"Yes," replied the lad.
"Then, here you are, sir."
Roger slipped the mug in front of the hole, and caught the liquid in it
as it came gurgling out. He let the mug fill, and then the bung was
returned to its place and driven home with the hammer. So far as colour
and smell were concerned there could be little doubt that the liquor was
brandy, as Irwin had surmised.
Roger was not greatly addicted to the use of spirits, being, indeed,
exceedingly temperate; he therefore considered himself but a poor judge
of its quality. Nevertheless he sipped at the contents of the mug, and,
having tasted, said that, so far as he could tell, the stuff was good
spirit enough, and at any rate he was certain that it had not been got
at by the salt water. Bevan and Irwin then each took a taste--a pretty
long taste it was too, for they returned the mug to Roger empty,--both
pronouncing it to be the finest brandy of France that had ever passed
their lips. They, being seamen, would have very much liked some more;
but Roger pointed out that the spirit must be regarded as medicine only,
and must be carefully conserved for use as such if ever any of
themselves should be taken ill. The men fortunately had sense enough to
see that Roger was right in what he said, and agreed to the liquor being
kept for use in case of necessity.
It was now time to prepare the next meal, and this was done; a perfect
feast of eggs, turtle steaks, bread, and turtle soup constituting the
"spread". Evans was again aroused, and given a few spoonfuls of the
soup, with a liberal allowance of brandy in it. He seemed too dazed to
enquire where all this nourishing and wholesome food had come from, but
managed to swallow his portion, and it revived him so much that he sat
up without assistance. His faculties seemed to return to a certain
extent, and presently he asked for more. This was given him,
supplemented this time by a small quantity of brandy and hot water. The
spirit seemed to do him more good than anything else. The light came
back gradually to the fast-dimming eyes, and a spot of colour made its
appearance in his ashen face. He swallowed with great difficulty; but,
taking his time, he managed to eat a very fair quantity of food for a
man sick nigh unto death, and the food, together with the stimulant,
revived him so much that for a time Roger thought that with care,
constant attention, and good food they might even now save the man's
life after all. But the effect was only transient, and it was not long
before he had to lie down again; his eyes lost their fire, and he
gradually dropped back into a stupor similar to that from which he had
been aroused to take his meal.
Roger was greatly moved by the poor wretch's condition, and was very
quiet and reserved for the remainder of the day; the two sailors,
however, had seen more of the world and its vicissitudes than the lad,
and it did not affect them at all. When night fell, all retired to
their improvised couches, it being considered unnecessary to keep a
watch; for they replenished the fire so thoroughly before turning in
that it would burn until morning. And if the ships should by any chance
happen to sight the island during the night, they must inevitably see
the fire, built as it was on the highest point of the bank, and, seeing
it, would know that the castaways were alive on the island. They would
then naturally heave-to until daylight.
Day dawned, and all hands turned out, the invalid, of course, excepted.
Breakfast was cooked, and they sat down to the meal with very hearty
appetites, despite the fact that upon looking round them the horizon was
found to be bare of ships. Evans was again roused from his now constant
stupor, and managed to take a little soup and brandy; but he immediately
afterwards sank back again exhausted, and relapsed at once into his
usual state. The two seamen went away to fish from the reef running
into the sea close to where the turtle was taken, and Roger remained in
camp to look after Evans.
The men had not long been absent on the fishing excursion, and Roger was
busy in the hut, when the sick man moved, turned on his side, and,
opening his eyes, fixed them on Roger's face. A sepulchral voice issued
from the man's lips, and Roger understood him to ask that he should come
close to his side. He, of course, immediately acquiesced, and lay down
on the ground beside the man, so that his lips might be level with
Roger's ear, and thus enable the poor fellow to speak without further
weakening himself by raising his voice. The man asked for some brandy,
and Roger at once gave it to him. This revived him a little, and he was
now able to speak, though in a very low, weak, and husky voice, in which
the near approach of death could now be heard. It was clear, indeed,
that the invalid was sinking fast, and that he earnestly wished to
communicate something to Roger before he died. First he asked the lad
to see if the two sailors were anywhere near. The boy told him that
they had gone fishing; but this did not satisfy him, he would have Roger
look and make sure. To satisfy him, therefore, Roger went outside and
took a look round, and, the men being nowhere in sight, he went in and
reported the fact to Evans. Evans then signed to the lad to come closer
and sit down, so that he could speak directly into his ear. Pulling
himself together with an effort, he said:
"You have been very kind to me, young man, and I am going to recompense
you by giving you the papers that I stole from Jose Leirya's cabin, also
the cipher, which, when translated, will put the owner of it into the
possession of that scoundrel's enormous treasure--always provided, of
course, that Leirya has not already returned ere this and secured it
himself. But I do not think he has; for, as I told you at the end of my
yarn, when I left him, or rather when he left me here, he was going for
a cruise in the Mexican Gulf. As I mentioned, the treasure is hidden
somewhere on the shore of that inlet at the east end of Cuba, the
latitude and longitude of which I gave you. But you will have to
ascertain the precise locality of the treasure for yourself by
translating the cipher; for I do not know it, nor does any other living
man, except Jose Leirya himself. You will perhaps say that some one of
those who helped him to bury it must know, and doubtless they did--once;
but of those who left the vessel to bury the stuff with Jose not one
ever returned to the vessel, or was heard of afterward. The crew of the
ship so stood in awe of our captain that they dared not remonstrate or
make any enquiry; but we were all convinced in our minds that he did
away with those men by poison, and buried them in the brushwood near the
beach. There were seven men to bury the treasure with him, and, big and
strong as he was, and is, he could not have killed them all openly, or
in fair fight. Jose may, or may not, know by this time that I have the
key to the hiding-place of his treasure; but if he does he will not dare
to remove it and attempt to bury it elsewhere; for all in the ship are
aware of what took place when he first buried it, and none would go with
him again to assist him, and he could not undertake the job alone.
