Now, therefore, we are again at Hispaniola and have got near unto the

Bajo de la Plata, or Boylers, once more, having made an extreme good

cruise from England. The _Furie_ was indeed, we found, a good little

barky, she sailing well on the wind, which was ever most favourable

for us, and so bringing us across the ocean in twenty-four days.

But ere we went out to the reef there were some things that passed

which I must write down. First, we anchored off Porto de la Plata,

which, as I have writ, was so named from the boat that went ashore

full of plate from the wreck fifty years--or now more--before, and

which is now the port of St. Jago de los Cavalleros; and here we

purchased a tender which it was our intention to use, so that there

might be two searchings made for the lost ship. Also we meant to have

some canoes, or periagas, so that they could go where neither the ship

nor the tender could go themselves, and thereby we did intend to scour

all the water round about the reef.

But, Lord! who would not have been discouraged by all the merriment

that our return caused--who, I say, but Phips? For those who lived at

Porto did openly make mock of us, jeering at us for our coming back,

and calling of us the mad Englishmen; while, if it may be believed,

people did even come over from St. Jago, which is inland, to see us

and our silly ship, as they called it. Now, the people here were of

all kinds--there were Spaniards and Portugees, and also some French

who had by now gotten all that part of the isle to the west of Monte

Christo on the N. and Cape Mongon on the S., though no legal

settlement until later, as well as Creoles and mulattoes, and many

more. And with one accord all laughed at us, saying, "There is no

plate, be sure, or we would have had it long ago."

Yet still Phips, and with him all of us, believed it was there.

But now there came and sought us out the great monstrous negro diver,

Juan, who, after finding through me that Phips bore him no ill-will

for his last fleering farewell of us, said that he had somewhat to

tell us if we would hearken to him. So I gave him an appointment to

see the Captain the next day, and a promise that he should be safe

from any harm; and so he came out in his periaga to where we lay a

league off shore. And he brought along with him the queerest of old

men that ever I did set eyes on--an old shrivelled-up Portugee who

looked as though he was an hundred, half-blind, and with a kind of

shaking palsy all over him.

Then, when I took them into the cabin where Phips was, he, being ever

of a jocund vein, called out:

"And good morning to you, Signor Juan, and how do you do? You see you

were no true prophet, since here we are come back again."

The hideous negro made a shambling bow, and hoped his honour was well,

and then in a jargon of Spanish and English, very hard for me to

understand, and not to be faithfully written down, he said:

"Masser Phips, I bery sorry I larf at you when you went away. But I

never tink, no never, that you come back again. But since you come, I

tell you many tings I have founder outer. Sir, this old Signor, he

know much, he berry old"--and here the brute opened and shut his great

hands nine times, very quick--"he have see ninety summers."

"Has he, indeed?" says the Captain, "that seems a long while to me who

have seen but thirty-six as yet. And what has the Signor seen in all

that time?"

"He see many tings. He see the boaty come ashore with the silver

plate--beautiful plate, many candlestickies, bagges of pieces,

salivers and lumpes. All gone now!"

Then here the old Portuguese screamed out, also in a sort of English,

"Yees, yees. All gone now, Spanish sailors drink all up, then die. Die

very soon afterwards. Drink all day and danze with the girls, then

die."

"Well," says Phips, "what good's that to me? If the drink and the

girls got all, I can profit nothing."

"He, he," laughed the old man, till he nigh choked, "got all that came

in the boat, not all under the water. No, no!"

"Plenty more under water," grunted Juan, "so he say. Plenty more. Only

no one able to get it and no one believe. He poor old Portygee, me

poor negro, so no one believe."

"What, does he know?" says Phips, "and, if you knew, why had you no

mind to speak when first we came here and I employed you?"

"Signor Phips," said the black, "then I knew of nothing; I only

suspect you fished in wrong place. Then when you go away to English

land there make much talk about you, and all ask me if English captain

find much? And I say, no, and don't tink anyone find anyting. Then old

man here--he ninety summers old!--then old man, Geronimo, he come in

from mines of Hayna in middle of country, where he lived forty year,

and hear of talk about you and the silver, and of me the Buzo" (which

means a diver), "and he say he wish he come back sooner much, because

he know where carrack lie, where shift off reefy."

"Shift off the reef!" exclaimed the Captain and myself together, with

a glance at each other. "Is that so indeed?"

Then the old Portygee burst out laughing and then choking, and then

when he found his voice again, he said,

"Yees, yees; that so. I see sailors come ashore with plate. I drink

with them, I danze with girls, too, only I not die. That very long ago

now; girls all dead, too. He! he! Oh!" and again he had his spasms.

Then once more he went on:

"And so, Signor, because I was a fisherman, I go out to the Bajo and I

look about, only I fear Tiburons (sharks), and once when water very

low I see down deep a cannon, then I know the ship had shifted. So

another day I go look again, and there floated up a piece of the ship,

a rail, so I know for certain she move. Then I speak to many and I say

I know where carrack is, but they believed not and would do nothing.

And now they all dead, too, like the sailors and the girls. He! he!

Ha! ha! Oh! oh!"

We talked long with this miserable relic of the past--who so angered

Phips with his recollections of the dead and the gone, especially the

girls, that he almost ordered him out of the ship--and, indeed, it did

seem as if at last we had lighted on some good news. He said, when he

could persuade no one to believe or lend a hand to search further, he

went away to the mines of Hayna, in the interior, where a fresh find

of gold was made, and there he stayed for all the years, making a

little livelihood and forgetting all about the plate ship. Then,

having at last struck ninety--on which he laid great stress, as though

an action of credit done by himself--he came back to Porto where he

belonged, and fell in with Juan. And this black told us that when he

did, indeed, come back and heard that we had been and gone, he fell

into such a paroxysm of rage and grief that he nearly died, "for now,"

said he, "my chance is gone."

So the old figger thought all was lost to him, and bemoaned his fate

and nigh went mad, until one day the Buzo went off to find him and

tell him that the Captain Phips was come once more back, but in

another ship. Whereupon he did once more go nearly mad, this time with

joy, and then made Juan bring him out in his periaga to us.

So, after hearing all this, Phips says to him:

"Supposing you put us in the way to find this plate, what terms are we

to make? What do you want?"

"Half," says the old man. "I am now ninety years of age. I want to be

rich for the rest of my life."

"Tush!" says the Captain, "this is foolishness. Why should I give you

half? I know now the carrack has shifted; I can find it for myself.

You shall have nothing."

"No, no!" screamed the old Portygee, while the big black negro began

to mutter; and then Geronimo as he was called, threw himself down on

his knees with most marvellous dexterity for his great age. "No, no!"

says he, "not that. I will tell you, and you shall offer me what you

will. Me and Juan. Give us what you will."

"Indeed I shall," says Phips, "seeing that you came to me, and not I

sought you. Therefore, let us see. How much think you there is below

the water?"

"The Saints only know," said Geronimo, "but since she was taking home

to Spain the fortunes of many from Cuba, as the sailors told me, she

must have been full. Oh! Signor Capitano, promise me something, give

me something!" and he clasped the Captain's legs about and wept.

"Well, now," says Phips, "see what I will do for you. You and this

negro diver shall tell me exactly where she lies, or as near as may

be, and if I find her you shall have this."

"The Saints bless you, capitano; I am nearly ninety years."

"Be still. You shall have this between you, the negro to dive for me

with my own English diver. You shall have for every five pounds of

silver or of gold, one ounce, no matter whether we find much or

little. Are you content?"

At first both of them began to grumble, saying it was not enough. But

soon Phips persuaded them to reason in a way that was all his own.

"Then," says he, doing so all in an appearance of sudden violence,

"begone out of my ship. Away with you! What! shall I come from England

twice to find what I knew of a surety five years ago was here, only to

traffic with such as you, and you?" pointing his finger at each. "Nay,

never! We will find it by ourselves. Begone, I say!"

But to begone was not their purpose, since very well they knew that

without us they could do nought. Strange as it may seem--and very

strange it was--none in Hispaniola would hearken to the story of the

plate ship lying so near--for the Boylers are not a dozen leagues out

from the island--and so would do nothing, and therefore they could do

nought themselves. For to do anything a small vessel at least was

wanted, and the means wherewith to dive--and certainly the Portygee

had no money for this, while the black was little than a beggar.

Therefore, at once they sang another song, becoming directly very

lowly, and saying, "Well, then, they would take the Captain's offer,"

only I liked not the look on the face of Juan, the Buzo, and from that

moment determined to watch him well.

Now, therefore, I have to say that all terms were made, and we were

ready to go out to the reef. We bought a tender, and we meant when we

got to our little isle of old, where the second mutiny was, to make

some canoes of some excellent cotton trees that were there, with which

we could go about, and see better when near the reef down into the

water.

The negro Juan was to come, first as diver, next as on behalf of

himself and Geronimo to see we played fair, and he it was also to whom

the Portygee confided the exact spot where he had seen the rail float

up years ago, since he would not tell us, saying Juan would take us to

the place.

So we went away, being delayed, however, two days by the accursed

Blackamoor, who we thought at first had played us false--perhaps,

indeed, found new employers who would pay him better. However, at last

we saw him coming out in his periaga--and none too soon neither, since

we meant to go without him next morning if he came not, and try our

luck alone--and when he and his craft were gotten aboard, he excused

himself by saying he had been having a _festa_ on shore and getting

drunk with some of his friends.

"Good," says Phips when he heard this, "only, my black treasure,

remember there is no drunkenness for you here. Because, you see," he

went on, "I'm Captain aboard this craft, and if anyone displeases me I

let them understand it. So, if you want to keep your brains in your

head and your ebony skin whole, remember that. And now, bos'un," says

he, "pipe all hands on deck and loose sail for the reef."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WRECK IS FOUND.

And now I have to write down what we found, only, as such long writing

is even now difficult to me, I must do it in my own fashion. And that

fashion is, that I can do nothing except by proceeding leisurely and

describing each incident as it came about. Which I now again attempt.

The soft wind carried us out past the Boylers the next day at

noontide, and then, as we went by, we parted with our tender, the ship

going on to our little isle of old. For 'twas here we meant to

construct the cotton-wood canoes, to take in some of the island

water--the sweetest I ever tasted, which caused us to take it

from there--and to leave some stores. The tender which we left

behind--though not very far, since the isle was but three leagues

beyond the Bajo--was in charge of our master mate, as he was rated, an

old King's man like myself, and, like myself, sick of the King's

service. He was a good sailor and named Ayscough. His orders were to

proceed to whatever point near that the African should suggest as the

reputed place where the carrack was shifted to, to anchor if possible,

or, if not, to put out the floating anchors, and there to remain until

we returned. But no matter what was perceived, even should it be the

carrack herself at the bottom, neither our own diver nor the Black was

to be allowed to descend, especially not the last.

Then, having given these orders, we did remain on our isle two days,

what time Phips worked as hard as any man in the ship with his own

hands, shaping and arranging of the cotton-wood canoes, inspiring

every one with his ardours and cheering them on. What, however, did

not cheer any of us, was a-finding that some of the bodies of the

mutineers of the isle had the sand blown all off them where they were

buried on the beach, and that their skeletons were lying white and

bleached before us. Verily, a dreadful memorial of their wickedness!

Moreover, another thing we saw which we liked not any too well;

namely, we found drawn up in a little cove a ship's boat, with on it

the name, "The _Etoyle_, Provydence," and in it many ropes, hooks, and

head-bladders, all carefully wrapped up and evidently for use in

diving.

"Now," says Phips, "this is not well. There is nought to dive for here

but one thing--the Plate Ship--therefore it seems to me that someone

else has been about our office. Yet it is certain they have not been

successful. Had they been we must have heard of it at Porto. What

think you, Nick?"

"That depends," says I, "on which Provydence those who own the boat

hail from. If 'tis that of the Bahamas, then 'tis very well, since

they are ours again since '66, and as King James takes his tenth of

our find, we have the precedence of all. So 'tis, if it's that by

Connecticut, which is but a hamlet. But if 'tis that off Honduras,

then 'tis bad, since 'tis inhabited by buccaneers only, if inhabited

at all; and, if them, we may have some trouble."

"Well, well," says he, "we must see. Meanwhile I incline to it hailing

from the Bahamas. For look you, Nick, 'Provydence' is good English and

not Spanish, as most of the buccaneers are. And by the same token it

may be the Provydence in our own American colonies. Moreover, the

buccaneers as a rule put no markes in their crafts."

"Etoyle," says I, "is not English, though!"

"Neither," replies he, "is it Spanish. And," with his fierce lion look

upon his face, he went on, "belong it either to English, French, or

Spanish colonist or to pirate, they shall not have our treasure while

we are above water."

So, all being done, we went back to rejoin the tender.

Now, when we got to her we heard that the Blackamoor had directed that

she should proceed to a spot immediately on the other, or eastern

side, of the reef, from which we had previously fished, since there it

was that the old man, Geronimo, had laid down that we should find the

wreck. So Ayscough had taken her to this spot, namely, half a league

away from the Boylers, and we found all preparations made for a

descent, Juan, the Buzo, being particularly keen to go down at once.

