ON THE GOLD TRAIL AGAIN
It was Carlos and Rufe, together, who routed us all out long before day;
and soon we were set on shore--Captain Marat, Norris, Julian, Ray,
Robert and myself. We moved to the eastern edge of the city, and there
awaited Carlos, who had hurried off to consult with his friend. We
hadn't long to wait. He came with the intelligence that Duran had gone
from the city at dusk the evening before. He had doubtless gone to the
old ruin, since he had been attended by a man who was wont to wait on
him, carrying his burdens, when going inland. When going direct to his
ship, his attendants were always two or more sailors.
"Well, then it's for another visit to that old palace, where we had so
much fun, eh Wayne?" said Norris.
Carlos led us over an old, seldom used trail; one that ran back of the
old ruin.
It was a long, tedious march. And yet the morning was still fresh when
we found ourselves at the bottom of the rear wall of the palace, looking
up to where that escape door was hidden among the vines. I went up
first. With my stick through the hole, I had up the latch, and pushed
the door open. Next came Robert.
"Say," spoke up Grant Norris, "is that ladder of yours going to hold two
hundred ten pounds?"
"It'll hold three times that," I assured him. And so he came up with
ease, in spite of his weight.
Ray, Julian, Carlos, and Marat, soon were standing with us in the dark
passage. Flashing my light, I led the way up the stone steps, and along
the passage.
We came at last to that little door opening into Duran's room--that door
through which I had made my rash entry, and hasty retreat.
There was no light shining through the chinks of the shrine this time.
But I put my ear close, and in a little I distinguished the sound of
heavy breathing within. Someone slept there. I communicated that piece
of intelligence to the others in a low whisper. And we waited for the
sleeper to waken.
Near half an hour must have passed and Norris had moved back down the
passage, to calm his impatience. It was then we heard a loud knocking on
a door of that room. The sleeper was aroused, and then light shone
through the crevices.
Captain Marat and Carlos gave ear to the talk of those in the room.
Duran, in sleeping garb, and a lame black attendant, were the occupants,
as a peek through those chinks showed.
By Marat's report the following was the talk of the two:
"Well," said Duran, "any news of those dogs of Americans having gone?"
"Gani, just come," said the black. "He say French man and woman, and
baby, and Brill woman, go way in steamer; schooner stay."
"So! The schooner stay!" thundered Duran. And he cursed and fumed a
spell. "The schooner stay! Why do they stay?--It is that Carlos Brill.
He has told them something. It is the gold now they want. Why did I not
kill him?"
"The men have try," spoke the black. "They cannot--"
"They have try!" thundered Duran. "They try a little, and because he
escape one, two bad shots, the fools they say the Zombi protect him.
Well, no Zombi protect him when I see him!--They shall not find the
gold.--Go, make ready my breakfast."
The black left the room. Duran turned to his toilet, manifesting his ill
humor the while with grumbling to himself. The man presently brought in
his food, and again retired. The meal finished, Duran sat in deep
contemplation for some minutes, staring before him, and intermittently
pulling on the lobe of his ear in his characteristic manner.
Finally he stepped to the door, and called. The black man again
appeared.
"Tell Gani I go to the _Orion_," he said. The door closed and again
Duran fell into soliloquy.
"Yes, I make the gold safe," he said. "That Carlos Brill--I should kill
him long ago."
We could hear him in the room, but his activities were, for the most
part, out of our range of vision.
Then presently he brought a box to the table. He laid out a money-belt.
Then from the box he took bundles of bills, of money; and then came a
half dozen fat pouches. That this was gold we had no doubt. The paper
money and bags of gold Duran soon had transferred to the money-belt. And
this he hung about his waist, with straps over the shoulders. A light
jacket concealed the whole. He put away the box again.
His preparations were soon completed, and he went out of the room,
having put out the lights.
It was then Marat gave us the account of that which he had heard.
