This secret conversation between Joe and myself--secret by reason of the
intense darkness of the night, and by the precautions I had deemed it
expedient to take, at an early stage of the conversation, to conceal my
precise whereabouts from any prying eyes among the starboard watch--at
first produced within me a feeling of the keenest uneasiness and
anxiety. For Joe's revelation as to the discovery by the late steward
of my secret relating to the concealed treasure furnished me with what
had previously been lacking, namely, _a motive_ for that secret plotting
of the existence of which Joe was so firmly convinced. The story to
which I had that night listened left no room for doubt in my mind that
my own want of caution and the late steward's inquisitive propensities
had placed within the knowledge of the latter the two important facts
that I possessed the secret of a concealed treasure, and that it was my
intention, on leaving Sydney, to proceed in search of it. Moreover, it
was clear enough that the fellow had no sooner acquired this knowledge
than he concocted a plan for the eventual acquisition of the treasure,
and made some effort to secure the assistance of the crew in the
carrying out of this plan, whatever it might happen to have been.
Failing in this, might he not, out of sheer malice, have communicated
the secret to some one else--our present cook, for instance--and
instigated the man to take some such steps as himself had contemplated?
Such a proceeding would at once account satisfactorily for the curious
fact that I had succeeded in obtaining a crew when no other shipmaster
within the port could do so. The only weak element of such a
supposition consisted in my inability to reconcile myself to the belief
that such a man as our late steward would ever, under any provocation,
be weak enough to part with a secret that might, even under the most
unlikely combination of circumstances and in the most distant future,
possibly be of some advantage to himself. Yet this man, Martin, whose
life I had saved, and who had impressed me as being a thoroughly honest,
straightforward, trustworthy fellow, roundly asserted that something of
a secret and mysterious character was going on among the newly shipped
men--something from which he, on account of his assumed integrity, had
been quietly yet consistently excluded; and he had heard the word
"treasure" mentioned by these presumable conspirators. Then I argued
with myself that, after all, when one came to reflect upon it, the
exclusive ways of these ex-gold-miners and the mere mention of the word
"treasure" seemed rather slender threads from which to weave so
portentous a suspicion as that which Joe's communication had suggested.
For aught that I knew, the late steward's discourses upon the subject of
the treasure might have been of such a character as to suggest to the
minds of his hearers an absurdly exaggerated idea of its value, leaving
upon honest Joe's mind the impression that it must be fabulously rich,
and altogether the kind of thing to obtain possession of which men would
hesitate at no crime, however monstrous. And, having had experience of
one attempt to gain possession of it by means of treachery, was it not
natural that the simple fellow, discovering, or believing that he had
discovered, something in the nature of a secret understanding among his
shipmates, should at once leap to the conclusion that it was nothing
less than a second attempt upon the treasure that was being planned? As
to the cook's inquiry whether Joe would not rather be a rich man than be
obliged to follow the sea for the remainder of his life, I thought
nothing of that; sailors--like everybody else--are possessed of a rooted
conviction that wealth is the panacea of all evils. By the time that I
had reached this point in my mental argument it was eight bells, and,
Forbes coming on deck to relieve me, I went to my cabin more than half
convinced that Joe had, after all, discovered a mare's nest; and having
thus argued myself into a more comfortable frame of mind, I lay down and
slept soundly until I was called by the steward at my usual hour of
rising.
I will do Joe the justice to say that, having settled in his mind the
part that he would play in the drama that he believed was evolving
itself on board the barque, he thenceforth played it to the life, and
with a skill so consummate as to deceive the most suspicious. He
assumed the role of a man who, if let alone, would be willing enough to
do his duty honestly, and to the best of his ability, but who could not
and would not tolerate the smallest measure of injustice. And he gave
himself all the airs of an aggrieved person--of one who has been harshly
treated for a trivial fault; his whole manner was the very impersonation
of sullen resentment, and the careless, slovenly way in which he
performed his duties was a constant source of provocation to me, even
though I knew--or thought I knew--that it was all assumed. So
exasperating was he that sometimes I even doubted whether his behaviour
really was assumption--whether, after all, I had not been deceived in
the man; whether it was not rather his former good behaviour that was
assumed, while his present delinquencies were the result of an outbreak
of irrepressible evil in him. There were even times when I asked myself
whether he might not be a ringleader in the very plot he professed to be
so anxious to discover, and whether his anxiety to enlighten me might
not be assumed for the purpose of blinding and misleading me the more
effectually. Never in all my life had I witnessed so thorough and
radical a change in any one as seemed to have come over Joe Martin. But
a quiet word or two with him, or a glance into his honest eyes when no
one was near enough at hand to read their expression, always sufficed to
reassure me as to his absolute fidelity. Since it was possible for him
to make me doubt him, despite the many evidences he had afforded me of
his honesty, it is not to be wondered at that Sir Edgar and Lady Emily
were completely deceived by him; and often did they, in the comparative
privacy of the saloon, deplore Joe's lamentable fall from his original
virtuous condition. On such occasions I always assumed a tone of
righteous indignation and severity, giving as free vent as possible to
the very real annoyance that the fellow's pranks frequently occasioned
me; inwardly resolving at the same time that, if he emerged with
unblemished reputation from the perplexingly contradictory _role_ he was
then enacting, I would do him the most lavish justice when the proper
time arrived.
