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Two days later, Dias, José, and Maria arrived at Callao, having left
the mules at Lima.
"Was it got off all right, señor?" Dias asked.
"Yes. It was a pretty near touch, for we had to row nine hours, and
only saved our time by an hour."
"And when will you start again?"
"The _Nancy_ sails in four days, so I shall go down tomorrow morning. I
don't want to run the risk again of losing the boat."
"Well, we shall be stronger handed," Bertie said. "Of course I shall go
down with you; Dias says he will too; so we will be able to man four
oars, if necessary."
"What have you done with the goods?" Harry asked.
"I sold them all at Lima, señor, to the man I got them from. He took
off a third of the price, and said he could not have taken them if it
had not been that he had just got an order down from the Cerro mines,
and was short of some of the things they had ordered."
"That is all right, Dias."
Harry secured two rooms at the hotel, and they all sat talking far into
the night. "I hope you will get your silver down as comfortably as we
have got the gold."
"I have no fear about doing that, señor. The difficulty will be for me
to know what to do with it. I can never spend so much."
"Oh, nonsense, Dias!"
"I mean it, señor. Maria and I are quite agreed that we don't want any
larger house than we have got; and I know that if we did want a big
one, there would be all sorts of questions as to where I had got the
money from."
"There would be no difficulty in answering that, Dias. You told me how
your friend found five mule-loads of silver in the bats' cave. You have
only got to say that you found yours hidden away, which would be the
truth. José is nineteen now, and you will want to provide him with some
good mules, and to put by some money for him when he wants to marry and
settle. I know you spoke very highly of an institution at Lima for the
orphans of natives. You can hand them over some, and when you and Maria
don't want it any longer you can leave them the rest."
Maria cried bitterly in the morning when they said goodbye. "I shall
love you and pray for you always, señors," she sobbed. "I shall never
forget all your kindness."
"We owe you more than you owe us," Harry said. "You have always been
ready to do everything, and you have kept us alive with your merry talk
and good spirits. You may be very sure that we shall never forget you."
José was almost equally affected. "You will never come back, señor," he
said, as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
"I may some day, José. I think it likely that I shall some day get up a
company to drain that lake in the golden valley. The gold will be more
useful as money than lying there. It must depend partly upon whether
the country is settled. People will not put money into Peru as long as
you are always fighting here."
Maria and José would have accompanied them down to the boat the next
morning, but Dias pointed out to them that they were apparently only
going out for a day's sail, and that if there were any partings on the
shore it would at once attract the suspicions of the customs-house
officials there.
Accordingly, after a painful farewell, Dias and the two brothers went
down to the boat, where the mate was already awaiting them. The voyage
was as successful as the previous one had been. On the return journey
the wind held, and they arrived alongside of the _Nancy_ by eleven
o'clock; the bags were all safely in the hold by midnight. The first
mate of the ship had two days before been taken with fever and sent
ashore, and the captain had gladly accepted the offer of Harry's
assistant to take the berth of second mate, that officer having
succeeded to the post of the first. Harry had told him that he could
sell the boat, and he had, before starting on the trip, done so, on the
understanding that it would be found on the beach in charge of Dias
when the _Nancy_ had sailed.
Harry had given him another ten pounds to provide himself with an
outfit, and had also asked him to distribute twenty among his former
shipmates for the same purpose, as these had lost all their clothing
except what they stood in. The ship's dinghy, with a couple of hands,
towed the boat, with Dias in it, to the shore. The muleteer was greatly
affected at parting with Harry and his brother.
"It has been a fortunate journey for us both," Dias said, "and I shall
always look back to the time we spent together with the greatest
pleasure."
"Here is a piece of paper with my address in London. I know that you
will have no difficulty in getting letters written for you. Let me hear
from you once every six months or so, telling me how you are getting
on, and I will write to you. Good-bye! We shall always remember you,
and be thankful that we had so faithful a guide here, and, I may say,
so faithful a friend."
The voyage home was an uneventful one, save that they met with a heavy
storm while rounding the Horn, and for some days the vessel was in
great danger. However, she weathered it safely, and when she arrived in
the Thames she found that the _London_ had come up on the previous tide.