"Well," I said, "if he's going to his schooner, we'll have to get a move
on us."
I professed that I wanted to see the place Duran got that box from. And
Norris confessed a like curiosity. "And I want to see how this door
works," he said. So we two lingered, while the others hurried down the
passage, meaning to have an eye on Duran when he should start off toward
his ship.
Norris and I crawled through the little door. We first put lights to the
candles, and looked to the security of the door. And then came search
for a secret recess. After some minutes survey, we found a marble slab
of the floor, next the wall, showing dust about the edges. Hung on the
wall was a hook of metal. With this we succeeded to pull up an end of
the slab.
To take out the stone and thrust our hands into the recess, where it
extended under the wall, was the effort of two moments. We pulled forth
the box.
It now held only two objects: a small account book, and a gold ring
having the form of a serpent. The ring I pocketed. The book held some
figures--amounts with many ciphers, and a number of addresses. One in
Paris, others in Porto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba--the Cambons' among them. I
tore out a leaf and made copies of them.
"That's right, Wayne," said Grant Norris. "They might be of value."
Soon we were out in the passage.
Down in the bed of the stream we found Robert awaiting us.
"He's gone," said Robert. "We were in time to see him and one black man
go off through the woods."
Robert led the way; and soon we were on a trail going toward the sea.
We hurried to catch up with the others, and in a little, came upon
Julian and Ray, lingering to make sure we'd found the way.
"I suppose you two are now sporting a money-belt apiece," said Ray.
I showed him the serpent ring.
"Ugh!" he grunted. "That voodoo's coat of arms, I guess."
We'd covered about two miles when we got sight of Captain Marat and
Carlos. Carlos kept well ahead; and he was never long without a glimpse
of Duran and his black, whose progress was slow, because of a burden.
That Duran was on his way to the gold mine, there was little doubt.
Carlos assured us that it was always this way he went when he meant to
conceal his movements. And on these occasions he would sail away in his
schooner in the night. And it was this had made it impossible for Carlos
to follow him to the place. That his father had never travelled to the
mine by a water route Carlos was quite sure, though he had been much too
young to have much judgment in the matter, or over much curiosity.
Duran's sailors had proven uncorruptible. Voodoo superstition had had
much to do with it, doubtless, and they were liberally paid by their
master. Carlos knew of only one black who had deserted Duran's service;
and he had afterward been found murdered, in the city.
The character of the growth changed as we approached the sea. The
greater trees were less plentiful; there were more open spaces; bamboo,
tall grasses, came in our way; cocoa palms, royal palms, cabbage palms,
looked down upon us as we passed. And then came vistas, giving view of
the blue sea. Here the course turned east.
In the comparative sparsity of the growth, there was less need for a
path, so now Carlos soon had lost the trail of Duran and his black. He
recommended that we remain where we then were, while he was gone
forward, to seek for signs of the two.
"Thanks, Carlos," said Ray, throwing himself on the ground, "I never was
so hot, and done up."
All were glad of a rest, except perhaps Grant Norris, who was always for
going forward. Now, though, the heat must have taken, temporarily, some
of the go out of him, for he lay immovable for so much as ten minutes.
The mid-day sun was almost directly overhead, and there was scarcely a
breath of air stirring.
When an hour had passed, Norris was on nettles again. He had smoked
three pipefuls, to calm his nerves. Again and again he made short
excursions to the east to anticipate the return of Carlos.
Ray had been observing him. "Say, Norris," he said, "there won't be slow
music at your funeral."
Then, finally, Carlos turned up. He beckoned us to follow him. We
tramped two more miles, much of it through a heavy bushy growth. And
then at last he halted us in a screen of bush, whence we looked out on
the waters of a small cove, almost surrounded by palms, whose tall
trunks leaned over the white sand beach. Resting in that cove was a
schooner--the _Orion_.
"Duran, he go on board," said Carlos.
We could see the figures of black sailors on the deck; and with
binoculars distinguished their white master, Duran.