The number of men we now had on board the barque, and the constitution
of the watches, were such that one of Joe's "tricks" at the wheel always
occurred from two to four o'clock on every alternate morning; and these
were the only opportunities when it was possible for us to exchange
confidences with any degree of safety from the possibility of discovery.
Consequently, after having had a chat with Joe, I always had to wait
forty-eight hours before I could learn what discoveries--if any--he had
made in the interim. After the last-recorded long chat that we had had
together, two such opportunities had passed without the occurrence of
anything in the forecastle of a sufficiently definite character to
furnish Joe with matter for a report; though he insisted that the
frequent brief, hurried consultations, and the increased caution of the
conspirators, convinced him that something very momentous must be
impending. Such a statement naturally reawakened all my anxiety; which
was not lessened by the fact that we now had a moon, in her second
quarter, affording a sufficient amount of light to render our
confidential communications at night almost impossible without
detection; while, to add to my embarrassment, I expected to sight the
island within the next forty hours.
I thought the time had now arrived when I ought to take the mate into my
confidence, and I did so during the progress of the following afternoon
watch; taking care that our conversation should be as brief as possible,
and that it should be conducted out of earshot of all eavesdroppers. As
I had anticipated, Forbes seemed very much disposed to make light of the
matter, and to regard it as a hallucination of Joe's; protesting that,
so far from having observed any symptoms of revolt or insubordination,
he had been simply astonished at such orderly behaviour on the part of
men who had lived the comparatively lawless life of diggers on a new
gold-field. In short, we were both thoroughly puzzled. But we
eventually agreed that, under the circumstances, it would be prudent to
keep our eyes open, and to adopt precisely such precautionary measures
as we should resort to if we were expecting the men to break into open
mutiny. I also undertook to find or make an opportunity to instruct Joe
that, in the event of his making any fresh discoveries, he was at once
to acquaint the mate with them, if he experienced any difficulty in
communicating with me.
On that same evening, during the first watch, when--the ladies having
retired as usual about four bells--Sir Edgar joined me, according to
custom, to smoke a final cigar and indulge in a desultory chat before
retiring to his own cabin for the night, I availed myself of the
opportunity to explain the situation to him also; first cautioning him
not to exhibit any astonishment or other emotion that might excite the
suspicions of the helmsman, who would doubtless have his eyes upon us.
He was, of course, and naturally enough, very much discomposed at such
startling intelligence; the more so that I was unable to give him any
definite information as to the character of the danger with which we
were threatened; but he maintained the same enviable coolness and
composure of manner that I had so greatly admired on the memorable night
of our adventure in the Straits of Sunda, and assured me that I might
rely upon him to be ready for action in any emergency, however sudden.
It was my middle watch below that night, and I had been in my berth
about an hour, tossing restlessly from side to side, and striving to
devise plans to meet every contingency I could possibly think of, when I
heard a sound of muffled footsteps outside my state-room door, followed
by a very gentle cautious tap upon the panelling.
"Yes," I answered, in a low cautious tone; "who is there?"
"It's Joe, sir," was the reply, in an equally subdued tone of voice.
"I've got some news for you at last, with a vengeance!"
I opened the door; and, sure enough, there stood Joe, glancing anxiously
over his shoulder, as though he every moment expected to be followed and
dragged on deck before he could make his communication.
Signing to him to enter the cabin, I noiselessly closed the door behind
him, and, pointing toward the locker, said--
"Now, Joe, heave ahead, my man, and tell me your story in your own way.
But, first of all, how did you manage to get here without being seen by
any of the men?"
"Well, sir," said Joe, "it wasn't very easy, and that's a fact. I
wanted to have a word with you durin' the first watch, but you was
talking with Sir Edgar; and, if you hadn't been, it'd ha' been all the
same, because I couldn't ha' left the forecastle without bein' missed.
