The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" Part 16

"I tell you, Cap'n Saint Leger, you might ha' knocked me down with a rope-yarn, I was that astonished--for the voice was the voice of _George Moore_, and no other.

"Hows'ever, all this backin' and fillin' of Bill's had put me on my guard. I began to understand that, after all my play-actin', they didn't even then feel altogether sure of me--they was tryin' me still; and that made me brace up and pull myself together; for I says to myself, 'Now, if I makes a single mistake it's all up with everybody abaft the mainmast, and me, too.' So I looks cookie hard in the face, and I says--

"'Now I knows you, George, spite of your black hair and all your beard and mustachers. What's the meanin' of this here maskeradin'? Tip us your flipper, old s.h.i.+pmate,' I says, hearty like, and as if I was downright glad to see him.

"Well, sir, I can tell you George looked considerable nonplussed; while Bill, he just laughed; and he says to George, 'Jacob, my son, you've been and let the cat out of the bag!' Then he turns to me and says--

"'Now, Joe, there you are! Now's your chance to get back the skipper's favour by goin' aft and tellin' him as his old steward, George Moore, is aboard here, sailin' under false colours.'

"'If he does,' says George, 'he'd better look out for hisself!'

"'All right, George, old man,' I says; 'don't you worry. Did I tell the skipper anything about the way you used to talk to us about the treasure--and, by the livin' Jingo,' I says, 'that's what you're after now, ain't it, mate?'

"'Supposin' we was,' says he, 'would you take a hand in the game? You didn't seem noways eager about it when 'twas last mentioned.'

"'What was the use?' says I. 'None of the others 'd have nothin' to do with it, and we couldn't manage the thing by our two selves. But if that's your game,' says I, 'I'm in with you--if it's share and share alike; not otherwise,' I says.

"'Well, it amounts pretty much to that,' George says, 'only I'm to have two shares instead of one, seein' that I was the man that found out all about it. That's the arrangement, ain't it, Bill?'

"'That's the arrangement,' says Bill, 'and a fair one it is, too, _I_ think. What's _your_ opinion, Joe?'

"'Yes,' I says, reluctant like, 'I s'pose it's fair. But how will it work out? will there be enough to make it worth the risk?'

"'Oh yes,' says George. 'I don't know how much there is of it, but there's sure to be a goodish pile, or the skipper wouldn't take the trouble to come all this way to get it.'

"'Well, but,' I says, 'how's the thing goin' to be worked? I hope there ain't goin' to be no murder!'

"'Murder be hanged!' says Bill. 'What should there be any murder for?

No; the whole thing's very simple. We're all goin' to be perfectly quiet and do exactly as we're told until the treasure's found and put aboard the s.h.i.+p; and then, when the order's give to up anchor and make sail from the island, we're just goin' to seize the skipper, the mate, and the pa.s.sengers, unawares; clap the mate in irons; put the rest ash.o.r.e; and off we goes.'

"'Well,' I says, 'and afterwards?'

"'Afterwards,' says Bill, 'we shall divide the treasure fairly amongst us; make the mate navigate the s.h.i.+p to some place where she can be comfortably cast away; and we poor s.h.i.+pwrecked mariners will land, with our swag snugly stowed away amongst our dunnage, and every man will then look after hisself.'

"'Well,' I says, 'that seems to be all plain sailin' enough.' It wasn't my business to point out to 'em that they'd prob'ly find Mr Forbes a hard nut to crack, you see, sir; so I makes out to be quite satisfied with their plans, and to be quite ready to join in with 'em; and then I was took into the fo'c's'le and introjuced to the rest as havin' joined 'em, and everybody said how glad they was to have me, and that now there'd be no bother or trouble at all about the job. And--and--well, I think that's about all, sir."

"Thank you, Joe," said I, grasping the honest fellow's hand. "It is a long story, but you have managed to make everything perfectly clear to me; and I fancy I shall not have much difficulty in circ.u.mventing the rascals. Now, if the men should make any alterations in their plans, you must let me know, if you possibly can; but be careful, above all things, that the men shall have no cause whatever to suspect your fidelity to them. And, remember, whatever orders I may give you, execute them to the letter, and promptly. Now, I will go on deck and have a word or two with Mr Forbes, during which you must get away for'ard again, as best you can."

