It was some minutes before Carlos could hold up his head, so badly shaken was he. I went all over him, and had soon satisfied myself there were no broken bones. He had been saved by the very mass of vines that had before preserved me from death. His fall had been but forty feet, and mine had been many times that; a fall, after a manner of saying, for, as will be remembered, I slid down the rope halliard the greater part of the descent.
I ran through the wood to the creek, and brought Carlos a drink; and it was then he got to his feet. We stood looking on the now quite inanimate form of Duran, for a little, neither of us speaking his thoughts. I could not tell by Carlos' stoic features what there was in his mind; but in mine there was admixture, of some sorrow, that the presence of death always puts into one when excitement is gone, but more of a sense of elation that Duran had come by his death in the manner he had. For whatever intent Carlos had entertained in his mind, he had not actually slain the man with his own hand. And there on the ground, too, lay a knife that Duran had tried to use on Carlos, who was without a weapon of any sort, his own knife being in the camp.
It was time we were on the way to join our friends. I had been hearing occasional shots, but when we turned away from Duran's body, all sounds had ceased. We crossed the ridge, and in a little had come to the clearing. There was no one in sight; so we went round within the edge of the wood back of the huts; and as we neared the cliffs my nostrils were filled with the odor of sulphur. And we had no sooner got to the edge of the little open space in front of the cave, than Robert was upon us and pulled us to the ground. He had us to crawl after him to where Norris and Marat lay, gun in hand, behind a fallen tree-trunk.
They had their eyes on the mouth of the cave, and looking over there, I saw a curious thing. A fire burned at the very entrance of the cave; and on the one side, Andy Hawkins lingered beside a pile of dried brush-wood and dead palm leaves. This fuel he cast on the flames, from time to time. Ray and the black boy soon came to view, back of Hawkins, with arms filled with more fuel which they added to the pile.
I now saw how it was; the enemy had taken refuge in the cave, and now our party were smoking them out. The smoke, I saw, was drawn into the cavern as into a chimney; and I remembered how, when I was in the cave, I had felt the draft of air going through. I looked up the cliff-side; and there, far to the left, I saw a wee column of smoke going up from a cleft. And then—there was that odor of sulphur again. Smoking them out! Ay, but how smoking them out? My flesh crept with the horror of the thing. This was the miserable Hawkins' doing. I remembered now that word he had let drop about his taking care of them if we should but drive them into the cave—and his whispering in Norris' ear. I felt sick.
"Are we doing right?" I said to Norris, beside whom I crouched.
"Right!" he said, turning an angry look at me. "Didn't they plan to eat our hearts this night? And didn't they attack us, twenty guns against four—the murderous, child-eating cannibals? And isn't smoking as easy a death as hanging? What do you want?"
I was effectively silenced. And then I thought, too, on the alternative. Suppose we retire and let the blacks out. Would they go their ways and let us alone? I knew better. They would simply set a strong guard on the only exit; and then collect many more of their voodoo comrades; and they would have our hearts for a voodoo feast in the end. So I gave in to this thing that was going on, distasteful as I found it.
I watched Andy Hawkins over there. That thin body of his squirmed with his infirmity, and made him seem to be in the throes of a heathen dance, as he plied the fire with the fuel. The volumes of yellow-white smoke continued to pour into the cave's mouth. It was burning sulphur, as I learned.
It may have been two hours that we lay behind that fallen tree, and the sun was mounted well on toward the zenith. Then Norris and Marat conferred, and decided that the enemy must be in a state beyond all power of striking back. So we approached the fire and pulled it away from the cave's mouth. But nearly another hour passed before we ventured in. Norris took the lead with a battery lamp, the rest of us following.
A little way within, we came upon a body that lay in a pool of blood. He was one that sought to rush out, and got a ball in his body. Then at various portions of the passage we saw three more blacks, all inanimate. And at the uttermost confines of the cave, just below that narrow opening out—the chimney, as it were—all the rest lay in various postures, where they fell, choked by the fumes.
"Well, they all got just what they earned," observed Norris. "The world would be better, if all of their kind were here with them."
"Yes," agreed Jean Marat, "but Duran, he ees not here. I am ver' sorry he ees not here weeth hees voodoo frien's."
I had not told of Duran's accident at the foot of the ladder. Now I told it.
"Ah! You don't say!" said Norris. "Are you sure he's dead?"
"Yes," I assured him. "His skull was fractured."
"We're in great luck," said Norris. "Now we've got the whole secret of this place among us. And Carlos, you had a narrow escape."
"Yes," said Carlos. "And my father, hees murderer, he dead."
We dug a long trench just without that cave; and it was well past noon when we had dragged out the blacks and buried them in it, with the five that had fallen at the clearing. We took a meal before we went down the vale, and placed Duran and that other black in another grave.
It was while we were dining (and it was a pair of Duran's chickens that made our feast) that Andy Hawkins told how he had come by the conceit of the sulphur fumes. It was one day that he had watched Duran, when he took a chicken tied by the legs, into the cave. Duran had then set a tin, holding the sulphur, at the entrance, and built a fire about it. An hour or two later, he had brought out the chicken, quite dead.
