BARTLETT--Pick one up.
BUTLER--[_Picks up a heavy anklet encrusted with colored glass, looks at
it for a minute--then feigning great assurance._] I was wrong, Captain.
It’s gold all right enough--worth all kinds of money, I bet.
BARTLETT--[_With mad triumph._] Ha! Ye’ve come to your senses, have ye?
Too late, ye swab! No share for ye! And here’s to teach ye for lyin’ to
me before! [_His fist jerks out from his side, and_ BUTLER _is knocked
sprawling on the sand, where he lies groaning for a moment, the anklet
still clutched in his hand. The boy gives a gasp of fright and scampers
off, left._]
BARTLETT--That’ll learn ye! [_He sits down beside the chest. The others
crouch close. Bartlett shoves in both of his hands--in a tone of mad
gloating._] Gold! Better’n whaling, ain’t she, boys? Better’n ambergris,
even if I ever had luck to find any! [BUTLER _staggers to his feet. He
examines the anklet with contemptuous scorn and even bites it to make
sure. Then he edges stealthily toward the left. A sudden transformation
comes over his face and he glowers at the Captain with hatred, his
features distorted with fury._]
JIMMY KANAKA--[_Pointing to_ BUTLER.] He got him, Captain!
BARTLETT--[_Glancing at the cook with contemptuous scorn._] Sneakin’
away with that piece o’ the gold, be ye? Ye thievin’ swine! Ye know
right enough it’s gold now, don’t ye? Well, ye kin keep it--for your
share for speakin’ the truth that once.
HORNE--[_His cupidity protesting._] Don’t give it to him, sir! It’s so
much the less for us that worked for it when he did nothin’!
BUTLER--[_Overcome by hysterical rage--stammering._] Who asked you for
it--eh? Who--wants the dam thing? Not me! No! You damned lunatics! You
oughter all be in the asylum? [_Holding the anklet out contemptuously._]
Gold? Ha-ha! This junk? I just bit it to make sure. Gold? Brass, that’s
what--and pieces of glass! Junk! Not worth a dam. Here! Take it! You can
have it! [_He flings it on the sand before them._ BARTLETT _snatches it
up protectingly_.]
BARTLETT--[_In a frenzy._] Jimmy! [_But_ BUTLER _runs off left with a
terrified cry_. JIMMY _springs to his feet and stands with his hand on
his knife, waiting for a further order_.]
JIMMY--[_Eagerly._] I go catch--go stick him, Captain?
BARTLETT--[_Pausing--with a frown._] No. They’s time enough for that--if
need be. Sit down. [JIMMY _sits down again with a childish air of
sulking_. BARTLETT _stares at the treasure, continuing to frown, as if
Butler’s action had made him uneasy, bewildered and confused him. He
mutters half to himself._] Queer! Queer! He threw it back as if ’twas a
chunk of mud! He knew--and yet he said he didn’t want it. Junk, he
called it--and he knows it’s gold! He said ’twas gold himself a second
back. He’s queer. Why would he say junk when he knows it’s gold? D’ye
think--he don’t believe?
HORNE--He was mad because you knocked him down.
BARTLETT--[_Shaking his head grimly._] It ain’t the first time I’ve
knocked him down; but he never spoke up to me--like that--before. No,
it’s somethin’ else is wrong with him--somethin’.
HORNE--No share for him, you told him sir. That’s what wrong with him.
BARTLETT--[_Again shaking his head._] No. His eyes--It’s somethin’ he’s
got in his head--somethin’ he’s hidin’! His share--maybe he thinks he’ll
get his share anyway, in spite o’ us! Maybe he thinks his share wouldn’t
be all he wants! Maybe he thinks we’ll die o’ hunger and thirst before
we get picked up--and that he’ll live--and then--he’ll come in for the
whole chestful! [_Suddenly springing to his feet in a rage, convinced
that he has found the truth._] Hell’s fire! That’s it, bullies! That’s
his sneakin’ plan! To watch us die--and steal it from us!
CATES--[_Rising to his knees and shaking his hand threateningly above
his head._] Tell Jimmy to knife him, sir! Tell Jimmy--I ain’t got a
knife, or I’d do it myself. [_He totters weakly to his feet._]
JIMMY--[_Eagerly._] You speak, I stick him, Captain. I stick boy, too.
CATES--[_Weakening._] I’m weak, but I kin do for him yet. I’m weak----
[_His knees sag under him. He pleads piteously._] If I’d only a drink to
put some strength in me! If I’d only a sup o’ water, I’d do for him!
[_Turning, as if to stagger down toward the beach._] There must be
water. Let’s look again. I’ll go look---- [_But the effort he makes is
too much for his strength and he falls to the sand, panting with open
mouth._]
BARTLETT--[_Summoning his strength--sternly._] Put a clapper on that jaw
of yours, Cates, or I’ll do it for ye!
CATES--[_Blubbering._] If we don’t find water--he’ll watch us die.
JIMMY--[_Insinuatingly._] Better me knife cook fella--kill boy, too!
BARTLETT--Will killin’ ’em give us drink, ye fools? [_After a pause, he
shakes his head as if to drive off some thought, and mutters._] No more
o’ that! [_Suddenly, in a tone of sharp command._] No more o’ that, I
say! We’re keepin’ no right watch for ships. Go aloft on that tree,
Jimmy--and damn quick! Take a look and see if ye can sight a sail.
[KANAKA _shins quickly up the bole of the coco palm to the top and looks
out on all sides of him. The others rise painfully to their feet and
gaze up at him with awakened hope._]
JIMMY--[_Suddenly, in a glad voice._] I see um--see sail, Captain.
