when ralph met captain horn that afternoon, there rose within him a sudden, involuntary appreciation of the captain's worthiness to possess a ship-load of gold and his sister edna. before that meeting there had been doubts in the boy's mind in regard to this worthiness. he believed that he had thoroughly weighed and judged the character and capacities of the captain of the castor, and he had said to himself, in his moments of reflection, that although captain horn was a good man, and a brave man, and an able man in many ways, there were other men in the world who were better fitted for the glorious double position into which this fortunate mariner had fallen.
but now, as ralph sat and gazed upon his sister's lover and heard him talk, and as he turned from him to edna's glowing eyes, he acknowledged, without knowing it, the transforming power of those two great alchemists,—gold and love,—and from the bottom of his heart he approved the match.
upon mrs. cliff the first sight of captain horn had been a little startling, and had she not hastened to assure herself that the compact with edna was a thing fixed and settled, she might have been possessed with the fear that perhaps this gentleman might have views for his future life very different from those upon which she had set her heart. but even if she had not known of the compact of the morning, all danger of that fear would have passed in the moment that the captain took her by the hand.
to find his three companions of the wreck and desert in such high state and flourishing condition so cheered and uplifted the soul of the captain that he could talk of nothing else. and now he called for cheditafa and mok—those two good fellows whose faithfulness he should never forget. but when they entered, bending low, with eyes upturned toward the lofty presence to which they had been summoned, the captain looked inquiringly at edna. as he came in that afternoon, he had seen both the negroes in the courtyard, and, in the passing thought he had given to them, had supposed them to be attendants of some foreign potentate from barbary or morocco. cheditafa and mok! the ragged, half-clad negroes of the sea-beach—a parson-butler of sublimated respectability, a liveried lackey of rainbow and gold! it required minutes to harmonize these presentments in the mind of captain horn.
when the audience of the two africans—for such it seemed to be—had lasted long enough, edna was thinking of dismissing them, when it became plain to her that there was something which cheditafa wished to say or do. she looked at him inquiringly, and he came forward.
for a long time the mind of the good african had been exercised upon the subject of the great deed he had done just before the captain had sailed away from the peruvian coast. in san francisco and paris he had asked many questions quietly, and apparently without purpose, concerning the marriage ceremonies of america and other civilized countries. he had not learned enough to enable him, upon an emergency, to personate an orthodox clergyman, but he had found out this and that—little things, perhaps, but things which made a great impression upon him—which had convinced him that in the ceremony he had performed there had been much remissness—how much, he did not clearly know. but about one thing that had been wanting he had no doubts.
advancing toward edna and the captain, who sat near each other, cheditafa took from his pocket a large gold ring, which he had purchased with his savings. "there was a thing we didn't do," he said, glancing from one to the other. "it was the ring part—nobody thinked of that. will captain take it now, and put it on the lady?"
edna and the captain looked at each other. for a moment no one spoke. then edna said, "take it." the captain rose and took the ring from the hand of cheditafa, and edna stood beside him. then he took her hand, and reverently placed the ring upon her fourth finger. fortunately, it fitted. it had not been without avail that cheditafa had so often scanned with a measuring eye the rings upon the hands of his mistress.
a light of pleasure shone in the eyes of the old negro. now he had done his full duty—now all things had been made right. as he had seen the priests stand in the churches of paris, he now stood for a moment with his hands outspread. "very good," he said, "that will do." then, followed by mok, he bowed himself out of the room.
for some moments there was silence in the salon. nobody thought of laughing, or even smiling. in the eyes of mrs. cliff there were a few tears. she was the first to speak. "he is a good man," said she, "and he now believes that he has done everything that ought to be done. but you will be married to-morrow, all the same, of course."
"yes," said edna. "but it will be with this ring."
"yes," said the captain, "with that ring. you must always wear it."
"and now," said mrs. cliff, when they had all reseated themselves, "you must really tell us your story, captain. you know i have heard nothing yet."
and so he told his story—much that edna had heard before, a great deal she had not heard. about the treasure, almost everything he said was new to her. mrs. cliff was very eager on this point. she wanted every detail.
