Chapter Twenty Two.

Chapter Twenty Two.Hoard communicates to me some very important information.This, too, was a very substantial and handsomely made piece of furniture, the material being Spanish mahogany. But, unlike the writing-table, all its drawers were unlocked; and, opening them one after the other, I found them to be full of apparel: shirts of finest linen, silk stockings, a brand-new suit of uniform, coats, breeches—in short everything necessary to complete the toilet of a man in the very pink of fashion. And, hanging by its belt from one of several brass hooks screwed to the bulkhead, I saw a very handsome sword with a gold hilt. This I took down and examined, drawing the weapon from its sheath to do so. The blade proved to be of Toledo make, a magnificent piece of steel, so elastic that by exerting a considerable amount of strength I succeeded in bringing the point and hilt together, and when I released it, the blade at once straightened itself out again as perfectly as before my experiment. The steel was elaborately damascened with a most beautiful and intricate pattern in gold, and altogether the weapon so irresistibly took my fancy that I unhesitatingly appropriated it forthwith. The shirts and stockings, too, and a few other articles of clothing that looked as if they would fit me, promised to make a very welcome addition to my rather meagre wardrobe; so I made them up into a good-sized bundle for transference to the schooner.By the time that this was done the boat was alongside again, with the carpenter; and presently that individual came clawing his way below with his tools. I showed him what I wanted done, and he immediately set to work; but so substantially put together was the table, and so strong and intricate the locks appertaining to it, that the man was compelled to virtually take the whole affair to pieces before we could get at its contents. But the trouble was amply worth the taking; for I found the despatches, locked in an iron box and sealed with the great seal of the Governor of Cartagena, together with several other important-looking documents which subsequently proved to be of the utmost value. In fact, as my knowledge of Spanish was altogether too imperfect to admit of my determining what papers were valuable and what were valueless, I took every one that I could find.This was not all, however. There were five Orders—what they were I knew not, but they were handsome enough, being elaborately set with superb jewels, to show that the late captain of theMagdalenawas a man ofveryconsiderable distinction. Also a magnificent pair of long-barrelled pistols, the barrels of which were damascened like the sword. And last, but not least, an oaken casket, strongly bound with heavy, handsomely-worked iron clamps and hinges, also sealed with the seal of the Governor of Cartagena, and which, upon being broken open, was found to contain a quantity of uncut gems, among which I recognised some rubies of extraordinary size and fire. All these valuables, needless to say, I unhesitatingly appropriated, for the twofold reason that if I did not they would certainly go to the bottom of the sea when the ship broke up, as she probably would in a few days; and in the next place, they were spoils of the enemy, to which we of theSword Fishhad as valid a title as anybody.Having at length thoroughly ransacked the captain’s cabin, I proceeded to overhaul the rest of the ship, devoting, indeed, practically the whole day to the work; but nothing else was found worthy of mention, except a chest containing a thousand gold Spanish dollars, in what I took to be the purser’s room. And as for the rest of the ship, everywhere forward of the stump of the mainmast, she was so strained and battered as to be nothing better than a basket, the water washing in and out of her as she lay. We removed from the wreck the dollars, the casket of gems, and the few other matters that seemed to be worth taking, and still had daylight enough left to find our way out through the northern channel. Sunset, that night, therefore, found us once more at sea, and heading for Jamaica, I having determined to place the despatches and other documents, found on board the wreck, in the Admiral’s hands without loss of time. The trade-wind was again blowing, and blowing strong, too, so that, by carrying on, night and day, we made the passage in exactly three days, almost to a minute, from the Roccas; and I had the satisfaction of handing the despatches to the Admiral that same night. The jolly old fellow was at dinner when I presented myself, and was entertaining a number of officers, naval and military; but upon my name being announced he at once ordered me to be admitted and directed a knife and fork to be placed on the table for me. He received me with much cordiality, and also introduced me to his guests; but I could see that my presence was deemed an intrusion by most of them, the naval men especially, who were not only jealous of privateersmen, but were also very much inclined to look down upon us as inferior beings to themselves. There were one or two exceptions, however, notably the Honourable Augustus Montague and his first lieutenant, both of the frigateCalypso, then in port; the former a most amiable and genial young officer, with no nonsense at all about him, while his lieutenant, Mr Birdwood, was as fine a fellow in every way as I had ever met. The Admiral thanked me most warmly for the despatches, which he handed over at once to his secretary for translation; and I had the intense satisfaction of learning, before I left the Pen that night, that the documents were deemed of sufficient importance to justify their immediate despatch to England by a frigate. The Admiral was kind enough to invite me to sleep at the Pen; but I excused myself, the fact being that the schooner’s rigging needed overhauling, and her supply of stores and water required replenishing. I therefore slept in Kingston that night; and having arranged, the first thing next morning, for the supply of the stores and water, I went aboard to give orders to send down topmasts and have the rigging lifted. But an interview with Hoard, the man that we had taken off the wreck of the Spanish frigate, suddenly altered all my plans.The way that it came about was this. I reached the schooner about ten o’clock in the morning, and at once gave my orders to Mr Saunders, who forthwith set all hands to work. I then went below to my cabin to write some letters home, to be forwarded by the frigate that was to take the Spanish despatches; and whilst I was thus engaged a timid, hesitating knock came to the door.“Come in!” shouted I; and forthwith entered the man Hoard, carefully closing the door behind him.“Beg pardon, Cap’n Bowen, for interrupting you,” he began; “but there’s a matter that I should like to speak to you about, if I ain’t making too bold.”“Not at all, Hoard,” I answered. “But is the matter important? Won’t it wait? You see I am very busy just now, but I can give you as long as you like this afternoon.”“Well, sir,” answered the man, fidgeting uneasily with his cap, “it’s for you to say whether it’s important or not. It’s about a galleon that’s loading at Cartagena for Spain; and, understandin’ that this schooner is a privateer, I thought that maybe you’d like to have a try for her, and if so, sir, I’d advise you—beggin’ pardon for bein’ so bold—not to start so much as a rope-yarn of this vessel’s rigging, or mayhap you’ll be too late for the galleon.”“By George, man,” exclaimed I, “this is important news indeed! Why in the world did you not speak to me about it before?”“Well, sir,” he answered, “you see, the way of it is this. Five years ago I belonged to the brig,Mary Rose, of Plymouth. She was a slaver; and in one of our runs across to the Coast she caught fire, and burnt us out of her. We took to the boats, and two days afterwards the boat that I was in, bein’ separated from the others in a strong breeze, was picked up by a Spanish ship called theSan Sebastian, and we were taken on to Cartagena. We were a wild set, I can tell you, and perhaps I was the wildest and wickedest of the lot; and we offended the Spaniards because we scoffed and laughed at ’em for plumpin’ down on their marrow-bones and prayin’, in a stiffish gale that we fell in with, instead of goin’ to work to shorten sail, and take care of the ship. Me and my mates did that for ’em while they prayed; but we’d offended ’em mortally, and they never forgave us. So the first thing that they does, when we arrived at Cartagena, was to denounce us as heretics, and we was all clapped into prison. What happened to my mates I never knowed, but I never saw any of ’em again. But as for me, if you’ll believe me, sir, the five years that I’ve been in the hands of the Spaniards I’ve been in hell! They wanted to convert me, so they said; and the way that they went about it, was to make my life a burden to me. They put me to work in chains on the roads; they sent me into the country, away from the coast, to work in their mines; they even tortured me! If you’ll believe me, Cap’n Bowen,” and I saw the poor fellow’s eyes grow wild, and begin to blaze as he spoke of his sufferings, “for four years I never had the chains off my hands and legs, except when I was bein’ tortured!“But there,” he continued, pulling himself together, “I didn’t come down into this cabin to tell you about my sufferin’s; but I will tell you, sir, that by God’s mercy those same sufferin’s did convert me, not the sort of conversion that the Spaniards wanted to bring about, but the conversion that, I humbly trust, has caused me to see and repent of my former wicked life. Not but what the old Adam is strong in me yet at times, sir, I won’t deny it, and he’s never stronger than when I think of the wrongs and the sufferin’s that I’ve endured at the Spaniards’ hands. And it was just that, and nothin’ else, that’s kept my lips closed all this while about the galleon. We are told, sir, that we must forgive our enemies, and return good for evil; and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do, ever since I set foot aboard of this schooner. As soon as ever I came to myself, and was able to understand that I’d escaped from my enemies, and was once more safe under the flag of dear old England, the devil comes to me, and says:—“‘Now’s your time, Isaac, to be revenged upon your enemies, and to pay ’em off for a little of the misery that they’ve been makin’ you suffer all them five years that they had you in their power. You know that they’re goin’ to send away this galleon, hopin’ that by keepin’ well to the south’ard she’ll escape capture. You know, too, that her cargo’s to be a rich one, and that, over and above her cargo she’s to ship an astonishin’ quantity of gold and precious stones, brought down to the coast from Peru; and of course you know that Cap’n Bowen and his lads ’ud lay wait for her, and maybe get her, if you was to tell ’em about her. And if they was to get her, only think what a blow the loss of her ’d be to the Spaniards! Why, it ’ud be so tremendous heavy that it ’ud go a good ways towards payin’ ’em off for all that they’ve made you suffer. It ’ud be a fine bit of revenge, now, wouldn’t it?’“Now, I know well enough that this cravin’ for revenge is wrong, and I’ve been fightin’ against it with all my strength. But, somehow or another, it won’t do, Cap’n! it won’t do! The temptation is too great for me, miserable sinner that I am!” He smote his forehead despairingly with his hand. “I feel that Ican’tkeep quiet and let that galleon slip by! That gold and them jewels that she’s goin’ to ship has been dragged out of God’s earth by God’s creatures with sufferin’, and tears, and blood more than any man can measure; and I say that it ain’t right that the Spaniards should have it. If all this heap of treasure was to get safely across the Atlantic, and into the Spaniards’ treasure-chests, it would just encourage ’em to strive for more; and then there would be more tears, more blood, more despair, more lives rendered a burden and a curse to their owners. But if all this treasure that they keeps sendin’ across to Old Spain was to be taken from ’em, then, perhaps, they’d cease to collect it; and the poor, unhappy wretches who’re made to dig for it would have some peace. And above and beyond all that, I want the cowardly curs to suffer, in return for all the sufferin’ that they’ve inflicted upon me and thousands that are a good deal better than me. They love wealth. Then make ’em suffer, by takin’ it from ’em. And they love their lives. Make ’em suffer all the horrors of death, by goin’ against ’em with fire and steel! Let ’em know the pain, and horror, and despair of feelin’ that they’re not only goin’ to lose their treasure, but that they stand a good chance to lose their lives as well. And, above all, Cap’n, let me be there to witness their anguish. They taunted me, and gloated over me when they’d made my misery such that I begged ’em to finish me off at once, and have done with it; and now I want to pay off some of my debt to ’em, I do.”It was really terrible to witness the frenzy of passion and fury into which this unhappy man goaded himself, as he recalled his past sufferings, and spoke of those who had made him endure them. His eyes gleamed and flashed like those of a savage beast; his face went deadly pale; his lips contracted into a snarl that showed his clenched teeth; he actually foamed from the mouth at last, and his hands clawed the air, as though he saw the Spaniards before him, and was reaching for their throats! I thought it my duty to check so maniacal an intensity of hatred, and I said to him:“Come, come, Hoard, this will never do! I understood you to say, just now, that you had been converted from the error of your ways, and had become a Christian. Do you call it Christian-like to hate with such intensity as you exhibit? The Bible says that we should love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who despitefully use us. How do you reconcile your present feelings with such an injunction as that?”“Ah!” he groaned, sinking back upon the locker from which he had risen in his excitement; “you have me there, sir; I can’t reconcile it; that’s just where it is. I can’t forgive my enemies, nor I can’t love ’em; and I can’t bring myself to do good to ’em. No; I’ve tried, I’ve kept my lips closed, I’ve prayed, I’ve done all that a man can do, and it’s no good; I shall never be able to rest until I’ve seen them cruel, haughty, overbearin’ wretches brought low. They’re the enemies of God and man, because they drive poor, weak souls to curse their Maker for permittin’ such cruelty. I’ve done it myself, over and over again! the good Lord forgive me! No, sir, it ain’t in man’s power to forgive a Spaniard who’s got you into his power, and I can’t believe that such an impossibility is expected of us. I don’t believe that the passage you quoted just now was ever meant to apply to Spaniards at all!”“Well,” said I, “I am afraid that such a question is altogether too difficult a one for me to argue with you; you had better see a clergyman, and discuss the whole matter with him. But we have wandered somewhat from our original subject, which was the galleon. What more can you tell me about her? When is she to sail?”“It was said,” answered Hoard, “that she was to sail exactly a fortnight after theMagdalena. That’s why I’ve made so bold as to come down and tell you about it now. If you start to overhaul your rigging, I’m afraid that you’ll not be ready in time to catch her. She is a big ship, sir; close upon sixteen hundred tons, I should call her, and I ought to know; for theMagdalenalaid within a cable’s length of her for more than a week. She is heavily armed, too; mounts twenty-eight eighteen-pound carronades; and carries on her books a complement of close upon two hundred men. Her name isNostra Señora del Carmen.”“Ah!” answered I musingly; “then she is likely to prove a pretty tough customer!”“Not too tough for this schooner and her crew, sir,” exclaimed Hoard eagerly. “Why, sir, one Englishman is equal to six Spaniards, any day; and as to her guns, a little management will keep the schooner out of the way of their shot. Besides, sir, I don’t suppose you’d engage her in a regular ‘hammer and tongs’ fight? The proper way ’ll be to let her pass ahead, and then run alongside, and carry her by boardin’! She’ll be but a slow ship, from the looks of her. For the Lord’s sake,” he continued anxiously, “don’t go to say or to think that she’s too big for you! Or, if you think that she is, get a man-o’-war to help you! You’ve only to repeat in the proper quarter what I’ve told you, and you’ll be certain to get all the help you want—”“No doubt,” interrupted I drily; “but if I undertake the matter at all, I will undertake it single-handed. Meanwhile, it is so well worth consideration that I will countermand my orders for overhauling the rigging; so, if you have nothing more to tell me at present, Hoard, just ask the mate to step below, will you?”“Ay, that will I, most gladly, sir,” answered Hoard. “And I’m quite sure, Cap’n Bowen,” he continued, pausing with his hand upon the handle of the door, “that when you’ve had time to think about the matter, you’ll make up your mind to have a try for theSeñora.”With which he turned and left the cabin, and presently, in obedience to my message, Saunders came down. I gave him my instructions, and then proceeded with my letters, which I had to considerably abbreviate in consequence of the rather heavy demand that Hoard had made upon my time. However, I got them finished in time for theCalypso—which was the vessel selected by the Admiral for the conveyance of the Spanish despatches to England—and had the satisfaction of placing them in the hands of the Honourable Augustus Montague himself, and of receiving his assurance that he would undertake to forward them to their destination upon his arrival home.During the afternoon a boat came alongside the schooner with a note from the Admiral, inviting me to dine with him that evening, the invitation being accentuated by the statement that he had some news of importance for me. I despatched an acceptance by the boat that had brought the information, and in due time once more found myself within the hospitable portals of the Pen. As usual, the room was full of guests, but after dinner my host found an opportunity to invite me into his office for a short time, when I learned that the important news referred to in his note of invitation consisted simply of some intelligence, gleaned from the Spanish documents taken by me out of the wreck of theMagdalena, confirming Hoard’s story of the galleon.“I have told you this for a twofold reason,” said the Admiral, when he had read out from his translation the extracts relating to the galleon. “In the first place, I am, as usual, without a ship upon which I can lay my hands; the departure of theCalypsoto-day depriving me of the only vessel I had in a fit state to go to sea. And, in the next place, as you brought me this news I think it only right that you should be the one to profit by it. So there you are, and, if you will take my advice, you will not remain in port a single hour longer than is absolutely necessary, or you may miss her; and, if what these papers state be true—as I have no doubt it is—she is a ship worth taking a good deal of trouble to find.”I thanked the Admiral for his information, but deemed it best to let him understand that I was indebted to him only for details, and shortly afterwards took my leave, having suddenly made up my mind to sail that same night, if I found that the stores and water had been sent aboard that afternoon, as promised.I reached the schooner about half-past ten o’clock, and found all hands excepting the mate turned in. Saunders was considerably surprised to see me, as he did not expect me aboard that night; but, upon my questioning him with regard to the stores and water, he informed me that both had come alongside almost immediately after my departure for Kingston. There was consequently no reason why we should delay another moment; and within half an hour we had got up our anchor and were bowling away to the southward and westward before the land breeze. Before daylight the high land of Jamaica had sunk beneath the horizon, and we had caught the trade-wind.It now became necessary for me to form some sort of a plan of operations; and for this purpose I determined to consult with Hoard. As soon, therefore, as I had secured my sights for the longitude, after breakfast, I sent for him, and he came down into the cabin.“I have sent for you, Hoard,” said I, “because, as no doubt you already guess, I have made up my mind to have a try for the galleon; and as I understood you to say that you had spent some time ashore, at or near Cartagena, it occurs to me that you may be able to furnish me with some valuable information. And I want to ask you, first, whether, while you were in Cartagena harbour, you heard anything said that might lead you to suppose the Spaniards deem it so far possible that the news of the galleon may have spread far enough to lead to her captain taking extra precautions against capture by steering a course right out to sea, instead of making the best of his way to the eastward along the land, as far as, say, Point Gallinas?”“I think, Cap’n, I understand what’s in your thoughts,” answered the man. “No, sir; I never heard anything that ’ud seemed to point to their imaginin’ that any news of the ship ’ud be likely to get to an enemy’s ears. At the same time, I don’t doubt, from what was rumoured about the amount of the treasure that she’s to ship, that her skipper’ll do everything his wit ’ll teach him to keep out of the road of our cruisers and privateers. That, however, ain’t very valuable information to give you, because you’ll have guessed as much as that yourself. And I’m afraid that I ain’t able to tell you any more—except this: that it’ll never do for this schooner to be seen dodgin’ about anywheres near Cartagena. If she was seen once I don’t suppose any harm would come of it, especially if she happened to be under a fairish amount of canvas, because it ’ud probably be supposed that she was bound south to the Gulf of Darien. But if she should happen to be seen twice, it ’ud be all up with us, for a time, at least; they’d be pretty sure to delay her sailin’ and send something out to watch us. And as to cuttin’ her out, Cap’n, I’m afraid it couldn’t be done. Besides, it ’ud be no use to try it unless all the treasure was aboard; and I don’t suppose they’ll ship that until her hatches are on, and she’s all ready for sea, so that she can up anchor and make a start directly the last ingot’s hoisted in.”“Quite so,” I assented; “that will no doubt be their mode of procedure. But, on the other hand, she may be all ready for sea, even to having all the treasure on board, and yet not sail for a day or two. Because it is quite clear to me that, for some reason or other, they believe this galleon to have a very fair prospect of safely reaching her destination, or they would keep her back until they could send her home under convoy. Now, if they entertain such a belief as that, it seems to me highly probable that some of their big officials will embrace so apparently safe an opportunity to take a passage home in her, and they might not be ready quite so soon as the ship. Now, if that should happen, what is to prevent our cutting her out?”“Do you happen to know what Cartagena harbour is like, sir?” inquired Hoard, beginning his answer to my question by asking another.“No,” said I. “I have never been near it; nor have I ever seen a chart of it.”“Of course you haven’t, sir,” answered my companion; “for the simple reason that the Spaniards won’t let a chart of it be made, for fear that it should get into an enemy’s hands. But I can tell you what it’s like, sir. It is about eight miles long, with a width varyin’ from four miles down to about one and a half. It is completely landlocked by the island of Tierra Bomba, that forms the seaward face of it, and there’s only one channel, called the Boca Chica, about half a cable’s length wide, by which a ship can get in or out. And just abreast the narrowest part of this here channel there’s a battery, called the San Fernando Battery, mounting twelve sixty-eight pounders. So, you see, sir, that cuttin’ a ship out of Cartagena harbour ain’t to be thought of.”“Are there any other forts or batteries anywhere along the shores of the harbour?” asked I, my thoughts flitting back to our exploit at Abervrach.“No, sir,” answered Hoard, in surprise at my question. “But you’d find the San Fernando more than enough, if you was to try to get in. They’re always on the watch, whenever there’s a craft headin’ for the harbour; and they won’t let her pass until the port cap’n have been off to her, and is satisfied that she’s all right.”“Well,” said I, “I must have some clearer information than you have been able to give me. I must ascertain the precise date fixed for the sailing of the galleon; and I must have a look at Cartagena harbour, so that I may be able to judge for myself what will be the best mode of action. Now, how is this to be done?”“Oh, sir,” answered Hoard, “so far as getting news is concerned, I’ll undertake to do that for you. I speak Spanish like a native, and contrived to make a friend or two here and there among the fishermen and porters and people of that class, in spite of the priests and the soldiers. There’s one man in particular, named Panza—I took the blame of something that he did one day, when he was a fellow-prisoner, and was flogged instead of him, he being at the time a’most dead with fever, he’s a fisherman, and lives in the little village of Albornos, some four miles out of Cartagena; he’ll do anything for me. He don’t know—nobody exceptin’ the prison authorities knows—that I was shipped off aboard theMagdalena; so all I’ve got to do is to get ashore and make my way to his hut, tellin’ him that I’ve escaped from prison—which God knows is the truth,—and he’ll hide me as long as I like to stay with him, and tell me all the news into the bargain.”“Well, perhaps that might be managed—if you are not afraid to venture back among your enemies,” said I.“Lord bless you, sir, I ain’t afraid! not a bit of it,” answered Hoard. “The priests and soldiers believes me to be aboard theMagdalena; so, as long as I keeps out of their sight—which I’ll take precious good care to do—I shall be all right.”“Very well, then,” said I; “we can settle the details of your scheme later on. The next question is: How am I to get a view of Cartagena harbour?”“Ah, sir! that’ll be a very difficult and dangerous matter,” was the reply. “And yet,” he continued correcting himself, “I don’t know but what it may be done without so very much risk a’ter all, if the weather is but favourable. But the only way that you could do it would be to land durin’ the night on Tierra Bomba, and remain on the island all day, viewin’ the harbour from the top of a hill that stands pretty nearly in the centre of the island. You’d have to conceal yourself among the bushes; and as there are very few people movin’ about on the island you’d not be so very likely to be seen. Then the boat ’ud have to come ashore for you next night; and the schooner ’ud have to be kept well in the offing during the daytime.”“Should I be able to obtain a good, uninterrupted view of the harbour from the point you name?” I demanded.“First-rate, sir; couldn’t be better,” answered Hoard. “The harbour ’ud be spread out like a map below ye, and you’d see from one end to t’other of it; ay, and you’d see the galleon herself, lying in the small inner harbour.”“Then I’ll risk it,” exclaimed I decisively. “There is a new moon coming on in about a week’s time, so that the nights will be dark, and therefore favourable to our adventure. Thank you, Hoard; that is all I want with you now. I will have another chat with you when we reach the coast.”