"I thought to myself then," continued Hawkins, "An' w'y does the boss be doin' of that thing? And then I got the idea. 'Ah, 'ee's a slick one, the boss is,' sez I to myself. ''Ee's after findin' a easy way, maybe, to get rid of anyone as is in 'is way 'ere. And that might be you, Handy 'Awkins, and you'll better keep out of that cave!'"
We took possession of the palm-thatched huts; and made beds, of palm fans for mattresses, which was pretty much all the bedding that was required, though Duran had blankets enough to cover us all in the event of a chill night. Out between the structures was the kitchen; and this was no more than a kind of shallow box, sand filled, and elevated on four posts, to make the fire on; with overhead a roof—palm-thatched—for shade, and protection against rain.
Our day had been pretty full, and when supper had been disposed of, all were ready to stretch out at full length for a needed rest. It was not altogether such a cheerful company as you might suppose. Even Ray was more dashed in spirit than I have seen him in many a day. You might say that we had every reason to be in high feather, having so lately been delivered of a great peril; not to say that we were in addition well rid of Duran, who alone was in a position—rightly or wrongly—to dispute with us the possession of this gold-paved vale.
But if you think we should have felt blithe that night, it will be because you have never been in the presence of so much death. I know the thought worked continually in my mind, of that score and more of humans—however villainous they may have been—that but a few hours before had danced with life and vigour, and were now already beginning to rot in their graves. Only Norris and Hawkins refused to be downcast; Norris, because he had been accustomed to battle, and had learned through discipline to rebate his natural qualms; with Hawkins, it was his dulled moral sense.
"Now tomorrow," said Norris, "we must find that place where Duran has been storing the gold." (Duran's taking off had so far softened him at least, that he refrained from referring to him as "the skunk.") He continued, "I know blooming well he has taken out of this place only a small part of what has been mined."
And Hawkins (and the black boy, too, when questioned) agreed with Norris.
"Thad Duran was ver' clever," said Jean Marat. "He find one ver' good place to hide thad gold."
And now, it would never be guessed how we came upon a clue to that spot. It came about this way. Although we turned in early, we were that wearied that day came and caught us, every one, sound asleep. I was the first to wake; and it was with the feel of a wee hand upon my face. And when I opened my eyes, there was the monkey. And he held out to me one of Duran's sections of bamboo.
I sat up, startled, and took the thing he held out, and it was weighty, like those others laden with the gold.
The monkey observed me narrowly, as though to gauge the degree of my interest in the object he had given me. Then he took my hand; and without stopping to slip on my shoes, I allowed the little animal to lead me forth.
My heart thumped in excitement of anticipation; I was filled with a hope, as we went into the wood back of the huts, making direct toward the cliffs. He led me to where the vines, in a dense mass, went climbing up the rocky wall to a very considerable height. There he let go my hand and leaped upon the vines, and began to climb, looking over his shoulder, as if expecting me to follow monkey-fashion.
Then, seeing me hesitate, the monkey came down, and took me by the hand again. And, curious, I stepped forward, to find that where the vines sprang from the ground the wall ascended, for some six or eight feet, in a gentle slope that I could climb with ease.
When I got so far, and spread apart the vines, to my amazement I discovered that what I had thought was a part of the cliff wall, was no real piece of the cliff at all, but just a ridge; and behind it, and concealed by the mass of vines, was a bit of a dingle, perhaps fifteen feet across. The monkey and I descended into the place; and as my eyes became accustomed to the comparative darkness, I made out the low entrance to a cavern.
Stooping low, I followed the monkey in. Twenty steps, and I heard the squeaking monkey-talk at my feet. Then I felt another bamboo cylinder pressed to my hand; and I stooped to feel a heap of the bamboo, of unknown proportions. I took up several of the cylinders. All were heavy.
At last we had the thing we sought. And it took a monkey to find it for us! My battery lamp was out there in the hut; I did not tarry to investigate further, but hurried out; and, followed by the nimble monkey got back to my friends, who were now astir.
The black boy was kindling a fire on the elevated hearth; Norris stood looking on. At my approach he turned.
"Hello!" he said. "And where——"
He cut off his speech at sight of the bamboo I carried in my hands.
"Say, now!" he began again, and he seized and hefted the things. "Where have you been picking up these?"
By this time all the party were crowded round, and the monkey scrambled to my shoulder. I told the story of the find.
"Aw," began Ray, "he's just trying to make monkeys of the whole crowd."
They all wanted to fondle the animal, who, scolding, wormed himself out of their hands and scurried up a post to the kitchen roof.
"Now you know I told you, Norris," said Ray, "It would be Wayne that would find it."
"It's all right, Ray," I told him. "I don't mind your giving my name to the monk."
There would be no breakfast till they had seen the place.
"We've got to see how much there is there," declared Norris.
And off we went, the monkey again leading the way, over the little rising, through the curtain of vines, and into the cave. The lights illumined the place, and the sounds of amazement echoed. For there, on the floor, heaped on a tarpaulin, showed bushels of yellow, glinting gold-dust and nuggets. And there were beside it two greater piles of the bamboo cylinders, the one heap already gold-laden, as we found; and the other awaiting the filling. On the ground stood a tin holding pitch, for sealing; and there were small bricks of cork, and pieces of life-jackets, torn open to extract the cork. A ship's lantern stood on a projection of rock.