I accordingly left Joe in my cabin, and sauntered up on deck, as was often my habit, even in my watch below, ostensibly to take a look at the weather, but in reality to caution Forbes against taking any notice of Joe, should he catch sight of that individual moving about the deck.

It was by this time nearly seven bells in the middle watch; the moon hung low in the western sky over our port quarter, and a mottling of fine-weather cloud had gradually gathered in the heavens, which, while it allowed a few of the larger stars to gleam dimly through it here and there, intercepted a large proportion of the starlight, and rendered the night dark enough to make Joe's escape forward a comparatively easy matter.

The mate was pacing the p.o.o.p slowly, fore and aft, as I emerged from the companion; but, catching sight of me, he came to my side and remarked--

"The night continues fine, sir, but the wind seems inclined to drop. We were only going four and half when I hove the log at four bells, and now we seem to be scarcely going four."

"Yes," said I, "it has dropped perceptibly since I went below; but if it will only last at this we shall be at anchor by sunset to-morrow."

Then, in a lower tone, I added, "If you see Joe Martin creeping away for'ard from the saloon, don't take any notice of him, or make any sign that you are aware of his presence. I have much to tell you; but we must wait for a more favourable opportunity."

At this moment Joe's head emerged from the darkness of the companion; so I walked aft, glanced into the binnacle, and then abstractedly placed myself before the helmsman in such a position as to obstruct his view of that part of the maindeck which Joe would have to traverse before reaching the concealing shadow of the long-boat. I stood thus, apparently sunk in reflection, until I observed Joe glide across the exposed s.p.a.ce and disappear; when I went back to my cabin and fully dressed myself, in readiness to go on deck again at eight bells.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

WE ARRIVE AT THE TREASURE ISLAND.

During the succeeding watch, I had leisure to take a careful mental review of Joe's story, and the conclusion at which I arrived was that the man Moore, having failed in his endeavour to seduce the original crew of the _Esmeralda_ from their duty, had, on his arrival at Sydney, no sooner recognised the probability of their desertion--which, for aught I knew to the contrary, he might very possibly have contributed to bring about--than he must have devoted himself to the task of collecting the party of men whose wiles I had now to circ.u.mvent. What a patient, crafty fellow the man had proved himself to be! It really appeared as though he must have had, almost from the outset of the voyage, some suspicion as to the character of the cryptogram over which he had seen me puzzling so often--or might he not have gathered its nature from a chance word or two overheard while I had been discussing the subject with Sir Edgar?--for he no sooner became aware in a general way of its contents than he was ready with a plan by which to turn the adventure to his own advantage. He was persevering, too; for that plan had no sooner failed than he must have gone to work to formulate another, so skilfully devised, and so carefully carried through that, but for Joe's devoted fidelity, it must have infallibly succeeded. Indeed, I felt by no means satisfied that they would not succeed, even now. True, their designs, as revealed to Joe, might be very easily frustrated; but there was an unpleasant doubt in my mind as to the _bona fides_ of that revelation.

I could scarcely believe that men who had already exhibited such indisputable proof of extreme caution and steadfast self-control could be so easily imposed upon as they appeared to have been by Joe! What if they had seen through his devices, and had suspected his intentions?