This, too, was a very substantial and handsomely made piece of furniture, the material being Spanish mahogany. But, unlike the writing-table, all its drawers were unlocked; and, opening them one after the other, I found them to be full of apparel: shirts of finest linen, silk stockings, a brand-new suit of uniform, coats, breeches—in short everything necessary to complete the toilet of a man in the very pink of fashion. And, hanging by its belt from one of several brass hooks screwed to the bulkhead, I saw a very handsome sword with a gold hilt. This I took down and examined, drawing the weapon from its sheath to do so. The blade proved to be of Toledo make, a magnificent piece of steel, so elastic that by exerting a considerable amount of strength I succeeded in bringing the point and hilt together, and when I released it, the blade at once straightened itself out again as perfectly as before my experiment. The steel was elaborately damascened with a most beautiful and intricate pattern in gold, and altogether the weapon so irresistibly took my fancy that I unhesitatingly appropriated it forthwith. The shirts and stockings, too, and a few other articles of clothing that looked as if they would fit me, promised to make a very welcome addition to my rather meagre wardrobe; so I made them up into a good-sized bundle for transference to the schooner.

By the time that this was done the boat was alongside again, with the carpenter; and presently that individual came clawing his way below with his tools. I showed him what I wanted done, and he immediately set to work; but so substantially put together was the table, and so strong and intricate the locks appertaining to it, that the man was compelled to virtually take the whole affair to pieces before we could get at its contents. But the trouble was amply worth the taking; for I found the despatches, locked in an iron box and sealed with the great seal of the Governor of Cartagena, together with several other important-looking documents which subsequently proved to be of the utmost value. In fact, as my knowledge of Spanish was altogether too imperfect to admit of my determining what papers were valuable and what were valueless, I took every one that I could find.