So I had to wait until our watch was relieved and had gone below; and
then I had to wait again until they was all asleep, when I slips out of
my bunk, careless-like, leavin' the blankets all heaped-up so that
they'd look, in the dim light, as if I was still there. Then I creeps
up on deck, very quiet, but ready primed with a hexcuse in case any o'
the watch wanted to know what I was doin' on deck in my watch below.
But the lookout was comfortably perched between the knight-heads,
smokin', with his back to the deck, so he didn't see me; and, as for the
other two, I expects they was in the galley, takin' a snooze, for I
didn't see anything of 'em. So I slips aft, in the shadder of the
long-boat, and dodges round abaft the mainmast until I got the companion
between me and the man at the wheel, when I climbs up on the poop, and
crawls along the deck on all-fours to the companion-way; then down I
comes, without even Mr Forbes seein' me."
"All right, Joe," said I. "But I shall have to go on deck and let the
mate know, when you are ready to go for'ard again, or he might catch
sight of you and pounce upon you without knowing who you are; which
would simply ruin everything. However, we can arrange that presently.
Now, let me know what it is that you have to tell me."
"Well, sir, it's just this," returned Joe. "These here carryin's on of
mine, and the way that you've been down upon me of late, has done the
trick; and, to-night, durin' the second dog-watch, the bosun tackled me,
and, after a good deal of box-haulin' about, told me what their little
game is, and asked me if I'd jine 'em."
"Go on, Joe," said I; "tell me everything that passed, as nearly as you
can."
"Well," continued Joe--who, it may be well to explain, had, as usual,
been behaving most outrageously all day--"I'm boun' to confess that I
laid it on pretty thick to-day; and so did you, sir,"--with a quiet
chuckle--"but not no thicker than what I deserved. So, along in the
second dog-watch, Rogers comes up to me where I was smokin', sulky-like,
under the lee of the long-boat, away from everybody else, but where
anybody could see me that wanted to, and he says--
"`Hullo, Joe, old shipmate,' says he, `what's the matter? You looks as
if the hazin' that the skipper's been givin' of you to-day has give you
a fit of the blues!'
"`Blues?' says I. `Blues ain't no name for it! I'm sick and tired of
the ship, and everybody in her. I haven't been given no peace nor
rest,' says I, `since the day when I was clumsy enough to smash the gig.
Of course I was sorry I done it,' I says, `and I'd ha' said so if the
skipper had only treated me properly; but I ain't sorry _now_, and I
means to take it out of him for the rest of the v'yage by doin' every
blessed thing I can think of to vex him. He's made it pretty hot for me
lately, and I means to make it hot for _him_,' I says; `and you may go
aft and tell him so if you like,' says I.
"`No, Joey,' says he, `I'm not the man to tell tales upon a shipmate;
nor there ain't nobody else in the fo'c's'le as'll do such a dirty
trick. But what's come over ye, man? You're that changed as your own
mother wouldn't know ye. I'm surprised at you,' he says--`a man that
used to be such a tremenjous favourite with the skipper and the rest of
'em aft. What's the meanin' of it all?'
"`Look here, Bill Rogers,' says I, turnin' upon him as savage as you
please, `just you drop that--d'ye hear? I gets hectorin' and hazin'
enough from the quarter-deck; I won't have none of it from _you_, nor
from any other man what's in this ship's fo'c's'le; so now I hopes you
understand,' I says.
"`All right, mate,' he says; `you needn't lose your temper with me;
there's no occasion for it. Besides, I'm a short-tempered man myself,
and if it comes to--but that's neither here nor there. I don't want to
quarrel with you, Joe; I'd a deal rather we was all fast friends in the
fo'c's'le. We foremast men ought to stick to one another, and back one
another up; don't you think so?'
"`Yes, I do,' says I; `but how much have any of you chaps stuck to me,
or backed me up? You've been as thick as thieves together,' I says;
`but--because, I s'pose, I haven't been to the gold-fields--you've made
me feel like a houtsider, from the very commencement of the v'yage,' I
says.
"`Well, if we did,' says he, `it was because we didn't know you so well
as we do now.'
"After that he stood pullin' away at his pipe, and cogitatin' like, for
a minute or two; and then he looks up in my face, and says--
"`Look here, Joe Martin, you've been on the growl for more'n a week now;
but I s'pose if I was to give you the chance to get back into the
skipper's favour by tellin' him somethin' he'd very much like to know,
you wouldn't be above doin' it, would you?'
"`I don't want no chance to get back into the skipper's favour,' I says.
