THE SCOURGES OF THE SEA
Tyke's eyes were staring and his face was so apoplectic that Drew was
alarmed.
"Make out of it?" Tyke spluttered, getting up and nearly overturning
his chair. "I make out of it that Manuel was right when he said that
the old chest held something worth more'n diamonds."
Grimshaw was so shaken out of his usual calm that Captain Hamilton,
too, shared Drew's alarm.
"I tell you what we'd better do," he suggested. "We're all too much
excited to discuss this thing intelligently now. We've got a whole lot
to digest, and it will take time. This thing will keep. Suppose we
have our young friend here take this rough draft home with him and
piece out the missing parts as well as he can. In the meantime we'll
all mull it over in our minds, look at it from every angle, and meet
here fresh and rested to-morrow morning to decide on what we'd better
do."
"I guess you're right," assented Tyke, mopping his forehead. "This old
head of mine is whirling around like a top."
Tyke locked the map carefully in his safe and committed the other paper
and the captain's partial transcription to his chief clerk with solemn
injunctions to take the utmost care of them.
But the latter stood in no need of the admonition. He would have
defended those papers with his life. They meant for him--what did they
not mean?
Romance, adventure, wealth! Now at last he would have something to
justify his search for Ruth Adams and his suit for her hand. Now he
could frame his jewel, when he found it, in a proper setting.
The three men prepared to leave the private office. Captain Hamilton
was first at the door, and he unlocked it. The instant he pulled the
door open, Drew heard him ejaculate:
"Thunderation! Mr. Ditty! What are you doing here?"
"You told me to follow you here, Captain Hamilton," said a respectful
voice. "They told me you were inside, and so I waited for you."
"Humph! quite right, Mr. Ditty," Captain Hamilton said hastily. Then
he thrust his, head back into the office. "My mate's come for me,
Tyke. We've got an errand on Whitehall Street. See you to-morrow.
Good night, Mr. Drew."
Both the captain and the other man had gone when Drew went out into the
larger room. The remainder of that afternoon he spent in a dream.
When the day's work was over, Drew dined hastily and then shut himself
in his room where he worked busily until midnight, filling in the
vacant spaces in the rough draft of the confession. He was critical of
his efforts, recasting and revising again and again until he was
satisfied that he had caught the full meaning of the old document as
far as it was humanly possible. Only then did he lay it aside--to
dream of Ruth.
Drew was at the shop before his usual time the next morning, and Tyke
and Captain Hamilton came in soon afterward. The three went at once
into secret session, leaving the entire conduct of the chandlery
business to Winters, much to the mystification of that youth.
All three were fresh and cool this morning as they buckled down to the
problem they had to solve, and the wisdom of the previous night's
adjournment was clearly evident.
"I got to talking this thing over with my daughter last night," said
Captain Hamilton. "You'd forgotten I had a daughter, Tyke? Wait till
you see her! Well, she was aboard the schooner for dinner with me, and
she said: 'Daddy, if there is a real pirate's treasure, please go after
it. Then you can stay ashore and not go sailing away from me any
more.' So, I've a double incentive for pursuing this thing," and the
captain laughed.
"Yes, that's like the women-folk," observed Grimshaw. "They're always
for a man's leaving the sea."
"That isn't what made you leave it, Tyke," Captain Hamilton said slyly.
"An' it won't be women-folk that sends me back to it, neither," growled
the older man. "An' now, Allen," he added, as they settled comfortably
into their chairs, "how did you git along with the paper? Have you got
it so that it makes sense?"
"I'll let you judge of that for yourselves," replied Drew, taking the
revised draft from his pocket. "Of course, I can't say that it's
exactly right. Some of the missing words and sentences I had to guess
at. But it's as nearly right as I know how to make it."
He waited while Grimshaw and Captain Hamilton lighted their cigars, and
then proceeded to read:
"Trinidad, March 18, 17 .....
"In the name of God, amen.
