CAPTAIN BERGEN MAKES TWO IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES
Before the faintest streak of light appeared in the eastern horizon,
Captain Bergen was awake and in the rigging, with the binocular
glasses in his hand.
The most careful computation showed they were in latitude about 19
south and longitude 140 west. They had passed to the eastward of the
Mendina Archipelago, catching a glimpse of one of the islands, where
the mate proposed they should touch and obtain some supplies. But the
captain was too eager to push ahead, and Grebbens had told him that
one peculiarity about the little island which was their destination
was that it contained fresh water, with some tropical fruit, while
there could be no difficulty in catching all the fish they wished.
Since the island was altogether uninhabited, and very rarely
visited, it would have been a good thing for the party could the
suggestion of the mate have been carried out. But it was the
conviction of Captain Bergen that they would not spend more than
two weeks at the fishery--if such it might be called--and, under
the circumstances, it cannot be said he was imprudent. Steadying
himself with one arm about the mast, the captain stood firmly in his
elevated position, and, as the sun came slowly up and the golden
radiance spread over the sky and sea, he swept the arch of the
horizon to the south, east and west, straining his keen vision for the
first sight of the eagerly-wished-for land.
"Water, water," he murmured, despondingly. "Water everywhere, and no
sight of the haven! Hello!"
His heart gave a great bound, for, just in the edge of the horizon--at
the very point where ocean and sky met--he saw a dark substance, like
a fleecy vapor, no bigger than a man's hand.
"It may be a cloud," said the captain to himself, as he carefully
scrutinized it, "and it may be land; and, by the great horn spoon, it
is land! Land ho!"
"Where away?" called back Storms, from below, quite confident what the
answer would be.
"Two points on the weather-bow."
The mate headed toward the point indicated, and then silence reigned
for awhile on board, excepting in the case of Inez, who bounded up on
deck, and was here, there and everywhere.
The captain was left to himself, for Abe Storms knew he would come
down and report as soon as he had anything definite; and, in the
nature of things, he could know nothing positive for a considerable
time to come.
As the _Coral_ sped forward--sometimes on the long, sloping crest of
an immense swell, and then again in the valley between--the captain
saw and thought of nothing else but the little island ahead, which was
slowly rising out of the ocean. He had discovered that it was circular
in shape, quite small, and fringed with vegetation. This corresponded,
in a general way, with the description given by the sailor in the
hospital; but there are hundreds of other islands in the South Seas to
which the same description will apply, and it was not impossible that
the _Coral_ was many a long league astray.
"When I was on the island, ten years ago," said Grebbens, "I found
remains of a ship that had been wrecked there but a short time before.
There was a portion of the mast, which we managed to erect by scooping
a deep hole in the beach and then packing the sand about the base. On
the top of this we kept our signal of distress flying, in the hope of
catching the notice of some passing vessel, as was the case after a
long while. It was my jacket which fluttered from the top of that
mast, and the old garment has been blown away long ago; but I don't
know any reason why the pole itself shouldn't be standing, and if it
is, you will find it on the right of the entrance to the lagoon."
The island, it will be understood, was an atoll--that is, a circular
fringe of coral, with a lagoon of the sea inside which was entered
through a comparatively narrow passage from the ocean. The atoll to
which the old sailor referred was extensive enough to furnish fresh
water and fruit, while at the entrance, and in other places, there was
a sufficient depth of sand to afford secure "anchorage" for the pole
which they erected. Peering through the spy-glass, Captain Bergen
could see the white line where the sea beat against the coral shores
and was rolled back again in foam. And while he was gazing, his
practiced eye detected a gap in the line of breakers--that is, a spot
where the white foam did not show itself. This must necessarily be the
opening through which the ocean flowed into the lagoon within the
island. Since it met with no opposition, it swept inward with a
smooth, grand sweep, which proved that the water was deep and without
any obstruction.
"Suppose he deceived me?"
Captain Bergen asked himself the question while he was scanning the
island.