Would they not, in that case, have realised that our suspicions were aroused? and might they not have merely _feigned_ to have fallen into Joe's trap, and have confided to him a purely fict.i.tious statement of their plans, concocted for the express purpose of throwing us off our guard and leading us astray? Taking into account the deep guile that had prompted them to adopt and consistently maintain a course of the most orderly and irreproachable behaviour as the most likely means of blinding me to and averting the faintest suspicion of their nefarious designs, I could not help feeling that such a line of action on their part was only too probable; and, in casting about in my mind for some effectual method of subverting their plans, I fully realised that I should have to take this contingency into consideration, while preparing also a counterplot to that revealed by the man Rogers to Joe. Of one thing, and one thing only, could I be certain, which was that _n.o.body_-- not even myself--knew the amount of the treasure; and it appeared to me that upon this fact must I base my plans. These reflections, given above in a very condensed form, fully occupied my mind during the first hour and a half of my watch, and were only interrupted by the appearance in the eastern quarter of that first faint paling of the darkness which heralded the dawn of a new day. This temporarily diverted my thoughts into a new channel; for, upon solving the enigma of the cryptogram, my first act had been to consult a chart of the Pacific, with the resulting discovery that no such island as that referred to in the Saint Leger doc.u.ment was to be found upon it. Now, the s.h.i.+p's position on the previous noon, and her run since then, were such that if the morning happened to break clear, the island ought to be just visible, right ahead, at daybreak, provided, of course, that the man who secreted the treasure had made no mistake in his calculations. On the one hand, I thought it probable that, considering the important issues at stake, the utmost care would be taken to verify the position of the island beyond all possibility of error; while, on the other, was the curious fact that no such island--not even a rock, or indeed shoal water--appeared on the chart in the position indicated. This circ.u.mstance, coupled with my knowledge of the imperfect character of the instruments in use by navigators of the period at which the cryptogram had been written, caused me now to experience no little curiosity and anxiety as to what the approaching daylight might reveal.

I was not to be left long in suspense. We were in the tropics, where the light comes and goes with a rush, a few minutes only intervening between broad day and deepest night. The first faint streak of scarcely perceptible pallor along the verge of the eastern horizon on our starboard bow lengthened and widened, and grew more p.r.o.nounced, even as I gazed upon it, until it became a broad segment of cold, colourless light, insensibly melting out of the circ.u.mscribing darkness. Then a faint, delicate tone of softest primrose began to steal through it, quickly strengthening and brightening as the light spread upward and right and left, paling the stars one by one, until they dwindled away and vanished in the soft, rich blue that was swiftly chasing the darkness across the sky. Anon, a warm, rich, rosy flush began to pervade the primrose tones of the eastern horizon, against which the level line of the ocean's marge cut sharply in tones of deepest indigo; while, overhead, the brightening blue was delicately mottled with a whole archipelago of thin, fleecy cloudlets, pink tinged, and bordered along their lower edges with purest gold, that were mysteriously floating into view, apparently from illimitable s.p.a.ce. Then from that point on the horizon where the deepening rose colour glowed most brilliantly, up shot a single white ray perpendicularly toward the zenith, narrow and well defined where it sprang from the horizon, and broadening as it soared aloft until it became lost among the lowest tier of clouds, now deeply tinged with dyes of richest crimson. This single ray had scarcely made itself apparent ere it was followed by others radiating fan-wise from the same spot; and in another instant a spark of golden flame flashed across the sea from the horizon, at the point of junction of the rays, tingeing the small wave-crests in its wake with ruddy gold that deepened first into a line and then into a broad path of s.h.i.+mmering golden radiance, as the burning rim of the sun soared slowly out of the purple sea.

At the same instant, the man who had the lookout, and who had stationed himself on the topgallant forecastle, right in the eyes of the s.h.i.+p, turned sharply round, facing the p.o.o.p, and reported--

"Land ho! right ahead."

I had been so completely absorbed in contemplation of the magnificent spectacle of the sunrise that, for the moment, I had entirely forgotten the island, and everything connected with it; but the cry of the lookout brought it back to my mind with a flash, and, moving to the mizzen-rigging, and springing upon a hen-coop, I directed my gaze straight ahead, with my hand over my eyes to s.h.i.+eld them from the dazzle of the sun.

Yes, there it was, undoubtedly; a faint, pinkish-grey shape, right over the starboard cat-head, as I then stood; a low hummock on the left, with a hill next it, the outline of which, even at that distance, bore a striking resemblance to a man's nose, the upper lip on the right of it showing just clear of the horizon. Yes; there was the treasure island, beyond all question! The next point to be determined was, whether the treasure still lay buried there; and if so, how was I to obtain and retain possession of it?