But now we summoned our own diver--a straightforward, honest

Englishman, whose name was Woods--to come and confer with us, and

asked him what he thought. Then he told us that the soundings were

good enough for a descent, since the bottom was not more than twenty

fathoms below where we were anchored, and that the tallow brought up

soft sand and limestone, which showed a good bed.

"Therefore," says Phips, "you can reach the bottom, can you not?"

"If not, sir," says he, "I can at least descend so far as to see the

bottom, and if then I find the wreck it shall go hard but that I will

get down to her. My diving chest can sink easily to forty feet, and

with Mister Halley's[3] new dress I am confident I can touch the

bottom here."

"So be it," says Phips, "and now about the Black. Here you, sir," then

he calls out to Juan, who was even now leaning over the gunwale,

peering down into the hot sea, "come here and tell us how you propose

to reach the bottom."

"That very easy, sir," answered he; "I have new dress Massa Woods lend

me, which I am sure I manage very nicely. I go down if the Signor

Capitan wish me."

"No," says Phips, "Woods shall go down first. And since 'tis a calm

morning, get you ready now, Woods."

At once the man did this, going forward to where he berthed in the

ship, and returning presently a strange figure to behold, since now he

was all enveloped in Mr. Halley's new improved dress, all over cords

for lowering and pipes for a-taking in the air.

"For," says he, "I will try this, sir, now, and see how far I can go

down."

You may be sure all watched him with eagerness. For besides that we

hoped he should find below what we sought, but a few of us had ever

seen this dress before, and were almost afraid of what might come to

him. Yet, he assured us, we need to have no fear; he had made many

experiments and descents as trials at home in the sea and river

Thames, and was confident of what he could do. So, as calmly as if he

were going down the stairs of a house, he bade the sailors lower him

over from the gangway, and descended by the lines he had arranged and

was gone beneath the sea, and in a few moments there was nought but a

few bubbles to mark the spot where he had been.

Presently we knew by a signal agreed upon with those who held the

ropes, that he had reached the bed, and then by the paying out of his

pipes that he was moving about. And so he stayed thus for some twelve

minutes, when we also knew he was returning to below the ship, and

then there came the next signal to haul him up again, which, being

done, his great helmet with its fierce goggle eyes appeared above the

water once more, he following.

Tied on to him he bore two things, one a great beam of wood in which

was stuck pieces of jagged rock, which looked for all the world like

the great teeth of some beast that had been fastened in't and then

broken off--they were indeed bits of the reef--the other a great piece

of limestone as big as my head, all crusted and stuck over with little

disks or plates, which were, we found, rusty pieces of eight.

"A sign! A sign!" says Phips, taking them from him; "now get your

breath, Woods, and tell us what you have found," and this the man did,

puffing and blowing freely for a time ere he could speak.

Then he said, "Of the wreck, sir, I have seen nought, but surely I

have found the track. All the bottom of the sea is scored as though

some great thing had passed over it, and everywhere there lie great

lumps of limestone such as this, and great beams such as that."

"Ha!" says Phips, and with that he takes the diver's axe and splits

open the lump, and there, wedged in all over it, were many more rusty

old pieces. "Ha! she has left a silver track as she passed along. Go

on."

"So I do think, sir," says the diver, "and she cannot be afar off

where I descended, unless she is all gone to pieces. And even then the

bed of the sea must be full of all she had gotten inside her. But,

sir, I think this is not so; I think she has been brought up short,

for, close by, as I gather, is another reef."

"How far off? How far off?" suddenly called out the captain, full of

strange excitement.

"Not two cables off, I think, sir," replies Woods, "since the bottom

where I was begins to rise towards it, and therefore--"

"And therefore," exclaims Phips, "it is the reef itself! Marvellous

strange it seemed to me that a great Spanish galleon should have

shifted at the bottom of the sea--whoever heard of a ship that moved

below the water!--yet all would have it so; even you, Woods, thought

so yourself! But now I know all. She struck upon a spur of the reef

and not the reef itself, and she has never moved. In which direction

does the rise of bottom of which you speak begin?"

The diver look't round, tracing his course beneath, and then, pointing

to the Boylers, or Bajo, said, "There, sir."

"Why, so 'tis, of course," says Phips. "And, as I say, her keel took

the first, or outside spur of the reef as she passed along, and she

never got nearer to the main one. She is there! She is there! Hearts

up, my lads, we have found the treasure ship!"

I gave the word and up went a roaring cheer from all, one for Phips,

one for the galleon, and one for what she had got in her, or about

her, if she had broken up. Then Phips, all alive now, gives an order

to shift the tender to the spot where Woods did consider the ridge of

the spur should be, and bade the diver come along with us in it to go

down again. Though, a moment afterwards, he paused, saying in his

kindly way,

"Yet no, Woods. You have done enough work for to-day. You shall rest

easy. Now, where is that Blackamoor? He shall go."

The negro came forward, his eyes glistening--perhaps with the hope of

what he should find--and to him says Phips,

"Get you into the dress, or, since you are new to that, into the

diver's chest; that shall do very well for finding of the reef, and,

perhaps, the carrack--she cannot be afar. Come, away with you."

So, into the tender got the captain and I and the negro, and the

sailors told off to her, and in a few moments we were apeak of

the spot where Woods said the reef must be. And then to our

astonishment--for we had never been this side of the Boylers before,

and, consequently, had never seen any shoal water--of which, indeed,

there was little ever--on looking down we saw, not three feet below

the surface, the long sharks-toothed back of the spur.

"Great Powers!" says Phips, "'twas here all those years we wasted on

the other side, and we never thought to even come round to this.

Fools! fools! that we were. We might have had the treasure back into

London long ago. Now," says he, turning from his meditations to

actions, "now," to the black, "into your tub and down with you."

Nothing loth, for the great beast was as eager for gain as any of us,

into the chest did he get and was lowered away, but scarce had the top

of it sunk beneath the water when the rope quivered, then the signal

was given to haul up, and back he came, and, jumping out of the chest,

or bell, exclaimed excitedly,

"Oh! Signor Phips. Oh, Signor Capitan Commandante. The shippy all down

there. Fust ting the chest knock on cannon sticking up in water, then

against her sidy, then I bery much frighted, for I see dead man's head

looking at me out of hole. Oh! Capitan Commandante, the shippy there,

and she full of dead men. Oh! capitan, send Massa Woods down to see if

I speak truf."

So you see we had found the ship

"And," says Phips, that night, as we drank together, "it is my

thirty-seventh year!"

CHAPTER XV.

WHAT THE FIRST SEARCH REVEALED.

Now, therefore, have I to write down of all that, having found the

ship, we found in her. Yet how shall I begin?

Firstly, let me describe how it was with the carrack herself.

She lay canted right over on to her larboard side, the whole of her

larboard forepart broke away and stove in, and crushed as would be an

egg beaten in with a hammer. And in the fifty years--if it were so

long--in which she had been there she seemed to have grown so much to

the reef, or the reef to her, that they seemed part and parcel of one

another. She must, we could see at once, have struck full head on, and

the wicked teeth of the rock had torn her forepart to pieces. Whether

at once she heeled over and sank was never to be known now, or whether

she filled and sank after a while. Perhaps 'twas the latter, since,

otherwise, it was not to be understood how those sailors whom Geronimo

had known and danced with, and sang with, could, had she turned over

in a sudden shock, have ever collected together the plate they had,

and have gotten away in the open boat.

Aft, from the beginning of her waist above, she was not broken into at

all, being quite sound Od her starboard side as she lay, though, as we

found, her larboard side aft, which lay on the bottom, had rotted

somewhat and bulged away, so that what was in her on that side was,

indeed, lying on the sea's bed. Her masts and yards were all broke off

short, and the broken pieces, into which the limestone had not wedged

itself and so held them down, had doubtless risen and floated. And

this must have been the case with the stern-rail which the old

Portuguese had seen, though why that went adrift we never rightly

understood, since no other part of the stern was gone. We found all

this out later on, as you shall see, when we determined what we must

do; but now Phips and I went apart to hold a conference, the first

thing he said being,

"Nick, we have found the plate ship, therefore is one, nay, the

greatest, of our difficulties over. But with this begins the necessity

for great caution. For, see you, Nick, we cannot trust the overhauling

of this ship to the two divers alone. We must know all that is in her,

and we must see that all comes safe up and into our hands. What,

therefore, shall be done?"

"Easy enough," says I, "to answer that. It's for you or me, sir, who

are the responsible officers, to be divers too." This I said, for I

had quickly caught his meaning. Then I went on, "As for myself, I will

cheerfully go down."

"Have you ever dived?" asked he.

"No," I replied, "but I can soon learn myself to do so. Woods had

never used this dress until a little while ere he came aboard the

_Furie_; yet, now, see what he can do; and what he can, so can I.

Therefore, unless you go I will."

He thought a little while--perhaps communing with himself as to

whether 'twas not his duty to go--but at last he said,

"Well, that way is p'raps best. You shall go, but to-day--since it

grows on apace--there shall be no new descent. To-night we will rest,

and then begin the work to-morrow. That shall suffice."

So we did no more that day, only we signalled for the bark to come

nearer to us and so anchored her a little closer to the Bajo, and then

all who were in the tender went off and into her for the night, the

spot by the reef being buoyed, though there was little enough need for

that, since, now we knew where to look, we could easily see the shoal

water.

One thing we desired to know, so sent for the black to tell

us--namely, what he meant by saying that he saw a dead man looking at

him from a hole.

"Oh! signor," he said, when he had come in to us, "oh, signor, I see

him berry plain. He leanie right out of big porthole, his body half

way out, his bony hands holding to the sides, his bony skull turned up

to me."

"Nonsense," says Phips, "his hands and head would have fallen off long

ago. You dreamed it, man!"

But the black asseverated that he had not dreamed it, and so we left

it until to-morrow to see.

Now, when the morning came, at once we made our preparations for the

descent. Woods and I were to go down first, he telling me that it was

nought to do; that to begin with I should feel a suffocation which

would soon pass away, and that, excepting I would seem to be

surrounded by green glass full of bubbles, 'twould not be so very

strange. Moreover, he told me to fear nothing, no, not even a shark if

he came near me, for he would be more affrighted than I, since he knew

not what I might be.

So down to the carrack we descended.

First went Woods, saying he would wait for me at the bottom to set me

on my feet, and so, as easy as ever, over he went and disappeared from

all sight, and then my turn came, and the sailors lowered me from the

gunwale.

In a moment I was sinking through the waters, all blue and green and

bubbling, passing as I went the cannon sticking up from its port--it

had been left run out when the ship sank, and was a long Spanish one,

its muzzle formed like a snake's mouth, and looking three times the

size it really was, since the water much magnified it--and so down,

seeing fishes dart all around me, looking with frighted eyes at my

strange figure. Then I felt my feet clasped by Woods and placed firm

upon the bottom, and I was there.

And what a strange sight did meet my eyes! Firstly I perceived I was

not on the bottom at all, but standing on the upturned starboard side

of the ship, quite near by the great cannon, and also to an open port.

Yet, as she was not entirely canted over but lay at an angle, 'twas

very hard work to support oneself steady, and I was very glad to cling

to a stanchion for the time. But, now, Woods taking me by the hand did

lead me up the chain wales and so over the bow, until I stood with him

upon the deck, which was here not difficult; and then I look'd around.

The first thing to be perceived was that the whole of the deck was

swept clean of most that had been on't, except such things as the

hatch-hoods which were fixed, the after bittacle, the stumps of the

broken masts, and so forth. The cannons, too, had slid down owing to

the incline of the wreck, and did all lie huddled on the lower, or

larboard side, and the hatches were mostly open. Wedged in among the

cannon were some bones and a skull, so that now I knew that the negro

had seen this in his descent, and had thought the black muzzle of the

cannon was a porthole.

And now, Woods making to me a sign to follow him and pointing to my

air-pipe--which, he had told me before he came down, I must by no

means get twisted, or the air would cease--he set his foot upon the

after hatch-ladder, and, so, slowly descended, I following. So did we

go down to the middle deck, around which were placed the cabins or

berths. And now I was to see a sight enough to freeze anyone's blood,

even though so old a sailor as myself. For first we went into the main

or living cabin, and there we observed what Death had done in its most

grisly way. We saw huddled into a corner of it the clothes of a man

and woman, within them still their bones, and they were, or had been,

locked in each other's arms--the long hair of the woman lying close

by the fleshless head. Then did we see in another corner another

woman--her mass of hair pale and golden, like to an Englishwoman's,

and in her bony arms she held also some little bones and a skull,

which told a sad tale--it was a mother and her poor babe, who had

perished together. And, around and about all, there swam and darted

away as we drew near hordes of fishes, though 'twas long since they

had made a meal of these poor dead things.

But now I could stay no longer, being as yet not used to my strange

head-dress of copper, so I made to Woods a sign that I must go above,

and so we went forth, and, giving of the signal, were drawn up to the

surface again. And once more I breathed the air of Heaven and was very

grateful therefore.