This was not all, however. There were five Orders—what they were I knew not, but they were handsome enough, being elaborately set with superb jewels, to show that the late captain of theMagdalenawas a man ofveryconsiderable distinction. Also a magnificent pair of long-barrelled pistols, the barrels of which were damascened like the sword. And last, but not least, an oaken casket, strongly bound with heavy, handsomely-worked iron clamps and hinges, also sealed with the seal of the Governor of Cartagena, and which, upon being broken open, was found to contain a quantity of uncut gems, among which I recognised some rubies of extraordinary size and fire. All these valuables, needless to say, I unhesitatingly appropriated, for the twofold reason that if I did not they would certainly go to the bottom of the sea when the ship broke up, as she probably would in a few days; and in the next place, they were spoils of the enemy, to which we of theSword Fishhad as valid a title as anybody.

Having at length thoroughly ransacked the captain’s cabin, I proceeded to overhaul the rest of the ship, devoting, indeed, practically the whole day to the work; but nothing else was found worthy of mention, except a chest containing a thousand gold Spanish dollars, in what I took to be the purser’s room. And as for the rest of the ship, everywhere forward of the stump of the mainmast, she was so strained and battered as to be nothing better than a basket, the water washing in and out of her as she lay. We removed from the wreck the dollars, the casket of gems, and the few other matters that seemed to be worth taking, and still had daylight enough left to find our way out through the northern channel. Sunset, that night, therefore, found us once more at sea, and heading for Jamaica, I having determined to place the despatches and other documents, found on board the wreck, in the Admiral’s hands without loss of time. The trade-wind was again blowing, and blowing strong, too, so that, by carrying on, night and day, we made the passage in exactly three days, almost to a minute, from the Roccas; and I had the satisfaction of handing the despatches to the Admiral that same night. The jolly old fellow was at dinner when I presented myself, and was entertaining a number of officers, naval and military; but upon my name being announced he at once ordered me to be admitted and directed a knife and fork to be placed on the table for me. He received me with much cordiality, and also introduced me to his guests; but I could see that my presence was deemed an intrusion by most of them, the naval men especially, who were not only jealous of privateersmen, but were also very much inclined to look down upon us as inferior beings to themselves. There were one or two exceptions, however, notably the Honourable Augustus Montague and his first lieutenant, both of the frigateCalypso, then in port; the former a most amiable and genial young officer, with no nonsense at all about him, while his lieutenant, Mr Birdwood, was as fine a fellow in every way as I had ever met. The Admiral thanked me most warmly for the despatches, which he handed over at once to his secretary for translation; and I had the intense satisfaction of learning, before I left the Pen that night, that the documents were deemed of sufficient importance to justify their immediate despatch to England by a frigate. The Admiral was kind enough to invite me to sleep at the Pen; but I excused myself, the fact being that the schooner’s rigging needed overhauling, and her supply of stores and water required replenishing. I therefore slept in Kingston that night; and having arranged, the first thing next morning, for the supply of the stores and water, I went aboard to give orders to send down topmasts and have the rigging lifted. But an interview with Hoard, the man that we had taken off the wreck of the Spanish frigate, suddenly altered all my plans.

The way that it came about was this. I reached the schooner about ten o’clock in the morning, and at once gave my orders to Mr Saunders, who forthwith set all hands to work. I then went below to my cabin to write some letters home, to be forwarded by the frigate that was to take the Spanish despatches; and whilst I was thus engaged a timid, hesitating knock came to the door.

“Come in!” shouted I; and forthwith entered the man Hoard, carefully closing the door behind him.

“Beg pardon, Cap’n Bowen, for interrupting you,” he began; “but there’s a matter that I should like to speak to you about, if I ain’t making too bold.”

“Not at all, Hoard,” I answered. “But is the matter important? Won’t it wait? You see I am very busy just now, but I can give you as long as you like this afternoon.”

“Well, sir,” answered the man, fidgeting uneasily with his cap, “it’s for you to say whether it’s important or not. It’s about a galleon that’s loading at Cartagena for Spain; and, understandin’ that this schooner is a privateer, I thought that maybe you’d like to have a try for her, and if so, sir, I’d advise you—beggin’ pardon for bein’ so bold—not to start so much as a rope-yarn of this vessel’s rigging, or mayhap you’ll be too late for the galleon.”

“By George, man,” exclaimed I, “this is important news indeed! Why in the world did you not speak to me about it before?”

“Well, sir,” he answered, “you see, the way of it is this. Five years ago I belonged to the brig,Mary Rose, of Plymouth. She was a slaver; and in one of our runs across to the Coast she caught fire, and burnt us out of her. We took to the boats, and two days afterwards the boat that I was in, bein’ separated from the others in a strong breeze, was picked up by a Spanish ship called theSan Sebastian, and we were taken on to Cartagena. We were a wild set, I can tell you, and perhaps I was the wildest and wickedest of the lot; and we offended the Spaniards because we scoffed and laughed at ’em for plumpin’ down on their marrow-bones and prayin’, in a stiffish gale that we fell in with, instead of goin’ to work to shorten sail, and take care of the ship. Me and my mates did that for ’em while they prayed; but we’d offended ’em mortally, and they never forgave us. So the first thing that they does, when we arrived at Cartagena, was to denounce us as heretics, and we was all clapped into prison. What happened to my mates I never knowed, but I never saw any of ’em again. But as for me, if you’ll believe me, sir, the five years that I’ve been in the hands of the Spaniards I’ve been in hell! They wanted to convert me, so they said; and the way that they went about it, was to make my life a burden to me. They put me to work in chains on the roads; they sent me into the country, away from the coast, to work in their mines; they even tortured me! If you’ll believe me, Cap’n Bowen,” and I saw the poor fellow’s eyes grow wild, and begin to blaze as he spoke of his sufferings, “for four years I never had the chains off my hands and legs, except when I was bein’ tortured!

“But there,” he continued, pulling himself together, “I didn’t come down into this cabin to tell you about my sufferin’s; but I will tell you, sir, that by God’s mercy those same sufferin’s did convert me, not the sort of conversion that the Spaniards wanted to bring about, but the conversion that, I humbly trust, has caused me to see and repent of my former wicked life. Not but what the old Adam is strong in me yet at times, sir, I won’t deny it, and he’s never stronger than when I think of the wrongs and the sufferin’s that I’ve endured at the Spaniards’ hands. And it was just that, and nothin’ else, that’s kept my lips closed all this while about the galleon. We are told, sir, that we must forgive our enemies, and return good for evil; and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do, ever since I set foot aboard of this schooner. As soon as ever I came to myself, and was able to understand that I’d escaped from my enemies, and was once more safe under the flag of dear old England, the devil comes to me, and says:—

“‘Now’s your time, Isaac, to be revenged upon your enemies, and to pay ’em off for a little of the misery that they’ve been makin’ you suffer all them five years that they had you in their power. You know that they’re goin’ to send away this galleon, hopin’ that by keepin’ well to the south’ard she’ll escape capture. You know, too, that her cargo’s to be a rich one, and that, over and above her cargo she’s to ship an astonishin’ quantity of gold and precious stones, brought down to the coast from Peru; and of course you know that Cap’n Bowen and his lads ’ud lay wait for her, and maybe get her, if you was to tell ’em about her. And if they was to get her, only think what a blow the loss of her ’d be to the Spaniards! Why, it ’ud be so tremendous heavy that it ’ud go a good ways towards payin’ ’em off for all that they’ve made you suffer. It ’ud be a fine bit of revenge, now, wouldn’t it?’

“Now, I know well enough that this cravin’ for revenge is wrong, and I’ve been fightin’ against it with all my strength. But, somehow or another, it won’t do, Cap’n! it won’t do! The temptation is too great for me, miserable sinner that I am!” He smote his forehead despairingly with his hand. “I feel that Ican’tkeep quiet and let that galleon slip by! That gold and them jewels that she’s goin’ to ship has been dragged out of God’s earth by God’s creatures with sufferin’, and tears, and blood more than any man can measure; and I say that it ain’t right that the Spaniards should have it. If all this heap of treasure was to get safely across the Atlantic, and into the Spaniards’ treasure-chests, it would just encourage ’em to strive for more; and then there would be more tears, more blood, more despair, more lives rendered a burden and a curse to their owners. But if all this treasure that they keeps sendin’ across to Old Spain was to be taken from ’em, then, perhaps, they’d cease to collect it; and the poor, unhappy wretches who’re made to dig for it would have some peace. And above and beyond all that, I want the cowardly curs to suffer, in return for all the sufferin’ that they’ve inflicted upon me and thousands that are a good deal better than me. They love wealth. Then make ’em suffer, by takin’ it from ’em. And they love their lives. Make ’em suffer all the horrors of death, by goin’ against ’em with fire and steel! Let ’em know the pain, and horror, and despair of feelin’ that they’re not only goin’ to lose their treasure, but that they stand a good chance to lose their lives as well. And, above all, Cap’n, let me be there to witness their anguish. They taunted me, and gloated over me when they’d made my misery such that I begged ’em to finish me off at once, and have done with it; and now I want to pay off some of my debt to ’em, I do.”

It was really terrible to witness the frenzy of passion and fury into which this unhappy man goaded himself, as he recalled his past sufferings, and spoke of those who had made him endure them. His eyes gleamed and flashed like those of a savage beast; his face went deadly pale; his lips contracted into a snarl that showed his clenched teeth; he actually foamed from the mouth at last, and his hands clawed the air, as though he saw the Spaniards before him, and was reaching for their throats! I thought it my duty to check so maniacal an intensity of hatred, and I said to him:

“Come, come, Hoard, this will never do! I understood you to say, just now, that you had been converted from the error of your ways, and had become a Christian. Do you call it Christian-like to hate with such intensity as you exhibit? The Bible says that we should love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who despitefully use us. How do you reconcile your present feelings with such an injunction as that?”

“Ah!” he groaned, sinking back upon the locker from which he had risen in his excitement; “you have me there, sir; I can’t reconcile it; that’s just where it is. I can’t forgive my enemies, nor I can’t love ’em; and I can’t bring myself to do good to ’em. No; I’ve tried, I’ve kept my lips closed, I’ve prayed, I’ve done all that a man can do, and it’s no good; I shall never be able to rest until I’ve seen them cruel, haughty, overbearin’ wretches brought low. They’re the enemies of God and man, because they drive poor, weak souls to curse their Maker for permittin’ such cruelty. I’ve done it myself, over and over again! the good Lord forgive me! No, sir, it ain’t in man’s power to forgive a Spaniard who’s got you into his power, and I can’t believe that such an impossibility is expected of us. I don’t believe that the passage you quoted just now was ever meant to apply to Spaniards at all!”

“Well,” said I, “I am afraid that such a question is altogether too difficult a one for me to argue with you; you had better see a clergyman, and discuss the whole matter with him. But we have wandered somewhat from our original subject, which was the galleon. What more can you tell me about her? When is she to sail?”

“It was said,” answered Hoard, “that she was to sail exactly a fortnight after theMagdalena. That’s why I’ve made so bold as to come down and tell you about it now. If you start to overhaul your rigging, I’m afraid that you’ll not be ready in time to catch her. She is a big ship, sir; close upon sixteen hundred tons, I should call her, and I ought to know; for theMagdalenalaid within a cable’s length of her for more than a week. She is heavily armed, too; mounts twenty-eight eighteen-pound carronades; and carries on her books a complement of close upon two hundred men. Her name isNostra Señora del Carmen.”

“Ah!” answered I musingly; “then she is likely to prove a pretty tough customer!”

“Not too tough for this schooner and her crew, sir,” exclaimed Hoard eagerly. “Why, sir, one Englishman is equal to six Spaniards, any day; and as to her guns, a little management will keep the schooner out of the way of their shot. Besides, sir, I don’t suppose you’d engage her in a regular ‘hammer and tongs’ fight? The proper way ’ll be to let her pass ahead, and then run alongside, and carry her by boardin’! She’ll be but a slow ship, from the looks of her. For the Lord’s sake,” he continued anxiously, “don’t go to say or to think that she’s too big for you! Or, if you think that she is, get a man-o’-war to help you! You’ve only to repeat in the proper quarter what I’ve told you, and you’ll be certain to get all the help you want—”

“No doubt,” interrupted I drily; “but if I undertake the matter at all, I will undertake it single-handed. Meanwhile, it is so well worth consideration that I will countermand my orders for overhauling the rigging; so, if you have nothing more to tell me at present, Hoard, just ask the mate to step below, will you?”