Of one thing I felt morally certain, which was that, as soon as the men felt a.s.sured that the whole of the treasure was on board, they would take the s.h.i.+p from me, either by force or guile, if they could. It was of course open to me to make a fight for it, if I chose; but, even a.s.suming that I could reckon upon Sir Edgar's a.s.sistance--as I felt sure I could--that would make only four of us to oppose eleven men, who, I had no manner of doubt, would prove as resolute and determined in a stand-up fight as they had already shown themselves to be in the pursuit of their organised plans. The odds were nearly three to one against us.

Opposed to these, with, for our antagonists, resolute men, whose knowledge of the consequences that must inevitably follow upon an unsuccessful attempt at piracy would nerve them to desperation--men who were unquestionably full of brute courage, and who, moreover, were doubtless as well armed as ourselves--was I justified in entertaining the slightest hope of success in the event of my submitting the matter to the arbitrament of battle? The answer to this question was an unqualified "No!"

If, then, it was hopeless to expect that a resort to force would enable me to retain my property, my freedom, and the freedom and property, ay, perhaps even the lives of those who, in such a crisis as this, would naturally look to me for the preservation of both, I must resort to guile. I mortally hate anything that in the slightest degree savours of deception, either in words or conduct, and have made it an invariable rule never to engage in any transaction needing the one or the other for its successful accomplishment; but here was a case in which I had no choice but to meet guile with guile. How was it to be done? Possibly, if the treasure happened to be in a compact form, and easily accessible, Forbes, Joe, and myself might be able to secure it and convey it on board the s.h.i.+p, unknown to the men, while they were busily engaged in digging for it elsewhere--for, now that they were aware of its existence, it seemed to me that my best chance of success lay in employing them in the search, while taking care that none of them should find it. This would naturally lead them to the conclusion that, if my doc.u.ment were not an ingenious hoax, the treasure had already been discovered and secured by somebody else.

This plan rather took my fancy. It was simple, feasible, and demanded no elaborate system of deception; the men would simply be set to dig upon a certain spot, and, failing, after a sufficiently exhaustive search, to find anything, the digging would be abandoned, and they would be sent to various more or less distant parts of the island to cut sandal-wood. The more I thought of it, the better I liked it; and when, later on, during the forenoon, I found an opportunity to talk it over with Sir Edgar and Forbes--having previously related to them the substance of Joe's communication made to me during the middle watch-- they agreed with me that, failing a better scheme, they saw no reason why it should not be successful. Sir Edgar, as I had antic.i.p.ated, declared himself ready to act in any way that I might suggest, at a moment's notice; and, now that he had had time to think over my former communication to him, and to grow accustomed to the idea of a coming contest, either of strength or wits, with the men, was as eager for the fray as a schoolboy is for the great cricket-match of the year.

Meanwhile, the wind had slightly freshened with the rising of the sun, and the s.h.i.+p was gliding along upon a taut bowline, under all plain sail, at a speed of about six knots, heading up about a point and a half to windward of the northern extremity of the island. We were approaching it from the south-west--the direction mentioned in my ancestor's cryptogram--and as we gradually rose it above the horizon it was curious to note how exact a resemblance its outline bore to the profile of an upturned human face lying p.r.o.ne along the water. It was so striking that even the children remarked upon it; while, as for the men, they could scarcely remove their eyes from it, though _their_ interest in the place was doubtless founded more upon the wealth they hoped to find upon it than upon its very singular appearance. I noted this morning, without appearing to do so, that there was a great deal of animated conversation going on upon the forecastle, accompanied by many stealthy glances toward the p.o.o.p; while the late steward--now sweltering in the heat of the galley, and of his hirsute disguise--was being continually appealed to. Now that I knew this man's secret I was filled with astonishment that I had not immediately penetrated it; for, disguise his features as he might, he could not divest himself of the sly, stealthy way in which he used his eyes, nor of the noiseless, treacherous way in which he moved. I had noted these characteristics in him as far back as the day on which he had signed articles at Sydney; yet, strange to say, familiar as they were to me, I had never for a moment suspected his ident.i.ty, probably because, when I happened to think of him at all, I a.s.sumed as a matter of course that he would naturally make the best of his way to the gold-fields. Of course, since we had been at sea, his avocation as cook had confined him so closely to the galley that I had rarely seen him; and upon the rare occasions when he had been obliged to present himself in full view my thoughts had usually been so busy upon other matters that I had taken little or no notice of him. Indeed, I shrewdly suspected that it was the comparative privacy of the galley that had led him to choose the disagreeable functions of s.h.i.+p's cook.

