or t'other? In course they would, because salt water can't get inside of 'em, and as long as they keep dry holds they'll float, let the weather be what it will, and so 'll our craft, for the same reason. And when the weather's too bad to sail the barkie, we can heave her to, and when it's too bad for that we can _anchor_ her, my boy, go below, slide on the top of the companion, and turn in until the weather clears up."

"But," said I, "we cannot anchor in the middle of the Atlantic. Suppose we should be caught in a cyclone there, for instance?"

"We _can_ anchor _there_, lad, with a _floating_ anchor, which will keep her head to wind; and with everything snug aloft and on deck, and a floating-anchor ahead with about sixty fathoms of cable veered out, she would ride out _in safety_ any gale that ever blew out of the heavens."

This last remark closed the case, and secured a verdict for the defendant. I _knew_ that every word Bob spoke was literally true, and the audacity of the enterprise so fascinated me that I resolved on the spot to undertake it, if it should be found, on going into details, that a craft, capable of being handled by our two selves, could stow away, without being overloaded, such provisions, etc., as we should need for the voyage.

The following morning, immediately after breakfast, I got out my drawing-board, strained a sheet of paper upon it, and, with Bob at my side to give me the benefit of his opinion upon every line I traced upon the paper, set to in earnest to design the little craft in which we proposed to embark on our adventurous voyage.

Before putting a line upon paper, however, we settled the plan of her internal arrangements. It was our intention to make her lines as fine as her respective dimensions would permit; she was to be, in fact, a small _yacht_. We knew that every vessel with sharp lines must necessarily be wet, unless the weights she would have to carry were all concentrated about her midship section, or broadest part, so we decided that as far as was practicable such should be the arrangement with us; and we knew that, if we could succeed in this, our barkie might be as sharp as we could make her, and still be dry and comfortable. We accordingly prepared a list of our requirements, as far as we could think of them, calculated the s.p.a.ce they and the ballast: would occupy, and then roughly sketched out the proposed lines. These were altered, rearranged, and improved upon time after time, until at length we felt we had got them as near perfection as the dimensions of the boat and our own knowledge would carry us. And I may as well say at once that throughout the entire voyage we never had the slightest reason to think our little vessel could be in any way improved upon by alteration.

It is not probable that so long a voyage as ours will be often undertaken again in such a very small craft as we accomplished it in; but there are many men, I have no doubt, who would gladly receive a hint as to the most advantageous form for a small boat in which they might safely adventure, alone, or with a friend, a cruise, say round the British Isles, or across the Channel and along the French coast; and therefore, as this story is written for the amus.e.m.e.nt only of such people as love boats, I think I may venture to trespa.s.s so far on my readers' patience as to give such a hint in the shape of a brief description of the _Water Lily_, as Ada christened her.

She was, then, thirty-six feet long, and twelve feet beam on the water-line; but, in designing her midship section, we caused her sides to swell out boldly _above_ water, so that her greatest beam was fourteen feet, at a point one foot six inches above the water-line. At this point her side _tumbled home_ two inches as it was carried upwards to her deck, and from the same point the side curved quickly inwards and downwards until it met the water-line, when it swept under water with an almost imperceptible curve for some distance, and then took a moderately quick bend downwards to meet her keel. This gave us a vessel in shape very much like the centre-board model of boat, but with a deep keel, and consequently great lateral resistance, and s.p.a.ce low down in the hull for the stowage of ballast. We thus secured a _very_ small displacement, a light buoyant hull, extraordinary stability, and a fair amount of _power_.

The hull was divided into three compartments by bulkheads with wide doors which, if necessary, we could close _water-tight_. In the _fore_ compartment we decided to place _nothing_ except the smallest and lightest cooking-stove we could find. In the midship compartment it was intended to stow our ballast, water-tank, provisions, the chain-cables, and in fact everything which we could possibly place there, leaving only a narrow pa.s.sage amidships to pa.s.s to and fro. The after compartment we intended to make our cabin, and there we arranged also to sling our hammocks. It will easily be understood that there was not an inch of spare room anywhere; but as our lives would be spent almost entirely on deck, we did not mind that very much.

Having designed our craft, the next question was, who should build her?

Bob was strongly in favour of having her built in the town, so that we might oversee the laying of every plank, and the driving of every nail; but I knew there were firms who could safely be trusted to honestly put the best of work and material into the little vessel without being watched; and I determined to put her into the hands of a very celebrated firm of London boat builders.

Accordingly, Bob and I ran up to town, taking my sister with us for a holiday, and on the morning after our arrival, having seen Ada safely disposed of for the day with some friends of ours, we two men set out for the building-yard.