"If it hadn't been for that storm we should have beaten her easily,"
the captain said. "But I don't mind losing that fiver, considering that
we have gained four days on her."
On landing, Harry went straight to the Bank of England and informed the
managers that he had two hundred and eighty-two ingots of gold,
weighing about twenty pounds each, which he wished to deposit in their
vaults until they could weigh them and place their value to his credit,
and he requested them to send down one of their waggons to the docks
the next day to receive them. On the following evening he had the
satisfaction of knowing that the whole of the treasure was at last in
safe-keeping. Then he took a hackney-coach and drove to Jermyn Street,
where he had taken rooms, having the night before carried there the
trunks which he had stored before he left England. He smiled as he
spread out suit after suit.
"I don't know anything about the fashions now," he said, "and for aught
I can tell they may have changed altogether. However, I don't suppose
there will be such an alteration that I shall look as if I had come out
of the ark. Certainly I am not going to wait till I get a new outfit.
"It did not seem to me," he said to himself, "that I left a
ridiculously large wardrobe before I went. But after knocking about for
two years with a single change, it really does seem absurd that I
should ever have thought I absolutely required all these things. Now, I
suppose I had better write to the old man and say that I have returned,
and shall call upon him to-morrow. The chances are ten to one against
my catching him in now, and as this is rather a formal sort of
business, I had better give him due notice; but I cannot keep Hilda in
suspense. I wonder whether she has the same maid as she had before I
went away. I have given the girl more than one half-guinea, and to do
her justice I believe that she was so attached to her mistress that she
would have done anything for her without them. Still, I can't very well
knock at the door and ask for Miss Fortescue's maid; I expect I must
trust the note to a footman. If she does not get it, there is no harm
done; if he hands it to her father, no doubt it would put him in a
towering rage, but he will cool down by the time I see him in the
morning."
He sat down and wrote two notes. The first was to Mr. Fortescue; it
only said:--
"Dear Sir,--I have returned from abroad, and shall do myself the
pleasure of calling upon you at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning to
discuss with you a matter of much importance to myself."
The note to Hilda was still shorter:--
"My darling,--I am home and am going to call on your father at eleven
o'clock tomorrow morning. I am two months within the two years.--Yours
devotedly,
"HARRY PRENDERGAST."
Having sealed both letters, he walked to Bedford Square. When the door
opened, he saw that the footman was one of those who had been in Mr.
Fortescue's service before he left.
"You have not forgotten me, Edward, have you?"
"Why, it is Mr. Prendergast! Well, sir, it is a long time since we saw
you."
"Yes, I have been abroad. Will you hand this letter to Mr. Fortescue.
Is he in at present?"
"No, sir; he and Mrs. Fortescue are both out. Miss Fortescue is out
too."
"Well now, Edward, will you hand this letter quietly to Miss Fortescue
when she comes in?" and he held out the note and a guinea with it.
The man hesitated.
"You need not be afraid of giving it to her," Harry went on. "It is
only to tell her what I have told your master in my letter to him, that
I am going to call tomorrow."
"Then I shall be glad to do it," the man said--for, as usual, the
servants were pretty well acquainted with the state of affairs, and
when Harry went away, and their young mistress was evidently in
disgrace with her father, they guessed pretty accurately what had
happened, and their sympathies were with the lovers. Harry returned to
Jermyn Street confident that Hilda would get his note that evening. He
had no feeling of animosity against her father, It was natural that, as
a large land-owner, and belonging to an old family, and closely
connected with more than one peer of the realm, he should offer strong
opposition to the marriage of his daughter to a half-pay lieutenant,
and he had been quite prepared for the burst of anger with which his
request for her hand had been received. He had felt that it was a
forlorn hope; but he and Hilda hoped that in time the old man would
soften, especially as they had an ally in her mother. Hilda had three
brothers, and as the estates and the bulk of Mr. Fortescue's fortune
would go to them, she was not a great heiress, though undoubtedly she
would be well dowered.
On arriving the next morning Harry was shown into the library. Mr.
Fortescue rose from his chair and bowed coldly.
