AN ANXIOUS TIME--THE CHASE AND BATTLE--HOW ALL ENDED.
“‘Now haste, my men, and launch the boat,
Our pursuers are at hand;
Once on our bark we’ll safety have,
But there’s danger on the land.’”
“A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast,
And fills the white and rustling sail,
And bends the gallant mast.”
Now, having been granted leave by the proprietors of the land to
excavate and to carry away curios, we knew well that no state would give
permission to any swift yacht to follow and capture us; still we well
knew what enterprising men there are in the Southern states, and how
quickly a vessel of exceeding swiftness could be hired for any private
adventure.
I for one, therefore, was not a bit surprised next morning at sunrise
when told by Miguel that a small, wicked-looking, black steamer was
bearing down on us, and coming up with us indeed, hand over hand.
“She’ll overhaul us in a couple of hours,” he said.
I dressed quickly and went on deck. Captain Reeves was already there,
and all eyes were turned astern.
“The fact is,” he said, in answer to a question put by me, “we are short
of coals, and the mate, thinking all was perfectly safe, had banked
fires, and was dodging on under sail with the little bit of wind there
was. Fires are only just stirred up, but that little fiend has the
weather-gage on us.”
“It’s a private venture?” I said inquiringly.
“A private venture!” cried the mate angrily; “it is more--it is a
piratical adventure, and I for one would counsel resistance to the last.
So sorry the fault is mine. Well, we have two six-pounders. I’ll take
the fault. I’m a good shot, and blame me more than ever if I don’t make
her trip over the wreck of her own rigging.”
So the guns were loaded with ball and run aft all ready.
On came the black one; on went we. We had bags of lard and even a fat
ham or two to pop into the fire when we wanted to fly.
By ten o’clock the enemy was near enough to hail us through the
speaking-trumpet.
“Lie to at once, or we’ll grapple and board you. Don’t want any loss of
life; but we are five-and-twenty strong, and each man has a revolver.”
The answer went from the speaking-trumpet of bold Captain Reeves,--
“If you come three fathoms nearer, we’ll astonish your weak nerves; we
shall treat you as pirates, and sink you.”
There was simply an ironical cheer by way of reply.
“Get the fat in the fire now,” shouted Reeves to the engineer. “Get all
pressure of steam up, anyhow. Now, mate.”
The first gun was run out and fired.
Brr--rr--rang!
Hardly had the smoke cleared away ere we could notice the consternation
on board the black one.
The funnel was a wreck.
“Change your course and haul off, or we’ll give you another,” cried
Reeves.
No notice was taken by the enemy.
The mate took very great pains indeed with this second shot.
It struck their foremast not a fathom above deck, and down it came
thundering over the bows.
We saw we had the victory. I should be sorry to think any one was killed
or hurt; but we gave them three cheers, and as steam was now fully up,
we went tearing through the water, and in an hour’s time we were out of
sight over the horizon.
A splendid, spanking breeze now sprang up, and in a few days we were
able to take in coals at an island which for obvious reasons must be
nameless.
We steamed away in the gloaming still south and by east, but as soon as
night fell we altered our course to north-east by north, and were soon
far away on the dark blue sea, and on our way to British shores.
We were all very happy and very hopeful now, but above everything it was
a treat to witness the quiet joy of poor Miguel. Ah! youth is indeed a
glorious time; but when he talked to us of his future, the young
fellow’s face seemed really to be transformed, and to shine.
Then at all other times he was just his same old self, and the life of
everybody on board. He was, perhaps, somewhat of a republican at heart;
for he talked with the men as if they were quite on a
[Illustration: The fellow went down like a shot, and lay there stunned
and insensible]
footing of equality with him mentally and socially, and he even played
and sang to them, and kept them laughing of an evening until they used
to declare that their very sides ached again. I am certain that there
was not a single member of the crew who would not have fought for the
young minister, as they called him, until blinded with their own blood,
so much beloved was he.
