In the meantime, John Bannister and I journeyed together through the
Wood, and came in a few hours to the Brook of Scarlet Pebbles. This we
crossed, and took up our westerly route, in order to avoid the swamp of
which we knew. This was a far longer march than that accomplished by
Amos; and that night we camped in the jungle--so far as we could tell--a
mile or two to the west of the Red Fish.
Early the following morning we continued on our way, and soon struck the
Brook, as chance had it, at the pool of the electric eels, into which we
waded without a moment's hesitation. We found the tunnel without
difficulty, and through this advanced stealthily towards the open place
where we knew the Red Fish to be. We took good care to make as little
noise as possible; for we expected to find Amos and his friends encamped
above the vault. And then Bannister ordered me to remain behind, whilst
he went forward to get what news he could.
I should say that half an hour elapsed before he returned; and that was
an anxious time for me. Expecting every moment to hear a rifle-shot, I
waited, knee-deep in water, in the impenetrable darkness of the tunnel.
So dark was it, indeed, that I never knew that Bannister had returned,
until I heard his voice quite close to me.
He told me what he had seen. There was little doubt that the vault had
been visited since my departure, several days before; but there was one
circumstance which he could not by any means explain.
"A great boulder has been rolled upon the slab," said he, "as if to
weigh it down. It looks as if Amos meant to keep the Treasure safe."
"I know nothing of that," said I.
"Then, you had best come with me," said Bannister. "The road's clear
enough, though something extraordinary has happened."
We came forth together from the tunnel, and I was at once half-blinded
by the sudden daylight, just as I had been before, when I first beheld
the red rock standing forth from the ground in the very semblance of a
fish with opened mouth. But when I could use my eyes again, I saw that
everything in that strange place was just as I had left it, with the
exception that the stone slab was no longer covered with earth, and a
great boulder, round as a snowball, lay upon the top of it.
"Who placed this here?" I asked; and that was more than Bannister could
answer.
We went together to the slab, and there he lay down and listened, with
his ear upon the stone.
"I can hear nothing," said he. "It will be safe enough to enter."
At this we removed the boulder, lifted the slab, and went down the stone
steps into the Treasure-chamber below.
It was quite dark, for we had neither torch nor lantern. We had made
certain that the place would be deserted, and it therefore came to us
something in the nature of a shock, when we beard a jingling sound--as
if some one, who had been asleep upon the gold, had sprung on a sudden
to his feet. And then a human voice cried out to us; and this was so
loud and unexpected that I confess I jumped as if I had been pricked
with the point of a knife. For all that, I recognised the voice at once
as that of Joshua Trust.
"You've come back!" he cried. "Stand clear of me, or else I'll wring
your neck! Who's he who swore that he never yet went back upon his
friends?"
There followed a pause, during which I tried my best to make head and
tail of what the man had said. It speaks much for John Bannister's
intelligence that he tumbled to the truth at once. To my bewilderment,
he answered in a voice that was like enough to that of Amos Baverstock.
"I've come back all right," said he. "But I'm here to offer terms,
which you may accept or not, as you wish."
And thereupon, for some reason or other, the Spaniard, Vasco, burst
forth into such a rapid stream of language that it seemed to me--who
understood not a word of what he said--that he swore with the most
amazing fluency and violence. At all events, when at last he ended,
apparently for want of breath, it came as a kind of relief to us to hear
the lazy drawl of Mr. Forsyth.
"_Amicus certus in re incerta_," he observed. "Sure friend in doubtful
circumstances. Amos, we welcome you. We greet you as Joseph received
his brethren."
It was then that Bannister spoke in his natural voice; and, as I
listened, I tried to imagine the feelings of those others whom his words
took so wholly by surprise.
"Amos Baverstock has not returned," said he; "and I am prepared to take
my oath he never will. A certain friend, in very truth, was he who led
you here, and then entrapped you that you all might starve to death!"
"Who's that?" cried Trust.
"My name's John Bannister. And it was you, Joshua Trust, who once tried
to kill me--who, indeed, left me for dead. Do you remember that day in
the mountains, when Amos caught me in Cahazaxa's Tomb? Well, now he has
done the same for you. He has buried you alive; and when he comes back
for the gold he covets, he will think to find it strewn with the bones
of those who were fools enough to believe he was their friend."
