"Is everybody ready?" inquired my father.
A general "Ay, ay," was the response. Ella took the bottle of wine in
her hand, and Winter and I poised our hammers.
"Then knock away with a will, lads!" exclaimed the skipper.
A few lusty strokes brought the shores down, the schooner began to move,
and Ella dashed the bottle against the craft's bows, exclaiming in a
clear, silvery voice, as the wine dripped from the stem:
"God bless the _Ada_, and send her success and prosperity!"
We all took off our hats and cheered lustily as the schooner rushed down
the ways and plunged stern foremost into the sparkling sea; the gun went
off with a sharp _bang_, and the native gunner instantly, with a
terrific yell, sprang over the side of the cutter, and struck out for
the shore with all the vigour and activity that fear could impart to his
movements.
The schooner clove the water smoothly and easily as she drove astern
when once fairly afloat, and held her way long enough to shoot far
beyond her consorts at anchor in the bay. As soon as her speed was
sufficiently reduced, Bob let go his anchor, and we had the satisfaction
of seeing that she floated lightly and on a perfectly even keel.
As soon as Bob came on shore, he, of course, joined us, and lent his aid
in admiring and praising our own handiwork, as is pretty generally the
custom with all mortals, though some are not so ingenuous in the
exhibition of their actual feelings as we were. And I think we had very
good reason for our admiration, for the craft was more than sightly, she
was decidedly handsome, and we who had put her together were, after all,
it must be remembered, only unskilled amateurs; and though I think I
may, without undue vanity, say that we were all prime seamen, and knew
perfectly well what constituted a handsome and wholesome craft, it is
one thing to know this, and quite another to make your work correspond
accurately with your ideas.
When we had admired the schooner to our hearts' content, my father
wished to know whether any one had any proposal to make as to the manner
in which the remainder of the day should be spent. It appeared, from
the general silence which ensued that no one had; but on glancing at
Ella, who remained beside him, I noticed an eager look in her face, as
though she would like to speak, but was restrained by a feeling of
timidity.
"What is it, Ella?" inquired I.
"If no one has anything better to propose," she replied, "I think a
picnic would be very nice; and I would suggest that the natives be sent
on by land, with everything necessary, to the northern end of the
island, opposite the poor old _Amazon_, of which we are so soon to see
the last, and that the rest of us take Harry's tube-boat, and sail in
her quite round the island--which we new-comers have not seen very much
of as yet--and stop at the point I have named."
This, of course, we all cordially agreed to, though I could scarcely
help smiling furtively at the idea of a picnic, when our lives had been
a sort of continuous picnic affair ever since we had been on the island,
though, it is true, our pastime had consisted principally of pretty hard
work.
However, I made no remark, and we all returned to the house, and
proceeded to pack up the necessary viands, etcetera, and to start the
"niggers," as Bob invariably termed our black aids, in the proposed
direction.
When everything was ready, however, it was found that there was more
than we had the conscience to ask the poor fellows to carry, willing as
they were; so Ella's programme was so far departed from as to send them
by water in a canoe, instead of by land; and as soon as they were fairly
away, we shoved off in the cutter's canoe, got on board the tube-boat,
hauled up her grapnel, and made sail to the southward.
Here another departure from the programme took place, for my father was
curious to see how so singular a craft behaved in open water: so, as
there was a nice fresh breeze blowing, and sufficient sea on outside to
give him a fair idea of her qualities, we worked out through the channel
as soon as we reached it, and sailed round the island _outside_ of
everything first of all, resuming the original plan as soon as we came
inside again.
Both my father and Winter were much struck with the smooth and easy
motion with which she took the seas, especially when going close-hauled
to windward, the short, choppy head-sea which the breeze had knocked up
having not the slightest perceptible retarding effect upon the sharp,
gently-swelling tubes, which pierced the combing seas absolutely without
any shock whatever; whereas a boat of the usual mould would have pitched
and jerked into them, and half-blinded us and wholly wet us through with
spray. And they were quite as much surprised at her stiffness, for her
amount of heel was barely perceptible, though we were driving her
through it under whole canvas; whilst had we been in the _Water Lily_,
with a proportionate amount of sail set, she would, stiff as she was,
have been lying down gunwale under.
