_The Toilers of the Sea.--New Efforts to find the Plunder of the
Spanish Main.--Modern Science versus Captain Kidd.--The Landlord’s
Faith.--Scoffers and Mockers at the Money-hole.--Objections
considered.--The Timber Floorings.--The Stone, with its mysterious
Inscription.--The Gravel pit, with its Surroundings of blue Clay.--The
Drain from the Sea to the Money-hole._
SO, you see,” said the landlord, “how all these efforts to get at the
treasure have failed; and it is not difficult to see the reason, either.
For, you see, as I have already said, the money-hole has been all filled
in with sand and gravel, and there is a drain, or channel, connecting
with the sea, which lets in the sea water; so, the moment any one
undertakes to touch the money-hole, he has to contend with the sea
itself, and there hasn’t, thus far, been force enough put forth there to
do that. The money-hole is something peculiar. All around it the soil is
this blue clay. No doubt the soil where this was first dug was blue
clay also; but, after burying the treasure, Kidd, for his own crafty
purposes, filled it up with this gravel. No doubt his idea was, that the
sea water should affect it the more thoroughly, and make it like a great
quicksand. The pumps they set up there did no more good than if they
were so many toys.
“Well, the failure of the last company has been followed by a
pause, partly on account of discouragement, but still more from the
determination, on the part of a few, to begin again on a grand scale; on
a scale, indeed, so grand, that it will take some time to make all the
preparations. Some of the leaders in the previous undertakings are at
the head of this new movement, and have already done very much towards
putting it into life and action. This new plan is to get up a regular
joint stock company, with a thousand shares, each worth a hundred
dollars, or thereabouts. It will be a regular company; the shares will
be sold in the market, and the stockholdors will stand in the same
relation to this business as they would to a coal mine, or any other
ordinary undertaking. They’ll have a president, a board of directors,
and a superintendent of the mining works. It is proposed to employ a
regular engineer to survey the ground, and design the best mode of going
to work; to put up a steam engine of sufficient power to pump out the
money-hole, and keep a large force of men at work, night and day, in
separate detachments. The idea is, to do it up as fast as possible, and
get at it once for all, or fail utterly.
“Now, this company is already started, and about a quarter of the stock
has been taken up. I shouldn’t be surprised to see them set to work next
year, or the year after, at the farthest. The thing is bound to go on.
Besides those who believe that the treasure is here, there are ever
so many who wish to see the mystery cleared op, irrespective of any
treasure. These men are going into the new company almost as extensively
as those who believe in the money. Then, again, there are ever so many
people about the country who have heard about it for the first time,
and are taking shares just as they would buy tickets in a lottery; not
because they expect to make anything, exactly, but because they are
willing to run the risk, and take their chance.
“This sort of thing, of course, has a far different prospect from what
the old companies had. It puts the whole plan on a different footing.
It makes it, in fact, a thoroughly legitimate business, and sets on
as sound a basis as if it was an iron or coal mining company. A real,
practical engineer--a man who is a practical geologist also--could tell
more about Oak Island in one walk round it, than the other workers
found out in years. He could find out the real place where the sea water
enters; whether there is one only, or more than one. When once that is
found out, and stopped, the rest is easy. But, if they can’t stop
it, why, then, let the steam pump go to work, and I don’t think the
money-hole would be flooded much longer. Then, again, the plan of
having two gangs to work night and day, so as to have no stoppage in
the operations, will be a most important thing. And so, what with modern
science, and steam, and continuous work of large gangs, oven old Kidd
himself ’ll find his match.
“The fact is the gold is there--the treasure of Captain Kidd--brought
here by him, and buried in that hole. I no more doubt that than I doubt
my own existence. If that hole had never been touched, and people went
to work now at the fresh ground, I believe the treasure would be got
at. Why, the first diggers almost got it, though there were only two
of them. The gold is there--there’s not the slightest doubt of that--a
treasure beyond all estimate--worth millions on millions, no doubt--gold
and silver ingots--the plunder of Spanish cathedrals and Spanish
galleons--diamonds and rubies--and all that. Millions? Why, it’s equal
in value to the revenue of a great nation. There it is; and all it wants
is for people to go to work in the right way; not in a pettifogging,
mean, peddling fashion, but in a large-handed, bold, vigorous way.
That’s the thing that ’ll fetch up the plunder of the Spanish Main!