"I, Ramon Alvarez, unworthy sinner that I am and not fit to take the
name of God upon my lips, and well knowing that I deserve no mercy who
have ever shown none, expecting to be plunged into the deepest hell,
yet basing my only hope on the Virgin Mary and the blessed saints and
the shriving of Holy Church, do hereby confess the misdeeds of my life.
"From my youth up I was wild. I was with the buccaneers who, off the
Tortugas, captured the French ship, _Reine Marguerite_, all of whose
crew and passengers we put to death. From there we ran to Port au
Spain, ravaging and plundering. We captured the city, killing most of
the men and boys and carrying off the women and girls. Off one of the
Bahama Cays we took a Spanish galleon, and although her people fought
stoutly, we made them finally walk the plank. Other ships we captured
whose names I have forgotten. We took great spoils, but the money was
accursed and was soon spent in wild living.
"I myself soon became a captain. Down in the Caribbean Sea we won a
caravel and killed all on board, one hundred and twenty. I lost my
ship in a tornado, but soon got another.
"Many more evil deeds we did that would make me weary with the telling.
We feared neither God nor man.
"At last, after ten years or more of butchery, the nations sent many
frigates in chase of us. I fled to one of the islands and careened my
ship. Tired, knowing I would be taken sooner or later, I made up my
mind that I would capture one more rich prize and then be done with my
wickedness.
"We captured the ship _Guadalquiver_. The fight was desperate and the
decks ran with blood. We took ...... thousand doubloons, many pearls
and jewels of price.
"I knew of an island off the beaten track where there was good hiding
to be found. I took the cutter one night and went ashore to bury
treasure. Two men with me mutinied and I killed them both. And there
the booty is still, unless it has been taken away, which God forbid.
"Now, standing mayhap on the very brink of hell, I have made this
drawing of the island where the treasure is buried. I give it freely
to Holy Mother Church, and beg that part be spent for candles to be
burned before the altar and for masses to be said for my unworthy soul.
his
_"Ramon_ (X) _Alvarez_.
mark
"Attest, _Pablo Ximenes_, notary."
"Good work, Allen," commended Tyke, as the reader stopped.
"Very cleverly done," added Captain Hamilton.
Drew flushed with pleasure.
"Those old fellows were well called 'the scourges of the sea,' weren't
they?" he said. "Now here! There are just two things missing that it
would be the merest guess-work to supply," he added. "One is the date.
We know the century, but the year is absolutely rubbed out. The other
is the number of doubloons captured with his last prize. That was in a
crease of the paper and had crumbled away."
"Yes," replied Captain Hamilton; "but neither is so very important. Of
course, the later the date, the less time there has been for any one to
find the doubloons and take them away. We have the names of some of
the ships that were captured though, and we might look the matter up in
some French or Spanish history and so get a clue to the date.
"As to the extent of the treasure, we'll find that out for ourselves
when we get it, if we ever do. And if we don't get it, the amount
doesn't matter."
"It seems to be a pretty good-sized one, from the way the rascal speaks
about it," remarked Tyke.
"Plenty big enough to pay for the trouble of getting it," agreed
Captain Hamilton.
"Well, now that we know what the paper says, let's git right down to
brass tacks," suggested Grimshaw. "In the first place, this particular
pirate, Alvarez, was evidently a Spaniard. The language the paper is
written in proves that."
"Not necessarily," objected the captain. "Spanish is the language
spoken in Trinidad, and even if the dying man were a Frenchman or an
Englishman, the notary would probably translate what he said into
Spanish. Still, the first name, and probably the last, indicate
Spanish birth. I guess we're pretty safe in considering that point
settled."
"But I thought most of the pirates, the leaders anyway, were French or
English," persisted Tyke.
"So they were," answered the captain; "but the Portuguese and Spaniards
ran them a close second. As a matter of fact, those fellows
acknowledged no nationality and cut the throats of their own countrymen
as readily as any others. The only flag they owed any allegiance to
was the skull and crossbones."
"But how comes it that this confession was made before a notary?" asked
Drew. "I should think it would have been made verbally to a priest."