I heard Trust groan in the darkness; or, I think, perhaps, a growl
describes it better. Forsyth, judging by the tones of his voice, was
just as calm as ever.
"Bannister!" he exclaimed. "So this is the end of it all! We are to
owe our lives to you!"
"That's a matter," answered Bannister, "for yourselves to settle. How
long have you been here?"
"Not many hours," said Forsyth; "but it seems like days and nights. We
have had time enough in which to consider the misery of our end--without
water, food, or light, in the midst of all this gold."
Bannister was silent a moment. He had not descended the stairs into the
chamber, but stood upon a step about midway down with myself close
behind him.
"I'll have no treachery," said he. "It is very needful that you
understand the situation as it is. I am a man of my word, as you may or
may not know, and I set you free on certain conditions only."
"Fire ahead," said Forsyth. "State your terms. Anything for daylight
and for freedom--for the certain knowledge that we have been granted a
new lease of life."
"Good!" said Bannister. "I go before you up the staircase, and wait for
you above. Whatever arms you have you leave behind you. If any one of
you comes forth with a rifle in his possession, I shoot him dead upon
the spot."
"We share the gold with you?" asked Joshua Trust.
"Not an ounce of it, you fool!" cried Bannister. "Years ago I might
have had it for myself, had I wished to play the robber. All this
treasure is not yours or mine or anyone's; it belongs by right to the
Government of the country. I am neither a smuggler nor a thief. Were
it worth less, I might not be so honest; but here are millions, such as
to release would be to let loose a great force of evil that would profit
no one, and ourselves least of all. Here this gold has lain for ages,
and here let it lie. That is one of my conditions."
"Let us out!" cried Trust. "All night I have dreamed that I must eat
bars of gold to live. I have sucked golden ingots with parched, dry
lips. I have slept upon gold, and never before had I a couch so
uninviting. Let us out, I say! I agree to anything."
At that, Bannister bade me ascend the stairs, and followed close upon my
heels. When we reached the top, we waited both with our rifles at the
ready, prepared to fire upon the first sign of trouble. But the three
of them, one behind the other, came forth out of the vault as meek as
shorn lambs--first Trust; then Vasco; and finally, Mr. Gilbert Forsyth,
who, swaggering into the daylight in no particular haste, had the
audacity to hold out a hand to Bannister, as if he greeted an old
acquaintance.
John Bannister, however, did no more than shrug his shoulders, and then
went to the stone slab and threw it back into its place.
"When did Amos leave here?" he asked, turning again to Forsyth.
"Last night."
"Did he say anything before he went?"
"Yes, he was so gracious as to tell us we could die where he had left
us. As for himself, he was going back into the forest to find native
porters to carry the gold away."
"Just as we thought!" said Bannister. "Rushby was in the right."
And, thereupon, our attention was immediately attracted by the strange
conduct of Joshua Trust, who looked up at the little patch of blue sky
just visible between the overhanging branches of the trees, clenched
both his fists in an amazing burst of passion, and shook them above his
head.
"He shall pay for this!" he cried, with an oath that can never be
repeated. "And I have served him faithfully for years! He has gone
back upon me, when he saw that he had gained everything he wanted! By
thunder, he shall pay for it!"
Bannister looked at him, and smiled.
"Have more sense, man," said he. "What use is all this anger? Amos
Baverstock is mad."
"Mad or sane," cried Trust, "he shall answer for what he has done. Come,
tell me, what's the time?"
"I should think no more than ten," said Bannister. "We started at
daybreak, and we were not two hours upon the march before we found the
brook."
When I looked at Joshua, I was reminded of the man whom I had known on
board the _Mary Greenfield_, who was wont to sit drinking at his cards.
He was red of eye and flushed of countenance, and I saw that his lips
trembled with a passion he was quite unable to contain. He was a rough
man, in any case; and now that he had lived for months in the
wilderness, and had been saved from death as it were at the eleventh
hour, he was the greatest savage of the five of us.
"Ten o'clock," he repeated. "Four bells, by Christopher! Then, he
can't be far away. He can never have travelled far by night, for he
took with him a hundredweight of gold. I'll go after him," he cried.
"He shall answer yet for what he tried to do."
Bannister stretched out an arm to detain the man; but Trust sprang aside
and, with another oath, dived into the thickets.