"how about the ownership of it?" she said. "after all, that is the great point. what do people here think of your right to use that gold as your own?"
the captain smiled. "that is not an easy question to answer, but i think we shall settle it very satisfactorily. of course, the first thing to do is to get it safely entered and stored away in the great money centres over here. a good portion of it, in fact, is to be shipped to philadelphia to be coined. of course, all that business is in the hands of my bankers. the fact that i originally sailed from california was a great help to us. to ascertain my legal rights in the case was the main object of my visit to london. there wraxton and i put the matter before three leading lawyers in that line of business, and although their opinions differed somewhat, and although we have not yet come to a final conclusion as to what should be done, the matter is pretty well straightened out as far as we are concerned. of course, the affair is greatly simplified by the fact that there is no one on the other side to be a claimant of the treasure, but we consider it as if there were a claimant, or two of them, in fact. these can be no other than the present government of peru, and that portion of the population of the country which is native to the soil, and the latter, if our suppositions are correct, are the only real heirs to the treasure which i discovered. but what are the laws of peru in regard to treasure-trove, or what may be the disposition of the government toward the native population and their rights, of course we cannot find out now. that will take time. but of one thing we are certain: i am entitled to a fair remuneration for the discovery of this treasure, just the same as if i claimed salvage for having brought a wrecked steamer into port. on this point the lawyers are all agreed. i have, therefore, made my claim, and shall stand by it with enough legal force behind me to support me in any emergency.
"but it is not believed that either the peruvian government, or the natives acting as a body, if it shall be possible for them to act in that way, will give us any trouble. we have the matter entirely in our own hands. they do not know of the existence of this treasure, or that they have any rights to it, until we inform them of the fact, and without our assistance it will be almost impossible for them to claim anything or prove anything. therefore, it will be good policy and common sense for them to acknowledge that we are acting honestly, and, more than that, generously, and to agree to take what we offer them, and that we shall keep what is considered by the best legal authorities to be our rights.
"as soon as possible, an agent will be sent to peru to attend to the matter. but this matter is in the hands of my lawyers, although, of course, i shall not keep out of the negotiations."
"and how much percentage, captain?" asked mrs. cliff. "what part do they think you ought to keep?"
"we have agreed," said he, "upon twenty per cent. of the whole. after careful consideration and advice, i made that claim. i shall retain it. indeed, it is already secured to me, no matter what may happen to the rest of the treasure."
"twenty per cent.!" exclaimed mrs. cliff. "and that is all that you get?"
"yes," said the captain, "it is what i get—and by that is meant what is to be divided among us all. i make the claim, but i make it for every one who was on the castor when she was wrecked, and for the families of those who are not alive—for every one, in fact, who was concerned in this matter."
the countenance of mrs. cliff had been falling, and now it went down, down, again. after all the waiting, after all the anxiety, it had come to this: barely twenty per cent., to be divided among ever so many people—twenty-five or thirty, for all she knew. only this, after the dreams she had had, after the castles she had built! of course, she had money now, and she would have some more, and she had a great many useful and beautiful things which she had bought, and she could go back to plainton in very good circumstances. but that was not what she had been waiting for, and hoping for, and anxiously trembling for, ever since she had found that the captain had really reached france with the treasure.
"captain," she said, and her voice was as husky as if she had been sitting in a draught, "i have had so many ups and so many downs, and have been turned so often this way and that, i cannot stand this state of uncertainty any longer. it may seem childish and weak, but i must know something. can you give me any idea how much you are to have, or, at least, how much i shall have, and let me make myself satisfied with whatever it is? do you think that i shall be able to go back to plainton and take my place as a leading citizen there? i don't mind in the least asking that before you three. i thought i was justified in making that my object in life, and i have made it my object. now, if i have been mistaken all this time, i would like to know it. don't find fault with me. i have waited, and waited, and waited—"
"well," interrupted the captain, "you need not wait any longer. the sum that i have retained shall be divided as soon as possible, and i shall divide it in as just a manner as i can, and i am ready to hear appeals from any one who is not satisfied. of course, i shall keep the largest share of it—that is my right. i found it, and i secured it. and this lady here," pointing to edna, "is to have the next largest share in her own right, because she was the main object which made me work so hard and brave everything to get that treasure here. and then the rest will share according to rank, as we say on board ship."
"oh, dear! oh, dear!" murmured mrs. cliff, "he never comes to any point. we never know anything clear and distinct. this is not any answer at all."
"the amount i claim," continued the captain, who did not notice that mrs.
cliff was making remarks to herself, "is forty million dollars."
everybody started, and mrs. cliff sprang up as if a torpedo had been fired beneath her.
"forty million dollars!" she exclaimed. "i thought you said you would only have twenty per cent.?"
"that is just what it is," remarked the captain, "as nearly as we can calculate. forty million dollars is about one fifth of the value of the cargo i brought to france in the arato. and as to your share, mrs. cliff, i think, if you feel like it, you will be able to buy the town of plainton; and if that doesn't make you a leading citizen in it, i don't know what else you can do."