"Well, and now then?" said Norris.
"Yes, what next, Wayne?" said Ray, "Norris and I are ready to bust."
There was only one thing to do. We must have the _Pearl_ ready to follow
when the _Orion_ should sail.
"And when do you think she'll sail?" asked Julian.
"Sometime after dark, more than likely," said Robert.
It was Captain Marat, Robert and Julian, that went for the _Pearl_. They
were to bring her to within a few miles of this cove, and pick up the
rest of us in a small boat. They had ten miles ahead of them, most of it
along the beach, and the going all good, where the sand was hard with
moisture.
The hot tropic sun beat down on us in the brush, where we crouched,
sweltering, till Carlos found us a less ovenlike lookout, under the
palms of a tongue of land to the west of the cove. Our move got us some
closer, too, to the object of our interest. And it was but a short run
to the opposite side of the point, where we could have an eye on the
coming of the _Pearl_.
I took occasion to show Carlos that gold ring I had found in Duran's
hiding-place. He showed surprise and some emotion at sight of it.
"That my father's ring," he declared. "He have that ring on his finger
that day he went away with Duran--an' never come back. My father he tell
us he in the city have that ring made of gold he take from hees mine. He
was no voodoo, my father, but I do not know why he have thee ring made
like the serpent. He was mostly negro--my mother was Carib."
Carlos refused the ring. He asked that I keep it for him, till he should
ask for it. It was when we were all at sea one day, he asked for the
ring. I handed it toward him, and he held up a belaying pin, asking me
to thrust it on the point. And then with much tapping with a hammer, he
blotted out the serpent; and on the broad part, where the head had been,
he contrived a cross, using hammer and chisel. This done, he was content
to take the ring his father had worn.
"Now thee ring be good luck," he said. And he placed it on his finger.
There was apparently little activity on board the _Orion_, though once
or twice we heard the laugh of a sailor wafted in on the light breeze.
The hot, tedious hours dragged along, one after the other, with tropic
lassitude; till finally the shadows of the palms had spread over the
waters of the cove. And at last, too, Grant Norris came to tell us that
the _Pearl_ had come to anchor, about three miles away.
It was then activity began on board Duran's schooner: The binoculars
showed us sailors throwing off the gaskets. And then--and this to us was
a surprise--up went her sails.
"Surely," said Ray, "they can't be going to make a start yet?"
"We'd better hump," began Norris, "or they'll be getting away before we
get aboard the _Pearl_."
"Wait," I said, "I don't believe they'll sail before dark."
"Always," offered Carlos, "when they sail from the city it is dark."
"I'm thinking," said Ray, "that what that Duran finds to do in daylight
wouldn't make a long sermon."
One thing led to another, and soon we were in the midst of that newly
popular discussion of the probable location of the gold mine. "Well,"
concluded Grant Norris, "it can't be very far, if Carlos's father made
the trip overland, there and back, in five or six days."
Carlos re-affirmed his statement. "The first time he is away some weeks,
when he come back very happy, and say he have find gold mine, and he
show us gold. But he have been away five and six day and come back."
It was then the schooner again took our notice, for the sails began to
come down again, and soon they were all snug between gaffs and booms.
"Just shaking the wrinkles out of them," suggested Ray.
The sun was now nearing the horizon. Norris and Ray hurried up the
beach, to get themselves aboard the _Pearl_, and have Captain Marat move
down, after dark, close to the point on its west. Thus this tongue of
land with its tall palms, would still hold a screen between the two
schooners.
Night, with the precipitancy peculiar to the tropics, rose up and lay
its black cloak over everything. While the stars were out bright, the
moon was not due till near daylight. An hour Carlos and I waited,
watching that dark spot in the cove that represented the _Orion_. Then
Norris and Robert joined us. Our schooner now lay about a mile from
shore, they told us. The land breeze soon sprung up, and still there was
no movement in the cove.
