it was necessary to retrace our steps along the path to the foot of the great stairs in the island wall. there were treeless meadows here and there on the way, where we rested, and a lovely brook of cool, delicious water where we broke our fast, though it was not yet noon; but the openings or clearings all stopped before they reached the foot of the outer wall which was almost hidden in vegetation. i remembered the paths which had led off on either side from the stairs, too. we followed one to the north easily enough. it was not like the highway over which we had just come, being only partially paved, although it had once been thoroughly cleared, and the rise of the wall was such that it was still practicable. we turned to the right, plunged beneath the trees and pressed resolutely on, keeping as close to the main wall as possible.
[255]this wall to our left was dotted with openings of caves, but none of them seemed to fit the description we carried in our memories. the undergrowth deepened and grew denser as we progressed, and finally i had to open a way with my axe. the tangled masses soon gave way before my sturdy energy, and at last we entered a considerable open space which extended to the wall. there above us were the three openings beneath the depression in the crest; surely enough, the one in the middle being greater than the others. i deemed that the entrance would be high enough to admit me, who am much above the usual stature, without bending my head. it was elevated halfway up the surface of the cliff, and the only approach to it was by the great heap of stones, not laid up with the order and regularity of the giant stairs, but apparently piled together haphazard by people unskilled to make any other practical way of ascent.
it was difficult enough for us to climb just as it was. the heap of stones evidently had not been mounted for years, and the stones had broken and fallen away in many places. indeed,[256] we had to rebuild the pile here and there, which entailed some hours of arduous labor on my part, in which my lady would participate until i laughingly threatened to take my belt and strap her to the nearest tree unless she desisted. whereat, smiling strangely, she stopped and, sitting down near by, watched me at work in silence.
reaching the top at last we stood on a shelf in front of the cave mouth. i peered within but could see nothing but the blackness. when we left the ship we had taken a lantern and a few candles, you remember. i had brought the lantern with me that day. we now lighted it with the flint and steel and tinder and stepped silently in. my lady followed me close, being, as she had said, unwilling to be left alone, and ever ready to face any peril in my company.
above the low entrance the cave wall within rose to a height of perhaps twenty feet, making a vast vaulted chamber with gothic suggestions about it, for the coral, before it hardened, had been built into curious shapes and fantastic figures. we did not notice this so much at first, for with a wild shriek, my gentle companion[257] suddenly caught my arm and pointed downward.
the floor, like that of the central altar on the hill we had just left, was covered with human bones, a gruesome sight for anyone, and certainly for a woman, and made more gruesome because of the dull lighting of the cave. these bones also were bleached white and had evidently been there a long time. we could scarcely take a step without treading upon them. i had all i could do to keep my mistress from running back toward the mouth and thence to the ground and it was not until i had reassured her again and again that she would consent to go on further.
as we had been compelled to pass on by our desire to get our bearings before, so if we were to get the treasure we would have to suffer this now. i think if it had not been that her previous experience on the hillock had somehow given her some confidence, my lady could not have endured this sight, treasure or no treasure. but she was a brave woman and when i urged that we were not to be balked in our search of thousands of leagues by dead men’s bones which,[258] though horrible, were after all quite harmless, she summoned her courage and we went on.
as our eyes became accustomed to the light, for indeed the candle lantern cast but a dim radiance over the vast apartment and the entrance was so small comparatively that little daylight came through, we saw off to the right against that side of the cave the same kind of an altar built of the same stones as on the hill, though much smaller and surmounted by a similar image as ugly as the others, though nearer the human size. bones of human beings, men, women and children i judged from the difference in sizes, lay before it, and there were heaps of bones on the floor around it. it came across me that it was another altar of sacrifice, and that the worshipers had also been eaters of flesh—cannibals! for i reasoned that in that island and especially in that dry cave, the bodies of the sacrificed would have been dried up, assuming the shape of mummies, if left to themselves. and i wondered if every cave possessed a similar altar, and if the whole island had simply been a place of sacrifice and death for some prehistoric race living in other islands[259] round about, like those on the horizon we could still see; or perhaps long ages ago engulfed in some great cataclysm of nature and sunk beneath the ocean these thousands of years and then raised again.