I’ve sometimes heard people say that there was once a great confederacy
of pirates that made this buy their headquarters, and that Captain Kidd
was the last and greatest of the brotherhood. Until his time the plunder
had been kept in a safe place, but in a place where it could be got at;
but that he, being the last of the brotherhood, determined to fix up
some safer place, and so he arranged this place--the hole and the drain;
and if that’s so, we have here not merely the plunder of Captain
Kidd himself, but of all the pirates, for no one knows how long a
time--centuries, I dare say.”
To all this extraordinary story the boys had listened with the deepest
attention. The landlord’s announcement of his own belief in it was to
them very impressive, and his extravagant conclusion did not seem at all
extravagant to them. It jibed perfectly with what they had heard from
the governor of Sable Island. They were most profoundly impressed,
and the treasure island seemed to them more attractive than ever. The
landlord’s mind seemed to be filled with a vision of inconceivable
treasure, and by long familiarity with the thought, it seemed quite
natural to him to speak so glibly about gold, and silver, and precious
stones, and all the rest that went to make up the plunder of the Spanish
Main.
Bart and Pat were not critical; none of the boys were. This remark has
already been made in connection with the story of the governor of Sable
Inland. Had they been critical, they could have picked various holes
in this narrative, and asked questions to which it would have been
difficult for the landlord, or any other believer in Kidd’s treasure,
to give any sufficient answer. They might have asked how it was that
the tradition about the early diggers had been so minute, and why it
was that no competent scholar or archeologist had been found who might
decipher the inscription on the stone. They might have asked how it was
that the so-called “drain” had been discovered, and also how it was that
Kidd’s so-called “place” was known so accurately. But they were not at
all critically inclined, and the questions which they did ask were of a
totally different kind.
They did ask questions, of course; and the questions referred to the
chief points in the landlord’s story. They had much to ask about the
first discovery, the size of the island, the appearance of the blasted
circular spot, of the tree and the projecting bough; about the pulley
and its chain; about the log floorings, their number, their distance
apart, and their probable use in a money-hole; about the West Indian
grass, the cocoa-nut husks, and the sugar-cane, which were the signs of
some connection with the Spanish Main; about the shavings and chips of
wood; about the gravelly soil, contrasting with the blue clay around it;
about the eventful moment when the first diggers touched the money-box
with the crowbar, and the destruction of their work during the night.
They asked also, very minutely, about the stone with the inscription,
its kind and its size, and why it should have been inserted into the
chimney of a hut; about the drain, its size, and whether it was built of
wood, or brick, or stone; and about the nature of the signs brought up
by the anger when they bored through the money-box.
All these questions showed how close had been the attention with
which they had listened. To every one of them, without exception, the
land-lord responded in the most unhesitating and the most comprehensive
manner. It was evident that he had turned over every point in his mind
that they now suggested; that he was familiar with every objection, and
was armed and equipped at all points with facts and arguments to sustain
his theory.
That there were plenty of objections to that theory became evident from
the landlord’s own very frequent allusions to them, and it seemed, by
the way in which he spoke of them, as though he himself had often and
often done battle with scornful or sceptical opponents.
“For my own part,” said the landlord, “I don’t think much of any of
these objections. Objections are easy enough to make. You can make them
to anything you like--or don’t like. The truest things in the world meet
with lots of unbelievers, who offer objections. Now, I know this whole
story to be true, and I don’t value the objections a rush.
“Ono objection, for instance, is, that the story of the first diggers
had been exaggerated in every particular. In passing from mouth to
mouth, they say, each one has added to it, and that all the little
circumstances that I have mentioned have been either thrown in to make
up a story, or colored so as to favor a belief in the money-hole. Now,
as to that, all I can say is, that the two men always told a straight
story, without any additions, and the younger one lived down to my time,
and so could easily be referred to by any ono. He always made the same
statement.
“A great objection is, that two men could never have dug down so far,
and stayed up the sides of the pit, as the story said they did. It
has been asserted that they couldn’t have dug down more than twenty or
thirty feet, and that they probably got down that far when they came
to the water, which prevented them from going any farther. To which I
answer, not only that two men could have dug a hundred feet, but that
they have done so, over and over, on the same ground, for in the holes
made since, it isn’t possible for more than two to work at the same
time. The shafts are only about six feet long by three wide, and in that
space there isn’t room for more than two, of course.