"Looks like they've settled down there for the night," suggested Robert.
"Don't say that," said Norris.
Then came a faint flash of light over there, and in another minute we
heard the squeak of a block.
"The sails are going up!" I said. "Now back to the _Pearl_."
We hurried on among the pillar-like trunks of palms; in a little we were
in the small boat, and at last the _Pearl_ took us in.
"They're making sail," I told Captain Marat.
He took me into the cabin, and showed me the chart. There was there
shown a long shoal, that would necessitate the _Orion_ passing us and
going some miles west, to round the end of the shoal, and so out to sea,
for a run down the coast to the east. "Unless," said Captain Marat,
"they have some safe passage through the shoal, say through here." And
he pointed to a place opposite the point, where the depth figures
indicated such a possible passage.
We got on a jib, and crawled out a bit nearer to the place indicated;
and again we let down the anchor.
We had not long to wait this time. A dark object moved into our view.
With a distant squeak of a block or two, it turned seaward. We were not
many minutes getting under way. We lost sight of the _Orion_ before we
got way on, and when we were well beyond the shoal, we took our course
east at a guess.
We had sailed there an hour, covering some miles, before that dark mass
again showed before us. We then almost ran the other schooner down, for
she lay hove to, her sails flapping. With quick work Captain Marat
likewise brought the _Pearl_ about.
During the maneuver I had had opportunity to note that a small boat of
the _Orion_ had separated itself from that vessel, and was a little way
shoreward. But at our coming the boat turned about, and made back to the
_Orion_ again.
That vessel's sails directly filled once more, its bowsprit pointing
down the coast. The _Pearl_ was not long in falling into its wake. And
then came a flash and report from the _Orion_. Norris rushed into the
cabin, brought out his rifle and sent a bullet after that vessel.
"Tit for tat!" he said. "I'll bet that that cooled his enthusiasm."
The enemy did not see fit to continue the exchange.
"Humph--'tit for tat'" mused Ray. "Norris and Duran talk to one another
in the old code."
"Oh, and maybe you can tell what we were saying," bantered Norris.
"Sure," said Ray. "That fellow's 'tat' said--'Don't you dare follow me!'
and your 'tit' said--'You're another.'"
"You're a mighty wise gazabo," said Norris.
"Of course," said Ray. "And I'm a mind reader, too."
"You, a mind reader!" said Norris. "And do you mean to say you can tell
what I'm thinking?"
"Sure," said Ray. "You're thinking--a--you're thinking that I don't know
what you're thinking."
And he had to dodge Norris's moccasin.
We were now keeping pretty much in that other schooner's wake. It gave
us much satisfaction to find that the _Pearl_ had superiority in speed,
at least in a moderate breeze.
The _Orion_ apparently had on all her sail; we were obliged to shorten
sail a bit, to avoid overhauling the other. The waning moon came out of
the horizon an hour before daybreak.
It was then we began to draw off a little, for we now had but one
purpose--to keep an unwavering eye on the _Orion_. That vessel, it
became plain, had come to have its single aim--to shake the _Pearl_ from
her trail. And now day after day, and night after night, the contest was
on. The _Orion_ at first put on every effort to outsail us; that was
vain. Then she sought to hang us on dangerous shoals; but Captain
Marat's charts told him where they lay. The _Orion_ tried at night, by
sudden changes in her course, to lose us in the dark. But sundown always
found us clinging to her apron strings, and a sharp eye on every shift
of her.
A week passed thus, and then the island of--well, suffice it to say it
was an important island of the West Indies--This island hove in sight.
The _Orion_ made straight in, the _Pearl_ at her heels. The frowning
guns of a fort guarded the harbor and city, which lay on the west coast.
At ten of the morning the two schooners came to anchor. The _Pearl_
chose a berth less than a hundred fathoms from the other. And it was
little thought that these ships would go out of that harbor with rather
a different distribution of passengers than that with which they went
in.