"I never saw such a pile of the stuff!" spoke Grant Norris, plunging his fist in the yellow mass.
Many hands went in to feel of the precious commodity, and nuggets of varying size were held to the light. Even the monkey must imitate the others, and enjoy the feel of the yellow stuff; and he insisted on pressing nugget after nugget into my hand.
Andy Hawkins had soon borrowed Robert's light, and with many jerks and grimaces he poked about in the nooks and crannies in search of something. I easily guessed what the thing was that he put above the gold in his interest; for it had been plain that Duran doled out the drug to Hawkins in a fashion that best served his (Duran's) interest. And, having an eye on Hawkins's doings, I observed him at last to pounce on and bring out a little parcel from a nook, his face lighting up with a gleam of victory. Later in the day, when I had told Norris of the circumstances, he bullied Hawkins into giving up the supply of drug, telling him that he (Norris) would perhaps be a better judge of dosage than the patient himself.
Before we left that cave, we explored the place, to find that it was but a small affair, going in not above a hundred feet. It was a joyous breakfast we sat down to at the huts, for we had now attained the thing we sought; and we had every reason to believe that no one living, outside of our little party, had any knowledge of this hidden vale with its gold mine, so long ago discovered by the father of Carlos. And all our talk now turned on how we should get all that mined gold out and aboard thePearl, and not forgetting that unknown portion of the treasure that yet remained to be discovered on the isle out in Crow Bay.
"We can find that without much trouble," declared Robert.
"Yes," agreed Captain Marat, "We know ver' close where thad place ees. We take the schooner in to the bay, an' then eet will nod be so ver' hard to ged all of thad gold on board."
I observed that we seemed to be forgetting that black that Robert and Carlos had seen on the isle, and the schooner,Orion.
"Yes, I've been thinking of that," said Norris. "We'll have to be getting over there, or that crew'll be stealing a march on us."
In an hour we were off. Andy Hawkins and Black Boy were left behind, to keep house. We promised them they'd see us back the second day at the latest; and then it would not be long till they should have a sight of the world—again for the one, and for the first time for the other.
In that open bit, below the ladder, we stopped a moment beside the two mounds covering Duran and the black sentinel.
Grant Norris was looking down on that of Duran.
"Drop a tear on him," said Ray to Norris. "Think of all the fun and excitement he gave you."
"He was a queer composition," observed Norris. "I've met many queer cusses, but he's the first white cannibal I ever saw."
We soon had down the rope ladder; and when all had mounted to the cliff-top, we pulled up the halliard, for we had no real assurance that that ex-pickpocket, Hawkins, might not take it into his head to climb out and wander off to our betrayal.
When we got to our boat, a pair of us sat ourselves in Duran's canoe, and soon we were out on Crow Bay. It was with some satisfaction that we noted the absence of any sail upon that water. Those black sailors of Duran's had apparently not seen fit to venture in as yet in quest of the treasure in the isle.
We crossed the end of the bay, and in time had joined Julian Lamartine and Rufe, aboard thePearl.
Julian was much relieved, but Rufe was overjoyed to see us.
"De Lord o' massy!" he began, "but I's glad to see you-all! Whah you been all dis heah time? I jes' been a-telling Jul'en, boy, dat shu'ah dem voodoo niggahs got ye. I hopes, now, you-all is gwine to gib up dat ol' gold-huntin'."
"Give up!" said Ray. "Say, Rufe, did you ever think Norris would ever give up anything? Why——"
"Look here, Rufe," broke in Norris thrusting a pretty nugget under the cook's nose. "Does that look like giving up gold-hunting?"
Rufe's eyes bulged. "Is dat sho' 'nuff gold?" he queried.
And then we began with our story. And Rufe must have us over by the galley door to continue the tale, while he hurried dinner, for he said, "I jes' knows you-all is nigh about starved out."
The black sailors were squatted in a circle, up near the bows, when we came aboard, and dice rattled on the deck, with snaps of fingers and sharp orders spoken to the bones for their better performance. Julian said it was the dice kept them contented, day after day and they were at the game continuously.
During the meal our plans for the following days came to a head. It was the purpose to sail thePearlround to and through the tortuous channel into Crow Bay. The schooner would go out from the cove under the land breeze, sometime between nine o'clock at night and morning, and the trade wind—from the northeast—would take her into Crow Bay the next day. Three of us would row in the little boat, down the bay to that isle, to see that the coast should be clear. The afternoon was not idle, for Norris was full of preparation for the reception of all that treasure—gold-dust; and there must be bins made in the schooner's hold, for, "we'll have to dump some of it in, like grain," he said. "We haven't time to build chests for it all." And then Robert and I were tired of the stain on our skins, and must have it off.
Before night spread over the region, Norris, with his big rifle, and Robert and I with our little ones, were in the skiff, moving slowly out on Crow Bay. There was no sign of a boat on the bay yet.
"I guess they got scared out," said Norris, "and are still lying in some cove, waiting for word from Duran."