“When I find some who don’t believe in Kidd’s treasure, and ask them what
could have been there, they make various answers; but the favorite one
is, that it was some sort of a signal-station. But, unfortunately, Oak
Inland it the last place about here that one could think of for such a
purpose as that. Still, that is what they urge, and they say that the
timber floorings were probably intended as a foundation. When I ask them
why there were so many timber floorings, they quietly deny the fact They
say that there might have been one or two such floorings, to the depth
of perhaps ten feet, or so, but won’t believe any more. When I point to
the testimony of the surviving one of the first diggers, they deny the
value of it, and say that it is only the exaggeration of an old man, who
has been telling the same tall story for years, till it has grown to its
present dimensions. And when people choose to argue in that style, and
reject the best sort of evidence that there can be, why, of course,
thero’s no end of all discussion. They set out with a blind prejudice,
deny plain facts, or explain them away in the most fanciful manner, and
then turn round and ridicule those who believe in what is as plain as
day.”
The landlord was silent for a moment, overcome by a kind of mild
indignation at the sceptic of whom he spoke, after which he proceeded.
“Then there’s that stone with the mysterious inscription. It’s been seen
by hundreds. No one has ever been found yet who can make out what it
means. As I said before, it is either some foreign language, or else,
as is quite probable, it is some secret cipher, known only to Kidd
himself--perhaps used by the great pirate confederacy. It shows, more
than anything else, that this hole was dug by Captain Kidd, and that his
treasure is there. Now, how do you suppose they get over that?”
And with this question the landlord looked earnestly and solemnly at the
two boys.
The two boys couldn’t imagine how anybody could get over it; though Bart
could not help wondering a little how it came that, if the inscription
could not be deciphered, the landlord should nevertheless know so well
that it referred to Captain Kidd.
“I’ll tell you,” said the landlord, “the way they get over it. They
have the impudence to say that it isn’t an inscription at all. Actually,
because no one can decipher it, they say it ain’t an inscription.
They say it’s only some accidental scratches! Now, I allow,” continued
the landlord, “that the marks are rather faint, and irregular; but how
any man can look at them, and say that they’re not an inscription--how
any man can look at them and say that they’re accidental scratches--is a
thing that makes me fairly dumb with amazement.”
“Well, then there are other things, too,” continued the landlord, “which
they handle in the same manner. One of the strangest things about this
whole story is the fact that the soil in the money-hole is different
from that of the rest of the island, being sand and gravel; whereas the
rest of the island, as I told you, is blue clay. It’s just as if a
hole was dug in the blue clay, and then filled in with sand and gravel
brought from somewhere else. Well, how do you think they got over this?”
Again the landlord looked inquiringly at the two buys.
Again the two hoys gave it up.
“Why,” said the landlord, “they get over it in the usual fashion. They
say it isn’t a fact that the island is blue clay, but that there’s
streaks and patches of gravel all over it, and the two men hit upon a
place where the soil was sandy and gravelly. That’s the way they get
over that point; and I’d like to ask any man if that’s fair; if that’s
honest; if that’s decent. Yet that’s the way they talk--when they can go
to the island, and see wherever fresh boles have been dug, the blue clay
is turned up. But when I point out that, they say, ‘O, that’s because
the holes are all dug on that one side of the island where the blue clay
is.’
“Then, again, there’s the drain,” continued the landlord. “Now, if any
one thing is an established foot, next to the buried money--it’s Kidd’s
drain. It’s been broken into time after time. It’s flooded hole after
hole. Yet, in the face of this, they say that there isn’t any drain
at all; that there’s merely some loose soil on the island, or some
subterranean passage, made by nature, through which the sea water
passes, and that the bottom of the so-called money-hole has been
connected with this. Some say, that as the island is small, the sea
water trickles through the soil, in some places, all the way across.
So, of course, these men, shutting their eyes obstinately to hard facts,
laugh at the very idea of a drain. And that’s the sort of objections
that we have to meet!” concluded the landlord, with a snort of contempt.
“Is any one working on Oak Island now,” asked Bart, after a pause.
“Well, no, not just now. There isn’t a soul on the island. Since
the last company gave up, no one has touched the works--except,
occasionally, some visitors. Everything is standing there--the pumps,
the hoisting tackle, and all that. You’ll see the holes all about; and
the money-hole can easily be known, for it is a hollow in the ground,
shaped like a bowl, close by the largest pump, with a deep hole beside
it, full of water; for, unfortunately, they struck the drain too soon,
and of course the water rushed upon them.”
At this point the landlord recollected some business that he had to
attend to, and rising to his feet, he slowly sauntered away.