“Ay, that will I, most gladly, sir,” answered Hoard. “And I’m quite sure, Cap’n Bowen,” he continued, pausing with his hand upon the handle of the door, “that when you’ve had time to think about the matter, you’ll make up your mind to have a try for theSeñora.”

With which he turned and left the cabin, and presently, in obedience to my message, Saunders came down. I gave him my instructions, and then proceeded with my letters, which I had to considerably abbreviate in consequence of the rather heavy demand that Hoard had made upon my time. However, I got them finished in time for theCalypso—which was the vessel selected by the Admiral for the conveyance of the Spanish despatches to England—and had the satisfaction of placing them in the hands of the Honourable Augustus Montague himself, and of receiving his assurance that he would undertake to forward them to their destination upon his arrival home.

During the afternoon a boat came alongside the schooner with a note from the Admiral, inviting me to dine with him that evening, the invitation being accentuated by the statement that he had some news of importance for me. I despatched an acceptance by the boat that had brought the information, and in due time once more found myself within the hospitable portals of the Pen. As usual, the room was full of guests, but after dinner my host found an opportunity to invite me into his office for a short time, when I learned that the important news referred to in his note of invitation consisted simply of some intelligence, gleaned from the Spanish documents taken by me out of the wreck of theMagdalena, confirming Hoard’s story of the galleon.

“I have told you this for a twofold reason,” said the Admiral, when he had read out from his translation the extracts relating to the galleon. “In the first place, I am, as usual, without a ship upon which I can lay my hands; the departure of theCalypsoto-day depriving me of the only vessel I had in a fit state to go to sea. And, in the next place, as you brought me this news I think it only right that you should be the one to profit by it. So there you are, and, if you will take my advice, you will not remain in port a single hour longer than is absolutely necessary, or you may miss her; and, if what these papers state be true—as I have no doubt it is—she is a ship worth taking a good deal of trouble to find.”

I thanked the Admiral for his information, but deemed it best to let him understand that I was indebted to him only for details, and shortly afterwards took my leave, having suddenly made up my mind to sail that same night, if I found that the stores and water had been sent aboard that afternoon, as promised.

I reached the schooner about half-past ten o’clock, and found all hands excepting the mate turned in. Saunders was considerably surprised to see me, as he did not expect me aboard that night; but, upon my questioning him with regard to the stores and water, he informed me that both had come alongside almost immediately after my departure for Kingston. There was consequently no reason why we should delay another moment; and within half an hour we had got up our anchor and were bowling away to the southward and westward before the land breeze. Before daylight the high land of Jamaica had sunk beneath the horizon, and we had caught the trade-wind.

It now became necessary for me to form some sort of a plan of operations; and for this purpose I determined to consult with Hoard. As soon, therefore, as I had secured my sights for the longitude, after breakfast, I sent for him, and he came down into the cabin.

“I have sent for you, Hoard,” said I, “because, as no doubt you already guess, I have made up my mind to have a try for the galleon; and as I understood you to say that you had spent some time ashore, at or near Cartagena, it occurs to me that you may be able to furnish me with some valuable information. And I want to ask you, first, whether, while you were in Cartagena harbour, you heard anything said that might lead you to suppose the Spaniards deem it so far possible that the news of the galleon may have spread far enough to lead to her captain taking extra precautions against capture by steering a course right out to sea, instead of making the best of his way to the eastward along the land, as far as, say, Point Gallinas?”

“I think, Cap’n, I understand what’s in your thoughts,” answered the man. “No, sir; I never heard anything that ’ud seemed to point to their imaginin’ that any news of the ship ’ud be likely to get to an enemy’s ears. At the same time, I don’t doubt, from what was rumoured about the amount of the treasure that she’s to ship, that her skipper’ll do everything his wit ’ll teach him to keep out of the road of our cruisers and privateers. That, however, ain’t very valuable information to give you, because you’ll have guessed as much as that yourself. And I’m afraid that I ain’t able to tell you any more—except this: that it’ll never do for this schooner to be seen dodgin’ about anywheres near Cartagena. If she was seen once I don’t suppose any harm would come of it, especially if she happened to be under a fairish amount of canvas, because it ’ud probably be supposed that she was bound south to the Gulf of Darien. But if she should happen to be seen twice, it ’ud be all up with us, for a time, at least; they’d be pretty sure to delay her sailin’ and send something out to watch us. And as to cuttin’ her out, Cap’n, I’m afraid it couldn’t be done. Besides, it ’ud be no use to try it unless all the treasure was aboard; and I don’t suppose they’ll ship that until her hatches are on, and she’s all ready for sea, so that she can up anchor and make a start directly the last ingot’s hoisted in.”

“Quite so,” I assented; “that will no doubt be their mode of procedure. But, on the other hand, she may be all ready for sea, even to having all the treasure on board, and yet not sail for a day or two. Because it is quite clear to me that, for some reason or other, they believe this galleon to have a very fair prospect of safely reaching her destination, or they would keep her back until they could send her home under convoy. Now, if they entertain such a belief as that, it seems to me highly probable that some of their big officials will embrace so apparently safe an opportunity to take a passage home in her, and they might not be ready quite so soon as the ship. Now, if that should happen, what is to prevent our cutting her out?”

“Do you happen to know what Cartagena harbour is like, sir?” inquired Hoard, beginning his answer to my question by asking another.

“No,” said I. “I have never been near it; nor have I ever seen a chart of it.”

“Of course you haven’t, sir,” answered my companion; “for the simple reason that the Spaniards won’t let a chart of it be made, for fear that it should get into an enemy’s hands. But I can tell you what it’s like, sir. It is about eight miles long, with a width varyin’ from four miles down to about one and a half. It is completely landlocked by the island of Tierra Bomba, that forms the seaward face of it, and there’s only one channel, called the Boca Chica, about half a cable’s length wide, by which a ship can get in or out. And just abreast the narrowest part of this here channel there’s a battery, called the San Fernando Battery, mounting twelve sixty-eight pounders. So, you see, sir, that cuttin’ a ship out of Cartagena harbour ain’t to be thought of.”

“Are there any other forts or batteries anywhere along the shores of the harbour?” asked I, my thoughts flitting back to our exploit at Abervrach.

“No, sir,” answered Hoard, in surprise at my question. “But you’d find the San Fernando more than enough, if you was to try to get in. They’re always on the watch, whenever there’s a craft headin’ for the harbour; and they won’t let her pass until the port cap’n have been off to her, and is satisfied that she’s all right.”

“Well,” said I, “I must have some clearer information than you have been able to give me. I must ascertain the precise date fixed for the sailing of the galleon; and I must have a look at Cartagena harbour, so that I may be able to judge for myself what will be the best mode of action. Now, how is this to be done?”

“Oh, sir,” answered Hoard, “so far as getting news is concerned, I’ll undertake to do that for you. I speak Spanish like a native, and contrived to make a friend or two here and there among the fishermen and porters and people of that class, in spite of the priests and the soldiers. There’s one man in particular, named Panza—I took the blame of something that he did one day, when he was a fellow-prisoner, and was flogged instead of him, he being at the time a’most dead with fever, he’s a fisherman, and lives in the little village of Albornos, some four miles out of Cartagena; he’ll do anything for me. He don’t know—nobody exceptin’ the prison authorities knows—that I was shipped off aboard theMagdalena; so all I’ve got to do is to get ashore and make my way to his hut, tellin’ him that I’ve escaped from prison—which God knows is the truth,—and he’ll hide me as long as I like to stay with him, and tell me all the news into the bargain.”

“Well, perhaps that might be managed—if you are not afraid to venture back among your enemies,” said I.

“Lord bless you, sir, I ain’t afraid! not a bit of it,” answered Hoard. “The priests and soldiers believes me to be aboard theMagdalena; so, as long as I keeps out of their sight—which I’ll take precious good care to do—I shall be all right.”

“Very well, then,” said I; “we can settle the details of your scheme later on. The next question is: How am I to get a view of Cartagena harbour?”

“Ah, sir! that’ll be a very difficult and dangerous matter,” was the reply. “And yet,” he continued correcting himself, “I don’t know but what it may be done without so very much risk a’ter all, if the weather is but favourable. But the only way that you could do it would be to land durin’ the night on Tierra Bomba, and remain on the island all day, viewin’ the harbour from the top of a hill that stands pretty nearly in the centre of the island. You’d have to conceal yourself among the bushes; and as there are very few people movin’ about on the island you’d not be so very likely to be seen. Then the boat ’ud have to come ashore for you next night; and the schooner ’ud have to be kept well in the offing during the daytime.”

“Should I be able to obtain a good, uninterrupted view of the harbour from the point you name?” I demanded.

“First-rate, sir; couldn’t be better,” answered Hoard. “The harbour ’ud be spread out like a map below ye, and you’d see from one end to t’other of it; ay, and you’d see the galleon herself, lying in the small inner harbour.”

“Then I’ll risk it,” exclaimed I decisively. “There is a new moon coming on in about a week’s time, so that the nights will be dark, and therefore favourable to our adventure. Thank you, Hoard; that is all I want with you now. I will have another chat with you when we reach the coast.”