Then Phips took both me and Woods aside, asking us what we had found,

and we told him--he sighing at the sad news from below--and also did

we tell him how, as yet, we had done no more; so says he,

"Well, courage, Nick; when next you go down you shall find better than

these poor dead ones--what think you, Woods?"

"I hope so, sir," says he, "since all around the main cabin are many

sleeping ones in which there should be some sort of things of value,

and then must we break away the middle-deck to get to the lower, where

the plate, if any, should be."

"If any!" exclaims Phips. "Why, now, I do believe from all reports

I got from Cuba years ago, that she is full of it! She was,

besides being a galleon, taking home the Adelantado, or Governor,

and his family, and also some others. If we find not a hundred

thousand's-worth at least 'twill be little enough good for me."

Woods opened his eyes at this, for tho' all knew we sought for

treasure, none knew that she might have so much within her; indeed,

none had been told what she might contain. And, now that both ship and

tender were apeak over the wreck and nothing could be brought up

without being seen by all in them, there was no longer any secret to

be made.

Soon again, after we had refreshed ourselves, we were ready once more

to go down, and Juan the Black was to go with us, only both I and

Woods were ordered by Phips to keep an eye on him. This brute was, as

we knew, a Coromantee, and, from all accounts, they are not only the

biggest thieves of all the Blacks but very ferocious as well.

Moreover, neither the Captain nor I fully believed in his keeping us

waiting off Porto only so that he might get drunk, and we knew not if

he and the old Portyguese, or he and some other villains, might not

have been concocting some precious scheme to defeat us.

But we had no dress for him, only a copper bladder-head, which,

however, would do very well, since the creature was ever naked and

certainly wanted no garments in which to enter the water, and was so

strong that he said the water could not press on him to hurt; and so,

taking the longest air-pipes we had for all of us, again down we went,

all arriving on the middle deck one following the other--Woods first,

I next, and the negro last. As we passed into the main cabin we saw

the Black's great copper head bent over to the dead where they lay

huddled, and then suddenly darted back, so we knew--or, at least, I

did know--that to his other qualities he added that of fear and

timorousness.

And now, seeing that on the bulkheads, or on the cabin doors, could be

still read the painted names, such as "Capitan," "Teniente Po,"[4]

"Pasagero,"[5] and others, I motioned to Woods to burst open with his

axe the captain's door and let us see what was within. This was soon

done, since in nature the woodwork was somewhat rotten, and, moreover,

'twas not fast, and so we entered, or clambered, into it. The bed, or

bunk, which was very large and roomy, we could observe, even after the

fifty years that had passed, had not been slept in since it was made;

therefore we did conclude the captain was above when the ship struck,

and so was lost. For the rest there were, all shifted into the corner

of the cabin, two great heavy chests clamped with iron, and on them

great padlocks, and these we decided must at once go up to the tender.

So we lifted them up with much ado and affixed them to the slings, and

then they were gotten up.

And now I was becoming so used to my strange habit that, beyond a

singing in my ears that went and came, I felt no inconvenience, and

was, though not rash, very busy about the main cabin. And in this way

I entered into a berth which we made no doubt was that set apart for

the Adelantado of Cuba, since all showed it to be so. The swords about

the cabin, the rich clothes, though soaked with water, of both a man

and a woman proved this to be the case, as did the great chests that

had slipped about the place and the bed. And herein was another

terrible and ghastly sight. In that bed lay two human forms, or what

had been human forms once, though now but skeletons, the two skulls

being side by side, the woman's hair being a great black mass upon the

coverlet like a pall. So they had died together, he who had ruled

Spain's greatest colony and she who had acted for Spain's Queen. And

this was all left of their greatness! Poor things!

But we had to see to the chests and what was therein contained, since

doubtless the Governor had much. And since they were bursted open,

perhaps by the shock of the ship striking on the reef, we peered

therein and saw things enough to make one gasp, even more than I did

in my strange head-dress. For, lying in the water of the chests, or

leastways of one chest, were golden plates and ewers and candlesticks

and sockets, all of them set in with pearls and rubies, and there,

too, were caskets, not open, but so firmly fixed and locked that very

well might one guess what should be within. Also on this chest--for

the others contained, as we could see, but wearing apparel for both of

them--were many other choice things, such as comfit boxes, necklaces,

the jewel'd orders of the Adelantado, the gems and brilliants of his

lady, some jewel'd swords and daggers, and several great bags or sacks

full of gold coins.

Verily it was a great sight for us to see--as for the Coromantee, he

thrust his helmeted head so far into the chest that we had to draw him

back by main force--and I could not but feel joyful that, at last, we

were in a fair way of discovering of all. For it was not to be doubted

that on the deck below we should find the silver itself.

But now we were signalled to from above to rejoin the tender, so,

sending the black first, since it would never have done to leave him

here a minute by himself, and I going up last, we returned back above

the sea.

CHAPTER XVI.

AN HONEST MAN ARRIVES.

Now when we got up to the surface again, I taking with me one of the

bags of gold coins to show the Captain, we were very much astonished

to see that, moored alongside of our ship was another--a small craft

such as is known in England as a "snow," which is generally very fast

in sailing, having a main and a foresail, as well as a trysail mast.

And as I looked round after getting my head free again, I did see on

her stern a great gilt star and the words "_Etoyle_, Provydence," so

now I knew what she was, and, perhaps whence she came, or at least

that she was from one of the Provydences. Leaning over her bows and

watching us as we arose--with a twinkle in his eye, which squinted

somewhat, when he saw the Coromantee--was a man whom I guessed to be

the skipper, a great yellow person with a shock of black curly hair,

so that I thought he must be a Mustee, and with a big slash, or scar,

all along his face. And leaning over, too, were several others,

sailors, all regarding us fixedly. Their eyes were set upon the bag of

coins at once with, as I thought, an eager gleam in them, and then

their Captain hails me and says:

"What luck below, shipmate?" to which I did but grunt a word, not

knowing how things stood as yet. But now comes forward Phips, who says

to him:

"Captain Alderly, this is our first lieutenant, who is in charge of

the diving at present;" and then he turns to me and says, "Crafer, our

friend has been here before--that is his ship's boat drawn up on the

isle--and he thinks he should have a share of the spoil, since he

found the wreck before us--_so he says_."

"Does he, indeed?" I replied; "'tis strange, then, that he took not

away the spoil when he found it;" and I fixed my eye on him to see

what he would reply, for since, as I say, we were moored close

alongside, every word spoken on one deck could be heard on the other.

"Ay, ay," says that skipper, "and so I should indeed, and came here

hoping to get all. But of what avail is hope? My little snow cannot

fight your great vessel of two hundred tons, and we both sail under

the English flag. And therefore, since I am an honest man and

peaceable, I must, perforce, lose my chance. But your Captain says,

sir," he went on, addressing me, "that I may have a percentum on what

I help to bring up, and that must suffice. Yet, 'tis hard on an honest

man!"

"Ay," says Phips, nodding his head, though I did observe him closely

and saw that his eyes were ever on the other. "Ay, 'tis hard on an

honest man! Yet, Captain Alderly, I think your percentum will pay you

very well for your trip from the Bahamas."

"Not so well as the gross," replies the other, "but, as I say, it must

suffice. Yet 'tis hard. I have brought with me--indeed, went back for

him--a most expert diver, who I thought should have gotten me all, and

now he must work for another. 'Tis hard! 'tis hard! Yet an honest man

must not repine so long as he can earn his living in these times."

Now, that night when we sat as was our custom taking some drink

together, while, since the arrival of our new friend, the watch was

doubled, Phips says to me:

"Nick, I do believe that honest man is as big a scoundrel as ever hung

at the yard-arm. For, firstly, if he does not come from Provydence

in the Gulph of Mexico--which is infested with buccaneers and

pirates--instead of Provydence in the Bahamas, I am much mistook, and,

secondly, I am certain that he and that infernal blackamoor are known

to one another. I have seen already glances between them, and it is my

belief that when the negro was drinking, as he said, at Porto, he was

devising some scheme with this fellow."

"But," replied I, "even so, what can they do? Naught can come up from

the wreck unperceived by us, nor could his diver get down by night

without our knowing it. Therefore we are safe."

"Yes," says he, "we are safe so long as we are never caught asleep.

Now, as for the diving, what we will do is this. His man shall go

always with Woods, and, since you like the office, the Coromantee with

you. What say you, Nick?"

"I like it very well," replied I; "or all can go down together. If you

are above to see to the hauling up, there can be no picking nor

stealing."

So this we agreed upon, and then Phips went on to tell me of the

arrival of the _Etoyle_ while I was below. She came, it seemed, round

by our little isle, and, on being challenged by Phips as she drew

near, hoisted a friendly signal, so was allowed to approach,

especially as she flew the English flag. Then the skipper told the

Captain that he was extremely distressed to find so large a ship there

forestalling him, since, having discovered the reef some months ago,

he had gone back to the Bahamas to fetch a diver and to refit, and so

on.

"However," says Phips, "I soon gave him to see that, even if he had

been here before--which I could not dispute because of the boat at the

isle--he had indeed been forestalled and missed his chance. And also I

told him that we had been for four years searching for this very

wreck, that we held the King's patent for fishing for it, and that we

meant in no way to be thwarted or interfered with. For, says I to him,

even though we had no papers, but were only pirates or buccaneers,

still we would go on with our task and trust to our shotted guns--as

they always are now--to help us. So then," continued Phips, "he sees

that he has no chance, and asks if he cannot help in the fishing, to

which I answered, 'Very willing, if you chose to do so at a fair

rate.' And being anxious to get the work done and to get back home, I

have given to him the same terms as to Geronimo and his sweet

Blackamoor."

"Tis well, sir," says I, "and now we need fear nought. While, if that

negro in any way plays us false, we will shoot him like a dog. Shall

we not, Captain?"

"Ay," replies he, "we will, or, since they say the sharks will not eat

black meat, we will make an experiment of him, and see for ourselves."

So now, therefore, when the morning was come all was arranged, and, to

commence, down went the three divers, and I along with them. Our plan

now was to clear the whole of the middle deck of all in it, and then

to break up the top part of the ship sufficient to get down to the

lower or orlop deck, where the bullion room of the Spanish ships was

ever placed. So we got to work, sending up at once everything found,

and a mighty great find it was. All cabins not in use for the officers

of the ship were full of passengers away home to their country, and

all these were, it was plain to be seen, rich persons. Their bodies

were found frequently--all skeletons, like unto the others--and in

some cases 'twas strange to see how they strived to preserve what they

most esteemed of value. Thus, round one, a female, as again the hair

close by denoted, which was red, slightly fleck't with grisel, there

was on the bony neck a great rope of diamonds, each as big as a nut,

that all sparkled and glistened in the water, and round each wristbone

there was the same in bracelets. Poor thing! perhaps she feared to be

robbed and so slept thus. Then again, there was a bed, or berth, in

another cabin, out of which the body had been cast by the shock and

lay in a disjointed mass of bones in the corner, but in the bed

itself, under a pillow, we found a great pouch of goat's skin all full

of unset diamonds, rubies, and blue stones called sapphires, and also

a belt full of great Spanish pieces of gold, weighing five of our

elephant guineas each.

And thus we went along, ransacking of every cabin, finding chests here

and coffers there, full of precious stones and jewels, with bags of

money and skins too, as well as, in several cases, parchment drafts

drawn upon the old bank of Barcelona and the Treasury of Castile. Poor

creatures! They had taken all thought to get themselves and their

monies and valuables home to their land in safety. Yet had they not

gotten many score leagues upon their way ere all was lost, life and

everything. Nay, had they made straight for Spain, instead of coming

on to Hispaniola, as they must have done to be here, they had not been

lost at all.

And now we had done with the middle deck, there was nought more to

take away; for though there were many rich silks and satins, and so

forth, all was spoilt by the water, as was their spirituous liquors

and their wines, of which there was a good supply. So, after going

above for to refresh ourselves, we were now ready to cut away this

deck that we might descend to the place where the plate was.

"'Tis a good find already," said Phips to me, as I sat at meat with

him, "a fair good find, Nick; and by the time we have got up the

silver we shall well have justified ourselves to our promoters. Of

jewels and coin already sent up by you, there are many thousands of

pounds' worth--and for the plate it shall bring us well up to the

mark."

Then he went on to ask me, "How I found the divers working, and if I

saw any sign of anything like treachery upon the part either of the

Black or the Provydence diver?" And, since I could not say that I had

witnessed aught that appeared to me suspicious, he said he was very

glad; and so we fell to it again for the afternoon.

All that time we spent in getting the middle deck cleared away as much

as might be, and in removing a great part of her starboard side,

especially by her orlop beam. Also we did cut away all her timbers

between her lower ports, so as to make a sufficient big opening

through which to enter, and removed all between her fourth and second

futtock. So that now her stern part, or at least all that below her

poop and quarter deck, was open to us and gave great space. And from

here we could progress right below her gun deck and waist and get up

almost to her main wale, or to where her fore part began to be bruised

and smashed on to the reef.