All that day, until three o'clock in the afternoon, we glided gently along over a smooth, sparkling sea, toward the island, noting with keen interest its various features as they imperceptibly resolved themselves out of the hazy blue tint that it had worn in the distance. The first marked change that occurred in its appearance was the breaking-up of the flat silhouette into a series of softly shadowed markings which indicated the shapes of the hills and valleys, the slopes and ravines into which its surface was broken. Then, as the sun swept over it and round toward its western side, the light fell more strongly upon its hillsides; its shadows grew deeper, and an all-pervading tone of green gave evidence of its exceeding fertility. Later still, the green became broken up into an infinite variety of shades; while the swelling rounded outlines that stood out from and yet indicated these mult.i.tudinous tints, revealed the fact that the island was densely wooded to its very summit. By six bells in the afternoon we had neared it to within three miles, and were enabled to see that its northern extremity was bold and precipitous, with naked, rocky cliffs, against the base of which the white surf chafed and roared with a ceaseless thunder that reached our ears even at that distance. The south-western extremity, while as bold as the northern, and almost as precipitous, was wooded right down to the water's edge; while from the lofty hill, that in the distance had borne the appearance of a gigantic human nose, there was an irregular but general slope toward the south-western sh.o.r.e; the entrance to the river mentioned in the cryptogram being clearly indicated by a low projecting point stretching southward from the bold cliffs marking the northern boundary of the island.

Having satisfactorily made out the mouth of the river, I caused the helm to be s.h.i.+fted, and we bore away for our anchorage, which was reached about an hour later, in a small estuary situate at the southern extremity of the island, affording perfect shelter from all winds from south-west round by north and east to south-east.

By the time that the hands had got the canvas stowed, yards squared, running gear hauled taut and coiled down, and decks cleared up generally, it was five o'clock in the evening; and the shadows were already beginning to deepen on the western side of the ravine along which the river flowed, while its eastern slopes were glowing brilliantly in the warm orange tones of the evening sunlight. It chanced that we had dropped our anchor at the precise spot which afforded us a clear view up the gently winding river for a distance of something like a quarter of a mile, and never in all my life had I looked upon a more lovely scene than the one that then delighted our eyes. The so-called "river" was really a small arm of the sea formed by a beautiful ravine--the bottom of which lay below the sea level-- dividing the southern portion of the island into two unequal parts; and as the western side of this ravine was high and steep, while the eastern side sloped gently but unevenly up from the water until it merged in the high ground beyond, the whole surface of the island being finely broken and densely wooded, the contrasting effects of brilliant suns.h.i.+ne and soft purple shadow, with the mult.i.tudinous tints and endless varieties of foliage, vividly marked in the foreground and insensibly merging into a delicious, soft, misty grey over the distant heights, combined to form a picture the charming, fairy-like beauty of which it is as impossible to describe as it was entrancing to look upon.

So lovely indeed was it that I found it hard to resist the entreaties of Lady Emily and her sister that I would lower a boat and take them for a short pull up the river before sunset. It was necessary, however, that our first visit to this lovely island paradise should be made with all due circ.u.mspection; for although no sign or trace of inhabitants had as yet been discovered, the place might for all that be peopled, and peopled, too, with cruel, bloodthirsty savages, for aught we could tell to the contrary. While, therefore, I was exceedingly anxious, for reasons of my own, to get a nearer peep at the place without a moment's unnecessary delay, I felt bound to point out to the ladies the absolute necessity for determining the question whether or not there were any inhabitants on the island before exposing them to the possible risk of a landing.

The objections to an immediate landing on the part of the ladies did not, however, apply with equal force in the case of us of the sterner s.e.x; I therefore ordered the gig to be lowered, and, arming myself and each of the crew with a brace of loaded revolvers, prepared to make a preliminary trip as far as the creek referred to in the cryptogram.