Chapter Twenty Three.I plan a most daring and hazardous enterprise.Our run across to the Main was uneventful, and on the sixth morning out from Port Royal we made Point Gallinas, arriving off Cartagena some twenty hours afterwards.By great good luck the weather happened to be favourable for our immediate embarkation upon our adventure, so after a further and final chat with Hoard, the schooner was headed in for the land. The night was dark as pitch, the sky being overcast, and there was a gentle breeze blowing off the land, affording us smooth water for the delicate operation of landing. But there was no time to be lost, it wanting only four hours to daylight, by which time it would be necessary that the schooner should have secured a good offing; so, having under Hoard’s pilotage stood in until the lead gave us twenty-one fathoms—at which point Hoard informed us that we might consider ourselves half a mile from the land—the gig was lowered, and, with her crew armed to the teeth, we shoved off, the second mate being in charge, with Hoard and myself sitting on either side of him in the stern-sheets, the former still acting as pilot. We paddled gently in, with muffled oars, and in the course of about ten minutes the boat gently grounded on a narrow strip of smooth, sandy beach at the base of a low, rugged cliff in a shallow bay. Here Hoard and I landed, the second mate receiving instructions to be at the same spot with the boat and a small supply of cooked provisions every night at midnight, and to remain a couple of hours, when, if he saw nothing of either of us, he was to return to the schooner until the next night.We stood on the beach until the boat had shoved off again and was lost in the darkness, when we turned away, and, Hoard leading, proceeded to climb the face of the cliff, which was by no means a difficult matter, as the ground, although somewhat precipitous, was grass-grown and thickly dotted with low, sturdy bushes. Five minutes sufficed us to reach the top, when we found ourselves facing a hillside, rising on our right to a very respectable height. This, however, was not the hill to which Hoard had alluded in his conversation with me. To reach the latter we should have to walk about a mile, he informed me; so, having paused for a minute or two to get our breath after our unwonted exertions, we struck inland, passing over the spur of the hill on our right and dipping down into a shallow valley, along which we passed, steering a southerly course for a pair of steep, lofty hills, the summits of which were within half a mile of each other. The more southerly of these two was the one for which I was bound, and an hour’s steady climbing carried us to the top of it, when we lay down in the long grass among the bushes, and, regardless of insects and possible reptiles, snatched a catnap while we waited for daylight.At daybreak we roused up, and, making our way to a clear space on the very summit of the hill, looked abroad at the scene. Seaward, the ocean stretched away, a vast plain of delicate blue, to the horizon, and some twenty miles in the offing we made out a speck of white, gleaming in the brilliant morning sun, which we decided must be the schooner. Then, turning our backs upon the sea, we had the hilly foreground of the island before us, sloping away to right and left and in front of us down to the smooth, placid waters of the spacious harbour. On our right was the Boca Chica, the only entrance to the harbour, a narrow, winding channel with a sort of bar at its inner extremity, whereon, Hoard informed me, there is scarcely four fathoms of water. Nevertheless, viewed from the elevation which I occupied, the navigation of the channel appeared simple enough, the submerged sand-banks on each side of it showing up quite clearly through the blue water. At the inner extremity of the channel lies the outer harbour, a sheet of water roughly circular in shape, and measuring some four miles across in either direction. I noticed a few small shoals dotted about here and there in this outer harbour, but there was only one that appeared to be at all dangerous, and that one was to be easily avoided. The northern boundary of the outer harbour seemed to be pretty well defined by a cluster of decidedly dangerous shoals stretching right across from the island of Tierra Bomba to the mainland, but with fairly wide channels of deep water between, and north of this lay what might be termed the intermediate harbour. This is a sheet of water of about half the area of the outer harbour, with a good clean bottom and plenty of water. It is formed by a shoal uniting the island of Tierra Bomba with the mainland, a reef of rocks projecting above the sand and rendering the Boca Grande—once the main entrance to the harbour—quite impassable by anything larger than a boat. Then, inside this again, and rendered especially safe and snug by being inclosed by two long, low, projecting spits with a narrow channel between them, is the inner harbour, having an area of about three-quarters of a square mile, with plenty of water for the largest ships. The head of this harbour washes the walls and wharves of the town of Cartagena; indeed it does more, for, as Hoard informed me, it divides the town into two nearly equal parts, the tide flowing right through it and for some distance beyond. In this inner harbour lay quite a fleet of small coasting-craft, and towering high among them all could be made out the tall spars of the galleon. Immediately in front of us, and on the opposite side of the harbour, the country was low, swampy, and thickly covered with scrub and bush, among which could be made out the whitewashed mud walls of the villages of Buenavista, Gospique, and Albornos, in the latter of which Hoard’s friend Panza had his habitation. The fishing-boats from these villages were dotted all over the bay—they had probably been out all night,—and having pointed out to me the several objects of interest in the noble scene that stretched around us, my companion intimated that the time had arrived for him to leave me, as he intended to get a passage across to the mainland forthwith, and then make his way to the town for the purpose of acquiring information. He cautioned me to keep a bright look-out for chance stragglers, and to carefully avoid them, for he assured me that, if discovered, I should certainly be dragged off to the town, and probably meet with the same fate that he had suffered. And finally, he undertook to return, if possible, the next night to the spot whereon we then stood, adding that, should he fail to appear, I was not to be alarmed. I watched him make his way down the hillside, lost sight of him among the bush, and finally made him out again, with the aid of my glass, just as he was entering a little hamlet on the harbour shore of the island. I watched him sauntering hither and thither among the dozen or so of huts that composed the hamlet, saw him engage in conversation with several people, and at length observed him making his way down to the beach, accompanied by a couple of men. The trio entered a boat and pushed off, and I watched the crazy craft heading straight across the harbour to the village of Gospique, from whence I concluded he would make the best of his way to Albornos.I had now the rest of the day before me in which to look round and make my observations, and I determined to do so to the utmost extent of my ability. But I was by this time hungry and thirsty, so before doing anything else I sought out a comfortable spot in the shadow of a clump of bush, and sat down to discuss a portion of the viands that I had been careful to bring with me. Then, my meal finished, I produced pencil and paper, and proceeded to very carefully draw a map of the harbour, preserving as accurately as I could the just proportions of every feature, and marking the shoals in their proper places, as also the battery guarding the entrance channel, and the position of the villages dotted here and there along the shore. I had taken the precaution to bring a small pocket-compass with me, and this I found most useful as a means of laying down the bearings of the various features from my point of observation. By drawing the whole roughly to scale, judging my distances as accurately as possible, and freely using my pocket-compass, I found that by the end of the day I had secured a sketch map that had the appearance of being fairly accurate. Not a soul came near me throughout the day, but several small craft passed out of or into the harbour, and these afforded verification of Hoard’s statement as to the extraordinary precautions observed by the authorities, every one of them being obliged to heave-to until a boat from the battery had boarded them. A large ship, apparently a Spanish Indiaman, also arrived pretty late in the afternoon, so that I had an opportunity of witnessing for myself the manner in which such craft made their way through the channel to the inner anchorage.At length, when the sun was within an hour of setting, I observed a fishing-boat under sail emerge from among the group of islets that block the approach to the village of Albornos, and it presently became evident that she was making for the island, on the highest point of which I was perched. I brought my telescope to bear upon her, but for some time was unable to distinguish her occupants, the sail being in my way. At length, however, one of them moved forward and stood for a few minutes under the lee of the sail, and the boat being by this time more than half-way across, I was able to recognise the ragged habiliments worn by Hoard when we took him off the wreck of theMagdalena, and which he had resumed for the occasion. The sun was just dipping beneath the western horizon, and the shadow of the island of Tierra Bomba had enshrouded the waters of the harbour in a soft dusk, when the boat entered a shallow lagoon at the north-eastern extremity of the island, and grounded on the low, swampy shore. I saw Hoard disembark and stand talking with his companions for a few minutes, and then the boat shoved off again and made her way to about mid-channel, when her crew doused her sail and proceeded to shoot their nets. Meanwhile I had lost sight of Hoard behind a hill that lay between me and the lagoon where he had landed, and I saw no more of him until he suddenly appeared against the star-lit sky only a few paces from me.“Well, sir,” said he, as he ranged up alongside, “I’ve got some news for you, and no mistake; but I greatly doubt whether it’ll be very acceptable.”“How so?” I exclaimed; “has anything gone wrong?”“Well, I don’t exactly know about ‘gone wrong’,” was his reply; “but the way of it is this: The galleon is finished loadin’, and her hatches is on. The gold is expected to arrive in the town to-morrow evening, and if it does, it’ll be got aboard the day after to-morrow; and next day three hundred sojers is to be marched aboard of her, and she’ll then sail for Europe!”“Three hundred soldiers!” exclaimed I incredulously. “No wonder that they consider the vessel capable of making her way home without a convoy!”“Ay, you may well say so, sir,” was the reply. “It seems that the whole thing have been planned out for a long time. These three hundred sojers is to go home as invalids, so I hear; and the relief has arrived to-day in the Injieman that, mayhap, you saw come into the harbour this a’ternoon. She’s been expected this three weeks, so my friend Panza tells me.”“Well,” said I, “that is, as you say, news indeed; and it was a most fortunate thing that we came ashore, as we did. Had we simply dodged off and on, waiting for the galleon to come out, those three hundred soldiers would have done for us. You say that the gold train is expected to arrive to-morrow. Is this expectation pure conjecture, or have they reason for it?”“Oh, they’ve reason enough for it, sir; so I understand,” answered Hoard. “You see, the shippin’ off of this here gold is the talk of the town; nobody’s thinkin’ of anything else; and everything that happens concernin’ it is knowed at once all over the place. That’s how I got my news. Panza had heard all about it, and as soon as he sees me he starts talkin’ about it, not knowin’ that I’d been shipped off in theMagdalena; and I just let him talk, puttin’ in a question here and there until I’d found out all about it. As to the gold train, I don’t think there’s much doubt about it, because the news in the town is that a runner came in from Barranca this morning with a message from the commandant that the train had arrived there last night, and might be expected at Cartagena some time to-morrow, most likely pretty late in the evening. I was wondering whether it ’ud be possible for us to lay in wait for the train somewhere on the road, and get hold of the gold that way; but that plan ain’t any good, because the three hundred sojers that’s to go home in the ship are comin’ down with it; and sixty men again’ three hundred is rather long odds.”“Yes,” I agreed, “too long for my purpose, at all events; for I have no doubt that the rascals would make a stubborn fight for it; and even if we should succeed in capturing the gold, we should certainly lose a good number of our men, while I want to get the gold, and the ship too, without any loss at all, if it can be managed.”“Ay, sir,” answered Hoard. “But I don’t see how it can.”“Well, I have a plan,” said I, “and you, perhaps, with your knowledge of the place, will be able to tell me what chance there is of its being successful. And, first of all, do you happen to know how many men are stationed in that battery there that guards the entrance channel?”“Yes, sir, I think I can tell you pretty nearly,” answered Hoard; “because, d’ye see, afore I was sent aboard theMagdalenaI was one of the slaves that had to man the water-boat that took ’em their daily supply of fresh water, there bein’ none on the island. How many men? Well, I should say that, countin’ all hands, officers and men together, there’s a matter of nigh on to eighty of ’em.”“No more than that?”“No, sir; certainly not more than eighty. Call ’em eighty, and you’ll not be very far wrong; over the mark a trifle, if anything.”“Very well, then,” said I. “This is my plan. You say that the gold is to be put aboard the galleon the day after to-morrow. The fact of its shipment must be absolutely established, and, in order that it may be so, I propose that you shall remain ashore—if you think you can do so without fear of discovery—and witness for yourself the loading of it. Then, when it is all aboard the ship, you will make the best of your way across to this island, and wait for me at the spot where we landed last night. I shall come ashore with all the boats and the whole of the crew, except the idlers, fully armed. Then, if the gold has been shipped, we will land on a little strip of sandy beach at the seaward end of the channel, which I noticed to-day, march across the point, and take the battery, spiking the guns. And, when this is done, we will pull up the harbour, board the galleon, and carry her out to sea before the soldiers are embarked.”“The very thing, sir! the very thing!” exclaimed Hoard delightedly. “What a fool I was not to think of such a simple plan as that myself! Yes, sir, it’ll do, I don’t doubt. The sojers is sure not to be put aboard that night; they’ll give ’em a day or two to rest after their journey down the country, not for the sake of the men, sir, but because the officers ’ll want it.”“Then you think that my plan will do?” asked I.“Yes, sir, I do; I haven’t a doubt about it,” was the confident answer.“Then, in that case,” said I, “I shall go aboard the schooner to-night, leaving you ashore to find out all the news you can. I shall not come ashore to-morrow night, because there appears to be no need, and the less frequently that the schooner approaches the land the less will be the danger of discovery. But the night after to-morrow, at midnight, I shall be at the spot where we landed, with all the boats, and fully prepared to capture the battery. So you must find means to meet me there. Are you quite sure that you will run no risk by remaining ashore?”“Oh, yes, sir; I shall be all right. Never fear for me! I know the town now, and know how to take care of myself. But how will you manage, sir, supposin’ that it happens to be blowin’ strong, with the wind on the shore, when you wants to land, the night after to-morrow?”“Does that ever happen here?” I inquired, considerably taken aback by the suggestion.“It do sometimes, sir, but not often,” answered Hoard. “Mostly the land breeze springs up about eight o’clock, and blows until about seven in the mornin’.”“Well,” answered I, after considering awhile, “in the case that you mention, it appears to me that our best plan will be to make boldly for the channel, the four boats keeping abreast, so as to show as little as possible; let the wind blow them past the battery, and land in the little bay about half a mile inside. I noticed a big rock, the only one, jutting out of the sand there to-day. That should be a very good spot at which to meet you.”“Yes, sir, I know the rock well; I’ve seen it hundreds of times,” remarked Hoard. “You can’t do better, sir, unless the wind happens to be off shore. If it is, the other plan will be best.”“Very well, then, that is understood,” said I. “And now, how will you manage about getting back to the mainland?”“Oh,” remarked my companion, “I shall have to stay on this here island all night. But Panza will keep a look-out for me and take me across to-morrow morning.”“Then,” said I, “you had better walk with me as far as the beach, and get the fresh stock of provisions that they will bring ashore. And how are you off for money, in case you should want any?”“Why, the fact is that I haven’t got any, and I was goin’ to ask you to let me have some, sir; it might come handy,” was the reply.I happened to have a few dollars that I had taken the precaution to slip into my pocket before leaving the ship; these I handed to him, and we then sauntered slowly toward the spot where the boat was to meet us.I went on board the schooner that night, and devoted the whole of the following day to the preparations for our greatcoup, setting all hands to work sharpening cutlasses, cleaning pistols, effectually muffling the boats’ oars and rowlocks, and, in fact, making every possible provision that I could think of to ensure our success. And the next day I made the men rest all day, so that they might be fit for a long and arduous night’s work.It may be imagined that I kept an exceedingly anxious eye on the barometer throughout that day, for I realised that the weather would have much to do with the making or marring of our fortunes on the eventful night. The mercury remained steady in the tube until close upon sunset, and then it began to drop a little, the drop continuing until it had gone down nearly three-tenths of an inch. I scarcely knew what to make of this; whether to expect a shift of wind and a strong breeze, or whether it merely meant rain, or a thunder-storm. The sun, however, had scarcely set when we got a hint of what was to come, in the shape of a bank of dark, purplish, slate-coloured clouds that began to pile themselves along the eastern horizon, their edges as sharply defined against the clear sky as though the masses had been clipped out of paper. We were to be treated to a thunder-storm, and a pretty severe one, too, if the promise of those clouds was to be relied upon. We had been hove-to all day, some twenty miles in the offing, under mainsail and jib only; so that, by keeping our canvas low, we might escape observation from the land, although I had but little fear of this unless anyone happened to have wandered up to the top of one of the hills of Tierra Bomba, from which it would have been possible to see us. But the moment that the sun had fairly disappeared below the horizon, sail was packed upon the schooner, and we proceeded to work in toward the land, my chief anxiety now being lest the thunder-storm should gather and break before we had succeeded in effecting a landing, in which case we stood a very fair chance of being discovered, and of finding everybody on the alert to give us a warm reception. We reached in, on the starboard tack, until we were within about two miles of Punta de Canoas, when we hove about and reached along the land to the southward. By this time the thunder-clouds had completely overspread the sky; it was as dark as the inside of a cavern, and the storm might burst upon us at any moment. It hung off, however, and at length, much to my relief, we found ourselves close to the northern extremity of Tierra Bomba, and within half a mile of the shore. It was so dark that it was quite impossible to see anything, the land merely showing as a slightly deeper shadow against the intense blackness of the overcast sky. But I had so thoroughly studied all the natural features of the harbour and its surroundings during my day’s sojourn ashore that I now seemed to be perfectly familiar with them all. I therefore had no hesitation whatever in hauling the schooner in under the lee of the island until we were actually becalmed, when, the lead giving us a depth of barely four fathoms, I let go the anchor and stripped the schooner of all her canvas, not furling it, however, but simply passing a few turns of the gaskets, so that everything might be ready for making sail again at a moment’s notice.We were now, according to my judgment—for, as I have said, we could actually see nothing,—in the shallow bay where Hoard and I had landed three nights previously; and I believed, moreover, that we were so close to the land as to be completely shut in and hidden, both from the north and from the south. Needless to say, I had long ago issued orders to extinguish all unnecessary lights, and for those that were indispensable to be closely masked. There was therefore nothing to betray to the sight our whereabouts; and as to sound, every sheave and tackle that was in the least likely to be used had been so thoroughly greased that it worked in absolute silence, while the men, although shod for our tramp across the narrow point at the southern extremity of the island, had lashed thick wads of oakum to the soles of their shoes, and consequently moved about the decks as silently as ghosts. Moreover, the boats had all been so thoroughly prepared, hours beforehand, for the expedition, that there remained nothing whatever to be done but to lower them into the water, unhook the tackles, and shove off. When we let go our anchor it still wanted a good hour to midnight; nevertheless, so anxious was I lest the threatening storm should break, and the lightning betray our movements, that I determined to man the boats forthwith, and beach them if necessary, believing that thus we should run less risk of detection.All these precautions, it must be understood, were adopted not so much from any apprehension of ultimate failure, for I had determined to have the galleon, but because I wanted to save my men. I now summoned Saunders down into the cabin, and read over to him the instructions that I had carefully prepared for his guidance during the earlier part of the day, explained them to him fully, and then handed him the paper. The men who were to accompany me on the expedition were next mustered in the ’tween-decks and sent to supper, after which their weapons were carefully inspected, and a liberal quantity of ammunition served out to them; and then, when I had satisfied myself that all was right, I made them a little speech, explaining what I purposed doing, and how I wanted it done; when, having enjoined them to observe the most absolute silence, the light was extinguished, all hands groped their way on deck, the boats were lowered and manned, and we shoved off, each boat attached by her painter to the one ahead, so that we might not part company in the profound darkness. It was presently found, however, that this precaution was unnecessary, the water being so brilliantly phosphorescent as to afford all the guidance that was needed; indeed, there was altogether too much luminosity to please me. We were even closer to the shore than I had imagined, for we had not been under way five minutes, when the gig, in which I led the way, grounded upon the sand. And as she did so, I became aware of a weird, gaunt-looking figure, clad in rags, standing at the water’s edge, close to the boat’s stem.“All right, Cap’n, it’s me—Hoard—sir,” explained this figure, in a low, hoarse whisper, as I sprang ashore and gripped the fellow by the throat. “There was nothing to keep me,” he continued, as I relaxed my grip upon him; “so I came right on here, thinkin’ that, mayhap, you’d be a little bit afore your time, and wouldn’t want to be kept waitin’. Everything is just as right, sir, as if you’d planned the whole thing yourself; the gold is all shipped; theSeñorahas been hauled out to the Manzanilla anchorage, ready to sail as soon as the sojers is shipped to-morrow morning; and the commandant is givin’ a farewellfesta, as they calls it, to all the officers to-night; so that the chances are not one of ’em will think of goin’ aboard until daylight.”“Good heavens!” I exclaimed; “what carelessness! what folly! I should have thought they would have been afraid to leave so vast an amount of treasure unguarded.”“Why so, sir?” demanded Hoard. “They believe that the whole thing has been kept as secret as the grave—and so it would have been, too, but for the wreck of theMagdalena—so they don’t expect any such attack as you’re preparin’ for ’em. And as to anybody ashore attemptin’ to meddle with the ship—why, they’d sooner jump overboard and drownd theirselves. So that it ain’t so very wonderful, a’ter all, to my mind, that they believes their gold to be perfectly safe. Besides, there’s the San Fernando battery: who’d ever dream of that bein’ attacked and took?”“Well,” said I, “it all seems fairly reasonable as you put it, Hoard; still I cannot understand such an extraordinary lack of precaution. But, of course, it is so much the better for us. What about her crew?”“Oh! they’re all aboard, sir; but they’ll be turned in and sound asleep by this time,—anchor watch and all, as likely as not,” was the reply.“Do you happen to know how many they muster?” asked I.“Panza told me that he’d heard it said that her full complement was two hundred and twenty-six men, countin’ officers and all. But if we can only manage to surprise ’em, and get aboard afore the alarm’s given, I don’t reckon that they’ll give us so very much trouble,” answered Hoard.“We must risk that,” remarked I. “And now, as you happen to be here, there is nothing to detain us; we may, therefore, as well be moving. The sooner that we get this battery business over, the better.”“Very well, sir, I’m quite ready,” answered Hoard. “I suppose you didn’t happen to think of slippin’ a cutlash, or a pair of pistols, or anything into the boat for me, sir?” he continued.“Oh, yes, I did!” said I. “Thomson, the coxswain of the gig, will fit you out. And you had better come in the gig with me, as we shall probably want you to act as pilot.”“All right, sir, I’ll do that with all the pleasure in life,” was the answer. And therewith he clambered noiselessly into the boat and made his way aft to the stern-sheets, where I presently found him with a naked cutlass in his hand, the edge of which he was testing with his thumb, and mumbling his satisfaction at its condition.We now shoved off, and the gig leading, gave way at a long steady stroke, for the southern extremity of the island, which we reached within the hour, although it was a pull of fully three miles. Arrived at the low point, and leaving each boat in charge of a couple of men, we landed; and as I was marshalling the men upon the beach, the blackness of the night was momentarily dispelled by a blaze of vivid lightning that flashed from the clouds immediately overhead; and almost simultaneously with the flash there came a crash of thunder that seemed to make the solid ground beneath our feet vibrate and tremble. This was horribly annoying; for to advance upon the battery in the midst of a storm of lightning was almost certainly to betray ourselves, while time was now of some importance, I being anxious to be aboard the galleon not much later than two o’clock in the morning, that being the hour when man is supposed to sleep his soundest and to be least liable to awake prematurely.However, there was nothing for it but to wait, so I hurriedly ordered the men to lie down behind the ridge of sand which formed the junction of the beach with the grass-land; and there we crouched, with the lightning flashing and quivering all about us for fully a quarter of an hour. Then down came the rain, not in drops, but in sheets, with the lightning flashing and darting and quivering hither and thither through it, until we appeared to be enveloped in a gigantic diamond; so exquisitely beautiful were the glancing colours of the lightning through the rain. Of course we were wetted to the skin in an instant, but that did not very greatly matter, as our pistols and ammunition were carried in waterproof cases; moreover, the rain afforded us an excellent curtain under cover of which to advance; so at a word from me the men sprang to their feet, and we pushed rapidly forward. The battery was but a quarter of a mile from the spot where we had landed, and so accurately had I taken my bearings that, in about five minutes after we began to move, the structure loomed up, dark and grim, before us. Hoard had informed me that its landward sides were protected by a deep moat, connected with the sea, and spanned by a drawbridge; and it was for this bridge that I was keeping a sharp look-out. I was so close aboard of it before I saw it that three or four paces sufficed to carry me to the sentry-box at its landward end; and just as I reached this box a vivid flash of lightning revealed its interior, and there, bolt upright, stood a tall Spanish grenadier, with his musket resting in a corner of the hut, close to his hand. I realised instantly that the briefest period of hesitation now meant our undoing; for as I had seen the soldier, he had also undoubtedly seen me; so the man no sooner stood revealed before me than, with one bound, I was in the sentry-box with him, one hand grasping his throat to prevent him from crying out, while with the other I seized his musket and passed it out to the man next behind me. The soldier struggled manfully, and did his utmost to free his throat, but I held him fast, and in so fierce a grip that ere many seconds were over I felt him sink powerless to the ground. To lash him, hands and feet together, like a trussed fowl, with his own cross-belts, and to gag him with a good-sized stone, secured in his mouth by a strip slashed from his own coat, was but the work of two or three minutes; and when at length, satisfied that the fellow was secure and harmless, I emerged from the box, I had the satisfaction of finding that Tom Hardy,—now acting as the schooner’s second mate,—had promptly followed my example by securing the sentry at the far side of the drawbridge.We were now consequently in possession of this structure, and that, too, without the slightest alarm having been given to the garrison, and in another minute all hands of us stood inside the battery, which was a fine, solid earthwork, with casemates, very like the battery that we had seized at Abervrach harbour. Unlike the French battery, however, all the casemates were open, with the exception of four, two of which were converted into the officers’ quarters, while the other two constituted the magazine; and in the shelter of these open casemates the artillerymen were slumbering soundly in hammocks, despite the storm, with their muskets piled under the shelter of a verandah that ran all along the front of the casemates. To possess ourselves of these muskets, and to heave them into the moat was the work of but a few minutes; and when this was done I went up on to the platform, and with my own hands effectually spiked every one of the guns. It was a most unaccountable thing to me that the whole garrison should have slept so soundly through the terrific crash and roar of the thunder, and the blaze of the lightning; but they did, perhaps because they were accustomed to that kind of disturbance; and as the thunder was practically continuous, I had no difficulty in carrying out my operations without a single clink of the leather-covered hammer being audible.The battery was now useless for some hours at least; and, since we had been so fortunate as to render it so without any of the garrison becoming any the wiser, I thought it would be an advantage to leave them in ignorance for a few hours longer, I therefore quietly withdrew my men, and, taking the two gagged and bound sentinels with us, effected an orderly retreat to the beach.