So rapidly did she skim along over the water too, that, notwithstanding
the extra distance traversed beyond that originally proposed, we were in
ample time for the meal--luncheon or dinner, whichever we chose to call
it--which it was arranged we should partake of picnic fashion in the
open air.
I was delighted to observe that both my father and Winter keenly enjoyed
this short cruise outside. It was the first time, excepting when my
father came out to meet us and pilot us in, that either of them had been
outside the reef; and that they were now fairly at sea, and with a
staunch and good sea-boat under their feet, seemed an earnest of their
easy escape almost more convincing than the fact that the vessel in
which that escape was planned to be made was now actually in the water.
Having made the tour of the island both outside and inside the reef, and
admired its many beauties, we at length sat down to our meal in high
spirits, and with appetites which enabled us to do the most ample
justice to Ella's bounteous provision, which, it now appeared, had been
in progress the whole of the previous day, in anticipation of some such
arrangement as that which she had proposed.
I had noticed an unusual flutter in the dear little girl's manner more
than once during the morning, as well as considerable imperfectly
repressed excitement; but I had said nothing to her about it,
attributing it to that which had produced so much excitement of feeling
among the rest of us, namely, the important event of the launch. This
feeling of excitement still continued to animate us; but, strangely
enough, Ella seemed the least able of the party to control it, and it
appeared to have the effect of agitating her nerves considerably.
Moreover, she seemed to be singularly pre-occupied over something,
answering remarks at random--sometimes when she was not addressed at
all--and then flushing up and apologising confusedly.
When our meal was over, a few bottles from a small stock of carefully-
hoarded wine, from the _Amazon's_ stores, were produced, and at Ella's
especial request, we four men proceeded to regale ourselves, and assist
digestion with "the fragrant weed." The chief topic of conversation
was, of course, the arrangements to be made for a speedy departure from
the island. It was decided that on the following day all hands should
employ themselves in getting the schooner ballasted, provisioned and
watered, and it was thought that, by hard work, all might be done in
readiness for a departure at daybreak on the succeeding morning.
My father, Winter, and the two blacks, were to man the schooner, whilst
Ella, Bob, and myself, were to continue in the cutter, and it was, of
course, a settled thing that we were to keep company as long as it was
possible. We also decided upon certain rendezvous in case of being
compelled, by bad weather, to part company at any particular part of the
voyage. These rendezvous, I may as well mention, were Melbourne, Cape
Town, Saint Helena, Saint Antonio in the Cape de Verde group, and
Madeira.
When this topic seemed pretty well exhausted, Ella remarked nervously,
"It seems then, Harry, that you have quite given up the idea of making
any further search for the treasure-island. I have not heard it
mentioned once for--oh! ever so long."
"I fear we must think no more of that," I replied. "When the story was
first told to me, it seemed an easy matter to sail direct to the spot,
but the fact that some mistake has occurred somewhere with regard to its
position has quite thrown us out, and to look for it among the numerous
islands which constitute this archipelago would be somewhat like
searching for a needle in a bundle of hay, and the chances of finding
either the one or the other would be about equal, I should say. If I
only held a sufficient clue to warrant the slightest hope of success, I
would willingly prosecute a search, but I do not."
"Are you _quite sure_ that you do not?" she returned, still very
nervously. "Tell us the story all over again; perhaps some useful idea
may suggest itself to one or other of us, if it is all gone carefully
over once more."
"Certainly I will," said I, "if it be only to gratify you, little one; I
anticipate no further result. You must know, then, Ella and gentlemen,
that the Spaniard who told me this story was on his death-bed when he
confided it to me. He asserted that a treasure-ship lay buried in the
sandy beach of a certain island here in the Pacific, and he not only
gave me the latitude and longitude of the island, but he minutely
described it, so that I might recognise it at once, and he also
described certain marks whereby I might be able to fix upon the exact
spot in the beach where the buried treasure-ship lay."
"And I suppose you have fixed upon your mind a kind of mental picture of
this island, drawn from the description given you," said Ella; "and I
presume you are of opinion that you would recognise the island in a
moment, if you saw it?"