"Well," said the captain thoughtfully, "there are various ways of
accounting for that. Alvarez may have been taken sick suddenly, and
the notary may have been nearest at hand. Even if the priest had been
summoned, the sick man might have feared that he would die before the
priest got there and wanted to get it off his mind. He didn't seem to
have much hope of heaven, from the way the paper reads."
"I don't wonder," put in Tyke, dryly.
"But whatever chance there was, he wanted to take it," finished the
captain.
"I wonder how the paper ever got into Manuel's hands," pondered Tyke.
"The churches and convents seemed to suffer most in those wild days,"
said the captain. "They were sacked and plundered again and again. It
might very well be that this paper was stolen by ignorant adventurers,
and in some way got into the hands of one of Manuel's ancestors and so
came down to him. Probably most of them couldn't read and had no idea
of what the paper contained. Could Manuel read?" he asked, turning to
Grimshaw.
"Why, yes; but rather poorly," answered Tyke.
"I've seen him sometimes in port looking over a Spanish newspaper,
moving his finger slowly along each line."
"That explains it then," said the captain. "He was able to make out
just enough to guess that the paper and map referred to hidden
treasure, but he wasn't able to make good sense of it."
"I s'pose that was the reason he was always trying to git me interested
in his pirate stories," put in Tyke. "He was kind o' feeling me out,
an' if I'd showed any interest or belief in it, he'd have probably
tried to git me to take a ship and go after it with him."
"Not a doubt in the world," agreed Captain Hamilton.
"Well, now we've looked at the matter of the paper from most every
side," remarked Tyke; "an' I guess we're all agreed that it looks like
a _bona fide_ confession. We've seen, too, how it was possible for it
to git into the hands of Manuel. Now let's see if we can make head or
tail of the map."
He brought out the paper from his safe and the three men crowded around
it. Here, after all, was the crux of the whole matter. By this they
were to stand or fall. It booted little to know merely that the
doubloons were buried somewhere in the West Indies. They might as well
be at the North Pole, unless they could locate their hiding place with
some degree of precision.
The dark, heavily shaded part in the center of the map was evidently
meant to mark the position of the island itself. Quite as surely, the
light, undulating lines surrounding it were intended to show the water.
"There seems to be just one inlet," said Captain Hamilton, pointing to
an indentation that bit deeply into the dark mass of the island.
"Lucky there's even one," grunted Tyke. "I've known many of those
picayune islands where there was no safe anchorage at all."
The island was irregular in shape and seemed to have an elevation in
the center. But what most attracted their attention were three small
circles some distance in from the shore that seemed to indicate some
special spot.
"There's some writing alongside of these," announced Drew, after a
sharp scrutiny. "If you'll hand me the reading glass I think I can
make it out."
The glass was quickly brought into use, and Drew stared at the writing
hard and long.
"'The Witch's Head.' 'The Three Sisters'," he translated.
"Sounds like a suffragette colony," muttered Tyke.
But Drew was too deeply engrossed with his task to notice the play of
fancy.
"Thirty-seven long paces due north from the Witch's Head.'
'Eighty-nine long paces due east from The Three Sisters,'" he went on.
"Now we're getting down to something definite!" exclaimed Captain
Hamilton.
"That's all," announced Drew. "What do you suppose it means?"
"It can mean only one thing, it seems to me," said Tyke excitedly.
"It's pointing to the spot where the doubloons are buried."
"Yes," agreed the captain, "I should take it to mean that if you mark
off thirty-seven long paces north from the Witch's Head and eighty-nine
long paces east from The Three Sisters, the spot where those paths
cross would be the place to dig."
"Do you see anything on the map that would give a hint as to the
latitude and longitude?" asked Grimshaw anxiously.
"No," answered Drew. "Wait a minute though," he added hastily.
"Here's something that looks like figures down in the lower left hand
corner. Fifty-seven .... No! Sixty-seven-three is one, and
thirteen-ten is the other."
"That can only stand for longitude and latitude!" cried Tyke. "Quick,
Allen, git down that Hydrographic Office chart. That'll cover it."