THE MYSTERIOUS MAN
AGAIN the strange deep voice sounded.
It seemed to come from below the small cabin in which we stood—a
snarling noise as though of a man enraged.
Neither Seal nor his men liked the situation. I could see by their faces
that they were thoroughly scared. They had found gold, it was true, but
below was the owner of it.
“Come on, lads,” urged Dicky Dunn courageously, “I’m going below to make
the acquaintance of the skipper of this ’ere craft. The way is down that
hatchway at the end of the big saloon.”
Encouraged by the old seaman the men moved back into the cabin we had
first entered, and with Dunn I descended the dark stairs to explore,
Seal following close behind us armed with his revolver.
I struck a match and, by its light, saw a quantity of ancient arms and
armour lying with several skulls and bones. Apparently the men were
below when the ship went down, and, the hatches being closed so tightly,
neither air nor water reached them, so that they had been asphyxiated.
The passage led along to a bulkhead, where it took a turn at right
angles and ended with a closed door.
This Seal opened boldly, and we found ourselves in a small cabin, quite
light—for the big square window had been broken out—and furnished in
the same antique style as the big saloon above.
It had an occupant—the strangest-looking creature I ever saw.
He was an old man with long white hair and white beard, a man with a
thin, haggard face and black, deep-sunken eyes. On first entering he
escaped our notice, but we saw him crouching beneath the table, hiding
from us in terror.
His dress, ragged and tattered, was of three centuries ago—short
breeches, a doublet of faded crimson velvet, and an old coat with puffed
sleeves, while in his hand he carried a rusty poniard and seemed
prepared to spring out upon us.
I shall never forget the ghastly look of hatred and terror upon the
queer old fellow’s countenance as he faced us. We all three stood
absolutely dumfounded. It was very interesting to discover a ship lost
for three centuries, but to find a survivor still on board was
incredible.
Yet there was a human being actually in the flesh; a weird old fellow
who, for aught we could tell, had lived on board that vessel for ages.
“Come out, sonny,” cried Seal, when he found tongue; “we won’t eat you.”
In response the weird individual gave vent to that same shrill cry of
rage that had first attracted our attention, brandishing his knife
threateningly, but not budging an inch from his hiding-place.
“Enough of that, my man,” exclaimed the captain, authoritatively. “Come
out and talk like a Christian. Where are you bound for? and how many
days are you out?”
“The bloomin’ ship’s about three ’undred years overdue, I should fancy,”
remarked Dicky Dunn, who was the ship’s humorist.
“Come along,” Seal urged persuasively, placing his hands on his knees
and bending down to him. “Come out of it, old chap, and let’s have a
yarn. I ain’t got any time to spare.”
But the old fellow only gnashed his gums and brandished his knife, for
he appeared to entertain the greatest antipathy towards our skipper.
Presently, after some further coaxing, but receiving no word in reply, I
succeeded in reassuring him that we meant him no harm, and he came forth
from his hiding-place and with a savage grin stood before us. He was
tall and gaunt, about six feet in height and as thin as a lath. But when
we came to question him he steadily refused to answer one single
question.
All the skipper’s queries he resented with marked hostility, and with me
alone was he tractable.
Before long, however, I discerned the true state of affairs. This
strange individual, whoever he was, was dumb, and, further, he was not
in his right mind. Privation and solitude were probably the cause of it;
but whatever the reason, the fact remained that the queer old fellow was
unable to utter one single intelligible word, and he was also not
responsible for his actions.
Now and then he burst into peals of laughter, grinning hideously, with
all the characteristic symptoms of the maniac, and then he would
suddenly strike an attitude as though to attack our skipper.
Fortunately I induced him to put his knife aside, for although rusty it
was still very sharp. By all the means I could think of I endeavoured to
extract some word from him, but in vain. The sounds that escaped him
were deep, gutteral, and utterly unintelligible. By dumb show I tried to
inquire who and what he was, but insanity asserted itself, for he only
gave vent to a demoniacal shriek and cut some absurd capers that caused
all three of us to laugh heartily.
I took out my pocket-book and handed it to him, together with a pencil,
but instead of writing, as I hoped to induce him, he only looked to see
what was contained in the pockets of the book and handed it back to me.
“Well!” cried Seal, “this chap beats everything! Who in the name of
fortune can he be?”
“He’s a mystery,” I answered, utterly puzzled.
“He looks as old as Methuselah,” remarked the skipper. “He’s just as
though he walked out o’ one of them old pictures.”
“He’s a lunatic, ain’t he, doctor?” asked Dunn.
“Most decidedly,” I responded; “and judging from the manner he received
us, he is a rather dangerous one.”
“Well,” said Seal, “we’d better take him on board with us. Perhaps when
he’s had a bit of grub and some rest we’ll be able to make him out. This
mystery is a first-class one—better than any I’ve ever read in books.
How old is he, doctor?”
“Impossible to tell,” I replied. “A good age certainly.”
“As old as this ship?” asked the seaman.
“I think not,” I responded, laughing.
“Well, we must find out something about him,” declared Seal, decisively.