`If you knows anything that he'd like to know, go and tell him
yourself,' says I.
"`Why, Joe,' he says, laughin', `you've regular got your knife into the
old man,'--beggin' your pardon, Cap'n Saint Leger, but them was his
words, sir."
"All right, Joe," I whispered, anxiously; "what happened next?"
"I says, `I haven't got my knife into him any more'n he's got his into
me, I suppose. But if a man does me a hinjury, I ain't goin' to rest
until I've got even with him.'
"Then says Bill, `Now, I wonder what you'd say if anybody was to offer
you a chance to get even with the skipper, and do a good thing for
yourself at the same time?'
"`You wouldn't have to wonder very long,' says I, `if so be as anybody
aboard this ship had such a chance to offer me. But them sort of
chances don't come to a man away out here in mid-ocean.'
"`Oh, don't they?' he says. `Well, I believes they do--sometimes. Just
you stop here a minute, Joe,' he says; `I'll be back in a brace of
shakes.'
"So off he goes, and presently I hears him talkin' to the cook in the
galley, very earnest. By-and-by he comes out again, and he says--
"`Joe,' says he, `do you know what the skipper's pokin' the ship away up
here into this outlandish part of the Pacific for?'
"`Well,' I says, `I've been told as he wants to get a cargo of
sandal-wood for the China market.'
"`Nothin' else?' says he.
"`He never told me as he was after anythin' else,' I says, lookin' very
knowin'.
"`No,' he says, `I don't suppose he ever did; but somebody else might,
mightn't they?'
"Says I, `What's the use of all this backin' and fillin'? I see you
knows somethin' as I thought nobody in the fo'c's'le knowed anything
about but myself. Now, if you've got anything to say about it, out with
it; and if you haven't, let's talk about somethin' else.'
"Says he, `Did you ever know anybody by the name of George Moore?'
"`Yes,' says I, `I did.' And I had it on the tip of my tongue to say,
`And a more worthless scamp I never wishes to meet with.' But I didn't,
because it come to me to remember, just in time, that if these here
chaps knowed anything about the treasure, 'twas most likely through
George that they'd come to know it. So I says, `He was steward aboard
here until the skipper sacked him in Sydney.'
"`I s'pose you'd know him again if you was to see him?' he says; and he
looked at me in a curious sort of way that makes me think, `Now, what
the mischief are you a-drivin' at? It's my belief, Joe,' thinks I,
`that this chap's layin' a trap for you; and if you don't keep your
weather eye liftin', you'll fall into it, my lad,' thinks I. So I just
says, careless-like--
"`Oh yes, in course I should.'
"`When did you see him last?' says Rogers.
"`The last time I seen him,' says I, `was the day we arrived in Sydney,
when the skipper paid him off and he left the ship.'
"`Quite sure?' says Bill.
"`Certain,' says I.
"Then he laughed, and he says, `Well, Joe, you're a more simple sort of
a feller than I give you credit for bein'. Come into the galley,' he
says, `and let me introjuce you to an old friend.'
"So we went into the galley together, and there was cookie busy amongst
his pots and pans. When he sees us come in, he looks hard at Bill, and
he says--
"`Well?'
"I tell you, Cap'n Saint Leger, you might ha' knocked me down with a
rope-yarn, I was that astonished--for the voice was the voice of _George
Moore_, and no other.
"Hows'ever, all this backin' and fillin' of Bill's had put me on my
guard. I began to understand that, after all my play-actin', they
didn't even then feel altogether sure of me--they was tryin' me still;
and that made me brace up and pull myself together; for I says to
myself, `Now, if I makes a single mistake it's all up with everybody
abaft the mainmast, and me, too.' So I looks cookie hard in the face,
and I says--
"`Now I knows you, George, spite of your black hair and all your beard
and mustachers. What's the meanin' of this here maskeradin'? Tip us
your flipper, old shipmate,' I says, hearty like, and as if I was
downright glad to see him.
"Well, sir, I can tell you George looked considerable nonplussed; while
Bill, he just laughed; and he says to George, `Jacob, my son, you've
been and let the cat out of the bag!' Then he turns to me and says--
"`Now, Joe, there you are! Now's your chance to get back the skipper's
favour by goin' aft and tellin' him as his old steward, George Moore, is
aboard here, sailin' under false colours.'
"`If he does,' says George, `he'd better look out for hisself!'
"`All right, George, old man,' I says; `don't you worry. Did I tell the
skipper anything about the way you used to talk to us about the
treasure--and, by the livin' Jingo,' I says, `that's what you're after
now, ain't it, mate?'