Now, therefore, we had got her bullion room clear of all encumbrances,

so that there was nought to do but to burst it open--it being most

securely locked with great Spanish locks that looked as though they

would defy all attempts except powder to open them. Yet one thing else

did we see: namely, that down on the larboard side--which, as I have

writ, lay on the bottom--the ship had somewhat bulged forth and some

of its treasures come out.

For we could observe great bars of silver lying on the bed of the sea,

mostly encrusted with the limestone, yet with some part sticking forth

and glistening brightly. One piece alone, a great sow of silver which

had fallen from the bursted bullion room, was so heavy that all of our

united strengths could not lift it, nor could aught be done until,

with their axes, the divers had broken away its crust accumulated in

fifty years.

However, at last we got it fastened to the hauling up lines and it was

towed up--not without great fears to us below that it might break away

and fall upon us, smashing in our heads--and when it was weighed that

night we found it to be of about fifty-six pounds.

And this was the beginning of the fishing up of the plate.

CHAPTER XVII.

AN ALARM FROM THE "FURIE."

Now, it would be useless, as well as tedious to my hand, for me to

write down all the little incidents that took place on board our ship

day by day, and likewise to keep accounts of every ounce of silver

brought up from the rich mine we had discovered. Moreover, I have

weighty matters to write about--which shall be the very things to

advantage those who come after me when they read this--so at once I

begin again.

And, therefore, I now proceed to say that ere we had been many days at

our dredging and fishing, it was come to bringing of the silver up by

tons, so that, at last, our _Furie_ began to sink low in the water

until she almost touched the reef herself, and we became obliged to

discard all ballast and use the silver in its place! I do not say that

tons came up daily--since, indeed, twenty sows of about fifty to

fifty-five pounds each was our usual haul, but we reckon'd now by

tons. And so well had I made my calculations that I considered there

to be in all thirty-two tons of silver, and this was what it

eventually turned out to be. Now, since silver was worth in the London

market at this time sixty pence an ounce, it was therefore very easy

for us to reckon what our find would be worth when we had got all,

exclusive of the jewels, wrought plate, and other things.

So that, as Phips said, we must one way or another take back with us

something between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand

pounds' worth.

"Which," says he, "will be very good for all of us, especially for you

and me, Nick. Perhaps, indeed, we need never go to sea again, though I

think we both love it dearly."

Though that Phips should ever cease from wreck fishing or treasure

hunting I could not well believe, seeing that such things were ever in

his mind. Even now, when we were doing so wondrous well, and were like

to be, perhaps, the most notorious of finders ever known from any

sunken ship--as, in truth, we did become--he was always a-pondering

over other searches. Thus, he would ever be telling me that, not very

far away from here, there had sunk the ship which was taking home

Bobadilla, another Adelantado (but of Hispaniola), and that 'twas full

of treasure gotten by him. Amongst other things which he said he knew

there were, was a solid gold table of three thousand three hundred and

ten pounds weight[6] and much coin and jewels. And he talked of coming

forth from England after he had once gotten this treasure of ours

home, and seeking for that. But I told him--for we were now as

intimate as brothers--that first let us finish this job, and then time

enough to think of others.

Now, our next task was to get into the bullion room, and this we did

after very considerable difficulties, seeing that those locks of which

I spake were so extremely strong; but even they yielded to us at last,

and we got to it. And, Lord! what a sight was there! The silver was

packed in bars and sows and bags, tons and tons of it, so that verily

I did come to think that our ship of two hundred tons would never move

again, unless 'twere to sink, and that we should never get all up.

Yet, as it did happen, what we found was less than our ballast, which

for a two hundred ton ship is usually twenty-five tons of iron and

thirty tons of shingle; so in that respect all went very well.

During all this time Alderly had been behaving in such a manner that

there was no earthly fault to be found with him, and so, it is but

just to say, had our Coromantee. They, the men of Provydence, helped

at the hauling with a good will, working hard all day long, and

singing cheerfully and pleasantly at night, and Alderly even went so

far as to express himself satisfied enough with what was to be his

portion, or percentum. For, he said--

"Never did I think there was aught like this in the ship, and, though

I do see very well what I have lost, yet also do I see my gain, and

shall go back to Nassau a very well satisfied honest man."

And his diver, who was a Bermudan, descended of the early English

settlers in that island--which rich Mr. Waller, whom I had often seen

about the late King's court, a gentleman and a poet, wrote so much

about in its praise--certainly did do his very best, and so did the

negro, both working under Woods. And in this way, though a careful

watch was always kept on all that was found below the surface and all

that came above, they did so manage to delude us and throw dust into

our eyes, that--but this you shall find later. They were villains all,

and they deceived us, yet at last a righteous vengeance was had of

them. So I go on.

Now it came about at this time that we ran short of fresh water--which

in such a tropic place is above all things the first necessity of

man--and so it was arranged that I should take the tender and go to

our isle in charge of her, leaving Phips to do as he had ever been

doing, namely, superintending the bringing up of the plate to the

surface. In my place as chief diver, or officer in charge of the

divers, there was to go down our bos'un, a worthy, honest man, who

could be trusted in all. The tender was--as Heaven would have it, and

as 'twas afterwards most providentially proved--a very fast, swift

sailer, and was a Dutch galliot that had come to Porto, and had been

seized for debt by the man from whom we bought her. Also she was

armed, or rather fit to be armed, having cannon-ports in her sides

capable of taking small cannon, and, as we never trusted in this

region to chance, I took with me four of our little guns, a swivel

gun, and, of course, our muskets. As you shall see, 'twas well I did.

They were soon to be wanted.

So we parted from our companions, to be gone from them for two or

three days at most, yet there were some of us never more to meet in

this world. So I parted from my tried friend and comrade, Phips,

thinking that we should sail home together as we had sailed out--yet,

alas! but little more was I to set eyes upon him in this world

neither. Both of us were to succeed and prosper--though he to die

young--yet were we only to come together once again for a short time.

Yet, why digress from my story? Better to go straightforward and

plain, and so make an ending.

We reached our little isle, and rounding the point to get to our old

landing place, lost sight of the _Furie_, and, taking the boat after

we had anchored her in "Safety Cove," as we called it, all went ashore

but two, being right glad to once more step on land for a stretch. We

meant that day, by Phips' leave, to take our ease, to lie about, and

to gather some of the sweet fruits that therein do grow, and to catch

some fish to take back to our comrades. Then, the next day, we did

intend to fill up our casks, cut some wood for the cook's galley, and

so back. And this we did do, getting yams and shaddocks, and so

forth--and catching of many pounds of what in these parts are called

mullets, though, indeed, they are full-sized trouts, and many crayfish

and some soft-shell'd crabs. So the day went and we lay down to sleep.

And on the next we fished again and gathered more fruits; we filled

all our casks and carried them in the boat to the galliot; we cut and

corded of the wood, and made all ready for rejoining the _Furie_ at

daybreak, since on that burning sea the first two hours of day are

best and coolest. Then the muskettoes are, I think, not awake, the sun

is not so fierce as later, the air is cool and fresh, with generally a

soft pleasant wind. So that second night, ere we lay down, we put in

all our fruits, our ananas, bananas, toronias, limes, and wild

apricots, as well as some wild parrots we had shot, which are sweet

and good eating, and then all was done and we distributed ourselves

for taking of our rest. Only we set a watch, there being six of us in

all, and so broke the night into three, I and a young lad taking the

first watch.

'Twas eleven of the clock, as we made it by the nearly full moon, when

we were relieved, and all was most calm and peaceful. The birds of the

isle were all long since hushed to rest, and even the insects that do

here abound disturbed us not. So I and the boy lay ourselves down, and

soon we were asleep.

How long I so slept I knew not, yet 'twas not day when I awoke,

springing up as did the others, all as though shot, while the watch

came running to us. For through the calm night air--or, rather, that

of the morning, for the chill told us the dayspring was nigh--there

had come the loud booming of a cannon--Once, twice! "What did it

mean?" we asked each other, with wonder starting from our fresh opened

eyes. "What did it mean?" and then all with one voice we exclaimed,

"'Tis from the _Furie!_ from the _Furie!_"

So, swift as we could run, down we got to the boat, and so by threes

to the galliot--for although we heard no more cannon, we knew that our

place was in the ship at such a time--and getting to her and all in at

last, we dragged up her anchor, pulled in the boat, and, to the fresh

breeze arising with the coming day, shook out her main, her mizen, and

her gaff-main sail. And so out of the cove and away.

And as we did so, up over the trees of the little isle there went from

the neighbourhood of where the _Furie_ lay two bright blue rockets,

which, as Phips and I had agreed upon, should be the signal for our

immediate return, as well as to warn us to be ready for danger.

CHAPTER XVIII.

TREACHERY AND FLIGHT.

"What can it mean?" the sailors asked of one another as we got into

the open, while, for myself, I was as lost in wonderment as it was

possible to be. Naturally, my first thought was that the _Furie_ had

been attacked by either the Spanish or the French, the first from St.

Dominic, or the latter from Aittii. Yet I knew not either how this

could be, since the sound we had heard was that of our own cannon,

which I knew well enough, we having practised all of them considerably

on our voyage out. Moreover, two cannon shots, and that from one side

only, do not make a battle, so I was sorely puzzled as I stood at the

tiller of the galliot.

Yet when we had rounded the point, 'twas pretty easy to perceive what

had happened.

For in the rays of the waning moon we did see that the Provydence ship

had got away from the _Furie_, and that, with all her sails filled,

she was shaping her course to the south-east. And in another moment

also did we see that the Snow's trysail mast was shotted away--broken

off clean down, leaving but a short stump, and with the sail itself

all a-dragging in the water. And now from us, as we headed for the

_Furie_, arose a babble of talk and questionings as to what this must

mean, while all of us decided that, at least in some way, these

scoundrels had managed to steal some of the sows of silver, or the

bars or bags, and to get away from our bark in the night.

But ere long we knew how much far worse than these things were; we

knew that we had been robbed of a terrible deal of what was ours. And

soon, too, we knew it.

For when our course was still set dead for the _Furie_, we did see

coming towards us with great swiftness one of the cotton-wood canoes

we had made--under Phips' direction and partly with his own hands--and

in it three of our men, who instantly signalled to us that we should

come about and pick them up, for, calls out one to me--

"You must away, sir, at once after those villains, and we are to

go with you to help. For they have robbed us, the thieves, oh!

treacherously! They are, after all, but buccaneers from the Provydence

in the Gulf."

So, much startled, we did bring ourselves to, putting our foremast

aback, and throwing off a line to the canoe, and so had them all soon

aboard, and then, losing no time, away after the Snow we went, while

from the _Furie_ we saw Phips standing on the poop a-waving of his

hands as though in encouragement or farewell, and from her there did,

come a ringing English cheer.

And now we were to hear a story indeed of treachery unequalled, of

villainy extreme. For it appeared, as I did gather from our bos'un,

who had come to join us with the other two, that these scoundrels had

all along been a-planning of their scheme; and thus it happened.

After we had sailed for the isle, it seems that the bullion room was

rapidly emptied of the plate, so that, at last, there was gotten up

thirty-two tons in all, and then 'twas perceived that below the sows

and bars there was still much else, so that the place was a very

treasure-hold of wealth. For there were more bags of gold pieces and

more of silver, which were at once took up into the _Furie_--and then

underneath them there were two chests marked with the names of the

Adelantado and of his wife. And feeling sure, as they did, that herein

must be great wealth, the curiosity of the bos'un--as, wringing his

hands, he did tell me--was too great for him, and so, not being a

discreet man, which neither was Woods, they opened of the chests and

saw in them a startling sight. For there, free now from the layers in

which once they had without doubt been enveloped, they did perceive

jewels of all kinds, pearls, diamonds, the blue sapphires, and much

else. Then alarmed at having so looked, they decided that they must

not tell the Captain of their curiosity, for fear of punishment. And

neither did they tell him (which, if done, might have saved all that

followed) that both the Black and the Provydence diver had seen

anything. So, saying only to Phips that such chests were down there,

they said no more, and arrangements were made that on the morrow all

should be brought up. And this, 'twas thought, should finish off the

fishing, and soon we should be ready for home. But alas! how far off

from that were we now.

Therefore, since the plate was being got up on the first day we were

away in the tender, which was the galliot, and also on the second, it

came to be that the chests of which I speak were but discovered too

late that second day to be brought up. Now, on that night the watch

forward was kept by the negro, Juan, and the after-watch by a sailor,

who was a dull-pated, heavy fellow, of little use in a ship at any

time and one who ought never to have been with us. And, as it was

discovered later, Juan had been plying this man with drink which he

had concealed, so that on his watch--as though his stupidity was not

enough--the fellow was flustered and sleepy.

At midnight Phips went to his cabin all being well, and the master's

mate came forth to take his place--and, terrible to relate, from that

time never was he heard of nor seen again. The bos'un who told me all

this said he thought either that the Coromantee murdered him, or that

one of the crew from the _Etoyle_ got aboard and did do that office;

but, any way, he disappeared. Perhaps he was first stunned and then

given to the sharks. Who knows?--leastways, there was no sign of

blood.