"Exactly so," I answered. "I can see it before me at this moment,"--
shutting my eyes--"as distinctly as possible. There it lies, about
three miles away, with the surf beating all round it; and there, in bold
relief against the clear blue sky, stands the isolated clump of seven
cocoa-nut trees on the extreme northernmost point of the island."
"Somewhat like these that we are sitting under at this moment?"
interrupted Ella excitedly.
"Ye-es," said I, "certainly; somewhat like these. It is curious now,
but I never noticed until this moment that these trees are seven in
number. If, now, any two of them were _marked_ in any way--"
"Somewhat like this?" again interrupted Ella, as she started to her feet
and placed her hand upon a very perceptible scar in the trunk of the
central tree.
We sprang to our feet as one man, infinitely more excited even than Ella
was, and walked up to the tree and carefully examined the mark. There
was no mistake about it, the bark had been deeply cut away with a knife,
and I cannot, for the life of me, say how it was that it had never
attracted my attention, unless it be that the wound was now weather-
stained, and by no means so conspicuous as I had pictured it in my mind;
perhaps it was in a great measure due, too, to the fact that the island
we were on, though answering accurately to the description given of the
treasure-island, was quite unlike the picture my imagination had
conjured up.
"Now for the other mark," I exclaimed; "it is on one or other of the
remaining six trees, if this really be--"
"Here it is," again exclaimed Ella, darting to a tree which stood on the
edge of the clump, and again pointing out a mark very similar to the
first.
Of the nature of this mark, too, there could be no possible doubt. I
seized a half-consumed stick from the embers of the expiring fire: and,
getting the two marked trees in line, I walked away from them, keeping
them in one, until I saw, just clear of the trees and bushes on the
southern extremity of the island, a small pinnacle of uncovered rock
peering blackly out from among the snowy glittering surf. I then drove
the stick I held in my hand deep into the sandy beach, exclaiming, "Here
lies the buried treasure-ship, if there be any truth in the story."
"We'll soon set that question at rest," exclaimed Bob. "Here, you two
niggers, jump into this here canoe and paddle me down to the cutter as
quick as you knows how. I'm off a'ter they shovels as we laid in for
this here very job," he explained, turning to me, "and I'll be back
ag'in in next to no time."
Whilst he was _gone_, I sought and obtained an explanation from Ella of
the manner in which she had made this most important discovery. It
seemed that she had amused herself by wandering pretty nearly all over
the island, whilst we were hard at work upon the schooner, and in one of
her rambles her attention had been attracted to this very clump of
trees. Their number had impressed itself upon her, and, endeavouring to
remember what it was she had heard or dreamed connected with seven
cocoa-nut trees, the story of the treasure had suddenly flashed across
her mind. This led, of course, to an examination of the trees and the
discovery of the marks upon them, on the day but one preceding the
launch of the schooner; and, seeing that we were disposed to make the
launching day a gala day, she decided to keep her own counsel until the
arrival of the day itself, and to let the revelation of the discovery be
made at such a time as still further to increase our reasons for
rejoicing. And upon this resolution had been based her plot for the
picnic.
"I am so delighted, Harry, dear," she added in conclusion, "that it is I
who have made this discovery: you cannot think what a pleasure it is to
a woman to contribute to the happiness and prosperity of the man she
loves. And, beside this, there is the satisfaction of knowing that, if
the wealth you have spoken of really lies buried here, and I have no
doubt whatever that it does, you will now be under no necessity for
following up a profession which must inevitably have involved long
separations from me. I am so happy, dearest, for I do not think I could
have endured that."
I was deeply affected by this and frequent other evidences of the warmth
and strength of Ella's attachment to me, and of the confiding frankness
with which she revealed it; and I believe most conscientiously that the
greatest gratification I derived from the discovery of the treasure
arose from a knowledge of the extended power it would bestow upon me to
contribute to her happiness.
Bob soon returned with a couple of shovels, and, springing ashore from
the canoe, he handed one to Winter, and began at once to ply the other
most vigorously himself, exclaiming as he did so:
"There you are, my lad: now fire away as hard as you like. There's only
a few feet of sand between us and gold enough to make all our fortin's a
dozen times over, so let's rouse it up and have a look at it, without
any more words."