Our run across to the Main was uneventful, and on the sixth morning out from Port Royal we made Point Gallinas, arriving off Cartagena some twenty hours afterwards.

By great good luck the weather happened to be favourable for our immediate embarkation upon our adventure, so after a further and final chat with Hoard, the schooner was headed in for the land. The night was dark as pitch, the sky being overcast, and there was a gentle breeze blowing off the land, affording us smooth water for the delicate operation of landing. But there was no time to be lost, it wanting only four hours to daylight, by which time it would be necessary that the schooner should have secured a good offing; so, having under Hoard’s pilotage stood in until the lead gave us twenty-one fathoms—at which point Hoard informed us that we might consider ourselves half a mile from the land—the gig was lowered, and, with her crew armed to the teeth, we shoved off, the second mate being in charge, with Hoard and myself sitting on either side of him in the stern-sheets, the former still acting as pilot. We paddled gently in, with muffled oars, and in the course of about ten minutes the boat gently grounded on a narrow strip of smooth, sandy beach at the base of a low, rugged cliff in a shallow bay. Here Hoard and I landed, the second mate receiving instructions to be at the same spot with the boat and a small supply of cooked provisions every night at midnight, and to remain a couple of hours, when, if he saw nothing of either of us, he was to return to the schooner until the next night.