Upon hearing me give the order to get the boat ready, Sir Edgar asked permission to accompany me; and a few minutes later we shoved off, and headed up the river.

The waterway, as far up as we could see, maintained a tolerably even width of some two hundred yards, the deepest water being close alongside the western sh.o.r.e, which was very steep, and wooded clear down to the water's _edge_. Here, with the a.s.sistance of the hand-lead, I found a minimum depth of two fathoms; but the bottom was very uneven, and in a few places I found as much as five fathoms of water. From these depths the bottom seemed to slope pretty uniformly upward towards the opposite or eastern bank, the slope of which was much more gentle, a narrow margin of very fine white sand intervening between the water and the deep, rich, chocolate-coloured soil. The varieties of trees and shrubs were countless, ranging all the way from the smallest and most delicate flowering plants to magnificent forest giants, some of which must have towered at least a hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the ground. Cocoa-nut palms formed a continuous fringe along the inner margin of the sandy beach; and beyond them were to be seen every imaginable species of tropical plant and tree, with foliage ranging in tint from the palest, most delicate green to deepest olive or purple black. The waving fronds of the delicate feathery bamboo were everywhere visible, while creepers in endless variety trailed their long cordlike stems and gaudy blossoms in all directions. The still, evening air vibrated with the continuous hissing buzz of countless millions of insects, and a few birds flitted noiselessly hither and thither among the gathering shadows; but no sign of a human form, not even the imprint of a footstep on the soft white sand, anywhere met my searching gaze.

At a distance of about half a mile, or perhaps a little less, from the mouth of the river, the sh.o.r.e on our starboard hand merged into a low wooded point, round which we swept, out of the main channel, into a charming basin, some two miles wide, surrounded on every side by high land, sloping gently backward from the water's edge, and magnificently broken by deep, precipitous ravines, some of which could be traced from the heart of the surrounding hills clear down to the water's edge. The centre of the basin was occupied by an islet, roughly circular in shape, and about half a mile in diameter, as we discovered by pulling round it.

This islet was the hiding-place of the treasure, if the cryptogram was to be believed; and I accordingly inspected it as narrowly as the swiftly gathering darkness would permit, so that I might carry a tolerably distinct impression of it in my mind's eye, as an aid to the plan that I must now definitely form and arrange before the next sunrise. As may be supposed, I had by this time got the words of the cryptogram off by heart--and, indeed, had destroyed the translation, lest it should fall into other hands--I therefore knew exactly what I had to look for as a mark to guide me to the hiding-place of the treasure, and accordingly kept a very sharp lookout for "the obelisk rock." There was only one rock to be seen on the islet that at all answered to this description, and that, so far as I could distinguish in the gloom, was a pointed, needle-like ma.s.s, forming the summit of a steep cliff that rose precipitously from the water's edge and const.i.tuted the northern extremity of the islet. But on getting round to the other side I was vexed and chagrined to find that the whole surface of the islet on the southern side of this curious cliff was densely overgrown with trees and scrub, which would certainly have to be cut deeply into in order to arrive at the spot where the treasure was said to be buried. This condition of affairs, natural enough though it was, had somehow never occurred to me; I had fully expected to find the hiding-place located in an open s.p.a.ce that might be conveniently traversed in any and every direction, enabling the situation of the treasure to be determined by the simple process of measuring off a thousand feet in a direction due south from the base of the obelisk rock. Possibly that might have been the condition of the islet at the period when the treasure was buried--indeed, it very probably was--but there had been ample time for the ground to have become overgrown since then; and now it was so densely covered with vegetation that it would be hopeless to think of getting at the hiding-place without the a.s.sistance of the men. And that meant the absolute overthrow of my plan to keep the recovery of the treasure a secret from them!

What was to be done? I racked my brains during the whole of the long, hot, breathless night in a fruitless endeavour to devise some satisfactory way out of the difficulty, and arose from my sleepless bunk next morning with a splitting headache, and nothing in the shape of a settled plan beyond the determination to find a good long job for the men, the execution of which should afford me further time for reflection, and perhaps allow events to develop themselves.