"Upon my life, Jack, it's too funny," I said. "You are as ingenious as
Machiavelli himself; but how are you going to connect that awful daub
with the buried treasure? You can't do it; I defy you!"
"Well, I'll tell you, anyhow; it may be as ridiculous as you suppose,
and it may not," said Jack. "You see the eyes of the awful personage in
the picture: look here, I hold the portrait thus. Now get in front of
the thing and try if you can find a place where the eyes focus you;
you'll have to lie down on the carpet."
Still amused, but interested nevertheless, I lay down along the carpet,
as desired, and presently found a spot where the eyes certainly seemed
to gaze at me.
"Well," I said, "what then? They are to gaze at the spot where the
money lies hidden? Is that it?"
"That's just exactly it," said Jack, flushing a little.
*CHAPTER XLI*
*THE EXCITEMENT BECOMES INTENSE*
"But, man alive," said I, "where's the picture going to hang, or be
held, in order to point out the spot?"
"That's what we've to find out," said Jack. "If my theory is right, the
old boy will have prepared a place for it to hang. Are there trees, or
nails in the wall?"
"There are trees, certainly," said I; "I don't know about the nails.
And am I to dig a seven-foot hole wherever the confounded picture will
hang?"
"Yes, you are," said Jack imperturbably, "and you know it. And now you
had better go to bed; partly because you'll require some rest for these
seven-foot holes, but chiefly because you are in such an evil humour
to-night that I'm blessed if I will endure your society any longer!"
And so to bed I went.
That night I dreamed a great many wonderful dreams, and in each and all
of them I was digging and for ever digging, and the treasure was still
unfound or, when found, snatched from me! In one of my dreams, I
remember, I fancied that I had hit upon the right tack, when of a sudden
three huge Mahatmas bore silently down upon me from the world of spirits
and demanded of me what I sought.
They looked out upon me with piercing black eyes let into cavernous
sockets framed in dead-white faces, and they flapped their sable mantles
over me and frightened me.
"Oh, sirs," I said, "I am seeking for buried treasure; I am within an
ace of finding it and yet have not found it. Help me, I beseech you, to
light upon it, and you shall do with me as you will!"
"Treasure is vanity, vanity, vanity!" cried one of the Mahatmas.
"Gold is dross, dross, dross!" wailed a second.
"Nevertheless, I will show you where to find it!" sang the third, in a
mournful monotone. "Come!"
I dreamed that I followed the Mahatma back, earthwards, and we alighted
in Clutterbuck's garden. He did but turn over one spadeful of earth,
and there lay revealed a sack of glittering gold pieces. Instantly the
two other Mahatmas flew shrieking to the treasure and fought for it,
tearing the black mantles from one another's shoulders. But the third
slew them both from behind, and, seizing the sack of gold, fled over
land and sea, I, shrieking, after him.
But just as I was overtaking him he turned, and I saw his face--it was
James Strong. At the same moment he cried aloud, and said: "For
treasure I have sinned and murdered, and lo! I have bartered my soul in
vain--for see what this gold of yours is!"
With the words he poured the gold out of the sack's mouth, and behold!
it was ashes, and they fell hissing into the sea.
In another of my dreams I was busily digging, while the dog Ginger
watched my efforts. Suddenly I turned up a sod in which lay a piece of
bread, and in the bread was folded a cheque for one hundred thousand
pounds; but even as I read the figures, and was about to cry aloud for
joy, the dog snatched both bread and paper from my hand, and swallowed
them.
All this dreaming went to prove that I was far more interested and
influenced by Jack's rather brilliant idea than I had chosen to show;
his suggestion was on my mind and had "murdered sleep," quiet, solid
sleep, such as I usually indulged in. Consequently, I was up very early
on the following morning in order to set about putting the new idea to a
trial. I hurried through breakfast, and was out of the hotel and busy
at work in the garden before Jack was dressed.
First I tried the trees.
There was a willow, a fine tree with two big branches, almost as large
as the parent stem, about ten feet from the ground. There was no
excrescence from this tree small enough to hang the picture upon, and I
passed on to the next, a poplar. Here, at about five feet from the
earth, there was a twig from which the picture might be got to hang in a
lopsided kind of way; but the twig was evidently a young shoot, and had
probably sprung into existence since the picture had been taken to
Hogland and buried, so that I spared myself a seven-foot dig beneath
that poplar.
Then there was a lime, a small one, near the end of the garden; and into
the trunk of this tree, on the wall side, I discovered that a nail had
been knocked. I grew hot and cold at the sight, for I thought I had
"struck oil" at last.
But, alas! when I had hung the picture by its little ring to this nail,
and tried to get my face where the eyes would be fixed upon it, I found
that the portrait glared at a spot about half-way down the brick wall,
and not at any place on the ground whereinto a man might sink a spade.
There were no more trees, and I now turned my attention to the wall
itself, and looked for nails up and down, and from end to end. I found
one, to my delight, and having hung up the portrait, was engaged in the
occupation of lying on my stomach and wooing the stony glare of old
Clutterbuck's lack-lustre eyes, when Jack mounted the wall just above
it, and nearly fell off again for laughing at the ridiculous spectacle
which he said I presented. However, I focussed the eyes, and planted a
stick in the exact spot.
"It's the only nail in the garden, Jack," I cried excitedly. "I do
believe we've hit off the place at last!"
"Good!" said Jack grimly; "now dig for all you're worth!"
I did dig. I dug that seven-foot hole as though at the bottom of it
some terrible earthworm had seized by the throat all that I held most
dear in the world. Never were seven feet of earth displaced in quicker
time by human energy.
But there was nothing there.
"Dig another three-foot-six!" said Jack from the wall. "The rhyme may
mean 'Three foot six, and double _that_ besides'--that is, ten feet six
in all."
Breathless, despondent, stiff, half dead with fatigue, I dug on till the
water was up to the top of my boots; it was of no use.
"I won't dig another inch!" I groaned; "not to-day, at all events."
"Come out then, and consult," said Jack. Even he seemed dejected with
the last failure.