We stood on the beach until the boat had shoved off again and was lost in the darkness, when we turned away, and, Hoard leading, proceeded to climb the face of the cliff, which was by no means a difficult matter, as the ground, although somewhat precipitous, was grass-grown and thickly dotted with low, sturdy bushes. Five minutes sufficed us to reach the top, when we found ourselves facing a hillside, rising on our right to a very respectable height. This, however, was not the hill to which Hoard had alluded in his conversation with me. To reach the latter we should have to walk about a mile, he informed me; so, having paused for a minute or two to get our breath after our unwonted exertions, we struck inland, passing over the spur of the hill on our right and dipping down into a shallow valley, along which we passed, steering a southerly course for a pair of steep, lofty hills, the summits of which were within half a mile of each other. The more southerly of these two was the one for which I was bound, and an hour’s steady climbing carried us to the top of it, when we lay down in the long grass among the bushes, and, regardless of insects and possible reptiles, snatched a catnap while we waited for daylight.

At daybreak we roused up, and, making our way to a clear space on the very summit of the hill, looked abroad at the scene. Seaward, the ocean stretched away, a vast plain of delicate blue, to the horizon, and some twenty miles in the offing we made out a speck of white, gleaming in the brilliant morning sun, which we decided must be the schooner. Then, turning our backs upon the sea, we had the hilly foreground of the island before us, sloping away to right and left and in front of us down to the smooth, placid waters of the spacious harbour. On our right was the Boca Chica, the only entrance to the harbour, a narrow, winding channel with a sort of bar at its inner extremity, whereon, Hoard informed me, there is scarcely four fathoms of water. Nevertheless, viewed from the elevation which I occupied, the navigation of the channel appeared simple enough, the submerged sand-banks on each side of it showing up quite clearly through the blue water. At the inner extremity of the channel lies the outer harbour, a sheet of water roughly circular in shape, and measuring some four miles across in either direction. I noticed a few small shoals dotted about here and there in this outer harbour, but there was only one that appeared to be at all dangerous, and that one was to be easily avoided. The northern boundary of the outer harbour seemed to be pretty well defined by a cluster of decidedly dangerous shoals stretching right across from the island of Tierra Bomba to the mainland, but with fairly wide channels of deep water between, and north of this lay what might be termed the intermediate harbour. This is a sheet of water of about half the area of the outer harbour, with a good clean bottom and plenty of water. It is formed by a shoal uniting the island of Tierra Bomba with the mainland, a reef of rocks projecting above the sand and rendering the Boca Grande—once the main entrance to the harbour—quite impassable by anything larger than a boat. Then, inside this again, and rendered especially safe and snug by being inclosed by two long, low, projecting spits with a narrow channel between them, is the inner harbour, having an area of about three-quarters of a square mile, with plenty of water for the largest ships. The head of this harbour washes the walls and wharves of the town of Cartagena; indeed it does more, for, as Hoard informed me, it divides the town into two nearly equal parts, the tide flowing right through it and for some distance beyond. In this inner harbour lay quite a fleet of small coasting-craft, and towering high among them all could be made out the tall spars of the galleon. Immediately in front of us, and on the opposite side of the harbour, the country was low, swampy, and thickly covered with scrub and bush, among which could be made out the whitewashed mud walls of the villages of Buenavista, Gospique, and Albornos, in the latter of which Hoard’s friend Panza had his habitation. The fishing-boats from these villages were dotted all over the bay—they had probably been out all night,—and having pointed out to me the several objects of interest in the noble scene that stretched around us, my companion intimated that the time had arrived for him to leave me, as he intended to get a passage across to the mainland forthwith, and then make his way to the town for the purpose of acquiring information. He cautioned me to keep a bright look-out for chance stragglers, and to carefully avoid them, for he assured me that, if discovered, I should certainly be dragged off to the town, and probably meet with the same fate that he had suffered. And finally, he undertook to return, if possible, the next night to the spot whereon we then stood, adding that, should he fail to appear, I was not to be alarmed. I watched him make his way down the hillside, lost sight of him among the bush, and finally made him out again, with the aid of my glass, just as he was entering a little hamlet on the harbour shore of the island. I watched him sauntering hither and thither among the dozen or so of huts that composed the hamlet, saw him engage in conversation with several people, and at length observed him making his way down to the beach, accompanied by a couple of men. The trio entered a boat and pushed off, and I watched the crazy craft heading straight across the harbour to the village of Gospique, from whence I concluded he would make the best of his way to Albornos.

I had now the rest of the day before me in which to look round and make my observations, and I determined to do so to the utmost extent of my ability. But I was by this time hungry and thirsty, so before doing anything else I sought out a comfortable spot in the shadow of a clump of bush, and sat down to discuss a portion of the viands that I had been careful to bring with me. Then, my meal finished, I produced pencil and paper, and proceeded to very carefully draw a map of the harbour, preserving as accurately as I could the just proportions of every feature, and marking the shoals in their proper places, as also the battery guarding the entrance channel, and the position of the villages dotted here and there along the shore. I had taken the precaution to bring a small pocket-compass with me, and this I found most useful as a means of laying down the bearings of the various features from my point of observation. By drawing the whole roughly to scale, judging my distances as accurately as possible, and freely using my pocket-compass, I found that by the end of the day I had secured a sketch map that had the appearance of being fairly accurate. Not a soul came near me throughout the day, but several small craft passed out of or into the harbour, and these afforded verification of Hoard’s statement as to the extraordinary precautions observed by the authorities, every one of them being obliged to heave-to until a boat from the battery had boarded them. A large ship, apparently a Spanish Indiaman, also arrived pretty late in the afternoon, so that I had an opportunity of witnessing for myself the manner in which such craft made their way through the channel to the inner anchorage.

At length, when the sun was within an hour of setting, I observed a fishing-boat under sail emerge from among the group of islets that block the approach to the village of Albornos, and it presently became evident that she was making for the island, on the highest point of which I was perched. I brought my telescope to bear upon her, but for some time was unable to distinguish her occupants, the sail being in my way. At length, however, one of them moved forward and stood for a few minutes under the lee of the sail, and the boat being by this time more than half-way across, I was able to recognise the ragged habiliments worn by Hoard when we took him off the wreck of theMagdalena, and which he had resumed for the occasion. The sun was just dipping beneath the western horizon, and the shadow of the island of Tierra Bomba had enshrouded the waters of the harbour in a soft dusk, when the boat entered a shallow lagoon at the north-eastern extremity of the island, and grounded on the low, swampy shore. I saw Hoard disembark and stand talking with his companions for a few minutes, and then the boat shoved off again and made her way to about mid-channel, when her crew doused her sail and proceeded to shoot their nets. Meanwhile I had lost sight of Hoard behind a hill that lay between me and the lagoon where he had landed, and I saw no more of him until he suddenly appeared against the star-lit sky only a few paces from me.

“Well, sir,” said he, as he ranged up alongside, “I’ve got some news for you, and no mistake; but I greatly doubt whether it’ll be very acceptable.”

“How so?” I exclaimed; “has anything gone wrong?”

“Well, I don’t exactly know about ‘gone wrong’,” was his reply; “but the way of it is this: The galleon is finished loadin’, and her hatches is on. The gold is expected to arrive in the town to-morrow evening, and if it does, it’ll be got aboard the day after to-morrow; and next day three hundred sojers is to be marched aboard of her, and she’ll then sail for Europe!”

“Three hundred soldiers!” exclaimed I incredulously. “No wonder that they consider the vessel capable of making her way home without a convoy!”

“Ay, you may well say so, sir,” was the reply. “It seems that the whole thing have been planned out for a long time. These three hundred sojers is to go home as invalids, so I hear; and the relief has arrived to-day in the Injieman that, mayhap, you saw come into the harbour this a’ternoon. She’s been expected this three weeks, so my friend Panza tells me.”

“Well,” said I, “that is, as you say, news indeed; and it was a most fortunate thing that we came ashore, as we did. Had we simply dodged off and on, waiting for the galleon to come out, those three hundred soldiers would have done for us. You say that the gold train is expected to arrive to-morrow. Is this expectation pure conjecture, or have they reason for it?”

“Oh, they’ve reason enough for it, sir; so I understand,” answered Hoard. “You see, the shippin’ off of this here gold is the talk of the town; nobody’s thinkin’ of anything else; and everything that happens concernin’ it is knowed at once all over the place. That’s how I got my news. Panza had heard all about it, and as soon as he sees me he starts talkin’ about it, not knowin’ that I’d been shipped off in theMagdalena; and I just let him talk, puttin’ in a question here and there until I’d found out all about it. As to the gold train, I don’t think there’s much doubt about it, because the news in the town is that a runner came in from Barranca this morning with a message from the commandant that the train had arrived there last night, and might be expected at Cartagena some time to-morrow, most likely pretty late in the evening. I was wondering whether it ’ud be possible for us to lay in wait for the train somewhere on the road, and get hold of the gold that way; but that plan ain’t any good, because the three hundred sojers that’s to go home in the ship are comin’ down with it; and sixty men again’ three hundred is rather long odds.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “too long for my purpose, at all events; for I have no doubt that the rascals would make a stubborn fight for it; and even if we should succeed in capturing the gold, we should certainly lose a good number of our men, while I want to get the gold, and the ship too, without any loss at all, if it can be managed.”

“Ay, sir,” answered Hoard. “But I don’t see how it can.”

“Well, I have a plan,” said I, “and you, perhaps, with your knowledge of the place, will be able to tell me what chance there is of its being successful. And, first of all, do you happen to know how many men are stationed in that battery there that guards the entrance channel?”

“Yes, sir, I think I can tell you pretty nearly,” answered Hoard; “because, d’ye see, afore I was sent aboard theMagdalenaI was one of the slaves that had to man the water-boat that took ’em their daily supply of fresh water, there bein’ none on the island. How many men? Well, I should say that, countin’ all hands, officers and men together, there’s a matter of nigh on to eighty of ’em.”

“No more than that?”

“No, sir; certainly not more than eighty. Call ’em eighty, and you’ll not be very far wrong; over the mark a trifle, if anything.”

“Very well, then,” said I. “This is my plan. You say that the gold is to be put aboard the galleon the day after to-morrow. The fact of its shipment must be absolutely established, and, in order that it may be so, I propose that you shall remain ashore—if you think you can do so without fear of discovery—and witness for yourself the loading of it. Then, when it is all aboard the ship, you will make the best of your way across to this island, and wait for me at the spot where we landed last night. I shall come ashore with all the boats and the whole of the crew, except the idlers, fully armed. Then, if the gold has been shipped, we will land on a little strip of sandy beach at the seaward end of the channel, which I noticed to-day, march across the point, and take the battery, spiking the guns. And, when this is done, we will pull up the harbour, board the galleon, and carry her out to sea before the soldiers are embarked.”

“The very thing, sir! the very thing!” exclaimed Hoard delightedly. “What a fool I was not to think of such a simple plan as that myself! Yes, sir, it’ll do, I don’t doubt. The sojers is sure not to be put aboard that night; they’ll give ’em a day or two to rest after their journey down the country, not for the sake of the men, sir, but because the officers ’ll want it.”

“Then you think that my plan will do?” asked I.

“Yes, sir, I do; I haven’t a doubt about it,” was the confident answer.

“Then, in that case,” said I, “I shall go aboard the schooner to-night, leaving you ashore to find out all the news you can. I shall not come ashore to-morrow night, because there appears to be no need, and the less frequently that the schooner approaches the land the less will be the danger of discovery. But the night after to-morrow, at midnight, I shall be at the spot where we landed, with all the boats, and fully prepared to capture the battery. So you must find means to meet me there. Are you quite sure that you will run no risk by remaining ashore?”

“Oh, yes, sir; I shall be all right. Never fear for me! I know the town now, and know how to take care of myself. But how will you manage, sir, supposin’ that it happens to be blowin’ strong, with the wind on the shore, when you wants to land, the night after to-morrow?”

“Does that ever happen here?” I inquired, considerably taken aback by the suggestion.

“It do sometimes, sir, but not often,” answered Hoard. “Mostly the land breeze springs up about eight o’clock, and blows until about seven in the mornin’.”

“Well,” answered I, after considering awhile, “in the case that you mention, it appears to me that our best plan will be to make boldly for the channel, the four boats keeping abreast, so as to show as little as possible; let the wind blow them past the battery, and land in the little bay about half a mile inside. I noticed a big rock, the only one, jutting out of the sand there to-day. That should be a very good spot at which to meet you.”

“Yes, sir, I know the rock well; I’ve seen it hundreds of times,” remarked Hoard. “You can’t do better, sir, unless the wind happens to be off shore. If it is, the other plan will be best.”

“Very well, then, that is understood,” said I. “And now, how will you manage about getting back to the mainland?”