CATES--[_Waving his arms frenziedly._] Sail--ho!
JIMMY--Look plenty like trade schooner, Captain. She no change course
she fetch plenty close by here. She make full sail, she got plenty fella
wind out there, she come quick.
HORNE--[_Clapping_ CATES _on the back_.] Headin’ straight for us, Cates,
d’you hear?
BARTLETT--How far d’ye reckon she be?
JIMMY--She’s five, six fella mile, Captain.
BARTLETT--Come down. [_The Islander slides down._ BARTLETT _exclaims
exultantly_.] Didn’t I tell ye? In the nick o’ time. When she makes in
close we’ll go down to the reef and yell and wave at her. They’ll see!
The luck’s with us today! [_His eyes fall on the treasure and he
starts._] But now--what’s to do with this chest--the gold?
HORNE--[_Quickly._] You ain’t going to tell them on the schooner about
it?
CATES--They’d claim to share with us.
HORNE--More like they’d steal it and knife us in the bargain. I know the
kind on them schooners.
BARTLETT--[_Scornfully._] D’ye think I’m cracked? No, we’ll bury it
here.
CATES--[_Regretfully._] Leave it behind for anyone to find?
BARTLETT--We’ll bury it deep, where hell itself won’t find it--and we’ll
make a map o’ this island. [_He takes a sheet of paper and a stub of
pencil from his pocket--pointing to the foot of the tree._] Dig a hole
here--you, Horne and Jimmy--and dig it deep. [_The two head down and
commence to hollow out the sand with their hands._ BARTLETT _draws on
the paper_.] There’s the lagoon--and the reef--and here’s this tree--the
only one on the island--’twould be hard to miss. [_To_ CATES, _who is
peering over his shoulder_.] And here where the tree is, d’ye see,
Cates, I’ll make a cross where the gold is hid.
HORNE--[_Over his shoulder, without ceasing his work._] How d’ye know
the lay o’ this island--to find it again?
BARTLETT--By the last reckonin’ o’ the Triton’s. It’s writ on a page I
tore from the log-book. And from there we headed due north in the boat,
unless the compass lied--four days--a hundred and fifty miles, I reckon.
[_Exultantly._] Oh, all hell’d not stop me from findin’ this place again
when I know the gold’s here. Let us once get home and I’ll fit out a
small schooner the four of us can sail, and we’ll come back here to dig
it up. It won’t be long, I swear to ye!
HORNE--[_Straightening up._] This deep enough, sir?
BARTLETT--It looks to be.
JIMMY--[_Who has straightened up and is looking off left--suddenly
points excitedly._] He look, Captain! Cook fella, he look here! Boy he
look, too! They look plenty too much, Captain! [_All four stand staring
off at_ BUTLER _and the boy, whose presence on the island they have
forgotten in their mad excitement_.]
CATES--[_In stupid dismay._] They’ll know where it’s hid, sir!
HORNE--They’ll tell ’em on the schooner!
CATES--[_Wildly._] We’ve got to do for ’em, Captain! Gimme your knife,
Jimmy--your knife---- [_He stumbles toward the Islander, who pushes him
aside brusquely, looking questioningly toward the Captain._]
BARTLETT--[_Who has been standing motionless, as if stunned by this
forgotten complication--slowly._] There they be watchin’ us, the
sneakin’ dogs! Sit down, an’ they won’t see. [_They all squat in the
sand._] I was forgettin’ they was here. [_Striking his knee with
clenched fist._] We’ve got to do somethin’ damn quick! That schooner’ll
be up soon where they kin sight her--and they’ll wave and yell then--and
she’ll see ’em!
HORNE--And good-bye to the gold for us!
JIMMY--[_Eagerly._] You say fella word, Captain, me kill um quick. They
no make plenty cry for schooner! They keep damn still plenty too much!
BARTLETT--[_Looking at the Islander with mad cunning but replying only
to_ HORNE.] Aye, it’s good-bye to the gold, Horne. That scum of a
cook--he’s made a mock o’ us--sayin’ it wasn’t gold when he knew it
was--he’ll tell ’em--he’ll get joy o’ tellin’ ’em!
HORNE--And that scrub of a boy--he’s no better. He’ll be in with him
neck and crop.
CATES--[_Hoarsely._] Knife ’em--and be done with it--I say!
BARTLETT--Or, if they don’t tell the schooner’s skipper it’ll only be
because they’re plannin’ to come back themselves--before we kin--and dig
it up. That cook--there’s somethin’ queer in his mind--somethin’ he was
hidin’--pretendin’ not to believe. What d’ye think, Horne?
HORNE--I think--time’s gettin’ short--and talkin’ won’t do no good.
[_Insinuatingly._] They’d do for us soon enough if _they_ was able.
BARTLETT--Aye, murder was plain in his eyes when he looked at me.
HORNE--[_Lowering his voice to a whisper._] Tell Jimmy--Captain
Bartlett--is what I say!
BARTLETT--It’s agin the law, Silas Horne!
HORNE--The law don’t reach to this island.
BARTLETT--[_Monotonously._] It’s against the law a captain’s sworn to
keep wherever he sails. They ain’t refused duty--nor mutinied.
HORNE--Who’ll know they ain’t? They’re trying to steal what’s
yours--that’s worse’n mutiny. [_As a final persuasion._] And Jimmy’s a
nigger--and under no laws. And he’s stronger’n you are. You couldn’t
stop ’im.