It was the first time the thought suggested that maybe the sailor,
dying in the Boston hospital, had told him an untruth, and such a
shuddering, overwhelming feeling of disappointment came over the poor
fellow at that moment that he grew dizzy and sick at heart, and came
nigh losing his balance.
"No, it cannot be," he repeated, rallying himself, with a great
effort. "I have a better opinion of human nature than that."
His glasses were still pointed in the direction of the island, and he
was peering with an intensity that was painful at the spot where the
dark break in the foamy breakers showed the entrance to the atoll,
when he detected a black, needle-like column which rose from the beach
at one side of the entrance. It was so thin that he could not make
sure it was not some trick of his straining vision, and in doubt as to
its reality, he relieved his aching eye by removing the glass for a
moment and looking down on the deck beneath him.
He saw Redvignez and Brazzier standing at the bow, also gazing toward
the island, which was plainly visible from the deck. They occasionally
spoke, but their tones were so low that no word could be distinguished
by any ears excepting those for which they were intended. Mr. Storms
was at his post, and as Pomp and Inez were invisible, the conclusion
was inevitable that they were in the cabin, whence issued the
appetizing odor of cooking fish, and where no doubt the young lady
was receiving the attention which she expected as her right.
At this instant a peculiar experience came to the captain of the yacht
_Coral_. A slight flaw in the breeze, which was bearing the vessel
forward, caused the sails to flap, and must have made a sort of funnel
of one of them for the moment; or rather, as may be said, it made a
temporary whispering gallery of the deck and rigging of the craft. And
being such, it bore the following ominous words to Captain Bergen,
uttered, as they were, by Hyde Brazzier in a most guarded undertone:
"We shall be the two richest men in America!"
Captain Bergen was in that state of intense nervous sensibility in
which his perceptions were unnaturally acute, and he felt, on the
instant the words struck his ear, that they had a frightful meaning.
The two continued their cautious conference, but the sail favored
acoustics no longer, and the listener did not catch another syllable.
"They mean to kill Abe and me," he said to himself, "and run away with
the pearls. If they had determined to be honest men, and we had
secured any particular amount of wealth, they would have been rewarded
liberally. Forewarned is forearmed."
Captain Bergen was a brave man, and there was no fear of his
displaying any shrinking in the crisis which was evidently close at
hand.
Once more he raised the glass to his eye and gazed toward the inlet of
the atoll. During the few minutes that he had spent in looking down
upon the deck and listening, the schooner had made good speed, and the
island was less than a half mile distant. When the instrument was
pointed toward the place, he saw clearly and unmistakably the figure
of the mast standing beside the inlet, where it had been placed years
before by Grebbens and his companions.
This, then, was Pearl Island, as the New Englanders had named it; and
here it was that the bed of pearl oysters of fabulous richness was to
be found.
Something like a feeling of depression came over the captain when he
realized that the land of promise had risen on his vision at last. For
days, weeks and months this had been the one absorbing theme of his
mind. He had dreamed of it until he was almost, if not quite, a
monomaniac, and he had built air-castles until the whole sky of his
vision was filled with gorgeous structures. And it should be added, in
justice to both Bergen and Storms, that these structures were
creditable to the builders; for, realizing in the fullest sense that
about all they could extract personally from riches was their own
board and lodging, they had perfected a number of colossal schemes
for benefiting humanity; indeed, charity was the foundation-stone of
all these castles. And now, after these long months of waiting, he
seemed to see the wealth lying within his grasp, and something like a
reaction came to him.
"Is it worth all this?" he asked himself. "Is the gain likely to pay
for the peril in which we have placed ourselves?"
Still further, the ominous words which he had overheard impressed him
vividly with the impending danger in which he and his mate were
placed. He saw now that in taking Brazzier and Redvignez he had taken
two mutineers aboard, and two who, in all probability, had won the
giant African, Pomp, over to their side.
What was to be the outcome of all this?