The two men worked with a will, and soon stood in a good-sized hole,
about three feet deep, whilst the rest of us looked on at their labours
with the keenest interest. At length Winter's shovel struck upon
something hard, and he announced the fact with a joyous shout. Bob,
however, still continued working away without meeting with any
resistance. A few more strokes of Winter's shovel laid bare a small
patch of damp discoloured planking, a further proof, if we needed one,
of the truth of the story. Bob was still digging away as hard as ever.
Presently he ceased digging, and began shovelling the loose sand off a
piece of the deck or something else which he had got down to. This was
soon uncovered, and we then saw that it was a piece of _loose_ plank,
which he and Winter succeeded between them in raising, and underneath it
lay a dark hollow cavity. To work they both went once more, and in a
short time three more loose planks were so far uncovered as to permit of
their being removed.
This accomplished, it was found that we had been so fortunate as to hit,
at the first trial, upon the hole through which the Spaniard had
penetrated to the innermost recesses of the ship. A great deal of sand
still remained to be cleared away, however, before we could get at the
gold; and my father and I were on the point of relieving the two mates,
when the natives, who had looked on at the operations with a great deal
of interest and intelligence, stepped forward, and said, "No, no; now me
work." And though they had probably never seen shovels in their lives
before, and were a little awkward at first in the handling of them, they
soon got into the swing of it, and did their work as well as either of
the others. And so they kept on, spell and spell, the mates and the
"niggers," neither party seeming willing that my father or I should
share in the hard work; and in about an hour and a half, Bob's shovel
suddenly struck sharply upon something harder than wood. He and Winter
were both working under the influence of powerful excitement, so it was
not long before they had cleared away the sand sufficiently to enable
them to lay hold of and drag forth an ingot, black and discoloured
almost as rusty iron, but heavy enough to prove most satisfactorily that
it was not that metal. It was handed up, and I at once proceeded to
scrape away with my strong clasp knife upon its surface, quickly
establishing the fact that it was indeed the precious metal.
This I considered sufficient for one day, especially as it had been
agreed that it should be a holiday. So, with considerable difficulty, I
at length persuaded the two mates to come out of their hole, and rest
after their violent exertions; and shortly afterwards our goods and
chattels were packed up and put on board one of the canoes, in charge of
the two natives, and the remainder of the party embarked in the tube-
boat with the gold--thirteen ingots in all--that had been brought to
light, the sails were hoisted, and we ran down to the anchorage in the
bay with both canoes in tow.
It would be difficult to express the satisfaction which all felt at this
important discovery, but to Bob and me the satisfaction was peculiarly
great, for we had now accomplished all that our most sanguine
expectations had led us to hope for in projecting this adventurous
voyage--more, indeed; for, as the reader is aware, when the subject was
first mooted we had no hope of finding my father, having quite given him
up as dead.
The next day saw us hard at work again, and, not to dwell too long upon
matters which may be passed over briefly, in three days we had the box
of gems, and as much gold as we considered we could take. The schooner
was ballasted with it, taking in, as nearly as we could calculate,
twenty tons, and the precious metal was also substituted for the lead
ballast of the cutter. The aperture in the deck of the buried ship was
then carefully boarded over as before, the sand shovelled back into its
place, and to time and the winds were left the work of completely
eradicating all remaining traces of our labours. Both craft were then
fully provisioned and watered, abundant preparation having already been
made, and on the morning following the completion of our final
arrangements, both craft made sail from the island, the _Ada_ leading
out through the channel, and stood away to the southward and westward
under every stitch of canvas that would draw. We soon found, however,
that in moderate weather the _Water Lily_ could sail round and round the
_Ada_, and we had to take in our topsail and haul down a reef in our
mainsail to avoid running away from her altogether; it was only when it
came to double-reefed canvas that her superior power told sufficiently
to produce an equality in our speeds. It seemed as though everything
which we were to meet with in the shape of adventure had befallen us on
the first half of our voyage, for day after day passed by without
anything to distinguish it from the others, and after a quick and
pleasant run, we reached Melbourne just in time to catch the homeward-
bound mail, and to send a hurried letter to my sister, acquainting her
with the agreeable intelligence of our double success. I here had an
opportunity of acquainting the proper authorities with all the
circumstances connected with the destruction of the pirate-brig, and of
the crew being imprisoned on the island, and I afterwards learned that a
cruiser had been despatched to the spot, and that the entire band were
captured, tried, condemned upon a mass of evidence, which was soon
collected against them, and hanged.