Then, next, it would seem that from the far side of the _Etoyle_ the

diver of that ship must have been most quietly lowered into the water,

must have passed under our forefoot--I mean of the _Furie_--and thence

to the bullion room of the wreck, and so fastened the lines to the

chests that, with his own help below, they could easily get them up to

the _Etoyle_.

And then, when this was done, there was but to get up sail as quick as

possible, and away. And that was not so hard of accomplishing as a

sailor might think. For, firstly, the _Etoyle_ was not anchored, but

moored and made fast to the _Furie_, so that, while all were asleep

below, and while the master mate was murdered and gone, the

after-watch drunk and stupid, and the fore-watch a traitor and

conspirator, that Snow might very easily be unmoored. Therefore, it

was but to get up the sails and catch the fast rising morning breeze,

and so off and away. Moreover, so deeply was the plot laid, that, as

'twas found shortly, the door of the captain's cabin was made fast

from the outside, the ladder was set loose of the main hatch, so that,

when the men came tumbling up, it shifted, and they came tumbling down

instead, and two of the cannon's touch-holes were spiked. Yet, whoever

was the wretch who did all this, still was he a fool likewise, since

in his haste he had not spiked the cannon that gave on the bow from

which the _Etoyle_ must move, but on the other.

But now, as they brailed up their sails they could not disguise the

noise they made, and in a moment Phips heard them, being ever on the

alert, and was at his door, sword in one hand and pistol in the other,

to get out. And, said the bos'un to me, his cries were terrifying to

hear when he did discover how he was trapped. First he smashed with

his fists a panel, all the while he was roaring for his men to come

and set him free, and also for his poor dead master's mate, and then

he flung himself against the door with such fury that it gave way, and

out he came.

"He look't, sir," said the bos'un to me, as he told all this while we

were tearing through the water after the buccaneers, who I did see

sorrowfully were gaining on us, "he look't like a demoniac. And when

he saw that the _Etoyle_ was already under weigh, his rage was such as

mortal man might indeed fear to see."

It appeared from this man's account that Phips in his madness

discharged his pistol at Alderly, who was on the poop, and miss't him,

whereupon Alderly returned his fire, missing also; that next the

captain called for the gunner, who could not get his linstock ready

all at once, and by this time the sails of the _Etoyle_ had caught the

breeze and she was under weigh.

"Haste! haste! man," cries Phips to the gunner, now running with his

light, and snatching it from his hand applies it to the breech

himself, doing no harm with his shot; and then the gunner, having

trained the next gun better on to the fugitives, they did hit their

trysail. This impeded them somewhat, though not sufficient to prevent

them getting away.

And then, the bos'un went on to tell me, Phips roared for the watch,

calling them, as was his wont in an emergency, dogs and traitors, and

soon learnt that the poor master's mate was slaughtered, or, at least,

had disappeared.

"And," went on our informant, "then we all trembled. For while the

tears sprang to his eyes, which in an instant he dashed away, he said

also, in now a very low voice which seem'd mighty ominous, 'And the

other watch? The fore and aft watch. Where are they? Bring them to

me.'"

Then, with a howl, the Coromantee sprang forward--wringing his hands,

imploring pardon, saying he too had been deceived by Alderly, who had

drugged him.

"Ay!" says Phips, between his teeth, while as he spake he shook the

powder into the pan of his pistol--"Ay! no doubt. Deceived by Alderly.

because he got away and left you behind for me to slay you."

"No, no!" yelled the brute. "No, no! Signor Capitan. No, Signor Phips,

no slay me!" and he clutched, said the bos'un, at Phips' legs and

tried to seize his pistol hand.

"Ay, but I will, though," said Phips.--"No man betrays me twice;"

whereupon he drew back from the howling wretch, and seizing his wool

by one hand blew out his brains with the other, so that the deck was

all bespattered with them.

"Fling him over," said Phips, "and swab up the mess, and now bring

forth the other. Meanwhile, where is Crafer with the tender? She

should be round the point by now."

Then they brought forth that other poor crazed traitor--weeping and

sobbing with despair, and shrieking as he saw the great negro's dead

body--and to him strides Phips, his sword in hand.

"You dog," says he, "you have betrayed us too. So must you die also.

They say you drank with the Coromantee and slept on your watch.

Therefore, to the yard-arm with him."

'Midst his shrieks and howls they dragged him away, calling on his

mother's name, which softened Phips so much that, the bos'un said, he

seemed at one time like to spare him, only he remembered all he had

been robbed of. And then, ere the man was executed, the boat was

lowered that was to bring them to us in the galliot, and so they came

away.

"And," said Phips to the bos'un, "tell Mr. Crafer that so long as his

galliot will swim, so long as there is a man left alive in it, so long

as he can sail, fight, or move, he is to follow those buccaneers--even

though it be into their stronghold. And while there is one of you left

alive, that one is to attempt it, and is to get back the stolen

treasure. And then, when that is done, the rendezvous shall be

Portsmouth town, to which those of you who live must find your way

back somehow. Now go; do your duty, commend me to Nicholas Crafer and

tell him to do his. And more, say that at the sign of the 'Navy

Tavern' I will leave word for him or he for me--whoever by God's grace

reaches there first. And reach it I pray we all may do."

Such was the message brought to me, this the duty I had to perform,

this the errand on which now we sped. Ahead of us, and still gaining

on us, went the Snow, _Etoyle_, with the buccaneering thieves on

board, and with them a fourth of our treasure; behind us slowly faded

into dimness the reef and the _Furie_ moored fast to it. That Phips

himself would have given chase had he been able, was certain--only,

before he could have got under weigh the buccaneers would have been

out of sight. For nought was ready, the plate was not bestowed away,

the sails were unbent and all in disorder.

So, instead, 'twas I got the commission to chase those thieves, to

follow them to their lair, and to wrench back from them the stolen

goods. And as the galliot danced along, following the course they had

betaken--which was now set due east, so that I could not but think

they did mean to 'bout ship shortly and run for Porto Rico, or,

perhaps, one of the Virgin Isles--I took a solemn and a fervent oath

that never would I fail in my endeavour while life lasted to me. If I

could catch and defeat those thieves, I swore to do it, and so upon

that I set myself to see to the arrangements necessary in our small

craft, and to make all ready for what might be before us.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE "HONEST MAN" IN HIS TRUE COLOURS.

Now, as I have said, we were--with the coming of the bos'un and the

other two--nine hands in all, there having been six of us who did go

to the little isle in the galliot for wood and water.

Therefore my first disposition was to arrange ourselves into regular

watches, which was easy enough to do, since three men at any time

awake were sufficient to keep the lookout, to attend to the craft,

and so forth Then next there was the provisioning to be done. Now for

this there was little to disturb ourselves about, since we had all our

island provisions of the fruits, the fish, and the parrots.

That they should continue their course due east, as it was now set,

was not to be considered, since that way they could encounter no

refuge until they came to the Guinea Coast or, at best, the Cape de

Verd Islands. Such, it is true, was no great run for the Snow,

provided she was well enough provisioned and watered--as might or not

be, for all we knew--but still 'twas not very like to be the case. The

Virgin Islands in the Antilles, most of them little better than Keys,

which are small sandy spots appearing above the surf of the water,

with only a few weeds and bushes a-growing on them, and abounding with

turtle, appeared to my mind to be far more their mark. Most of them

are uninhabited, and one or two there are which are large and even

rocky and craggy, but, in general, as I have said.

Now, there is no Key, at the present time wherein I set down this

recital, which is not the haunt and hiding place of innumerable

pirates and thieves, and also used as a burying place for their stolen

riches, and here it was most like that Alderly would retreat with what

he had gotten. The ships of war of any countries can scarce chase them

here, the lagoons, harbours, and inlets all about offering to the

smaller craft a natural security, and, if the villains are

encountered, their one excuse always is that they are a-turtling:

viz., catching of the turtle for sale in the larger islands.

So, pondering thus, I did begin to take my decision, and counsel also

with those under me. For says I to the bos'un--

"That they should make for Africa is not to be thought on. Why should

they do so, when all around are innumerable refuges? Therefore,

Cromby"--which was the bos'un's name--"do you know what I will do?"

Cromby replied--"No, he could not tell, but of one thing I might be

sure: namely, that there wasn't an honest heart in the galliot that

wasn't with me body and bones"; whereon I unfolded my idea.

"My lads," says I, "we're alone, nine of us, and we've got to do one

of two things. Either catch the _Etoyle_ and make her surrender, or

meet her and fight her until one of us is sunk. Now, listen. Catch her

we never shall; she sails three feet to our two; she's hull down

now--where do you think she'll be at daybreak to-morrow?"

"On the road to Cape Blanco," replied one, "across the water."

"Take a turn north in the night," said Cromby, "slip past Abreojo and

Turk's Island, and so for East Florida, or, p'raps, Cuba I doubt their

touching an English island."

"So do I," I answered; "yet I think you're wrong. The wind sets fair

south, therefore 'tisn't likely they'll try for the north; and as for

a cruise for Cape Blanco, I scarce believe they've either food or

water enough. They borrowed three barrels the day before we went to

our isle--like enough to provide for this jaunt! No, my lads, south is

their course, and the Virgin Isles or Porto Rico their aim. Now, we

shall lose 'em when dark comes on--there'll be no lights on that

piratical bark!--but by the blessing of God we'll find 'em again, and

it will be somewhere between Tortola and Porto Rico's northeast coast

that we shall pick 'em up again, or I'm a Dutchman."

And now, since the sooner they were out of sight of us, and we of

them, the better--which was nigh on being the case already, so much

had they got the foot of us--we slackened our gaff main sail so as to

fall off still more, and gradually we lost sight of them altogether.

"So," says I, mighty glad to think such was the case, and knowing well

that though Phips said I was to _follow_ the buccaneers, he would

approve of my plans if he knew that following was an impossibility,

"put her head due south, and let's see what comes of it."

And thus, that night, just as the sun set, we were off the

northernmost of the islands; we could see Anegada right ahead of us,

and St. Thomas too. We had arrived at the spot where I hoped, ere many

hours were past, we should meet with the villains again. It began to

blow boisterous, however, now, so that we were bound to keep well out

to sea, not knowing what dangers we might encounter if we proceeded

farther. And if there was wanted aught else to make this a dangerous

chase on which we were engaged, it was that--even to help us in fine

weather--we had no instruments whatever in our possession. No, not so

much as a quadrant, a chart, nor even a Waggoner, though we had a

meridian compass. We had no thought of nautical instruments when we

left the _Furie_ for the island; above all, we had no thought of

setting out upon such a cruise as this, to end the Lord knows where.

Indeed, when it came to our getting back to England at some future

time--if ever!--we should have to do it by running down, or rather up,

the parallels, and then make direct casting for home. That would be

our only likelihood, so far as we could now see, of striking soundings

again in our old channel.

"'Tis indeed getting dirty above us, sir," said Israel Cromby to me,

pointing upwards; "I misdoubt me much of what is coming. And the

current sets in towards the islands. What must we do?"

"Best run out a bit, so as, at least, not to be dashed on shore. There

is a good moon, which will give some light."

'Tis true there was a moon, yet so obscured by the storm that now set

upon us that it was but little good except when seen through a rift in

the clouds for a moment, but soon lost again. Then down from the north

there came howling a most fearful tropic gale, beginning first of all

in fitful gusts, so that we were obliged to haul in all our sails and

scud under bare poles--knowing not where we were going, but dreading

every moment to be dashed on to either a rocky bound island or a sandy

Key. In God's mercy, however, it seemed that at this moment the wind

did shift, so that very soon we could perceive we were not being

driven towards the land, but providentially away from it, whereby if

our little galliot would but live we might still weather the storm.

Over her bows the sea was now coming in in great quantities, so that

we were baling with the canvas buckets we possessed, while another

precaution most necessary was that our powder should be kept dry. If

that was spoiled, then indeed we should be at the mercy of the pirates

if we encountered them.

At this moment there did come a lull, the clouds broke, and through

them the moon shot down a clear bright ray on the waters so troubled

beneath it, and as we tossed up and down, Israel Cromby whispered to

me--

"Look, look! sir, on our larboard bow"--which was the direction I was

not gazing in then--"look, not two cables' length off. There are the

villains!"

Look I did, and there was the Snow, as he had said, riding up and down

on the crest of the waves, one time up above us and towering over,

another time wallowing down in the trough of the sea, with us above.

They had seen us as soon as we them; and Alderly, standing forward,

was regarding of us fixedly.

He shouted forth something which 'twas impossible to hear in the

turmoil of the lapping, swirling waters, while as the Snow sunk and we

rose in those troubled waves it seemed as if he shook his fists at us.

"He is, I think, a devil," said Cromby to me. "Look, sir, what he is

a-doing now!"

I did look, and as still we rose and fell upon the troubled waves, I

saw that he was holding up with both hands a casket that looked very

heavy, and shaking it before our eyes, as though to tantalize us with

the sight of the stolen goods. And, meanwhiles, laughing and gibbering

on the deck like so many fiends, as I have heard such creatures

called, the other villains in the Snow were a-stamping and dancing

round him as the vessel rolled and lolloped about in the tumbling

waves.

