ULRICH VON HAGEL'S TREASURE
For me in that moment the world seemed to end. I had plucked this girl
from a placid, unruffled existence and plunged her into a vortex of
adventure. Was she to leave her life, laid down for mine, in this
desolate island while I, the author of all the mischief, was to escape
unharmed?
Lawless was at Clubfoot's throat, worrying him like a terrier with a
rat. Then, of a sudden, Carstairs and Mackay were there, twisting
together with a leathern thong those great hairy wrists, one of which
dripped blood. I stood helpless, watching, as in a dream, Garth raise
up his daughter and rock her still form in his arms. In her right hand
she still clasped my automatic with which she had saved my life.
There was a shrill cry from the entrance of the hollow. With skirts
flying Yvonne, Marjorie's French maid, darted in. "O, ma chérie! Ma
chérie!" she moaned as with tears rolling down her face, she dropped to
her knees by the girl's side. Now Garth was holding a flask to his
daughter's lips. Presently to my unspeakable relief, she stirred
slightly, then opened her eyes.
"I'm all right," she murmured, "quite all right really! Ah! Yvonne!"
And she closed her eyes again.
Garth stood up, a tall and commanding figure of a man in his spotless
white drill, and looked at me, tatterdermalion that I was, with a four
days' growth of beard and unkempt hair, my clothes torn and stained, my
boots gashed almost to ribbons by those cruel rocks.
"Is she.... is she.... wounded?" I faltered.
The baronet shook his head and gulped.
"She's only fainted," he replied. "My poor, poor lass...."
Then, swallowing his feelings, he demanded fiercely:
"Where is this man Custrin?"
"Dead," I answered. "I shot him...."
What had happened in the forest had seemed natural enough. But, with
the _Naomi_, civilisation had returned to Cock Island and my admission
sounded horribly cold-blooded in my ears. As briefly as might be, but
without concealing any salient fact, I told Garth the story of what had
supervened after his departure with Carstairs. With ill-concealed
impatience and with reddening cheeks he listened to my tale; but he
grew too angry to hear me to the end. When I told him how I had come
upon Marjorie in the room behind the galley he burst out in fury.
"So this is the end of your wild-goose chase! My little girl, alone
and unprotected, in the hands of these savages! By God, Major Okewood,
if any harm has come to her through your doing...."
"When I asked your help to get to Cock Island, Sir Alexander," I
answered, "I had no means of knowing where this adventure would lead
us. Nor had I any suspicion that I would, that I could, be followed.
Otherwise I should never...."
He cut me short with an angry gesture of the hand.
"I don't want to hear any more. It is no thanks to you that my poor
girl has not lost her life through your reckless folly. I had my
doubts all along as to how far I could trust myself to your judgment.
If I had any idea that you and that blackguardly doctor between you
would have dragged my little girl into it...."
This was too much even from a distraught parent.
"It was none of my doing that Miss Garth came ashore," I retorted
hotly. "And as for Custrin, it was you who unhesitatingly accepted him
at face value. You even suggested that he should join our
expedition...."
"But for you, Custrin would never have come on board. You'll not
contest that, I suppose? I wish to Heaven the _Naomi_ had never seen
you...."
"I can only say how very deeply I regret the terrible experience Miss
Garth had to undergo," I began.
But he only snorted.
"I don't want to hear any more from you!" he retorted and walked away.
I was keenly aware of the hostile atmosphere he radiated and it added
to my utter sense of forlornness. But Lawless was speaking to me, as I
stood dumbfounded, clapping me on the back, asking if I were all right.
"The gang's hooked it," he chuckled. "With the report of the _Naomi's_
gun they must have just bolted off to their launch in Sturt Bay, way
across the island, leaving their skipper to his fate. A dangerous man,
that, major! We saw the launch.... it's a sea-going submarine
chaser.... crossing the bar and making for the open sea. Sir Alexander
was all for my going after 'em. But I told him it was no good with
their start...."
Then he told me of the immense surprise which the appearance of the
_Naomi's_ launch had occasioned on board the yacht as she lay off
Alcedo Rock.
"When the old man found that I had let Miss Garth ashore with the
doctor," the captain continued, "I thought he was going out of his
mind. He raged like a wild man. Whew! but it was hot work for a bit.
He called me every name he could lay his tongue to and I'm damned if I
know whether I'm in his service yet or know. I've been carpeted once
or twice in my time and talked to rough but I never did see such a dido
as Sir Alexander raised! And he's fighting mad with you, too....."
"I have the same impression myself!" I answered.