And now, while sailing along on a gentle breeze and doing but little
over six knots an hour--for so thoroughly were we enjoying the voyage
that no one seemed to be in the least hurry to get back again even to
bonnie Scotland--a day was set apart to count our coin.
It took us quite a long time. The gold was of the purest, and all was in
Spanish doubloons.
It ran up to the very respectable sum of sixty thousand pounds. We took
the men partly into our confidence, telling them that the money--we said
nothing about the amount--had belonged to our ancestors, and therefore
was ours; and that on the day when it was safely lodged in bank, the
engineer should have a gift of one hundred and fifty pounds, the mate
the same, and each of the sailors one hundred pounds. The announcement
was received with a wild, ringing British cheer. Then things went on
just as before.
Now there was more money buried in the island at the foot of another
tree, but contrary to the account given by American papers, this did not
amount to over ten thousand dollars; a goodly sum, however, for a man
like Winkey to get his hands upon.
He was welcome to it as far as we were concerned. But the finding of it
and the behaviour of Winkey afterwards make quite a little story all by
themselves.
Winkey, it seems, had stolen a portion of our plans describing and
locating the smaller portion of gold, which also lay at the foot of a
tree. We had hardly sailed, it seems, ere he got hold of a certain Mr.
Green (again the name is fictitious) and communicated the wonderful
tidings to him. Then they employed another man to assist them to dig,
and one night they all set out on their gold-hunting expedition. Their
excitement was really feverish, and the old rye they consumed to banish
nervousness only served to excite them more.
But it made them reckless.
Arrived by the weird old tree, they commenced operations at once, first
with shovel and pick, and next with axes.
Gnarled and hard were the roots of that ancient king of the forest, and
loudly rang the sound of the blows on the stillness of the night. Still
they worked away with a will.
Not a great distance off from the spot where they were at work stands
the farm of Mr. M. W. H. The unusual sound disturbed the good people
there.
I quote from an American paper dated June 6, 1897, when I say:--
“Mr. M. W. H. lives within two hundred yards of the spot, and heard
distinctly the noise of the axes. As this was unusual at such an hour,
he and his son went out to investigate. They found the three men at work
digging, but as they were on other property, decided not to disturb
them.
“After hours of hard work, the treasure-delvers at last struck metal.
Feverishly they cleared out the impeding earth, and speedily laid bare a
much-rusted iron box. In a state of intense excitement they lifted it to
the surface, and leaving the hole as it was hurriedly dragged it away.
“After going a short distance toward the city, they stopped for
consultation. The third man was paid, and directed to go home and keep
his mouth shut.
“Green and Winkey laboured painfully home with the box, and before
morning succeeded in getting it into Green’s room.
“Here they hurriedly removed the lid, whose lock and hinge had rusted
off, and there before them lay a fortune in Spanish doubloons.”
The fortune, reader, as I have already stated--knowing, as I well do,
all the outs and ins of the matter--was not such a wondrous one after
all. But as what followed forms a rather curious story of human
credulity and over-confidence, I must tell it briefly.
To begin with, then:--Green and Winkey were of opinion that as soon as
the owner of the property on which the old tree stood discovered the
find he would claim the gold, so they decided that the safest plan was
to get it away out of Fernandina with all speed. But as Green could not
go from home just then, but had the utmost confidence in Winkey, it was
decided that the latter should start at once for Brunswick,
he--Green--to join him later on, when they could amicably divide the
spoil.
This was playing at the game of confidence with a vengeance, and we
shall soon see what came of it.
The baggage-master at Fernandina distinctly remembers checking the
luggage, and wondering at the same time how a man in Winkey’s poor
station of life came to have so many trunks. The fact was that Winkey
had put the gold in several boxes, so as to distribute the weight, and
thus evade suspicion.
And now Green lived for a time in a kind of fool’s paradise, building
castles in the air both by day and long into the night after going to
bed. He also threw out many mysterious hints to his friends, though he
told them nothing definite. Only he wanted them to know that he would
soon be far above poverty, and that he need trouble himself but little
more about work or business either.