"To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, Mr. Prendergast? I
had hoped that the emphatic way in which I rejected your--you will
excuse my saying--presumptuous request for the hand of my daughter,
would have settled the matter once and for all; and I trust that your
request for an interview to-day does not imply that you intend to renew
that proposal, which I may say at once would receive, and will receive
as long as I live, the same answer as I before gave you."
"It has that object, sir," Harry said quietly, "but under somewhat
changed conditions. I asked you at that time to give me two years, in
which time possibly my circumstances might change. You refused to give
me a single week; but your daughter was more kind, and promised to wait
for the two years, which will not be up for two more months."
"She has behaved like a froward and obstinate girl," her father said
angrily. "She has refused several most eligible offers, and I have to
thank you for it. Well, sir, I hope at least that you have the grace to
feel that it is preposterous that you should any longer stand in the
way of this misguided girl."
"I have come to say that if it is her wish and yours that I should
stand aside, as you say, I will do so, and in my letters I told her
that unless circumstances should be changed before the two years have
expired I would disappear altogether from her path."
"That is something at least, sir," Mr. Fortescue said with more
courtesy than he had hitherto shown. "I need not say that there is no
prospect of your obtaining my consent, and may inform you that my
daughter promised not to withstand my commands as far as you are
concerned beyond the expiration of the two years. I do not know that
there is anything more to say."
"I should not have come here, sir, had there not been more to say, but
should simply have addressed a letter to you saying that I withdrew all
pretensions to your daughter's hand. But I have a good deal more to
say. I have during the time that I have been away succeeded in
improving my condition to a certain extent."
"Pooh, pooh, sir!" the other said angrily. "Suppose you made a thousand
or two, what possible difference could it make?"
"I am not foolish enough to suppose that it would do so; but at least
this receipt from the Bank of England, for gold deposited in their
hands, will show you that the sums you mention have been somewhat
exceeded."
"Tut, tut, I don't wish to see it! it can make no possible difference
in the matter."
"At least, sir, you will do me the courtesy to read it, or if you
prefer not to do so I will read it myself."
"Give it me," Mr. Fortescue said, holding out his hand. "Let us get
through this farce as soon as possible; it is painful to us both."
He put on his spectacles, glanced at the paper, and gave a sudden
start, read it again, carefully this time, and then said slowly:
"Do you mean that the two hundred and eighty-two ingots, containing in
all five thousand six hundred and forty pounds weight of gold, are your
property? That is to say, that you are the sole owner of them, and not
only the representative of some mining company?"
"It is the sole property, Mr. Fortescue, of my brother and myself. I
own two-thirds of it. It is lost treasure recovered by us from the sea,
where it has been lying ever since the conquest of Peru by Pizarro."
"There is no mistake about this? The word pounds is not a mistake for
ounces?--although even that would represent a very large sum."
"The bank would not be likely to make such a mistake as that, sir. The
ingots weigh about twenty pounds each. I had a small piece of the gold
assayed at Callao, and its value was estimated at four pounds per
ounce. Roughly, then, the value of the sum deposited at the bank is two
hundred and seventy thousand pounds."
"Prodigious!" Mr. Fortescue murmured.
"Well, Mr. Prendergast, I own that you have astounded me. It would be
absurd to deny that this altogether alters the position. Against you
personally I have never had anything to say. You were always a welcome
visitor to my house till I saw how matters were tending. Your family,
like my own, is an old one, and your position as an officer in the
King's Naval Service is an honourable one. However, I must ask you to
give me a day to reflect over the matter, to consult with my wife, and
to ascertain that my daughter's disposition in the matter is unchanged."
"Thank you, sir! But I trust that you will allow me to have an
interview with Miss Fortescue now. It is two years since we parted, and
she has suffered great anxiety on my account, and on the matter of my
safety at least I would not keep her a moment longer in suspense."
"I think that after the turn the matter has taken your request is a
reasonable one. You are sure to find her in the drawing-room with her
mother at present. I think it is desirable that you should not see her
alone until the matter is formally arranged."
Prendergast bowed.
"I am content to wait," he said with a slight smile.
"I will take you up myself," the other said.
Harry could have done without the guidance, for he knew the house well.
However, he only bowed again, and followed the old man upstairs.