"Heavens and earth!" I exclaimed, "why, they are all mad with the

drink! See to those fellows holding the bottles to their mouths. What

a time to be fuddling themselves, when their ship wants all the

knowledge a seaman possesses!"

Even as I spoke we saw a great wave come along aft of them, break over

the stern of the Snow and then wash right over the decks, knocking the

men down like ten-pins and driving the craft onwards with a boust,

and, as it did so, a new fear sprang to my breast. In their drunken

state 'twas great odds that ere long they would go to the bottom, and

their master whom they served so well, the Devil, would have them,

which was no great matter to us; but what was worse was, the stolen

treasure would go too.

"We must catch holt of them somehow," said I. "Oh that the waves would

bring us together, that we might grapple and board. Yet, what chance

is there? The wave that rolls us towards them rolls them away from us.

What shall we do?"

"To board them, sir," said one of the men, "would be fatal to the

treasure. As 'tis, they would throw it overboard. See, sir, what the

madman is doing again."

The sea was calming as he spoke, so that we now got uninterrupted

views of each other, and then to our affright we did see Alderly

fastening of a cord to the rough-tree-rail at one end, and at the

other round the casket, and then lowering it over the side till it

swung three feet from the top of the waves, which sometimes, as they

burst against the Snow, hurled the box backwards and forwards like

unto a shuttlecock. Then, next, he drew his knife, and making signs to

us of what he would do by laying of the blade on the cord, he stood by

defiantly regarding us. Also the drunken scoundrel and fool had made

up his mind to defy us to the utmost and to be plain with us, as it

was very evident to see. He had run up his colours, so that there

should be no doubt left in our minds about him; on his mizen peak

there flew a black silk flag, with on it a skeleton, or "death," with

cross bones in one hand, and in the other a heart with drops of blood

dripping from it, and also a jack of the same, with a man having a

sword thrust through his body, as later I saw plainly. So he stood

proclaimed a pirate.

But what was, perhaps, more truly a sign of what this reckless

creature was in reality, was the fact that--doubtless before the storm

came on--he had abandoned the work-a-day dress of the "honest man"

which he wore when first he came alongside of the _Furie_, and was now

bedizened in a lot of finery, none the better for the assaults of the

winds and waves. He was dressed in a rich blue damask waistcoat and

breeches, in his hat a feather dyed red; around his neck was coiled

half a dozen times a gold chain with a great diamond cross on to

it--perhaps he had stolen it from the wreck!--hanging over his

shoulders was a silk sling, with, thrust into it, three pistols on

each side. All this we saw afterwards more plainly than now.

"I cannot endure this defiance," said I to Cromby; "let him sink his

casket and be damned to him! I have been a King's officer, and will

never submit to the insults of a blackguard scoundrelly pirate. Up

with the mainsail, my lads, haul away, and at him;" and as I spoke I

whipped out my pistol, and, sighting him, fired.

That I miss't him was none too strange, seeing how both of us were

tumbling about and rolling in the water, no more than that he miss't

me, as, pulling two pistols out of his sash, he fired, one in each

hand.

Then, when he saw our mainsail go up, he made as though he would cut

the cord to which hung the casket--only a moment afterwards he altered

his mind, and bellowing of an order, which we could very well hear,

since now the waves and winds had abated, soon had his own sail up;

and in a moment his ship had caught the wind and was away.

That we should ever have catched them sufficient to come alongside and

board, I cannot think, even under the best of circumstances, but this

chance was not to be ours, for our ropes had fouled, so that they

could not be run, and ere we could get them disentangled, the _Etoyle_

was well off from us. But since again, with the coming of fairer

weather, the wind had northed, we could very well see they were

running for the south. They _were_ bound for the islands!

But at last we got our ropes free, and away we went too. The morn was

breaking now and the waves abating, so that, though still we tossed up

and down, we could see their horrid black silk flag a-flying on the

mizen peak whenever we rose to the crest; and, with the white spume of

the water dashed in our faces, and reckless now of what might happen

so that we did but keep them in sight, we set all our galliot's

sails--main, mizen, and gaff main sail--and tore after them.

"We will follow them, my lads," I said now, with my blood up to

boiling heat; "we will follow them to the death! There shall be but

one crew left alive to tell this story."

And as I spake my men gave three hearty cheers.

So, having got thus far in my account, I will now rest again for a

while.

CHAPTER XX.

A FIGHT.

Now I go on to narrate the tracking of those thieves and pirates, and

of what thereby followed.

By midday we were off the islands, with the chase well ahead of

us--yet not so far neither as she had been, since we had sailed faster

than she this time, in consequence, as we soon learnt, of their having

snapped their foremast--and with Negada, or the Drowned Island, so

called because 'tis frequently submerged by the tide, lying not a

league away.

"I have been here before," says Cromby, "and I doubt their getting

ashore. All around lie sand-banks and shoals that require careful

navigation. If they run in here we shall fight 'em when we are both

aground."

"Then I do pray they will," says I. "It will be best to land, and no

chance of escape for either. 'Twill suit us, my lads."

The men answered cheerfully. "So 'twould, and very well!" yet as they

so spake we saw that Alderly meant not to enter there.

Then said I, "If it be not here, p'raps 'tis Virgin-Gorda they are

for, or Anguilla"--for I, too, had been here before--"yet, 'tis not

very like. There are colonists here, and have been since Charles's

day."

But another hour showed us that neither were these islands their aim,

but, instead, a little long tract of land that, among all the others,

is not marked on the chart, but is known among mariners by the name of

"Coffin Island," because of its shape. Now, Coffin Island hath on it a

mountain, not so very high, yet near to the beach, being inland about

a quarter of a mile, and from the mountain's base there runneth down a

wood to the sea, with, in it, a channel or river.

This we learnt shortly, though 'tis fitting enough I set it down here.

And now 'twas very plain that 'twas for this channel the desperadoes

were making. With our perspective glasses we could see--as we passed

the before-mentioned isles--that they were heading straight for that

inlet; we could indeed perceive them get to its mouth, haul down all

but their trysail, and so into the river, which was broad enough to

let in a bigger ship than theirs.

"After them we go," I exclaimed, "though they have all the best of it.

Yet"--with a moment's reflection--"it may not be so, neither. If they

get ashore, maybe they cannot take their cannon; if they stay on

board, we are as good as they. How is our powder?"

The men answered the powder was very well. They had carefully kept it

all dry, so that we should not lack that. Therefore I gave them orders

to carefully prime and load our pieces: namely, the four little guns

and the swivel, and also the muskets. And so we, too, stood for the

channel.

As we neared it we could very well see up it somewhat, and did notice

that the _Etoyle_ had come to a halt. She was not anchored, but had

drifted a little down again towards the mouth of the inlet, and thus

she was as we passed in, the woods growing thick on either side. And

now was the time when we saw the finery in which Alderly had arrayed

himself. He, as we ran in, was standing by the bows of his ship, and

had in his hand a glass of liquor, and, as we drew close, he shouted--

"Trapped! Trapped, by God! You will never get out of this! You cannot

escape!"

"You beastly pirate!" I called back; "there is no thought of getting

out. We are only most thankful to have got in. Now, will you haul down

those vile rags at your peak, and give up the stolen goods and

surrender, or----"

"Surrender!" shouts he. "Yes, I will surrender! Like this!" and

stooping down behind his bows for a moment, he picks up what was a

new-fangled sort of grenadoe--being a case bottle filled with powder

and pieces of lead, iron slugs and shot, with a quick match in the

mouth of it--and flings it aboard us. But in a minute one of my men, a

lusty youth from North Berwick, named Fernon, stoops down, seizes on

it, and flings it back into Alderly's ship, where it exploded amidst

their yells and curses.

"Now," said I, as at this moment our crafts touched, so that the whole

channel was blocked, "over their bows, under the smoke, and among 'em.

Pistols and cutlashes, my lads, will do the business."

So over we did go, and soon found that we had a tough job before

us. For though the men of the _Etoyle_ did only outnumber us by

five--namely, four men and Alderly--we discovered ere long on what a

dreadful mine we were standing.

As I cut down one man, giving him a wound in the neck that nearly

sever'd his throat as clean as if he had cut it with a razor, Cromby

whispered in my ear--

"Sir, what shall we do? Down below stands a great negro over two

barrels of powder, with a lighted slow match in his hand. 'Tis evident

the instant we are victorious he will blow up the Snow."

The sweat sprang out all over me as he said this, and, fighting hand

to hand all as I was with now another pirate, I had to pause and

deliberate. Then I said--

"If you cannot shoot him we must get back to our own vessel. Try if

you can get a ball into him."

And now I came against Alderly and rushed at him, when I saw him

settle himself against the tackle of a gun, his hand over his heart.

"So," I thought to myself, "he has got his death wound. He will fall

dead in a moment. Let us see for ourselves."

Amidst the smoke, therefore, and firing some shots below into the hold

in the hopes of slaying the negro, we leapt back into our galliot, and

then, before the crew of the _Etoyle_ knew what we were at, we had

pushed ourselves off of them, and, catching a little of the current of

the canal or river, got drifted down some fifty yards. And here, being

safe from any explosion should it take place among the others, we gave

them a broadside from our guns almost before they could know we had

left them.

But they answered not. We heard our balls crash into the sides of the

Snow, we heard her timbers splitting and bursting, we even heard the

shivering of a mast or yard, and its fall on the deck--but no reply

was made. No ball came back crashing into us, no report echoed ours.

All was still.

"Let the smoke clear off," I said, "ere we fire again. Meanwhile, keep

your guns loaded. Can it be that all are slain?"

The smoke did evaporate shortly, and then we learnt that 'twas as we

thought. Either the pirates were all slain or--fled. We had won our

day. From our rattlins, by running up a dozen, I could see on to the

deck of the _Etoyle_, and perceive men lying about dead. Also, too,

could observe the deck stained with blood, the fallen mast bearing the

vile silken flag a-lying across one man--it having smashed his head in

as it fell. But though I gazed at the gun tackle where I had seen

Alderly, he was not there now, neither near it nor by it. Had he

therefore escaped?

"We must board the _Etoyle_ again," says I; "yet since the negro with

his lighted match may still be by the powder, I will go alone first,

as is my duty. Lower the boat."

Since I had regained our tender I had been standing enrapt, gazing

with all my might at the smoke first, and then up into the shrouds

again at the enemy, taking no heed of my own craft. But now, as no one

stirred, to my hearing, to obey my orders, I turned round sharply to

chide them, but as I did so I started and felt myself go pale.

"Good God!" I exclaimed, "good God! What is this?"

There were but three men, I recollected in an instant, that had leaped

back into the galliot from the Snow, and those three men were here in

the ship behind me. But, alas! two were now dead; the third, Israel

Cromby, was a-lying on his back, gasping out his last few breaths.

"Oh!" says I, "oh! my poor men--this is a sorry sight for any

commander to see. Cromby, man, it is ill with you, I fear?"

He opened his eyes, all covered with a film like a poor partridge a

gunner has knocked over, and then he whispered--

"Sir, sir. There is a poor old woman down Rotherhithe way--she is--my

mother. She--drawed--my money--tell her--she has no other means

whereby to live--if you--get back, see to----. Sir, I've done my

duty."

So he died and joined the others, and went his way to meet his God.

And I was left alone.

From the _Etoyle_ there came no sound, nor from the woods neither did

any come. So I told myself this would not do. I must be stirring.

Thinking which, I lowered down the boat, having to shift the bodies of

my poor dead men to get at the tackle, and then got down into it, and

so to the _Etoyle_. It was no use wasting time when I got to it, I

reflected; if any were alive of the enemy they must be encountered

soon or late--as well now as then. And the negro I did feel sure was

dead. Otherwise, he would have blowed up the Snow or else come forth.

Making fast the boat, I clambered up over the side of the buccaneer's

craft, and then I saw pretty quick all that had happened, looking

first to see for the negro. He was done for, as I had imagined, and

was lying flat on his back at the foot of the hatchway, his match

burnt out in his dead black hand, which, I saw later, had been singed

and scorched by the flames; yet that hand had been perilously near to

the powder-barrels while the slow match lasted, as it lay all

stretched out.

On the deck they laid about, my men and Alderly's, as they had fallen,

and I did perceive that our broadside had finished up one or two at

least of the latter, who were still breathing when I got aboard,

though not long after. Of my six men who had fallen there, I made

instantly a burial, tying shots to them and heaving them over the

side--for I would not have the birds of prey--many of whom were

hovering about the banks of the river--tear and devour them. This I

did do when I felt sure they were indeed dead, but of the pirates I

took no heed--the birds might have their bodies (as I doubted not the

Devil had got their souls by now), for all I cared.

One thing--or rather two--I did not find which I would very willingly

have done. There was no sign anywhere of either Alderly or the casket

he had flourished in our faces. Now, if Alderly had died before his

men, or some of them, this would not be strange, since I knew--having

hunted pirates before to-day--that the captains had ever the desire to

be flung overboard the moment they were dead, and always in their

finery and adornments.