So Green sold out his business, and sold off all his possessions in
Florida, determining to live elsewhere, and with his newly-acquired
wealth act the _rôle_ of gentleman.
He thought it strange, however, that he did not hear from Winkey.
Post after post, and never a single letter.
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,” and thoroughly alarmed at last
Green hurried off to Brunswick. Never a Winkey was there, and from the
information he was able to glean at the railway depôt the man must have
gone on to northward; how much farther it would be difficult indeed to
say.
No wonder poor Green was now heartbroken. All the gold gone--his
business sold for a song, and very little indeed to live upon! It was
terrible.
In his agony of mind he consulted a young lawyer.
This man, Mr. W. A. H., was smart enough. At first he would scarcely
credit the story, but the testimony of the farmer and his son who had
heard the gold-seeker digging, and that of the baggage-master who had
checked the boxes, finally convinced him.
Green offered him twenty-five dollars for his assistance in tracing
Winkey.
“If you be Green, I’m _not_,” said the lawyer. “Five-and-twenty dollars,
indeed! How liberal you are! No, sir; I shall have one-half the gold,
and nothing less, and an agreement must be made out to that effect.”
And so this was done.
But now comes the most curious part of the story. The man who had
assisted in digging somehow or other had got Winkey’s address. It was
almost indistinct as written, but “Fifth Avenue, New York,” could just
be made out.
This the man gave to Mr. W. A. H., and he in turn gave it to Green, in
whose honesty the lawyer had the utmost confidence. But it was necessary
to success that Winkey be run to earth at once; so the lawyer
dispatched Green to New York to find the runaway and confront him with a
charge of roguery.
Probably Green was not so great a fool as he looked.
In all probability he found Winkey, and after a quarrel resumed
partnership.
Perhaps this was so; but as Burns says,--
“Facts are chiels that winna ding,”
and the fact is that the clever but over-confiding lawyer has not up to
the present date, July 15, 1897, heard again of either Winkey or Green.
Very likely they are enjoying themselves together at some Continental or
British watering-place.
While I write, it is a most brilliant sunny summer’s day, and only six
miles from here Henley regatta is in full swing. When I finish this
chapter I shall drive there, and it is just within the bounds of
possibility that I might stumble across Winkey. I should know him at a
glance!
* * * * *
The finding of our gold, or rather, I should say, the gold of Captain
Keeves and Don Miguel M‘Lean, took place last December (1896). We
succeeded in landing it easily, and had the whole melted down into
bars, which were sold for their full value.
Captain Reeves still holds that beautiful and romantic villa of his far
away in the wild, romantic north of Scotland.
He gives larger and nicer parties now than ever, for he dearly loves
good company.
Poor Mrs. M‘Lean no longer lives in a couple of small rooms in the east
end of the great Granite City. No; she has bought one of the most
charming modern villas far out Rubislaw way, and many an old friend
drops in of an evening to drink tea or stay to dinner whom she could not
have asked or entertained in the days of her poverty.
Miguel does not now have to slave at harvests, nor to endanger his life
at the herring fishery. He was down seeing me about a month ago, dear
happy, hopeful youth!
He is as determined to be a clergyman as ever, and there is now no
danger of his having to wait long for a living, because he knows of
one--just the one he should like--for sale; that is, the gift is in the
hands of a lord who is willing to part for a consideration.
In less than a month the heather will all be in bloom on the mountain
sides; my guns are already ready, and my honest setter Dash is ready
too. By the morning of the glorious twelfth Reeves and I will be on the
hill. Bonnie little Mina will have her gun too, and I need hardly add
that Miguel will not be far away.
I feel certain that in their case the stream of love _will_ run smooth,
and that their married life, when the time for marriage comes, will be a
happy one.
That side by side their barks of Life may glide calmly over the sea of
Time to a glad Beyond, is the earnest wish and prayer of
THE AUTHOR.
THE END.
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FOOTNOTES:
[A] Water-sprites.
[B] Birches.
[C] Big.