turning away from the altar to the right we found the way clear, and with a sigh of relief i drew mistress lucy reluctantly on. she clung to me and was so frightened that i finally slipped my arm about her waist, whereat she made no objection. she has confessed since that she was indeed greatly pleased and that it was a comfort to her to feel the strength and power of my grasp.
holding the lantern before me, i cautiously proceeded further into the cave toward the inner wall. the cave wall apparently opened out into rooms. i did not dare go any distance from the main entrance for fear that i should lose my way, so i stopped undecided what to do; which opening to enter, that is.
“oh, let us go back,” begged my mistress, “there is no treasure here, i am sure.”
“nay,” i answered, “with your permission, mistress wilberforce, i intend to explore[260] further into the matter. let us see.” i held the lantern high above my head as i spoke. there above the entrance i saw a rude latin cross! “look,” i continued, “someone has been here, ’tis the sign of the cross!”
“yes,” she said, her hopes reviving and her spirits returning a little at the unwonted sight of that sacred symbol of our faith in this place of idolatry and superstition, “don’t you remember on the map marking the position of the cave there was a little cross?”
“so there was,” i exclaimed, “although the reading did not mention it.”
“no, but it is there, nevertheless.”
i stooped down—the entrance was scarcely three feet high but quite broad—and made to go through.
“wait!” she seized me in great alarm. “you cannot go in there and leave me here,” she cried.
“i promise you that i will not stir three feet from the entrance, if you will suffer me that far,” i answered.
“i must come, too, then,” she urged.
“i will see what is there first, and if it is safe[261] you shall come with me immediately,” i answered, giving her no time for further objection.
as i spoke, i crawled through and found myself in another smaller chamber. there being no visible danger, i stretched out my hand to her and brought her through after me. from some distant crevice the air came to us, we could feel it blow upon us, and it was sweet. also i could hear water bubbling over rocks in the distance. it was a little damp in the cave, perhaps because of that. there was little light, however, save that cast by the lantern. i could not see the further wall.
we did not need to go further into the cave, for there before us, clearly enough revealed by the dim radiance of the lamp, lay a number of large wooden boxes or chests, moldy and ancient. the boxes had once been iron strapped, but we found the iron had rusted and the wood had rotted. i stepped over to one of them, lifted the lid which crumbled at my touch, and there was the treasure—ingots of gold and silver! thousands of pounds lay to our hands! the old buccaneer had told the truth. the story of[262] the parchment was not a romance, the plunder of the ancient galleon was there.
i have read, as you all have, the great romance of daniel defoe, and the uselessness of this mass of gold and silver of which the spaniards had robbed the natives, making them toil to death in the mines, for which sir philip wilberforce’s men had fought and died, for which the men on the rose of devon had committed murder, and which, had we been able to dispose of it, would have bought anything the world had to offer, came home to me, as in similar circumstances robinson crusoe had the same thought. for my part i would gladly have exchanged it all for a stout boat and a clear passage through the reef with a chance for freedom.
“well, your great-great-great-grandfather, for how many generations back i know not, was right,” i said at last. “the treasure is here and we have found it. it is yours.”
“yes,” she said, to whom the same thought had come, “but now that we have found it of what value or use is it?”
“none,” i admitted, “that i can see that is, but there is a certain satisfaction in having[263] found it, and in knowing that you can own it even if you cannot take it away. i am glad that events have proved that we came on no fool’s errand.”
“and what may be its value, think you?”
“it would make good ballast for a ship,” i answered lightly.
“but if we could take it hence to england?”
“millions, i can only guess.”
“i will give you one-half of it for your share,” she said, laughing softly.
“i want none of it,” i returned seriously enough.
what possessed her to do it, i know not, and she has since confessed she knows not either. we stood there, looking down upon the useless heap of treasure, when she turned to me on a sudden.
“now that you have seen it, are you still of the same mind,” she asked mischievously, “that you would give up your portion of the treasure—for me?”
