By the time we felt that we might very well make a start for home, we
found out that though Lilla's advice had seemed so good, it would not do
to act upon, and she laughingly owned that she was wrong.
For, feeling the necessity for obtaining a little spare cash in hand, my
uncle undertook to dispose of half a dozen of the little bars of gold,
and the adventures were such that he came back to me to say that we
should have to be very careful.
"It would never do to attempt a passage in a Spanish vessel boldly, my
boy. The very sound of the word _gold_ seems to fill the people full of
suspicion, and the dealer I went to to-day has been questioning me in
all sorts of ways. He thinks, evidently, that I have discovered a rich
gold mine somewhere, and is boiling with curiosity to know where."
"And you did not tell him, Uncle," I said laughing.
"No, my boy; but seriously, we must not make these people suspicious.
We have to pass through their custom-house places if we go in the
regular way, and if we attempt that, depend upon it we shall be stopped,
and have to give the fullest of explanations as to where the gold was
obtained, before we are allowed to quit the country, even if we are
then."
"Depend upon it, Uncle, we should not be allowed to go then. How
vexatious!" I ejaculated. "After all this trouble it will be hard if
we are stopped now! We will not be," I cried, with a stamp of the foot.
"I have succeeded so far, and if I fail it shall not be for want of
foresight."
"What do you mean, Harry?" said my uncle, who seemed to be pleased with
my energy and determination.
"I mean, Uncle, that if the treasure is lost it shall be through storm
and shipwreck, not from the scheming of men. If they know of our rich
treasure they will plan to get it away from us. Well, we must scheme
harder to save it.
"Here, let's take Tom into consultation," I said after a pause, and Tom
was called in. "Here, Tom," I said, "we've got all the gold packed, how
are we to get it away?"
"How are you to get it away, Mas'r Harry?" he said, giving his head a
rub, not that it itched, but so as to clear his thoughts, I suppose.
"Yes. How are we to get it away?"
"Stick direction cards on, same as we did with the soap boxes at home,
and shove it aboard ship."
"To be stopped as something contraband. No, Tom, that won't do. They
would want to know what it was."
"Serve them same as we did the Injins," said Tom grinning: "pretend as
they are all forsles and stigmy tights, as you called 'em, Mas'r Harry."
"That may do for Indians, but it will never do for people who are
civilised. No, Tom, if you cannot give better advice than that, it is
of no use."
"That's the best I've got, Mas'r Harry," said Tom. "I never was a good
one that way. You tell me what to do and I'll do it. And as for
sticking to you--There, Mas'r Landell, sir, haven't I stuck to Mas'r
Harry through thick and thin?"
"Most faithfully, Tom."
"Thanky, sir, thanky," cried Tom.
"Yes, yes, Tom, we know all about that," I said. "No one doubts your
fidelity, but it is not the question. We want to know what to do about
getting the treasure home safely."
"Oh! Ah! Yes, I see," said Tom, as if he had not understood before,
and it made me so vexed, what with being hot and nervous and bothered,
that I felt as if I should have liked to kick Master Tom.
"I have it," I exclaimed suddenly, and I gave the table a thump.
"He's got it," cried Tom, rubbing his hands. "Mas'r Harry's got it,
Mas'r Landell, sir. He's a wunner at hitting out things, he is."
"What is your idea, Harry?"
"It is rather a risky one, sir," I replied; "but it seems to me the only
likely one. We must put up with some inconvenience to get our treasure
safe. Once we are at a good British port, of course we need not mind,
and can do as we please."
"Well," he said, "what do you propose doing?"
"Find out some small vessel going to Jamaica, and arrange with the
captain to take us. If we pay him pretty well he will ask no questions
about what our luggage is."
"And you might make him think it was forsles and them
what-you-may-call-'em tights. He wouldn't be much cleverer than the
Injins," said Tom.
"We'll see about that, Tom," I said, and my uncle having approved of my
plan, we began at once to see if we could not set it in force.
It sounded very easy, but when I had to put it in practice I found it
extremely difficult, and to be hedged in with prickles of the sharpest
kind.
We wanted to go to Jamaica, as being a suitable port for our purpose,
and an easy one to obtain passage home in a mail steamer; but though I
could find small vessels, schooners, and brigs going everywhere else,
there did not seem to be one likely to sail for Kingston; and try how I
would, it appeared as if the very fact of our wanting to go otherwise
than by the regular mail route made our conduct suspicious.
In fact more than one of the skippers seemed to think so, and as a rule
they declined to take us, saying that it would get them into trouble,
while in one case, where the captain of a schooner eagerly agreed to
take us, merely stipulating to be well paid, the vessel was such a
cranky, ill-found affair that I shrank from trusting my aunt and Lilla
in such a crazy hull.
"There's a chap out in the river yonder going to sail for New York at
the end of the week, Mas'r Harry," said Tom one morning. "I got into
conversation with him last night when I was smoking my pipe, and in
about half a minute he'd asked me what my name was, where I was born,
how many teeth I'd got, why I came here, what I was going to do next;
and when I told him I wanted to go back to England, he hit me over the
back and says: `Case o' dollars, stranger. I'll take you.' He's coming
to see you this morning."
About an hour after I saw a tall, thin, yellow-looking man coming up to
the house. He had a narrow smooth face, and two very dark eyes that
seemed to have been squeezed close up to his nose--a sharp nose--and a
very projecting much-pointed chin. His face was as devoid of hair as a
baby's, and taking him altogether, if Tom had not told me he was
curious, I should have said at once that he was a man who loved to ask
questions.
"Mornin', stranger," he said to both Tom and me, and then, with his
queer-looking sharp little eyes searching me all over, he went on: "I
guess you're the Englishman who wants to get home with all your tots."
"I am," I said. "May I ask your name?"
"Perks," he said sharply. "'Badiah P. Perks, o' New York. What's
your'n?"