In these tropics you sweep the bright daylight landscape with your eyes, noting the graceful palms bowing to you over the beach; then you close your eyes, count a few hundred slowly, open them again, and—presto! all is black night, and the palms have melted into eternity, or are dimly silhouetted against the night sky. The narrow crescent of the new moon was among the tops of the palms behind us.
Within the hour, we made landing on the isle. We dragged our boat up into the brush, and then moved back through the wood to the edge of the clearing. A light shone in the window of the hut. We crept up and looked in. That same portly black was there, and he was in the midst of preparations to turn into his bunk. In another minute he put out the light.
We decided to go round the island beach for signs of any recent landing parties. We found the boat, used by the black of the cabin, in its usual place. Then we took to the beach, and with the occasional use of our battery lamps, we examined the sand floor as we went. We completed the circuit, seeing nothing to our interest. And then Norris was for at once going into that thicket where Robert and Carlos had witnessed the going in and out of Duran and that mysterious, naked black.
Robert led the way, which took us into the clearing to the north of the cabin. In a little, we had found a winding way, cut into the thicket. In the center of that jungle we came into a space having the dimensions of a small room. The floor was level—of sand. We threw our light around.
"Not a sign of anything here," declared Norris.
But Robert had another word to say. "Here it is!" he cried. And we joined him, where he was stamping with his foot. There was a sound—or feel—as we came down with our heels, of something hollow beneath.
We scraped the sand away with our hands, making a hole less than a foot in depth; and came upon something made of boards.
"So far, so good," said Norris. "The stuff is there without much doubt. We have nothing more to do, now, but wait till thePearlgets here, tomorrow."
When we settled down beside our boat, close to the south beach, the night breeze was rustling the dry palm fans above our heads; the ripples broke on the beach with a soft playful sound.
"I guess Captain Marat will be getting sail on the schooner, now," I observed.
"I wish this same wind would get him here tonight," complained Norris.
"We ought to be glad we can depend on another wind to get him in tomorrow," I reproved the impatient one.
"Right you are, Mr. Philosopher," he returned with proper humility. "I'm a worse kid than any of you. But then, too, I don't mind saying, I don't want the interference of any more of these voodoo skunks till we get all the stuff into the hold of thePearl. After that, let them come on—I'd just like another whack at some more of those blood-drinking voodoo cannibals." And he rubbed his hands with contemplation of the experience.
We took turn about on watch, though we did not think it worth while to keep any eye on the hut. It was three of the morning, when Norris roused me for my watch. I paced a little stretch of beach for a spell, to work off the sleep that clung to me.
Suddenly, I heard voices. I hurried in to the clearing. And sure enough, over near the hut, there were those who were chattering away with more or less abandon.
I rushed back to my comrades, shook them awake and gave them the news.
"Get your rifles," said Norris.
We hurried to the clearing. The voices now came from the shore to the west. We scrambled through the brush till we got in view of the beach.
There we made out in the dark a number of figures moving in a mass towards a boat. These figures hovered about the boat for some minutes, and then returned the way they had come, disappearing in the wood.
We three lost not a moment, but leaped to that boat. It was a ship's life-boat of considerable size, and clinker built; and between two of the thwarts there rested a chest of great weight, as we found.
"They're here sure enough," said Norris, in a whisper. "They're getting the stuff. Now it's for a fight!" and he patted his rifle.
"Wait!" I said, as he was about to lead the way after the blacks. "Leave the shooting to Bob and me, with our rifles—they can't hear ours."
And it was Robert, then, that suggested that we bore holes in the boat.
The planks were thin, since the boat was clinker built, so that we were not long in making a number of holes with our knives, near the bow, which was out of the water. We got in among the palms and brush and waited the coming of the blacks. I whispered Robert a caution not to aim above the knees; no need to do more than should serve our purpose.
We had time to spare, but the black figures presently pushed out on the beach, toting a heavy object among them. There seemed to be five in the group.
"Now," I whispered, and Robert and I raised our little rifles. As we pulled the triggers, there was no sound but two outcries. Then came two more howls, and down went the heavy thing they carried.
The blacks ran afoul of one another, in their frantic haste to get to the boat. They pushed off, scrambling into the boat, and we sent more silent, hot pepper after the legs that dallied. Norris could not resist; he jerked his rifle to his shoulders. But Robert and I pulled him down.
"Don't spoil it now," I said. "Let's not make a noise if we can help it."
"You're right," he said. "I'll maybe get my chance another time."
That boat was not over forty yards from shore now, and even in the dark we could see that it was sinking. And the blacks had evidently discovered their plight, and were leaping into the water and striking out for the north shore of Crow Bay.
When the last of the blacks had abandoned the boat, we had off some of our clothes, and rushed into the water.
It was up to our arm-pits where we found the boat. Though the water was within a few inches of the top of the coaming, we contrived with a few shoves to propel the boat some yards shoreward, before it sank, in five feet of water.
"Well, that's safe," said Norris, striking out for the shore. "We'll get that out with tackle."
Day broke while we examined that chest upon the beach. It was of rough lumber, roughly, but strongly made, having rope handles, and well padlocked. In the hut we found food, cooking utensils, an empty jug emitting an odor of rum, an ax, and a pair of shovels.
"That fat, black fellow who lived here must have gone off with the others," observed Robert.