The latter opened the door and said to his wife: "My dear, I have
brought an old friend up to see you;" and as Harry entered he closed
the door and went down to the library again.
"Nearly two hundred thousand pounds!" he said. "A splendid fortune!
Nearly twice as much as I put by before I left the bar. How in the
world could he have got it? 'Got it up out of the sea,' he said; a
curious story. However, with that acknowledgment from the bank there
can be no mistake about it. Well, well, it might be worse. I always
liked the young fellow till he was fool enough to fall in love with
Hilda, and worse still, she with him. The silly girl might have had a
coronet. However, there is no accounting for these things, and I am
glad that the battle between us is at an end. I was only acting for her
good, and I should have been mad to let her throw herself away on a
penniless officer on half-pay."
Mrs. Fortescue waved her hand as Harry, on entering, was about to speak
to her.
"Go to her first," she said; "she has waited long enough for you."
And he turned to Hilda.
He made a step towards her and held out his arms, and with a little cry
of joy she ran into them.
"And is it all right?" she said a minute later. "Can it really be all
right?"
"You may be quite sure that it is all right, Hilda," Mrs. Fortescue
said. "Do you think your father would have brought him up here if it
hadn't been? Now you can come to me, Harry."
"I am glad," she said heartily. "We have had a very bad time. Now,
thank God, it is all over. You see she has only had me to stand by her,
for her brothers, although they have not taken open part against her,
have been disposed to think that it was madness her wasting two years
on the chance of your making a fortune. Of course you have done so, or
you would not be in this drawing-room at present."
"I have done very well, Mrs. Fortescue. I was able to show Mr.
Fortescue a receipt for gold amounting to nearly three hundred thousand
pounds, of which two-thirds belong to me, the rest to my brother."
Mrs. Fortescue uttered an exclamation of astonishment.
"What have you been doing, Harry?" she asked--"plundering a Nabob?"
"Nabobs do not dwell in Peru," he laughed. "No, I have discovered a
long-lost treasure, which, beyond any doubt, was part of the wealth of
Atahualpa, the unfortunate monarch whom Pizarro first plundered and
then slew. It had been sent off by sea, and the vessel was lost. It is
too long a story to tell now."
"And Papa has quite consented, Harry?"
Harry smiled.
"Virtually so, as you might suppose by his bringing me up here.
Actually he has deferred the matter, pending a consultation with you
and Mrs. Fortescue, and will give me his formal answer to-morrow."
The two ladies both smiled.
"If he said that, the matter is settled," the elder said; "he has never
asked my opinion before on the subject, and I have never volunteered
it. But I am sure he has not the slightest doubt as to what I thought
of it. So we can consider it as happily settled after all. If I had
thought that there was the slightest chance of your making a fortune
quickly I should have spoken out; but as I thought it absolutely
hopeless, I have done what I could privately to support Hilda, always
saying, however, that if at the end of the two years nothing came of
it, I could not in any way countenance her throwing away the chances of
her life."
"You were quite right, Mrs. Fortescue. I had fully intended to write to
Hilda at the end of that time releasing her from all promises that she
had made to me, and saying that I felt that I had no right to trouble
her further; but from what she wrote to me, I doubt whether her father
would have found her altogether amenable to his wishes even at the end
of the two years."
A month later there was a wedding in Bedford Square. Among those
present no one was more gratified than Mr. Barnett, whose surprise and
satisfaction were great when Harry told him in confidence the result of
his advice, and especially of his introduction to the Indian guide.
It had been arranged that nothing should be said as to the source from
which Harry had obtained his wealth, as it was possible that the
Peruvian government might set up some claim to it, and it was in Mr.
Fortescue's opinion very doubtful what the result would be, as it had
been discovered so close to the shore.
Harry never took any steps with reference to the gold valley, for the
constant troubles in Peru were sufficient to deter any wealthy men from
investing money there.
The correspondence between him and Dias and his wife was maintained
until they died full of years and greatly lamented by numbers of their
countrymen to whom they had been benefactors.
Bertie never went to sea again except in his own yacht, but when he
came of age, bought an estate near Southampton, and six years later
brought home a mistress for it.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Treasure of the Incas, by G. A. Henty