“Oh,” remarked my companion, “I shall have to stay on this here island all night. But Panza will keep a look-out for me and take me across to-morrow morning.”

“Then,” said I, “you had better walk with me as far as the beach, and get the fresh stock of provisions that they will bring ashore. And how are you off for money, in case you should want any?”

“Why, the fact is that I haven’t got any, and I was goin’ to ask you to let me have some, sir; it might come handy,” was the reply.

I happened to have a few dollars that I had taken the precaution to slip into my pocket before leaving the ship; these I handed to him, and we then sauntered slowly toward the spot where the boat was to meet us.

I went on board the schooner that night, and devoted the whole of the following day to the preparations for our greatcoup, setting all hands to work sharpening cutlasses, cleaning pistols, effectually muffling the boats’ oars and rowlocks, and, in fact, making every possible provision that I could think of to ensure our success. And the next day I made the men rest all day, so that they might be fit for a long and arduous night’s work.

It may be imagined that I kept an exceedingly anxious eye on the barometer throughout that day, for I realised that the weather would have much to do with the making or marring of our fortunes on the eventful night. The mercury remained steady in the tube until close upon sunset, and then it began to drop a little, the drop continuing until it had gone down nearly three-tenths of an inch. I scarcely knew what to make of this; whether to expect a shift of wind and a strong breeze, or whether it merely meant rain, or a thunder-storm. The sun, however, had scarcely set when we got a hint of what was to come, in the shape of a bank of dark, purplish, slate-coloured clouds that began to pile themselves along the eastern horizon, their edges as sharply defined against the clear sky as though the masses had been clipped out of paper. We were to be treated to a thunder-storm, and a pretty severe one, too, if the promise of those clouds was to be relied upon. We had been hove-to all day, some twenty miles in the offing, under mainsail and jib only; so that, by keeping our canvas low, we might escape observation from the land, although I had but little fear of this unless anyone happened to have wandered up to the top of one of the hills of Tierra Bomba, from which it would have been possible to see us. But the moment that the sun had fairly disappeared below the horizon, sail was packed upon the schooner, and we proceeded to work in toward the land, my chief anxiety now being lest the thunder-storm should gather and break before we had succeeded in effecting a landing, in which case we stood a very fair chance of being discovered, and of finding everybody on the alert to give us a warm reception. We reached in, on the starboard tack, until we were within about two miles of Punta de Canoas, when we hove about and reached along the land to the southward. By this time the thunder-clouds had completely overspread the sky; it was as dark as the inside of a cavern, and the storm might burst upon us at any moment. It hung off, however, and at length, much to my relief, we found ourselves close to the northern extremity of Tierra Bomba, and within half a mile of the shore. It was so dark that it was quite impossible to see anything, the land merely showing as a slightly deeper shadow against the intense blackness of the overcast sky. But I had so thoroughly studied all the natural features of the harbour and its surroundings during my day’s sojourn ashore that I now seemed to be perfectly familiar with them all. I therefore had no hesitation whatever in hauling the schooner in under the lee of the island until we were actually becalmed, when, the lead giving us a depth of barely four fathoms, I let go the anchor and stripped the schooner of all her canvas, not furling it, however, but simply passing a few turns of the gaskets, so that everything might be ready for making sail again at a moment’s notice.

We were now, according to my judgment—for, as I have said, we could actually see nothing,—in the shallow bay where Hoard and I had landed three nights previously; and I believed, moreover, that we were so close to the land as to be completely shut in and hidden, both from the north and from the south. Needless to say, I had long ago issued orders to extinguish all unnecessary lights, and for those that were indispensable to be closely masked. There was therefore nothing to betray to the sight our whereabouts; and as to sound, every sheave and tackle that was in the least likely to be used had been so thoroughly greased that it worked in absolute silence, while the men, although shod for our tramp across the narrow point at the southern extremity of the island, had lashed thick wads of oakum to the soles of their shoes, and consequently moved about the decks as silently as ghosts. Moreover, the boats had all been so thoroughly prepared, hours beforehand, for the expedition, that there remained nothing whatever to be done but to lower them into the water, unhook the tackles, and shove off. When we let go our anchor it still wanted a good hour to midnight; nevertheless, so anxious was I lest the threatening storm should break, and the lightning betray our movements, that I determined to man the boats forthwith, and beach them if necessary, believing that thus we should run less risk of detection.

All these precautions, it must be understood, were adopted not so much from any apprehension of ultimate failure, for I had determined to have the galleon, but because I wanted to save my men. I now summoned Saunders down into the cabin, and read over to him the instructions that I had carefully prepared for his guidance during the earlier part of the day, explained them to him fully, and then handed him the paper. The men who were to accompany me on the expedition were next mustered in the ’tween-decks and sent to supper, after which their weapons were carefully inspected, and a liberal quantity of ammunition served out to them; and then, when I had satisfied myself that all was right, I made them a little speech, explaining what I purposed doing, and how I wanted it done; when, having enjoined them to observe the most absolute silence, the light was extinguished, all hands groped their way on deck, the boats were lowered and manned, and we shoved off, each boat attached by her painter to the one ahead, so that we might not part company in the profound darkness. It was presently found, however, that this precaution was unnecessary, the water being so brilliantly phosphorescent as to afford all the guidance that was needed; indeed, there was altogether too much luminosity to please me. We were even closer to the shore than I had imagined, for we had not been under way five minutes, when the gig, in which I led the way, grounded upon the sand. And as she did so, I became aware of a weird, gaunt-looking figure, clad in rags, standing at the water’s edge, close to the boat’s stem.

“All right, Cap’n, it’s me—Hoard—sir,” explained this figure, in a low, hoarse whisper, as I sprang ashore and gripped the fellow by the throat. “There was nothing to keep me,” he continued, as I relaxed my grip upon him; “so I came right on here, thinkin’ that, mayhap, you’d be a little bit afore your time, and wouldn’t want to be kept waitin’. Everything is just as right, sir, as if you’d planned the whole thing yourself; the gold is all shipped; theSeñorahas been hauled out to the Manzanilla anchorage, ready to sail as soon as the sojers is shipped to-morrow morning; and the commandant is givin’ a farewellfesta, as they calls it, to all the officers to-night; so that the chances are not one of ’em will think of goin’ aboard until daylight.”

“Good heavens!” I exclaimed; “what carelessness! what folly! I should have thought they would have been afraid to leave so vast an amount of treasure unguarded.”

“Why so, sir?” demanded Hoard. “They believe that the whole thing has been kept as secret as the grave—and so it would have been, too, but for the wreck of theMagdalena—so they don’t expect any such attack as you’re preparin’ for ’em. And as to anybody ashore attemptin’ to meddle with the ship—why, they’d sooner jump overboard and drownd theirselves. So that it ain’t so very wonderful, a’ter all, to my mind, that they believes their gold to be perfectly safe. Besides, there’s the San Fernando battery: who’d ever dream of that bein’ attacked and took?”

“Well,” said I, “it all seems fairly reasonable as you put it, Hoard; still I cannot understand such an extraordinary lack of precaution. But, of course, it is so much the better for us. What about her crew?”

“Oh! they’re all aboard, sir; but they’ll be turned in and sound asleep by this time,—anchor watch and all, as likely as not,” was the reply.

“Do you happen to know how many they muster?” asked I.

“Panza told me that he’d heard it said that her full complement was two hundred and twenty-six men, countin’ officers and all. But if we can only manage to surprise ’em, and get aboard afore the alarm’s given, I don’t reckon that they’ll give us so very much trouble,” answered Hoard.

“We must risk that,” remarked I. “And now, as you happen to be here, there is nothing to detain us; we may, therefore, as well be moving. The sooner that we get this battery business over, the better.”

“Very well, sir, I’m quite ready,” answered Hoard. “I suppose you didn’t happen to think of slippin’ a cutlash, or a pair of pistols, or anything into the boat for me, sir?” he continued.

“Oh, yes, I did!” said I. “Thomson, the coxswain of the gig, will fit you out. And you had better come in the gig with me, as we shall probably want you to act as pilot.”

“All right, sir, I’ll do that with all the pleasure in life,” was the answer. And therewith he clambered noiselessly into the boat and made his way aft to the stern-sheets, where I presently found him with a naked cutlass in his hand, the edge of which he was testing with his thumb, and mumbling his satisfaction at its condition.

We now shoved off, and the gig leading, gave way at a long steady stroke, for the southern extremity of the island, which we reached within the hour, although it was a pull of fully three miles. Arrived at the low point, and leaving each boat in charge of a couple of men, we landed; and as I was marshalling the men upon the beach, the blackness of the night was momentarily dispelled by a blaze of vivid lightning that flashed from the clouds immediately overhead; and almost simultaneously with the flash there came a crash of thunder that seemed to make the solid ground beneath our feet vibrate and tremble. This was horribly annoying; for to advance upon the battery in the midst of a storm of lightning was almost certainly to betray ourselves, while time was now of some importance, I being anxious to be aboard the galleon not much later than two o’clock in the morning, that being the hour when man is supposed to sleep his soundest and to be least liable to awake prematurely.

However, there was nothing for it but to wait, so I hurriedly ordered the men to lie down behind the ridge of sand which formed the junction of the beach with the grass-land; and there we crouched, with the lightning flashing and quivering all about us for fully a quarter of an hour. Then down came the rain, not in drops, but in sheets, with the lightning flashing and darting and quivering hither and thither through it, until we appeared to be enveloped in a gigantic diamond; so exquisitely beautiful were the glancing colours of the lightning through the rain. Of course we were wetted to the skin in an instant, but that did not very greatly matter, as our pistols and ammunition were carried in waterproof cases; moreover, the rain afforded us an excellent curtain under cover of which to advance; so at a word from me the men sprang to their feet, and we pushed rapidly forward. The battery was but a quarter of a mile from the spot where we had landed, and so accurately had I taken my bearings that, in about five minutes after we began to move, the structure loomed up, dark and grim, before us. Hoard had informed me that its landward sides were protected by a deep moat, connected with the sea, and spanned by a drawbridge; and it was for this bridge that I was keeping a sharp look-out. I was so close aboard of it before I saw it that three or four paces sufficed to carry me to the sentry-box at its landward end; and just as I reached this box a vivid flash of lightning revealed its interior, and there, bolt upright, stood a tall Spanish grenadier, with his musket resting in a corner of the hut, close to his hand. I realised instantly that the briefest period of hesitation now meant our undoing; for as I had seen the soldier, he had also undoubtedly seen me; so the man no sooner stood revealed before me than, with one bound, I was in the sentry-box with him, one hand grasping his throat to prevent him from crying out, while with the other I seized his musket and passed it out to the man next behind me. The soldier struggled manfully, and did his utmost to free his throat, but I held him fast, and in so fierce a grip that ere many seconds were over I felt him sink powerless to the ground. To lash him, hands and feet together, like a trussed fowl, with his own cross-belts, and to gag him with a good-sized stone, secured in his mouth by a strip slashed from his own coat, was but the work of two or three minutes; and when at length, satisfied that the fellow was secure and harmless, I emerged from the box, I had the satisfaction of finding that Tom Hardy,—now acting as the schooner’s second mate,—had promptly followed my example by securing the sentry at the far side of the drawbridge.

We were now consequently in possession of this structure, and that, too, without the slightest alarm having been given to the garrison, and in another minute all hands of us stood inside the battery, which was a fine, solid earthwork, with casemates, very like the battery that we had seized at Abervrach harbour. Unlike the French battery, however, all the casemates were open, with the exception of four, two of which were converted into the officers’ quarters, while the other two constituted the magazine; and in the shelter of these open casemates the artillerymen were slumbering soundly in hammocks, despite the storm, with their muskets piled under the shelter of a verandah that ran all along the front of the casemates. To possess ourselves of these muskets, and to heave them into the moat was the work of but a few minutes; and when this was done I went up on to the platform, and with my own hands effectually spiked every one of the guns. It was a most unaccountable thing to me that the whole garrison should have slept so soundly through the terrific crash and roar of the thunder, and the blaze of the lightning; but they did, perhaps because they were accustomed to that kind of disturbance; and as the thunder was practically continuous, I had no difficulty in carrying out my operations without a single clink of the leather-covered hammer being audible.

The battery was now useless for some hours at least; and, since we had been so fortunate as to render it so without any of the garrison becoming any the wiser, I thought it would be an advantage to leave them in ignorance for a few hours longer, I therefore quietly withdrew my men, and, taking the two gagged and bound sentinels with us, effected an orderly retreat to the beach.

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