Norris led the way into the thicket. In the spot we'd found in the night, a tight box of great size was sunk into the soil. Its cover lay on one side. On this cover stood an open chest, a quarter filled with the gold-laden bamboo cylinders. Down in the great box were three more of the chests; and these we found to be empty. All were fitted alike, with rope handles, staples and hasps.
"Well, anyway," said Norris, "we'll make good use of these boxes. There's all that stuff up in the cave." He ran on, with enthusiasm, on the things we would do.
"All right, all right," interrupted the usually taciturn Robert at last, "but when's breakfast?" And his hand went in where his breakfast should be.
"That's so," admitted Norris. "We've forgotten breakfast."
The odor in the hut was too much for our stomachs, so we eschewed the place for all that it had a stove, and made our meal down by our boat.
The morning dragged tediously. It was less than two hours of noon before the day breeze sprung up, so that we could hope for the coming of thePearl. We crouched in the sand on the northeast shore of the isle, watching anxiously. And at last the sails of the schooner appeared, coming from behind the point near the inner terminus of the channel. We rose to our feet and shouted with joy.
"Hold on!" I cried, when I had taken a second look. "That's not thePearl, that's theOrion!"
"Good God! Yes, you're right," said Norris. "What does that mean?"
We retreated into the shelter of the trees. And I sickened with a horrid sensation. It was as much anxiety regarding thePearl, as fear for ourselves; and we had no proper defence, from which we could stand off a dozen or more armed black devils. TheOrionchanged her course and bore down direct for the isle. We stood, paralyzed with our surprise and dread, gazing on that vessel as it bore down under the freshening breeze. For ten minutes we stood thus.
"Shall we take to the skiff?" said Robert at last.
None answered him. I had just noted a strange thing. The black sailors on theOrion—now almost directly north of us—had none of their interest centered on the isle. I turned my eyes back the way theOrionhad come. And there were the sails of another schooner coming from behind that point.
"Look!" I cried.
"ThePearl!" said Grant Norris. "That tells the story: theOrion'srunning away from her."
He danced with joy. And we three struck one another in our ecstacy of relief.
TheOrionrounded the isle, and thePearl, coming in chase, was soon opposite us, and near enough to hail. We rushed down to the water. Our friends, at the rail, waved to us.
"All is safe!" we called. "Drive theOrionout if you can!"
"Aye! Aye!" came back Ray's voice, and the chase continued.
Round the isle they went. We followed with our eyes, walking the beach. TheOrionscudded off a way down the bay, to the east; then went about on the starboard tack and made for the channel, where she had come in. At last she disappeared behind that point again. And then thePearlleft the trail, and again set her bowsprit toward our isle, at last dropping her anchor some two hundred yards to the northwest.
In a little, Captain Marat, Ray, Julian, and Carlos came to shore in the boat.
"Well, you gave us a proper fright," I told them, "driving that schooner in on us that way."
"Norris didn't get scared, did he?" bantered Ray.
"Yes, he did," declared Norris, speaking for himself. "And the skin all up and down my back is wrinkled even yet. This little place isn't like that up there in that rock sink, with all those holes to crawl into when you're getting licked."
"I'll tell you, Ray," I interposed. "The thing that made most of those wrinkles in his back was thinking what must have happened to you and thePearl—seeing that schooner coming in in place of thePearl. Now tell us how you chased theOrionin here."
"Ah," began Captain Marat. "I guess thadOrionlay all night in thee passage. We see her there when we come in."
And now the party must visit the gold-cache in the thicket.
"Well," observed Julian, "this is interesting, but I want to see your gold mine behind that waterfall."
"The waterfall isn't much for size," returned Norris, "but it's a wonderful accident of nature; and I will say Carlos's father had a remarkable head on him to discover what it hid. But wait till you see his gold mine, and the stuff in the cave, that's come out of it, and you'll have an eyeful."
"Yes," added Ray. "And you'll see a monkey in there that's always filling Wayne's pocket full. That monkey and Wayne are in cahoots."
Our first care was to recover the gold-laden chest that went down with the boat. By diving, we got a hawser through the two rope handles. And when the tide was all in—and that was about two o'clock—we warped the schooner over to the place; and with block and tackle on the foresail boom, swung above, we had soon lifted the chest aboard. Many hands made light work of the other boxes.
With careful sounding, as we moved under reefed mainsail and jib, we got thePearlto a good anchorage near the upper end of Crow Bay. And as there were still some hours of daylight, we took the empty chests in two boats, and sought out the bayou that took us into the mouth of the creek whose waters flowed from the gold mine.
Julian this time accompanied the party; and I got renewed thrills, to see how he marveled at the wonders that blazed the trail, from the little cascade that screened the entrance, to the placer mine, and the shining gold horde in the cave.
"Too bad we can't put in a week, getting some more gold out of this creek," said Norris. He was plucking little bits of the precious metal out of a pan of gravel he'd just washed. "There's no end of the stuff here still," he complained.
"Well, but aren't we coming back some day?" observed Robert.
"Just like some folks," said Ray. "The more they get, the more they want."
We had gone to the diggings to break up the Long Tom, to make boxes for floating the horde of mined gold through the hole in the cliff. The little bamboo cylinders offered too slow a means to satisfy our impatience.