And this doubtless had happened to him; that is, if he had not

escaped, which was, of course, possible for him to have done if he had

not his death wound when I encountered him. And the casket might have

gone too--though this I doubted; at least, it would not go while one

man remained alive, and he would not sink it until his last gasp, at

which time he might be then too feeble so to do.

Yet I resolved to search the Snow, to see if any were lurking about,

or if the casket was hid anywhere. 'Twould not take long to do, and

even though it did, what matter? There was no call on my time.

Down below, to which I went after carefully scrutinizing the deck,

all was in great disorder; weapons were lying on the cabin table

alongside of food and victuals, and there was a broached barrel of

rumbullion--or kill-devil--a-standing in the middle of the cabin, with

a scooper, or long-handled ladle, hard by, which doubtless they had

drunk from by turns; and since they were drunk when we met 'em in the

night, I supposed they had been drinking ever since they had deserted

us. Leastways, the barrel was half empty, yet none was spilled.

Here was the body of a man shot into the head, and very ghastly--I

doubted not he had fallen down the hatch when struck, or, may be, run

down for drink to ease him. And now, seeing this corpse set me off

a-calculating how many there had been in the _Etoyle_, and how many

there were now--whereby I should get the difference of those in the

ship, and those who had been flung, or fallen over, or--if it might be

so--escaped. And, at last, I did arrive at the solution that but two

were missing; namely, the villain Alderly and his diver. Therefore,

even allowing them to be alive, all but three of both crafts had been

killed in the fight.

And if those two had escaped it must be by having leaped overboard in

the smoke and confusion--'twas certain they had not taken their boat,

for it still lay along their deck, upside down, where they always kept

it, as I had seen often when they were moored alongside the _Furie_.

Now it had a shot in it from one of our guns, I did perceive, which

was perhaps the reason it was not used--though their haste to get away

was more like to be the cause. Yet, I pondered, if they had hastened

away, where was then the treasure? The casket alone would almost, I

should judge, sink a man who endeavoured to get ashore with it, though

it was but a few yards to swim--how could it be, therefore, that they

and their stolen prize had got away? The truth, I did conceive now,

was that all, Alderly, diver, and treasure, were at the bottom of the

river.

But by this time the night was approaching, vastly different from the

former one, it being calm and cloudless; and I was worn out with want

of rest, and with the fighting and excitement. So I resolved I would

take a night's repose, and then in the morning I would explore the

island carefully--'twould not take long, being not a league in length

nor half as broad, as I knew; above all, I would see if I could find

the goods you wot of. As for the two pirates, I feared them not one

atom; face to face, I deemed myself--a king's late officer--the match

for any two dirty pirates that ever breathed.

So I let go the _Etoyle's_ anchor and made her fast for the night, and

then rowed me back to my galliot and prepared for my rest.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE VILLAIN'S DEN.

'Twas as I have writ, a night vastly different from the precedent one,

beautifully calm in this little channel, or river, with the moon

arising behind the wood that bordered its eastern bank, and with a

cool breeze coming from the sea and rustling through the leaves. And

as the moon rose above the treetops she flooded all the river with

light, making a great shadow of the _Etoyle_ on the water, and also of

the galliot.

I lay me down upon the deck of my craft wrapped in a boat-cloak, as

soon as I had gotten things a little ship-shape for the night (I had

anchored the galliot before I went off to the Snow), but sleep came

not easily. There were, indeed, many things a-running through my

brain. Firstly, there were my poor dead sailors sleeping below in the

water--probably already food for the great variegated crabs that do

here abound--whom I could not but lament, and especially Israel

Cromby, with his dying thoughts of the poor old dependent mother at

Rotherhithe. Then there was the position to be thought of in which I

now stood. I had the galliot to get me away in, 'twas true, to the

adjacent islands, some of which were inhabited by my own countrymen,

and not far off neither--but, supposing I got back the treasure from

the pirates, should I ever get it safe home to England? I knew not, as

yet, how much it was; whether the casket was all or only a portion;

whether also that portion was a huge mass of gold or silver, or a

small one of jewels. Above all, should I get it in any form or shape

whatever? Was it buried in the river ere the last of the pirates died,

or were those two men alive, and had they got ashore and buried it

there? Still my fatigues were such that, in spite of all my

conflicting and unhappy thoughts, I slumbered at last. Long and

peacefully I slept aboard the little craft, which had none other now

but myself for its inhabitant, with the cool night wind blowing all

over me, and freshening me as I lay.

Yet I awoke ere daylight had come--startled by something, I knew not

what!

The moon was at her full height now, the channel was as light as day,

'twas that, I thought to myself, had waked me; and I turned over on my

side to sleep again. Yet, as I dozed, and should soon have been gone

again, once more I was disturbed. "Perhaps 'tis a beast," thought I,

"in the wood, crashing through the undergrowth,"--for such I fancied

to be the sound--"perhaps 'tis--"but here I ended my speculations, for

I saw what had aroused me.

'Twas the two villains, Alderly and his diver, a-standing on the bank

of the river gazing into it. 'Twas their steps I had heard crunching

on the underbrush.

Now it did so happen that our galliot had a cabin aft, with, cut into

it on either side of the sternpost, two portholes, so that, lying

here, I could very well see through those scuttles what they were

a-doing without their seeing me. Whether they thought I was not in my

vessel I could not guess; or whether they knew I was, having watched

me all the latter part of the day from the wood, but deemed me now

asleep, 'twas impossible for me to tell--yet doubtless 'twas the

latter, since they seemed wary in their movements.

Yet was it obvious to me, watching them as I did, that both were still

under the influence of the drink; as they stood gazing into the water,

first one would give a lurch, then the other, or one would hiccough,

and the other would curse him under his breath for making of a noise;

and once the diver--whose name I knew not--nearly fell forward into

the river, and would have done so, had not Alderly clutched him and

hauled him back. And all the time the moon enabled me to see the

latter's tawdry finery, all smirched with dirt, with powder and filth,

and his broken feather in his hat, and the stains and grime about him,

while, as for the other, he had nought but the coarsest of apparel

upon him.

Now, seeing they were still drunk, I did begin to think they had a

resort of some sort in this isle, perhaps comrades upon it from whom

they could get drink, since 'twas hours since they had had any in the

Snow. Which led me to reflect that, if there were more of these

wretches here, my case was a bad one. However, watching of their

actions drove these reflections from out my head, for a time at least.

Presently, one, Alderly, stoops him down, going on to his hands and

knees and, baring his arm up to the shoulder, thrusts it into the

water, and begins moving it backwards and forwards as though feeling

for something in it. And shortly he found what he wanted, for he

lifted up a stone as big as my head, with round it a rope that ran on,

into, and under the water as he lifted of it up. This was easy to

perceive, for the drops of water sparkled on it like diamonds as he

held it at his end.

"Ha!" thinks I to myself. "I do guess what's at t'other end now. Well,

well, we will see." Yet, as I so thought, I looked to my priming. I

thought it would not be very long ere I should have to shoot these two

ruffians, and take my chance of there being more of the same sort on

the isle. But the time had not come yet, I did perceive, and meanwhile

I lay perfectly snug watching their doings.

A moment after Alderly had gotten the stone and rope up, he threw away

the former, and began, with his comrade's assistance, hauling and

tugging at it, and presently they got ashore from under the water a

long box of about four feet--though 'twas not what I expected to see,

namely, the casket. This, I made sure, would have been fished up, but

'twas not. I never did see it again.

'Twas plain to observe there was no more to come, for no sooner was

this box up than they made as though they would depart, Alderly

letting the rope drop back gently into the water; and then, as I could

see by his gestures, making signs to the diver to pick the box up and

carry it. But this led to an argument between them; I could observe

them shrugging of their shoulders with a drunken gravity, lurching

about now and again as they did so, and stumbling against the box more

than once; and then, suddenly, I perceived Alderly strike the other in

the mouth and knock him down.

"Now," thinks I, "this leads to more things. If they go on like this,

there will be only one pirate soon for me to contend with, so far as I

know."

Even as I pondered, my words came true. The diver got up, whips out a

long knife, and made a rush at the other--the weapon sparkling as

though it was dipped in phosphorus in the rays of the moon--and in

another moment they had closed together.

But Alderly was the best man of the two--which was perhaps why he was

chief of the _Etoyle_--and ere long he had hold of the other's wrist

with one hand and had got him round the body with the other. Then, by

degrees, he did bring the body down until it lay across his own knee,

face upwards, and having, as I did see, the strength of a bullock, or

a vice, he forced the other's arm up and down, directing so his

clenched hand that he compelled him to plunge his own dagger into his

own breast. Once, twice, thrice, he did it!--the diver screaming with

the first plunge of the knife into his bosom, groaning with the

second, and with the third making no noise. Then Alderly lets go the

diver's fist from out of his own, and frees his own body from his

grasp, and down the diver fell to the brink of the river.

"You slew yourself," says he, looking down at him; "'twas your own

knife that did it, your own hand that plunged it in." And here he

laughed, an awful, blood-curdling laugh. The laugh of a maniac

or a fiend! Then he put his foot to the dead man's body and tumbled

it over into the river, so that I saw it no more. Next, seizing

on to the long box--and nearly falling over it as he did so in his

half-drunkenness--he lifted it on to his shoulder and went into the

wood. Only, as he departed I saw him also lift up his foot and touch

his shoe with his finger, and hold that finger up in the moon to look

at; and then he gave again that awful laugh. He was a-laughing at the

dead man's blood in which he had trampled!

"Now," says I, "is my time; I will find out if he can also slay me. At

any rate he shall not escape without doing so," and with these words I

lowered the boat again, got into it and went ashore--the distance from

the galliot being not twenty yards. And then, securing of the boat to

the trunk of a small tree by the river's brink, I plunged in after him

to the wood. Only, you may be sure, I had my pistols with me and my

sword.

At first the little wood was so dark that I could not see, or scarce

see, the moon a-shining dimly through the thickness--a thickness all

made of wild orange, citron, and pomegranate trees, as well as of

campeachy trees, and mountain cabbage palms. Yet soon this wood opened

out somewhat; there rose before my eyes a little glade, on which the

moon did here shine as though on a sweet English field at home, and,

reaching this, I perceived by stopping and looking carefully that my

man had passed this way. The long grass was all trodden down--nay, so

much so, that the two must have also come this way when they set out

as comrades--and, since the imprints of the footsteps were most

uneven and without regularity, I felt sure my drunken pirate had

struggled and staggered along this track.

So across the little glade I went, following ever the irregular

crushings down of the grass, until I came to where it was bordered by

more thick underbrush and shrub, and then, even had I doubted I was on

the steps of Alderly, I could do so no longer. For now through that

thick brushwood and tangled growth of briar, and lacery of trailing

things, there was crushed aside a most distinct opening through which

a man, or men, must have passed, while, had I desired further proofs

of where the man had gone whom I sought, it was before me. Lying on

the brushwood, catched off and torn by a thorn, was the broken end of

Alderly's red feather, the piece that had hung down over his savage

face as he forced the diver to slay himself, and that gave, even in

that awful moment, an appearance to him of almost comicality. A

comicality, though, to cause a shudder!

Now did I, therefore, loosen my blade in its sheath and set my pistols

in my belt carefully, for, since by this time I had gone a mile at

least, 'twas not very like I should go much farther before coming on

to the desperado, unless he should have turned off at an angle--a

thing I could not judge he should have any reason to do. And so I went

on very carefully, keeping ever a watch about and around me, so that I

should fall into no trap.

Soon, however, I did perceive that the path turned, as I guessed it

might perhaps do, and I thought the time was not yet come for me to

get up with my chase, when, to my astonishment--in spite of my former

ideas that there might be other buccaneers upon this isle--there came

to me the sounds of singing and revelling, of shouting and whooping

and drinking of healths, and clapping of canikins or glasses on a

table.

"The health," I heard a voice shout, "of Winstanley, the diver of

Liverpool, the man who strove to contend with Alderly. His health in

the place where he is gone, and another to his taker off!" And then

there followed the banging and smashing of drinking vessels on the

table again, and huzzas and shriekings.

Next uprose a voice a-trolling of a song.

"When money's plenty, boys, we drink

To drown our troubles, oh-oh!

Carouse, revel, and never think,

Upon the morrow, oh-oh!"

"When money's plenty," I heard Alderly repeat. "When money's plenty!

Why, and so it is, my blithe lads. Look here in this box, my hearties.

Here's enough and to spare for all. Diamonds, sapphires, pearls, gold

and silver. Ha! ha! Drink, my lads. Give me the bowl. Peter Hynde, my

lad, drink up, and you, Robert Birtson, and Will Magnus, you, and you,

Petty, and Crow, and Moody, and fat John Coleman. Drink, you dogs, I

say, drink."

"I have landed on a nest of them!" thinks I to myself. "A dozen at

least, I believe. Well, I will lie hid awhile, and if they o'ermaster

me, why--"

"When money's plenty, boys, we drink!

And bring the girls along, oh!

Of blood we've shed we never think,

Midst dance and jocund song, oh!"

burst out the ruffian again. Then he yelled out, "A toast! a toast!

