IN IMMINENT DANGER
For a time the boys were almost out of their heads with delight. Here
was more wealth than they had ever seen or ever dreamed would be at
their disposal. They were inclined to pinch themselves to find out if it
was really true that they were awake and gazing on real money—money that
had such power and yet had been lying here useless for no one knew how
many years.
But there it was staring at them with its yellow eyes, gold of different
coinages and of many countries, amassed no doubt by some thrifty trader
who had sailed the seven seas and at last, extending his ventures to the
North for its rich seal fur, had come to grief on this remote and
inhospitable coast. Probably there had been no survivor of the wreck and
the ship had simply been recorded in the shipping lists as missing and
had practically passed from human memory.
For a time the boys were lost to every other thought but that of the
treasure, and they took it up in handfuls and let it fall in a
glittering stream beneath the rays of their lamp.
“How much do you think there is?” asked Bobby, in an awed tone.
“Thousands and thousands of dollars,” replied Fred, as he took up
another handful. “Maybe it won’t be fun counting it!”
“Let’s do it now,” suggested Mouser. “I’m crazy to know how much there
is.”
“Not now,” objected Bobby, as prudence which had vanished for a time
returned to him. “You fellows mustn’t forget that the finding of this
treasure has put us in a mighty lot of danger. It may mean the death of
all of us if we don’t watch our step.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Billy, the ecstatic expression on his
face giving way to one of soberness.
“Just this,” returned Bobby: “If Mooloo should once know that we had
found it, the lives of all of us wouldn’t perhaps be worth a plugged
nickel.”
“You don’t think he’d murder us?” asked Mouser, in awed tones.
“Who can tell?” returned Bobby. “There are thousands of men among people
that we call civilized that would kill us as readily as they would a fly
to get this money away from us. How safe do you think we’d be in New
York or any large city if thugs or gunmen knew that we had this with us?
And if that is true there where they’d have to take chances with the
law, how much more easily might it happen here. We haven’t any way to
defend ourselves, and Mooloo with his spears could kill us easily. There
wouldn’t have to be any explaining. He’d simply say, if he said anything
at all, that we’d been lost in a blizzard, and the Eskimos would grunt,
and that’s all there’d be to it. He’d slip our bodies into the sea and
they’d never be found.”
The boys shuddered at the thought.
“Do you think that Mooloo is that kind of a fellow?” asked Billy.
“Maybe he is and maybe he isn’t,” replied Bobby. “But many a bad man
becomes a murderer at the sight of gold, and it won’t do to take any
chances. They say opportunity often makes the thief, and I suppose the
same thing is true of other crimes. And certainly there couldn’t be any
easier kind of opportunity than Mooloo would have if he wanted to take
it.”
“But how on earth are we to get the money away from here without Mooloo
knowing about it?” asked Fred, in great perplexity.
“That’s something we’ve got to figure out,” answered Bobby. “But just
now the thing we’ve got to do is to board up this place again and do it
quickly. Billy, you go up on deck and keep a lookout for Mooloo. Give us
the tip if you see him coming, and we’ll hustle into some other part of
the ship. Lively now, boys.”
They took another long look at the treasure and then reluctantly closed
the chest. Then they set to work to repair the battered wall as well as
they could. It was not a very workmanlike job, but the walls were so
seamed and cracked anyway that by the time they had finished the
repaired part did not differ greatly from the rest, and they trusted
that it would escape detection.
Then they abandoned that particular cabin and took up their quarters in
another as far removed as possible from the treasure trove. Here they
got out their food and prepared a rough meal while awaiting Mooloo’s
return.
It was not long before he came trudging back, dragging behind him a seal
which had fallen a victim to his spear. His success had made him so well
content with himself that he was less gruff and surly than usual, and
even unbent so far as to tell them something of his morning’s
adventures. The boys laid themselves out to be enthusiastic about his
skill as a hunter. The more they could keep his mind on himself the less
likely he was to be inquisitive about them.
The Eskimo was hungry after his hunt and fairly gorged himself at his
meal. Then with a grunt of satisfaction he rolled himself in skins and
stretched out on the floor, and the boys knew that he would be dead to
the world for several hours.
Nothing could have pleased them better, and they took advantage of his
slumber to make a thorough search of other parts of the ship, taking
care to give a wide berth to the cabin in which they had found the
treasure.
What they found, however, was of no value. The remorseless hand of Time
had worked its will on the ship. Everything was covered with mold and
mildew and rust. The sailors’ chests had long ago been broken open and
everything of value removed. They came across fragments of letters, some
in foreign tongues and most of them illegible from age. Even if they
could have read them, the boys would have shrunk from doing so, as it
appeared too much like trenching on the privacy of the dead.
One or two gold pieces that had escaped the prying eyes of the Eskimos
were gathered up as the boys went through piles of debris.
“This explains why the Eskimos got the idea that this was a treasure
ship, I suppose,” remarked Bobby. “Doubtless there were a lot of gold
pieces in the sailors’ chests that represented their wages or savings.
Different parties came back with these from time to time, and the story
spread that where there was so much there must have been more. And it’s
barely possible that old Takyak made the same discovery that we did of
the treasure chest and meant some time to get it away either in driblets
or at some time in a mass. Maybe there was some superstition of his that
prevented his taking it before.”
In one of the cabins they came across a number of large books. Some of
them were scattered volumes of an encyclopedia. Others were huge ledgers
with brass clasps in which the trader’s accounts had evidently been
kept. Still others were bound volumes of old magazines designed no doubt
to relieve the tedium of the nights of the Arctic winter.
“Quite a library here,” commented Fred, as he handled one of them. “Why
is it that they used to make books so big and thick that it was hard to
lift them!”
Bobby was glancing over one of them when suddenly an idea struck him
with such force that he fairly jumped.
“I’ve found it! I’ve found it!” he exclaimed jubilantly.