Our party divided, some remaining in that outer cavern, to receive the boxes, as they floated to the net, and empty them into the chests outside; the empty boxes being towed back again, by ropes, to be new-laden with the gold. What with making our three little "under-sea-boat" boxes, and finding proper floats for them, we did not get much of our precious freight through that first day. Jean Marat, Robert, and Carlos slept in the boats on their side of the cliffs; the rest of our party, including Andy Hawkins, and the black boy, took cheer among Duran's huts within. We gathered round a fire after we'd had our supper, and it was a blithesome party, of which the monkey was a part, perched the greater part of the time on either my shoulder or the black boy's.
There was some exchange of yarns, most of them of Norris's telling. And Andy Hawkins had some experiences to tell that were a bit off color. It came to riddles at last. And here Norris shone again; and Hawkins was not at a loss for one or two. Norris insisted that we must each offer one riddle at the least, and out came the one about, "Why does a miller wear a white hat?" and others of later coinage. Norris held back Ray for the last. He must have been sure Ray should break up the party.
"Now your turn, Ray," said Norris.
"Aw, I don't know any," pouted Ray.
"Make up one," insisted Norris.
"Well," began Ray, drawling his words, "Mary had a little—Now don't interrupt!"
"Who is interrupting?" said Norris. "But you might give us something new."
"Well, if it don't suit you," shot back Ray, "you tell it."
"Go on," said Norris.
Ray continued: "It followed her to school—one day. The teacher dropped his book, and bent down for it. But—but—" (Ray seemed to have got to the end of his powers of "make up") "but—but—but—"
"Well, go on," pressed Norris. "But what?"
"The teacher, of course," said Ray, frowning. "What do you suppose Mary brought the goat to school for?"
We turned in early, meaning to rise with the sun for the next day's labors.
I dreamed I was at the railway station, back home in Illinois. I heard the roar of a train approaching. Then came an explosion. I opened my eyes. A tropic storm was on us, there was thunder, and the rain came down in a deluge.
I started up in excitement, as I thought of that little hole in the cliff, the only outlet for all the water. What if this terrific downpour should continue, and the water back up in this walled basin! But at second thought I remembered, and it was only the water that fell within our basin that we had to fear; for the stream met the same sort of obstruction to its inflow, above, as that which retarded its outflow, below. With that comforting thought I presently fell asleep again.
The day broke fresh and cool. The creek had soon discharged its excess waters, and our labors went forward without hitch, till the last of the gold-dust had been sent out through that watery portal. And that was late of the afternoon; so that when our party had said a goodbye to the gold valley, and stood by the cedars at the cliff-top, the region was all in shadow.
We unbent the ropes from the cedars.
"No use to chance some others finding their way in," said Norris. "And we can make another ladder when we come back."
Norris must have had Hawkins blindfolded, before we made that passage through the cavern. There was no assurance, as he afterwards explained, that the pickpocket might not pick up with more of his ilk, who would wish to seek out the place.
Andy Hawkins thanked him for the precaution. "Hi never want to be able to find my way back to that 'ell 'ole again," he said.
It was quite dark when we doused for the last time through the little waterfall. Robert awaited us with one of the boats, and it was not long till we were on the deck of thePearl.
While some were below, stowing the precious cargo, others were in some preparation for a lifting of the anchor and getting on sail at the very first waft of the land breeze. Norris threw off the jacket of his big gun, and looked to the priming.
"You must never think," he said, "that those black devils are going to see us get away with the gold without some sort of attempt to head us off."
"Yes," added Captain Marat. "I theenk they try sometheeng."
It was in that narrow, tortuous channel the attempt would be made, if at all. It would be above a mile of ticklish navigation, following the curves, and avoiding the points. And there were heights from which they could rain shot on us as we passed. We got out all the mattresses; of one we constructed a bulwark for the helmsman, another covered the skylight, others were propped up at convenient places on the deck. It was conjectured that the attack—if one there was to be—would take us on the starboard, since doubtless the sailors from theOrionwould land on that side of the channel, also since it was that side offered the better vantage ground. Norris brought his gun to that side of the ship.
The moon, which was in its first quarter, was due to set about ten o'clock. We hoped that the land breeze might come soon enough to get us through before its light should have gone. We needed the view of the channel, and some sight of the enemies' lurking-place would doubtless be to our advantage.
True to its practice, the land breeze rose at about nine. Up came the anchor, and with a rattle of blocks, up went the sails. The moonlight glinted among the wavelets directly in our wake, as we moved down Crow Bay toward the isle. We passed the isle on the left. Arrived at the wide opening of the channel, the sheets were run out till the booms hung over the port bulwarks. Robert was at the wheel; Captain Marat with his rifle was in the bows, from where he gave his orders; Norris, Ray, and Carlos, were at the gun, Carlos holding Norris's rifle; the rest of us, including two of the sailors, lay behind mattresses within reach of the sheets.
The breeze was brisk enough, and soon we were in the narrows, thePearlin the shadows cast by the western shore.
"T'ree points to port! Ease on the sheets!" came Captain Marat's order.
ThePearlswung her bowsprit round a bit.
"Steady! jus' there!" called out Captain Marat again.