“great god!” i exclaimed, moved beyond measure by her imprudent remark, and thrown off my balance by her—dare i say coquetry? “i[264] would give up the world itself for you. don’t you know it?”
and i made a step toward her, but she put up her hand.
“hush! stay! master hampdon,” she cried affrighted at the consequences of her pleasantry, “remember—”
“i shall never forget,” i said grimly. “this treasure removes you further away from me than ever.”
“what mean you?”
“when you get back to england and take your place once more among your friends in that society to which your birth entitles you and which this wealth will enable you to sustain—”
“and who is to take me back to england?”
“i.”
“how?”
“i know not, but i shall do it.”
“and with the treasure?”
“with the treasure, too, at least a sufficiency of it for all your needs.”
“and when you have done this amazing thing for me, you expect to disappear from my life, master hampdon?”
[265]“aye, if need be.”
she laughed, and i did not understand the meaning of that laugh, either.
“is it not idle for us to speculate upon treasures which we cannot carry hence, and which in our present situation are not so useful to us as the little pieces of flint and steel with the tinder in the pocket of your coat?” she asked, smiling.
“you are right,” i answered, smiling in turn, although what it cost me to smile in the face of the picture of the future that came to me, you cannot imagine. “but let us search and see if there be anything else. your ancestor spoke of jewels.”
“yes,” she said, “there should be a smaller casket, let us look further.”
there were perhaps a dozen large boxes. i opened them all. some were quite empty, with little piles of dust in them, and a few shreds of color here and there which indicated silk had been packed in them. there were also broken barrels around which still clung a faint odor of spices. there were piles of rotted débris further on, and as i stirred one of them with[266] my sheath sword i struck something more solid. i brushed aside what seemed to be the decayed remains of cordage and wood and finally came upon a smaller casket bound, strapped, hinged, and cornered with some kind of metal which i afterward found to be silver—iron would have rusted long since. the casket was about a foot long by six inches wide and six inches deep. the metal which completely covered it was curiously chased. the casket was locked. i crumbled the wood in my hands, but could not open the lock. the edge of my axe, however, proved a potent key and at last i forced it apart. as i did so out fell a little heap of what i judged to be precious stones. there were green, red, blue, and white ones, among them many pearls sadly discolored and valueless. the stones glistened with an almost living energy. my mistress was more familiar with these things than i, and i presented a handful to her.
“why, they are precious stones!” she cried, in an awe-struck whisper. “look,” she held up a diamond as big as her thumb nail; it sparkled like a sun in the candlelight. “and there is an[267] emerald,” she cried, picking up one of the green stones, “this blue one is a sapphire, this a ruby. why,” she exclaimed, “here is a fortune alone. these jewels must be of fabulous value. the gold and silver we might leave behind, but these we can carry with us.”
in my heart i was sorry we had found them, yet i had the grace immediately to say,
“i am glad for that. we must gather them up, but where shall we put them?”
“in the pockets of your coat for the present,” she answered.
now there were not so many of them, perhaps three or four handfuls, not nearly enough to fill the casket. i figured that it had been a jewel box with little trays or drawers, and that the stones had been wrapped separately but had all fallen together when the partitions rotted away. i easily found room for them in the capacious side pockets of my coat and then we turned back to the outer room. passing by the hideous altar we gained the open day again. it was now late in the afternoon, we found to our surprise. and yet how sweet it was, that outer air, after those caves of death and treasure!
[268]we had spent hours over the search, and we had just time to retrace our steps and get back to the boat on the beach and partake of our evening meal when night fell. as we sat by the fire that night, i made two little bags out of a piece of canvas taken from a bread bag, and we put the jewels into them, dividing them into equal parts. one bag she wore constantly thereafter on her person, and i the other.
my mistress was at first anxious to stow them away in some crack or cranny of the rock, but i said, i scarcely knew why, that it would be better to keep them always with us, and so we did. she insisted that the rough and ready division we had made was permanent, that the bag i carried belonged to me and the bag she carried belonged to her. but i refused to have it so in spite of her argument and there we left it.