"We put about at once," Lawless resumed, "and ran for the island. Jock
Mackay crammed on every ounce of steam he could raise. He had
nightmare every night thinking of the coal-bill! We dropped anchor off
the bar and took the launch ashore at once. As we came in through the
lagoon, I caught through my glasses the flash of your heliograph from
the cliffs in the centre of the island. So directly we landed we made
for the high ground...."
"I hadn't a notion how to let you know where we were," said I, "until I
thought of the mirror. It was rather a forlorn hope because, as you
saw, things were getting a bit pressing when you arrived...."
Someone touched my elbow. Mackay stood there.
"Yon great Gairman is asking to speak with you!"
They had stretched Clubfoot out on his blankets beneath the tree. I
hate to see a man trussed up anyway, and a queer sort of misguided pity
stole into my heart as I looked down on Grundt, whom I had feared so
greatly, strapped hand and foot.
At my approach he opened his eyes. They were still grim and fearless.
"If my men had come," he said truculently, "you would never have
escaped. But they ran and left me,--von Hagel, a German officer, with
the rest. Truly, I begin to think the sun has set on my unfortunate
country!"
He checked and seemed to think.
"Young man, young man, that you had known me in my prime! But the
foundations of my life have been knocked away. Okewood, I am getting
old!"
The perspiration was damp on his brow. I could see the sweat glisten
on the bristles of his iron-grey hair.
"In my day, in the years of Germany's greatness, I was all-puissant! I
had but one master--the Emperor himself! No one--_no one_, do you
understand?--not the Imperial Chancellor nor even the head of the Civil
Cabinet, who was a greater man than he--dare give me--_der Stelze_,
orders! Yet I had no official position! My name was in no
_Rang-Liste_ and I held no decorations. _Der Stelze_ was not to be
bought by those glittering crosses and stars with which so many of my
fellow-countrymen loved to hang themselves! No, I was the secret power
of the throne, the instrument of His Majesty. And, with this one
exception, the highest in the land trembled at my name...."
His voice sounded tired; and it seemed to me that, of a sudden, he had,
in truth, become an old man. His figure had relaxed; he appeared to
have grown grosser of body than of yore; the flesh of his face was
sagging and his cheeks had fallen in.
"This was to have been the last adventure," he resumed and stared at me
defiantly, "the last of how many? Friends of my master told me of this
hoard and delegated me to proceed to Central America to track it down.
What they would have given me for my pains would have sufficed to
enable me to realise my dream of settling down on a little property I
have in Baden, and of passing the evening of my days in peace...."
"And what did your friends want the money for?" I asked.
"That," retorted Grundt proudly, "is the business of my master!"
His words gave me my answer; for I knew of the existence of secret
funds destined to bring the Hohenzollerns back to the throne which they
had so shamefully abandoned.
"You matched yourself against me, Okewood," Grundt said suddenly, "at a
time when already the axe was laid at the roots of the German oak. In
the long seclusion which followed my wound--they found it necessary, as
you know, to give out that I was dead--I used sometimes to think that
our duel was a miniature reproduction of the struggle between Germany
and England. And in neither case am I quite clear as to why the
_Engländer_ won!"
"Perhaps it was a case of conscience, Herr Doktor?"
The German looked up at me in surprise.
"Conscience!" he exclaimed. "But that is not a means of warfare!"
Lawless at my side uttered a loud exclamation. He was bending down
over the blankets.
"The treasure!" he exclaimed, "by gum, you've found it!"
And he held up a shining piece of gold.
Funny, I had forgotten all about it.
"On those blankets, captain," said I, "you'll find all the treasure
we're ever likely to get out of Cock Island. I located the
hiding-place all right. But the treasure's gone. There are fifteen
gold-pieces there--I counted them. That's all that's left of it...."
Then Grundt spoke.
"So you were bluffing to the end!" he said and was silent.
"Then that was why the gang was in such a hurry to be off!" cried
Lawless.
I shook my head.
"They didn't find the treasure either," I replied. "Somewhere
scattered among the rocky ravines and valleys of this island, a hundred
thousand pounds in American eagles and German twenty-mark pieces are
lying. Old Man Destiny had it in for us, captain. He sent a volcanic
eruption which blew the treasure sky-high!"
"Jimini!" exclaimed Lawless in a hushed voice.
"It's an awfu' pity!" ejaculated Mackay mournfully.
Yvonne came. Marjorie was asking for me, she said. I found her
sitting up, Garth at her side. The light was slowly mellowing and the
sinking sun cast long shadows across the hollow. The sky was all
marbled with red and gold flecks.