It was the first bend in the tortuous channel. It was deep in the fairway, we had only to avoid the points.
We had made another turn, and were near half way down the channel, when the flash and rat-a-tat of a score of guns sounded on the heights to our starboard, and the lead rained like hail on our deck. Marat's and Norris's rifles answered. Norris, for some reason withheld the fire of the big gun.
"Anyone hurt?" called Norris.
There was no answer.
"Keep behind your mattresses," he cautioned.
He swung the big gun round, as I could hear. As much as a minute passed with no sound on shore. Then came another volley from the enemy. The two rifles replied again. There came another pattering of bullets from the enemy. Norris spat out an oath. The next moment Ray called to me, saying that Norris was wounded. Leaving the fore-sheet to the sailors, I scurried over to the gun, and we began to uncover Norris's wound.
"It's nothing bad, give them the gun first," he said.
Carlos seized the carriage and began to train the gun while random shots continued from the enemy.
"Hold her right on the edge of the bank," said Norris, his voice husky with the pain.
"Now," said Carlos.
Rufe applied the fire.
"Boom!" The thunder echoed in the hills. From the shore came horrid yells, of pain or fright, but never another shot.
"We got them that time," said Norris, with a sigh of satisfaction.
And now we turned to Norris's wound. The ball had passed through the fleshy part of his shoulder, and was not deep. We soon had on a bandage. After a good swig out of the water butt, he declared he was ready for another fight. Though after one attempt to stand he was content to recline on the deck. But he insisted on our re-loading his gun.
The moon had set when we passed out over the bar, between those two flanking lines of surf.
"There's a schooner!" called Robert, come from the wheel, where he had been relieved by Captain Marat.
To the east, the vessel showed, all sails set, scurrying away.
"TheOrion!" cried Grant Norris. "Give her that shot!" he commanded.
Again the gun boomed. But it was a clean miss. Of this I was glad, for there was no occasion for further bloodshed; though I would not have betrayed the thought to Grant Norris, suffering as he did from that shot of the blacks.
We got Norris down under the cabin light, and properly cleaned and dressed the wound. While we were busied thus, Captain Marat had brought the schooner about and set her bow toward the west. In an hour everything was ship-shape, and Norris propped comfortably on a mattress on deck, with the rest of our party squatted about him. Rufe was busy in his galley, for none having had any lust for food at the proper supper time, and now the suspense having snapped, we had developed keen appetites.
"Dey ain't no use you-all tellin' me how yo' feels," Rufe called to us. "I jes' got dat same feelin' inmahinsides."
The relief was general; all who were not chattering, were whistling or humming. And the sailors, forward, were mingling their voices in a negro melody. Even the monkey caught the infection, and scampered about like a playful child, times springing from shoulder to shoulder; and once he snatched a biscuit from Rufe's galley and thrust it into my hand, to Ray's pretended disgust.
"I told you the monkey and Wayne are in cahoots," he said.
But before we came to Jamaica, the animal had transferred his chief liking to Ray. None could long resist Ray.
The black boy never tired of roaming about the schooner, which to him was the wonder of wonders, never having so much as seen the picture of a ship, or anything calculated to give him overmuch yearning for the world without those rocky walls of that sink in the mountain. Julian, who had conversed much with the boy, told us that he could not understand the value of that gold on which we put so much store. To him it was nothing but so much dross that had given him so many lame backs with the delving for it.
Andy Hawkins sat there grimacing and jerking his shoulders, and telling such ears as would listen, of the bottles of soda water he would be drinking when he got to the shops. Strangely enough, strong drink had no charms for him, though he made no concealment of his slavery to the drug that had already marked him for an early grave.
"The last time I was in London," he said, "I put four bottles of 'Utchinson's Sarsaprilla sody-water down be'ind my collar; and if Hi 'ad them now, Hi think Hi'd be able to put down a heven dozen."
"You believe in getting full even if you don't get drunk, don't you?" said Ray.
They were uneventful days, those of the voyage back to Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica. It was before noon of the twenty-fifth of September that we let go the anchor in the harbor.
Captain Marat and Grant Norris had been having some conference with Carlos Brill, and at last called us all together.
"We've been talking with Carlos about the gold," said Norris. "Although the mine is his, he will not hear of any arrangement other than share and share alike—after the sailors have been paid a substantial bonus, and Hawkins and the boy have received a proper payment for their labors and sufferings."
There was an echo of protest. We felt that, as owners, Carlos and his sister should retain at the least a third of their patrimony.
"No," spoke Carlos. "No! We never get the mine if it not be for you. I feel in here" (and he put his finger to his chest) "what is right, and I can never be happy if I cannot do what is right. I speak for my sister, too, she will think jus' like me."
The final upshot of the whole discussion was, that he would allow that his sister should receive an equal share with the rest, instead of brother and sister having a single share between them as he intended. What our gold amounted to I will not put down—this is no business volume I am writing; let it be enough, that no one of our party had need to want for any material comfort thereafter, even should he live the length of two average lives.
The news of the arrival of thePearlhad, somehow, passed quickly into the city; and we had not finished our noon meal, when a boat came aboard, and we dropped our ladder, and received on deck some Kingston friends. There were Monsieur Cambon, with little Marie Cambon, she whom we rescued from the voodoos.
