BARTLETT--The cook o’ the Triton and the ship’s boy. We’d been on the
island two days--an island barren as hell, mind--without food or drink.
We was roasted by the sun and nigh mad with thirst. Then, on the second
day, I seed a Malay canoe--a proper war canoe such as the pirates
use--sunk down inside the reef. I sent Jimmy down to go over her
thinkin’ they might be some cask o’ water in her the sea’d not got to.
[_With impressive emphasis._] He found no water, boy, but he did
find--d’ye know what, boy?
NAT--[_Exultantly._] The gold, of course!
BARTLETT--[_Laughing harshly._] Ha-ha! Ye do believe right enough, don’t
ye! Aye, the gold--in a chest. We hauled her up ashore and forced the
lid open. [_Gloatingly._] And there it was afore our eyes in the
sun--gold bracelets and rings and ornaments o’ all sorts fixed up fancy
with diamonds and emeralds and rubies and sech--red and green--shinin’
in the sun! [_He stops impressively._]
NAT--[_Fascinatedly._] Diamonds and---- But how did they get there?
BARTLETT--Looted treasure o’ some Chinese junk, likely. What matter how
it come about? There it was afore our eyes. And then, mind ye, that
thief o’ a cook came runnin’ up from where he’d been shirkin’ to look at
what we’d found. “No share for ye, ye swab,” I yelled at him; and then
he says: “It ain’t gold--brass and junk,” he says and run off for fear
o’ me. Aye, he run off to the boy and told him to jine with his sneakin’
plan to steal the gold from us!
NAT--[_Savagely._] But why didn’t you stop him? Why didn’t you----?
BARTLETT--I be comin’ to that, boy, and ye’ll see if I did wrong. We
carried the chest to the shade o’ a palm and there was that thief o’ a
cook an’ the boy waitin’. I collared ’em both and made ’em look at the
gold. “Look and tell me if it’s gold or no,” I says. [_Triumphantly._]
They was afeerd to lie. Even that thief o’ a cook owned up ’twas gold.
Then when I turned ’em loose, because he knowed he’d git no share, he
shouted again: “Brass and junk. Not worth a damn.”