Rather shyly Marjorie thrust a slim white hand into mine. It may have
been my fancy; but I think I saw Garth wince.
"So you did come out on top after all?" she said. "Sit down there
beside Daddy and tell me all about it from the beginning. You found
the treasure then?"
"I found where it had been hid," I replied. "But it had vanished...."
"Vanished?" cried Marjorie, and I swear there was dismay in her voice.
"Vanished?" echoed Garth.
"But the gold pieces you threw to Grundt," queried the girl. "I don't
understand...."
"That was part of one box which had survived the volcanic eruption
which scattered Ulrich von Hagel's horde to the four winds. You
remember that wisp of smoke we saw rising from the hillside in front of
the great image? Well, I discovered that it came from a deep fissure
in the mountainside at the foot of the idol. From the little cairn of
stones, which still stands on the edge of the cliff, it was clear that
the treasure had been stored in a cave which appears to have been
hollowed out of the rock in front of the idol.
"Where that cave was is now a yawning hole belching forth smoke and
streams of lava. In fact, as far as I can judge, the treasure was
blown clean out of the mountainside. That this surmise is correct is
shown, I think, by my discovery of the remains of a wooden box in which
were still a few gold pieces. Other fragments of charred wood were
scattered around. For the rest the treasure is gone and will never be
recovered!"
Marjorie's eyes rested mournfully on my face; but I could not meet her
gaze.
"But how did you discover all this?"
"The passage by which I escaped from the burial-chamber brought me out
within a hundred yards of the image. The sulphur fumes from the fresh
cone of the volcano caught me by the throat directly I emerged into the
open. My one idea was to find you. So I crammed the gold pieces in my
pocket and made for Horseshoe Bay to see if the yacht had returned.
Finding no sign of her or you I started to reconnoitre. I guessed that
Clubfoot and his party would be watching somewhere near the terraced
rock and sure enough, as I was prowling in the undergrowth near here, I
saw the whole gang file out towards the rock. I watched where they had
come from and creeping up saw you and Grundt in conversation. The only
thing that mattered then was to get you out of Grundt's clutches. I
saw no signs of any guards but I made sure that Clubfoot would have
help within easy reach. As I was turning things over in my mind I
heard the _Naomi's_ gun. So I decided to risk everything on a final
bluff and I acted at once...."
"When they told me you were not in the cave," said Marjorie, "I
couldn't believe my ears. How on earth did you manage to escape?"
"Well," I replied, "you remember that stone table on which the mummies
lay? Under one of them I found, let in the table, a flat stone carved
with a turtle. I don't know whether you realise the significance of
that sign. The turtle was the mark of that celebrated buccaneer,
Captain Roberts, who, in the old days, was a great man in these waters.
The buccaneers are known to have used Cock Island for obtaining fresh
meat and water--you can read about it in the 'Sailing Directions'--so
the sign of the turtle set me thinking.
"I tried to get the stone up but it was firmly cemented in the table.
However, in my pushing and thrusting I leant against the table edge and
suddenly the whole top swung round outwards into the cave leaving a
hole about five feet deep. The hole was the opening of a passage
several hundred yards long which led into the open air----"
"But how did you manage to close the opening behind you?"
"Quite simply. I arranged the mummies as they were before, covering
the turtle stone, then standing in the hole I drew the table-top back
into place again. It is quite solid and does not ring hollow--the
simplest and neatest device of its kind I ever saw. Roberts and his
men must have used the burial-chamber for some sort of secret meetings,
I imagine. Perhaps in their day Cock Island was inhabited...."
There was so much I had to ask, so much I would have said. But the
presence of her father, dour and intractable, threw an invisible bar
between us. I felt embarrassed and miserable--because I realised I
suppose, that our island dream was at an end.
"It is getting dark," said Garth, standing up. "Come, Marjie, it's
time we were back on board!"
He did not include me in the summons. Yet I should have to sail with
him again. He could not maroon me there.
"You're coming with us?" said my dear Marjorie with her ready tact.
"Only as far as the beach," I replied. "We have to decide what's to be
done with our friend yonder...."
In truth the problem of Grundt was beginning to obtrude itself in my
mind.
"I'll come on board later," I said, "if Sir Alexander will allow me...."
"We must, of course, take Major Okewood back with us to Rodriguez,"
Garth observed stiffly.
At that Marjorie flared up.
"Daddy!" she cried indignantly.
We went down to the shore in silence. As we emerged from the woods,
John Bard came striding up the beach.