Besides, he has always expressed the utmost confidence that no one could
ever translate the cipher without the key, and that he carries in his
own brain; so he will almost surely leave his wealth where it is. I do
not want your seamen to know, for those men could not keep silence; the
news would soon be known to all, and then, of course, it would no longer
be a secret. The papers I have not examined; I merely looked at them to
make certain that the cipher was there, and, finding that it was, I
troubled no further. But you had better examine them, as there may be
something of value among them. I told you in my yarn that we had a
driver on the galley named Alvarez, who left her before Jose Leirya came
aboard, or if I did not, I intended to. Well, I must tell you that
there were originally two copies of the cipher, and Alvarez, whilst an
officer in a Spanish ship of war, employed an agent of his to join the
crew of the pirate vessel and steal the cipher, if possible, as Alvarez
had heard all the circumstances relative to the treasure from one of his
spies, of whom he employs a great number. This spy obeyed his orders,
but was only able to secure one copy, leaving the other, which I now
possess. We discovered the theft while lying in the very harbour where
the treasure is hidden; but the spy got to hear that all was known, and
sprang over the side, intending, of course, to swim ashore. But as he
went he was followed by a shower of bullets, and we saw him no more; so
I feel very certain that he lies at the bottom of the bay, and that
Alvarez did not get the cipher he wanted."
Thought Roger to himself: "I'm pretty certain he did, and, what is more,
I know now that he had it in his cabin aboard the _Gloria del Mundo_,
and this man little thinks that I have the very paper he is talking
about in my pocket at this very moment; for it must be the same." He
said nothing, however; and the dying man resumed:
"You have therefore no rival to fear except Jose himself; and if you
should destroy his ship and himself--as I hope your captain will do when
you have told him my story--you will be certain of vast wealth, provided
that you can translate the cipher, which I believe you will certainly be
able to do, for all that Jose says as to its impossibility without the
key. Now I am exhausted with talking so much. Please give me a little
more brandy." Roger did so, finding the man too weak to lift the mug to
his lips, and almost too far gone to swallow. Having recovered
somewhat, he continued in a weak voice, taking a packet from his pocket:
"And now, here is the packet of papers, and the cipher is with them.
Keep them safely by you, and part with them under no circumstances or
conditions whatever. If you do this your fortune is certain."
He ceased speaking, and his head fell heavily back on his hard couch.
Roger sprang for more brandy, and lifted the poor fellow's head, but he
appeared lifeless. Roger wetted his lips with the spirit, and presently
they parted sufficiently to enable the lad to pour a little into his
mouth. This was gradually swallowed, and Roger poured in a little more,
which was also taken; and in a few seconds a heavy sigh escaped the lips
of the sufferer, and his eyes opened. But there was a glaze over them
that told its own tale. The white lips opened, and Roger, bending down,
heard the last words that Evans ever spoke.
"God bless you, sir," he said, "and keep you safe! Keep your promise to
me, sir. Good-bye! I die now, and am glad!" The eyes went duller
still, the lips ceased to move, the body seemed to stiffen, and grew
suddenly cold. Roger knew that the end had come, that the poor fellow's
troubles were at last over, and that he was at rest.
Roger remained for some moments sitting, and lost in thought; then,
rising, he placed the blanket over the dead man's face and went outside
the hut. He determined to go and find his two sailors, and inform them
of what had happened, so that they might come and assist him in burying
the body at once; for in that climate it was necessary to bury a body as
soon as possible after death, for sanitary reasons.