"She could not wait," said Cambon. "She must go and see 'the good American boys'." And Monsieur Duchanel, the old friend of the Marats, came out of the boat, too. He brought a message from Madame Marat to her son, Captain Marat. Jean must come to shore early, bringing with him all of the party; for she and Madame Duchanel were already about the preparation of a feast to the returning argonauts. Melie Brill sent a word, too, to her brother, Carlos, who must not disappoint her for an early sight of him.
"You all seem cheerful, and in good health," observed Monsieur Cambon. "But I see Mistar Norris, here—he have some accident?" Norris still wore his arm in a sling.
"Oh, no," said Ray. "It was no accident, it was all on a program; only all the program was not carried out, as, I guess, there are some voodoos left that could tell."
And then we had to recount something of that parting clash with the blacks.
"Come, Marie," said her father at last. "We must leave these boys to get ready for the party."
The child had discovered the monkey, and they two were making friends, by inches.
"Oh, bring the monkey with you!" cried Marie, as she went over the side.
And so we dug out all our best bib and tucker for the fete. Duchanel sent aboard a pair of men from his establishment, for a guard to thePearl, since all our party were expected ashore. And the sailors were given shore leave, except only the regular watch.
It may be imagined what the party was, that evening, with the Cambons, the Duchanels, and the music of the little orchestra in that very park of a lawn, lights hung between the trees, and the cooling drinks and sherbets, and the wonderful cookery of Madame Marat, assisted by Madame Duchanel. Andy Hawkins felt a bit out of place, and kept himself a good deal in the background. Once during the evening, Ray got me by the elbow and pulled me toward a clump of the shrubbery.
"Hawkins has been sending someone on an errand," he said.
We peeked round a bush. On the ground sat Hawkins, grimacing at a pop bottle in his hand. He set it to his lips, and drained it. It was the second; the first—empty—lay beside him. In front, ten bottles, untouched, awaited his attack. He drank out a third, and with some access of squirming, a fourth. The fifth he barely tasted of, and he groaned with his defeat. He set the bottles on the ground, put his hands to his stomach and belched gas.
"What's the matter, Hawkins?" said Ray. "Sick?"
"Oh, I s'y," returned Hawkins. "Hi ain't no good no more. Four bottles puts me under the tyble."
"Are you full," said Ray, "or just intoxicated?"
"Oh, Hi feel just like my 'ead was goin' to blow hoff, or somethink," said Hawkins.
For near a week we lay in Kingston Harbor. Carlos and Melie Brill established themselves here, and they took the black boy under their care. Andy Hawkins found the place to his liking, and would remain till the spirit should move him to a trip back to London. The poor chap never got so far, for fever did for him before five months had gone. Grant Norris had some interest in Kingston, and would make it his home for the time.
During those six days, we made the division of the gold, weighing it in the hopper of a grocer's scale, set in the hold, under the open hatch.
At the end of the time, Madame Marat came aboard, and we set sail for New Orleans—and forhome.
And then one day we passed through Lake Bourne and the Rigolets; the next morning we were towed in the basin to the very heart of the city. Soon we saw our chests of treasure carted off to the mint.
"Ah!" said Madame Marat, as we all entered her door, "how good it is to be home! And to think!" she spoke, looking aghast, "no dust! Thee air good and fresh! And—" (she sniffed) "thee smell of thee coffee!"
The door to the back opened, and the grinning Rufe appeared.
"Ah! thad why you delay so long," she said.
At Rufe's own suggestion, Jean Marat had given Rufe the key and permitted him to run ahead, to sweep, dust, and air the home, and get the fire going. The thing touched her good heart, and she patted the happy darky approvingly on the back.
Julian's grandfather was sent for, and there was a joyful reunion.
The leave-takings—always, some way sad they are—I omit. The three of us—Ray, Robert, and myself, made a quiet entry one night into our good old home town in Illinois. My father, who had returned from the southwest some days ago, on wired word from me, met us at the train; and he took us to the Reid home, where a little spread had been prepared.
It was when Mrs. Reid put her arms round Ray that I missed my mother most. But this good mother had a kiss for Robert and myself. Robert, you must know, was a full orphan.
There was consternation in the bank the next morning, when the three of us presented each a paper bearing amounts in six figures. They seemed to think that the receiving teller's cage would not do for such a transaction, but the business must be done in the directors' room, on the long table.
That afternoon the three of us went for a long row on the old Mississippi. We had things to discuss alone. It was Robert who finally opened the subject that was troubling us most.
"How much are we going to tell the world?" he said.
"Well," said Ray, giving his oar a vicious pull, "there's a lot of things I don't intend to tell, and——"
"But," I interrupted, "if you tell some things, and keep back some, people are going to wonder why."
"And," added Robert, "they'll fill in the blanks with all sorts of wild stuff that won't be very flattering—that's the way it goes."
And the discussion went on, till finally Ray put it flat, thus:
"Well, now then, Wayne, it's up to you to write the thing—write a book. Then if anyone gets curious and wants the story, we can say: 'All right, go and get the book.' Gee! It'll save a lot of talk—and a lot of fool questions."