The health of Phips and that accursed Crafer, whose blood I've drunk,"

at which I started. "So," thinks I, "he deems me dead. 'Tis perhaps

best. Yet shall he learn," I muttered twixt my set lips, "that in

spite of him and his horde I am alive--he shall--"

"And Bess, my Coromandel girl, bring in the meats!" the villain

now shouted. "Ha! ha! here she comes with the steaming turtle! Fall

to, my boys, fall to; and here comes our Queen of Port Royal, our

golden-haired Barbara who loves us well. My lads! a health to the girl

of Port Royal!"

And again there came the banging on the table of fists, then cans, and

the voice of Alderly whooping and shouting.

"I must see this crew," I whispered to myself, "e'en though I die for

it. I must see these ruffians in their den with their loathsome

womankind. I have four shots in my belt, and a good sword. All must be

drunk and _I_ am sober! I will do some execution amongst them."

So through the brushwood I went a pace or so, parting the leaves as

gently as might be--though that I should be heard there was no fear

amidst the infernal clamour and din and shouting of Alderly.

Then, next, I saw before me a hut, or big cabin, built of logs, with a

wide, open door and thatched with palm leaves; from out the door there

gleamed the light of a lamp, and as I parted some boughs and bushes to

get me a view, I could see very well into the hut.

And this is what I witnessed.

CHAPTER XXII.

MAD!

Inside the hut ran a long table on trestles; upon that table were

platters and drinking vessels; on it also were some dried fruits, some

pieces of dirty, coarse bread, and also some scraps of jerked beef,

or, as 'tis called here in the Caribbee-Indian, Boucan; and that, with

the exception of some drink in a tub, was all!

There was no steaming turtle or other savoury viands, neither were

there any women, golden-haired or others, nor a nest of pirates.

Besides Alderly himself, there was in the hut no living soul that I

could see. He was alone!

Yet, in front of the table, there lay something on which my eyes could

not but fasten, the long box, in which I did believe the stolen

treasure was. And also by its side were three bags, or sacks, bulging

out full of coin--I could see the impress made upon the canvas by the

pieces within--and these I did guess had never come out of the wreck

we had been fishing on. They were, I thought--and found afterwards

that my thoughts were right--spoils from some others than us. The

plunder of another foray!

But at the time I could do nought but watch the great villain, the

creature whom I could not deem aught but mad, or, at least, mad from

the drink.

His eyes glistening and rolling like a maniac's, he sat in the middle

of the table, gibbering and grimacing to either side of him, as if the

companions he had named were there; now shouting out a toast, then

banging on the table with both his fists, then seizing a can or mug in

each of them; next calling out in a deep voice "huzza, huzza," and

then altering it to the shrill one of a woman doing the same thing.

Next, he would seize the scooper of the liquor tub, and, with clumsy

bows to the empty chairs or stools, for such indeed they were, would

fill the glasses standing on the table in front of those chairs,

though they being already full he did but pour liquor upon liquor

until the whole table streamed with it. Then, for variety, he would

tear with his fingers a piece of Boucan off, and with solemn gravity

lay it on some tin plates near him, saying to the vacant space behind

the plate:

"Barbara, my sweet, 'tis the choicest piece of the haunch; I beseech

of you to taste a little more"; or, "Coleman, my fat buck, take a bit

more of your own kind," and so forth. Or he would crumble off a bit of

his dirty, frowsy bread, and, with his filthy hands putting of it in

his mouth, would say, "The turtles' eggs are at their best now. 'Tis

the season. Ha! They are succulent!" Then he would drink a deep

draught of the spirits by him, call a toast, and begin his bawlings

and clappings again.

To see the ruffian sitting there in the half-dim light--for his lamp

was none of the best--grimacing and gibbering to vacancy, and

addressing people who existed not, was to me a truly awful, nay, a

blood-creeping sight! For now I knew what I had before me. I knew that

this pirate, this man, whose hands still reeked with the blood of his

comrade--one of those whom he had but recently called on them to drink

a toast to--was mad with long-continued drinking and p'raps scarce any

food since they left the reef; that, indeed, he had the horrors,

called by the learned, the "Delirium."

Still, all was not yet at its worst, as I found out and you shall see.

Meanwhile, amidst his bellowings and howlings, which I need not again

write down, since they varied not, I pondered on what I must do. I had

the fellow caged now; if he attempted to come out of the hut I was

resolved to shoot him down or run him through as I would a mad dog;

indeed, any way, I was determined now to be his executioner. He was a

pirate, a thief who had caused us of the _Furie_ much trouble and loss

of good life--and here I thought of Israel Cromby and my other poor

men, all dead!--also he was a secret murderer. He must die by my

hand--but it must not be now when he was mad. I was ordained to be his

executioner, I felt, but I would not be a secret murderer myself also.

No! not unless I was forced to it.

But, still, I decided now to advance in upon him--the position I was

in was cramped and painful; the hut would be better than this, with

now many night dews arising from the soil and enveloping of me,

and--if the worst came to the worst--I would knock him on the head and

secure him. Also, I remembered, I had the treasure to secure. So I

moved into the path, rounded it, and, pistol in hand, advanced towards

the door of the hut, and, standing in it, regarded him fixedly.

At first he saw me not. The light was growing dimmer, so that to me he

looked more like the dull, cloudy spectre of a man than a man itself

as he sat there--perhaps, too, I, with nought behind me but the dark

night, may have looked the same to him. Then, as he still sat talking

to an imaginary figure behind him, his conversation running on the

drinking and carousing he and his supposed comrade had once evidently

had on the coast of Guinea, I said, clearly though low--

"Alderly, you seem gay to-night, and entertain good company."

In truth, there was no intention in my heart to banter the man or jest

with such a brute, only I had to let him know of my presence there,

and one way seemed to me as good as another.

Instead of starting up, as I had thought he might do, and, perhaps,

discharging a pistol at me, he turned his head towards the door, put

that head between his two hands, and peered between them towards where

I stood.

"Who is't?" he asked. "I cannot see you. Is it Martin come back from

the isles with the sloop?"

This gave me an idea that there were some comrades expected--perhaps

from some other villainies! but I had just now no time for pondering

on such things, so I replied:

"No, 'tis not Martin. But, 'Captain' Alderly, you should know me; you

drank a health to me not long ago. I am Lieutenant Crafer of the

_Furie_."

"I do not know you," he replied; "I never heard of you. Yet you must

be dry in the throat. Come in and drink."

In other circumstances I might have thought this to be a ruse--now I

could not deem it such. Beyond all doubt he was mad--my only wonder

was that such a desperado should not be more ferocious. Perhaps,

however, this might be to come.

I sat me down opposite to him and regarded him fixedly in that gloomy

light, and it seemed as though I brought by my presence some glimmer

of reason to the wandering brain.

"Crafer!" he exclaimed. "Ah yes, Crafer! Drink, Crafer, drink. So thou

hast join'd us. 'Tis well, and better than serving Phips. We have more

wealth here than ever Phips dreamed of--if we could but get it away.

Away! Yes! away! What might we not do if we could but get it to

England! We might all be gallant, topping gentlemen with coaches and

horses, and a good house, and see ridottos and--but stay, Crafer, you

must know my friends." And here the creature stood upon his feet--I

standing, too, not knowing but what he was going to spring at me,

though he had no such intention--and began naming his phantom friends

to me and presenting them, so to speak.

"This," says he, "is Peter Hynde, a gay boy and a good sailor. Also he

is our musicianer of nights--he singeth too a sweet song. Stand up,

Hynde, and make your service. And this is Will Magnus, with a good

heart, but ever lacking money till he joined us. A brave lad! 'Tis he

who has cut many a throat! Barbara, my dear, throw thy golden mane

back and kiss the brave gentleman--she was but a child, sir, when we

found her, yet now, now, she--Ha! again that wound! How the thrust of

the steel bites!"

He sank back into his chair, and tore at his damask waistcoat and then

at his ruffled shirt--yellow with dirt and spilt drink, and dabbled

with thick bloodstains--and so, opening of his bosom, there I did see

a great gash just over the heart, in his left pap.

And I wondered not now that he was mad with the drink and the fever of

his wound; the wonder was more that he was not quite dead.

He sat a-gazing at this, with his eyes turned down upon it, and

muttered,

"One gave it me as from that accursed galliot, as they boarded. It

seemed I had gotten my death. Ah! how it burns, how it throbs!

Barbara! Black Bess! hast thou no styptic for stopping of this flux,

no balm for this pain? Ha! No? Then give me drink, drink; 'tis the

best consoler of all, the best slayer of pain." And here he seized his

ladle, filled a glass from the tub, and drained it at a gulp. Then he

wandered on again: "Barbara, get you up to the chirugeon at Kingston;

tell him I am sore wounded."

"Jamaica is far away from here," I said to him. "Barbara will scarce

bring you aught from the pharmacie there to-night." Then, bending

forward to him across the table, I said, "Alderly, you are wounded to

the death; that stab and your drinkings have brought you to the end,

or nearly so. Tell me truly, did this," and I kicked the box at my

feet, "and these bags of coin come from the plate-ship? Tell me!"

He peered at me through the deepening gloom made by the expiring lamp,

as though his senses were returning and he knew me, and muttered:

"More--more--than the plate-ship--this is a treasure house--" and

then, suddenly, he stopped and, pointing a shaking finger over my

head, stared as one who saw a sight to blast him, and whispered in a

voice of horror:

"Look! look! behind you. God! I stabbed him thrice. Yet now he is come

back. See him, look to him at the open door. 'Tis Winstanley, the

diver of Liverpool. Ah! take those eyes away from me--away--away!

'Twas your hand did it, not mine," and with a shriek the wretch buried

his head in his own hands.

That the murdered diver was not there I did know very well, yet the

ravings of the man, the melancholy of the hut in the wood, the dimness

of the lamp, all made my very flesh to creep, and instinctively I did

cast my eye over my shoulder, seeing, as was certain, nought but the

moon's flood pouring in at the door. Yet I shivered as with a palsy,

for though no ghost was there all around me was ghostly, horrible!

With a yell Alderly sprang to his feet a moment after he had sunk his

head in his hands; his looks were worse now than before, his madness

stronger upon him; great flecks of foam upon his lips, and from his

wound the blood trickling anew.

"Away! away!" he shouted. Then moaned. "Those eyes! those eyes! They

scorch my very soul. Away!" And he cowered and shrank, but a minute

later seemed to have recovered his old ferocity. "Begone!" he now

commanded the spectre of his distorted vision. "Begone!" and with that

he rushed forward, forgetting in his madness the table was betwixt him

and his fears, and knocking it over in the rush.

And with it the lamp went too. Only fortunately it was at its end,

there was no longer any oil in it--otherwise the hut would have been

burnt to the ground.

But all was now darkness save for the moonlight on the floor within

and on the brushwood without, and, as Alderly recovered himself from

his entanglement with the fallen table and trestles, I could see it

shining upon his glaring, savage eyes. And he took me--I having been

knocked to the door by the crash--for the ghost of the diver, the

spirit he feared so much.

"Peace, you fool!" I exclaimed, "there is no spirit here, nought worse

than yourself. And stand back, or, by the God above, I will blow your

frenzied brains out," and as I spoke, I drew a pistol, cocked it and

covered him.

With a howl he came at me, missing my fire in his onward rush, dashing

the pistol from my hand with a madman's force, and, seizing me round

the waist, endeavoured to throw me to the earth. Yet, though I had no

frenzy, I too was strong, and I wrestled with him, so that about the

hut we went, knocking over first the tub of liquor with which the

place became drenched, and falling at last together on the ground. And

all this time, Alderly was cursing and howling, sometimes even biting

at me, and tearing my flesh with his teeth, especially about the

hands, and gripping my throat with his own strong hands--made doubly

strong because of his frenzy. I smelt his hot, stinking, spirit-sodden

breath all over me; I could even smell the filth of his body as he

hissed out:

"I ever hated you, Winstanley; I hated you when I made your own hands

slay you. I hated you in life, I hate you now in death. And as I slew

you in life, again will I slay you in death."

Then at this moment he gave a yell of triumph. His hand had

encountered the hilt of my sword, and drawing it forth from its broken

sheath, he shortened it to plunge it into my breast.

But as he did so I got one of my hands released. I felt for my other

pistol, I cocked it with my thumb, when, ere I could fire, the cutlash

dropped from Alderly's hand and he sprang to his feet, his hands upon

his wound.

"See," he whispered now, "there be two Winstanleys: one here--one

coming through the wood. Are there any more--?"

Staggering, he stood glaring forth into the wood through the open

door, seeing another spectre, as he thought, there; then slowly he

sank to the ground, letting his hands fall away from the gash in his

breast, from which the tide now ran swiftly.

"Oh, agony! agony!" he moaned. "Can one live and feel such pain as

this. Nay! this is death. Barbara, draw near me. Listen. This

hut is full of spoil--beneath--none know but I--all mine--now

all yours. The other is buried--elsewhere--Oh! God--the agony!

Barbara--rich--rich--for life--lady--fortune--give me

drink--drink--" Then once more singing in a broken voice,

"When money's--plenty--boys--we drink

To drown--"

he fell back moaning again.