“And what about that chestful of gold, sir?”
“Oh, we’ll ship that, of course,” answered the skipper. “It perhaps
belongs to him, but we may as well hold it till he proves his right to
it,” and he grinned meaningly.
The ancient mariner had turned, and was gazing out through the big open
window to where the _Thrush_ was lying awaiting our return. He seemed
quite calm now, and no longer resented our intrusion upon his privacy.
Indeed, with me he became quite friendly, and when I spoke again
appeared to make an effort to understand me. He pointed to his mouth,
which only emitted unintelligible sounds.
That he was insane there was no doubt. The strange look in his eyes was
sufficient proof of it, but I entertained a hope that his mind was only
unhinged by privation and solitude, and that by careful treatment his
mental balance might become restored.
While we were questioning him the three men we had left above were
rummaging the ship. One of them, it seems, managed by the aid of a rope
to cross the wave-swept deck to the other cabin in the high bows and
with an axe effect an entry. His report was that there were a number of
skeletons there, most of them still in armour, together with
old-fashioned cannon, and he brought back with him a fine banner of
purple silk bearing a golden Maltese cross.
Below where we stood, the waves thundered ever and anon, and the heavy
rolling told us that the wind was increasing.
“We’d better be getting aboard,” Seal remarked anxiously. “If we don’t
make a start we shan’t be able to ship that there gold. You take charge
of the old boy, doctor. What shall we call him, eh?”
“The Mysterious Man would be a good name, sir,” suggested Dunn.
“All right,” responded the skipper. “We’ll put him on the papers as Old
Mr. Mystery. Go above and get the lads to shift that box of gold. Be
careful with it, and mind it don’t go to the bottom.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” responded the grey-bearded seaman; and he went above,
shouting to his shipmates to start work on the removal of the treasure.
He must have made some signal to Thorpe on the _Thrush_, for a few
minutes later we heard the siren blowing, while the men in the small
cabin were working away with a strong will stowing the gold coins into
anything they could find, for with such a sea running it was impossible
to remove the great chest entire, besides which it was heavily bolted to
the floor.
The Mysterious Man accompanied me above, and in silence stood watching
the coin being removed. Sight of it produced no impression upon him
whatever. His agility and fierce antipathy had given place to apathy, as
it so often does in certain phases of insanity.
The old portrait of the thin-faced man in ruffle and doublet caught his
eye, and he faced it and shook his fist at it, as though the original
were his enemy. Then he went through into the main saloon, and, picking
up one of the rusty swords, returned and slashed the picture until the
canvas hung in its frame in ribbons.
The two parchments that we had found in the old leather bag were secure
in my pocket, and the bag was used for the transport of part of the
treasure. While the work of removing the coins was in progress, however,
I seized the opportunity of searching further in the small cabin, and
discovered in the oak panelling a small cupboard, wherein were several
big parchment-bound books looking almost like commercial ledgers.
One of them I opened, and found it to be in manuscript in a crabbed hand
that I could not decipher, but on certain pages were drawn rough plans.
A second volume proved to be a printed book in Latin; and a third a rare
old Book of Hours, printed by Pasquali, of Venice, in 1588. I took
possession of half-a-dozen, but the others seemed to me to be of no
account—one a Latin lexicon, and another a book in which certain
household recipes had been written. All were, as far as I could judge,
books written or printed in the first half of the sixteenth century,
although I knew nothing of the mysteries of palæography or bibliography.
Some of the writing was even and well executed, while the other was
execrable, with long loops and curious dashes and flourishes above
certain letters.
I gave the books I wanted into the hands of one of the sailors, who
lashed them together and lowered them to the boat after the gold had
been safely shipped.
Every moment the gale was increasing, so Seal thought fit to send the
boat back to the steamer with its precious freight before we proceeded,
as the gold weighed heavily, and he feared that if we went with it we
might be swamped.
Through the square window of the big saloon, very like the window of an
old-fashioned house, we watched the boat rise and fall on the long,
green waves as it toiled towards the steamer. We watched one of the men
shout through his hands, and could see the excitement his news created
on board.
Thorpe bent over from the bridge and shouted back, while a dozen willing
hands were ready to haul up the gold.
It was half an hour before they returned for us, and Seal expressed some
doubts about the vessel weathering the storm. The pitching was terrible,
and it was impossible to stand without clinging hold of something.
I occupied the time in searching every nook and crevice in the big
saloon, but I discovered practically nothing, save in a cupboard some
old pewter, over which a collector of such stuff would probably have
gone into raptures, and an old silver tankard, which I took as part of
my share of the loot, together with a helmet, sword, and breastplate.
But at length my search was brought to a conclusion by the boat hailing
us from below, and we lowered the Mysterious Man by means of a rope
around his waist, for he was too decrepit to spring, and the sight of
his skinny legs dangling over the sea was certainly ludicrous. Then,
when we were all clear, the men pulled us through the boiling waves back
to the steamer, and as we looked behind we saw the weird seaweed-covered
craft rocking and rolling as though every minute she must heel over.