"`Supposin' we was,' says he, `would you take a hand in the game? You
didn't seem noways eager about it when 'twas last mentioned.'
"`What was the use?' says I. `None of the others 'd have nothin' to do
with it, and we couldn't manage the thing by our two selves. But if
that's your game,' says I, `I'm in with you--if it's share and share
alike; not otherwise,' I says.
"`Well, it amounts pretty much to that,' George says, `only I'm to have
two shares instead of one, seein' that I was the man that found out all
about it. That's the arrangement, ain't it, Bill?'
"`That's the arrangement,' says Bill, `and a fair one it is, too, _I_
think. What's _your_ opinion, Joe?'
"`Yes,' I says, reluctant like, `I s'pose it's fair. But how will it
work out? will there be enough to make it worth the risk?'
"`Oh yes,' says George. `I don't know how much there is of it, but
there's sure to be a goodish pile, or the skipper wouldn't take the
trouble to come all this way to get it.'
"`Well, but,' I says, `how's the thing goin' to be worked? I hope there
ain't goin' to be no murder!'
"`Murder be hanged!' says Bill. `What should there be any murder for?
No; the whole thing's very simple. We're all goin' to be perfectly
quiet and do exactly as we're told until the treasure's found and put
aboard the ship; and then, when the order's give to up anchor and make
sail from the island, we're just goin' to seize the skipper, the mate,
and the passengers, unawares; clap the mate in irons; put the rest
ashore; and off we goes.'
"`Well,' I says, `and afterwards?'
"`Afterwards,' says Bill, `we shall divide the treasure fairly amongst
us; make the mate navigate the ship to some place where she can be
comfortably cast away; and we poor shipwrecked mariners will land, with
our swag snugly stowed away amongst our dunnage, and every man will then
look after hisself.'
"`Well,' I says, `that seems to be all plain sailin' enough.' It wasn't
my business to point out to 'em that they'd prob'ly find Mr Forbes a
hard nut to crack, you see, sir; so I makes out to be quite satisfied
with their plans, and to be quite ready to join in with 'em; and then I
was took into the fo'c's'le and introjuced to the rest as havin' joined
'em, and everybody said how glad they was to have me, and that now
there'd be no bother or trouble at all about the job. And--and--well, I
think that's about all, sir."
"Thank you, Joe," said I, grasping the honest fellow's hand. "It is a
long story, but you have managed to make everything perfectly clear to
me; and I fancy I shall not have much difficulty in circumventing the
rascals. Now, if the men should make any alterations in their plans,
you must let me know, if you possibly can; but be careful, above all
things, that the men shall have no cause whatever to suspect your
fidelity to them. And, remember, whatever orders I may give you,
execute them to the letter, and promptly. Now, I will go on deck and
have a word or two with Mr Forbes, during which you must get away
for'ard again, as best you can."
I accordingly left Joe in my cabin, and sauntered up on deck, as was
often my habit, even in my watch below, ostensibly to take a look at the
weather, but in reality to caution Forbes against taking any notice of
Joe, should he catch sight of that individual moving about the deck.
It was by this time nearly seven bells in the middle watch; the moon
hung low in the western sky over our port quarter, and a mottling of
fine-weather cloud had gradually gathered in the heavens, which, while
it allowed a few of the larger stars to gleam dimly through it here and
there, intercepted a large proportion of the starlight, and rendered the
night dark enough to make Joe's escape forward a comparatively easy
matter.
The mate was pacing the poop slowly, fore and aft, as I emerged from the
companion; but, catching sight of me, he came to my side and remarked--
"The night continues fine, sir, but the wind seems inclined to drop. We
were only going four and half when I hove the log at four bells, and now
we seem to be scarcely going four."
"Yes," said I, "it has dropped perceptibly since I went below; but if it
will only last at this we shall be at anchor by sunset to-morrow."
Then, in a lower tone, I added, "If you see Joe Martin creeping away
for'ard from the saloon, don't take any notice of him, or make any sign
that you are aware of his presence. I have much to tell you; but we
must wait for a more favourable opportunity."
At this moment Joe's head emerged from the darkness of the companion; so
I walked aft, glanced into the binnacle, and then abstractedly placed
myself before the helmsman in such a position as to obstruct his view of
that part of the maindeck which Joe would have to traverse before
reaching the concealing shadow of the long-boat. I stood thus,
apparently sunk in reflection, until I observed Joe glide across the
exposed space and disappear; when I went back to my cabin and fully
dressed myself, in readiness to go on deck again at eight bells.