Here also I had the happiness of being united to the dear girl who had
in so many ways proved herself worthy of my best and strongest love, and
as our story--excepting that part of it which related to the finding of
the treasure--had got wind, the sympathy and kind feeling shown towards
us by the warm-hearted colonists, was such as to convert our wedding-day
almost into a day of public rejoicing. All the ships, without
exception, were dressed with flags, and there was a long article in one
of the local papers headed, "Thrilling Romance of the Sea," in which the
story of Ella's rescue from the wreck told with great effect.
We remained at Melbourne about a week, and then made sail once more,
still with favourable winds and fine weather, until we reached the Cape
of Good Hope--which we did in little more than a month--when we
encountered a very strong breeze from the southward and eastward, from
which we were glad enough to take shelter behind the fine breakwater in
the Bay. Here we again filled up provisions and water, and once more
despatched letters home.
By the time that we had done what we wanted, the gale was over, and we
lost no time in making a fresh start. We soon got into the south-east
trades, and, as they happened to be blowing strong, we made the best of
them, and did not attempt to stop at Saint Helena. We were fortunate
again in crossing the line, getting a little slant of wind, which
carried us handsomely across the usually calm belt which so tries the
patience of the homeward-bound seaman at that spot; and after a
remarkably fine passage of thirty-nine days from Table Bay, we found
ourselves at anchor in Funchal Roads.
One of the canoes (both of which the schooner carried on deck) was got
out, and my father and I went ashore to the post-office, where we found,
as we expected, letters from my sister in answer to ours from Melbourne.
My poor father was completely unmanned by the warmth of affection
breathed forth in my sister's letter to him, and I was scarcely less so
at the delight she manifested at our safety and success, and the warm
sympathy with which she responded to the timid message my letter had
conveyed to her from her unknown sister.
We hurriedly got in a stock of wine, and once more made sail, and after
a baffling passage of a fortnight, against head-winds and light airs and
calms, reached Weymouth Bay on a most lovely evening in the last week of
June, having accomplished our voyage round the world, with all its
delays, in somewhat under eleven months.
The moment that we were at anchor one of the canoes was got into the
water, and my father, Ella, and I were paddled ashore by the two natives
(who could now speak English tolerably well, and had accustomed
themselves to the use of civilised clothing), Bob and Winter remaining
on board their respective craft that night to take care of them.
We landed at the flight of steps at the pier-end, and made the best of
our way at once to my aunt's house. My sister was there, eagerly
expecting us; for it appeared that she had been on the Esplanade
listening to the strains of the regimental band, and had recognised the
_Water Lily_ as we drew in towards the anchorage.
I will pass over in silence the rapturous meeting which ensued, for the
feelings of all were of too deep and sacred a character for so
inexperienced a pen as mine to deal with. Suffice it to say that we all
enjoyed on that evening one of those short seasons of perfect, unalloyed
happiness which are occasionally permitted even here on earth.
Little now remains to be told. We succeeded, after a vast amount of
hard work and difficulty, in turning our gold into cash: and the
proceeds were equally divided among us five whites; the result being, as
I suppose, I need hardly say, a magnificent fortune to each. Winter,
like the honest fellow that he was, immediately married the girl who had
consented to share his uncertain fortune as a seaman: and the two blacks
attached themselves, as a matter of course, to my father's
establishment. As for Bob, he asserted roundly that his gold would be
of no use or value to him if I "turned him adrift," so he became, I need
scarcely say with my hearty good-will, a fixture in my establishment;
and his whole thoughts are now set on being made sailing-master of a
fine schooner yacht which is building for me.
I found out Ella's relations, and communicated the fact of her rescue
from the wreck, and of her having become my wife; but I said nothing
respecting our immense wealth, merely stating that I was possessed of a
comfortable independency, as I wished to ascertain whether they were
willing to receive her as a relative, on her own and her mother's
account. I regret, for the sake of human nature, to say that the
interview was eminently unsatisfactory; and I left their house with a
mental resolve that my wife should never, with my consent, enter the
doors of such unnatural relatives.