The lad had not gone very far from the hut when he remembered that he
was still holding the packet of papers in his hand; so he slipped them
into the pocket where he always kept the other cipher. But as he did so
he paused for a moment and then drew the papers forth again, determined
there and then to compare the two ciphers, for he felt almost positive
in his own mind that the two ciphers would be found to be identical. He
therefore sat down at the foot of a palm-tree in the shade, and, undoing
the packet, compared the two papers, finding, as he anticipated, that
the ciphers were written in exactly the same terms. "Therefore,"
thought Roger, "the spy of Alvarez managed after all to evade the
musket-balls fired at him, and succeeded in conveying the cipher to
Alvarez. No wonder that the Spaniard was so anxious to find his papers
that day in the cabin of the _Gloria del Mundo_!"
Having satisfied himself on this point, he returned the papers to his
pocket, buttoned up his jacket again, and continued on his way to find
the sailors. They presently made their appearance, thus saving him the
trouble of searching for them, and he saw that they were laden with as
much fish as they could carry. They explained that they had caught far
more than was necessary for present use, but that they intended to try
the experiment of drying it in the sun, even as they had done with the
turtle's flesh, thus--in the event of success--providing a store of food
against any contingency that might arise.
Roger, of course, returned with the men, and on the way back recounted
to them the fact of poor Evans's death, and of his desire to bury the
body at once.
The three were soon back at the hut, and, choosing a spot at some
distance from it, dug a grave in the sand with sharpened pieces of wood,
as they had no other implements. The hole having presently been made
sufficiently deep, they returned to the palm-grove, and laying a blanket
on the floor, placed the inanimate body thereon. Then, Bevan taking one
end of the blanket and Irwin the other, they carried the corpse away to
its lonely grave, and reverently laid it therein. This done, Roger,
kneeling by the grave-side, said a prayer, whilst the seamen stood by
with bared heads, after which the sand was shovelled back, and a small
mound raised over the grave.
The death of Evans affected the three survivors more or less during the
remainder of the day; they were all very silent and thoughtful, and
turned in early to sleep. About midnight Roger awoke with a vague sense
of some impending evil. He turned and turned again upon his hard couch,
but found it impossible to sleep. After a time he began to feel that
there was a something missing to which he had been accustomed. He
racked his brain over and over again, vainly trying to remember what it
was, but for some time without success. Then it came suddenly upon him
that the usual faint reflection of the glow which the big fire at the
beach had been wont to throw round the hut was absent. Quickly getting
into a few clothes, he stepped out of the hut, and saw that the moon in
her first quarter was rising high in the heavens, giving just sufficient
light for him to distinguish objects faintly. He therefore did not take
the lantern with him, but at once walked away down to the beach, where
he found the fire out and cold. They had forgotten to replenish it
before turning in for the night. He took out his tinder-box, in order
to get a light, when he happened to look up, and to seaward. And there,
before his astonished gaze, he saw a vessel riding at anchor about two
miles from the shore. In the first paroxysm of his joy, Roger was about
to call aloud, imagining the craft to be one of the vessels of
Cavendish's squadron; but on looking again, and studying the craft more
closely, he saw that she was altogether different from any of the
vessels in the fleet. He was wondering who or what she could be, when
Evans's description of a certain ship flashed across his mind. Yes,
there she certainly was, exactly as Evans had described--the black,
long, and low-lying hull, the flush deck, the schooner rig, and the
enormously tall, tapering, and raking spars! Yes, in that moment Roger
knew her for what she was.
She was the pirate schooner of Jose Leirya!
The man had doubtless missed his papers, and, guessing who had taken
them, had come back to secure them. Evidently knowing the bad landing,
Leirya was waiting for daylight before attempting to send his boats
ashore.
"Six hours more of darkness!" thought Roger, and he bounded back to the
hut as fast as he could go. He awoke the two seamen, and told them all
in a few words. They were naturally overwhelmed with consternation, not
knowing what to do. But said Roger: "I have a plan that may possibly
save us. We must put all our provisions back in the casks, and bury
them in the sand. Then we must hide everything that we brought ashore,
leaving out only poor Evans's belongings. The new hut we must, of
course, leave--they will think that Evans built that himself,--but we
must remove from it every trace of our own presence on the islet. Then,
poor fellow, we must unearth his body and lay it in the hut, covering
him up. When they come ashore in the morning, as of course they will,
they will see that he is recently dead, and will not dream that he has
been once buried already, if we are careful to remove all traces. It
will naturally be thought that he died here alone and untended. We must
be very careful to efface every sign of our presence here, and leave
only such things as Evans had when we arrived, or may be reasonably
supposed to have collected from the beach. Then, as to hiding
ourselves--At the extreme seaward end of the rocks, where you to-day
caught your fish, there is a hollow big enough to conceal a dozen men; I
particularly noticed it when I was on the spot. We must take some food
and water, and hide there until the pirates leave. They will not
attempt to land at that place, for the reason that a boat could not be
safely put alongside the rocks; and if we carefully hide everything
belonging to ourselves they will not suspect that anyone else is here,
and will not search. Now we must be quick, for our lives depend upon
it. If we are found we shall certainly die horribly. Quick now, men!
we must do everything that has to be done, and be safely hidden before
daybreak, or we shall be seen."