were parrots and paroquets that kept up a noisy clatter. We also
encountered a species of brown and yellow ground-snake about two feet
long, which did not appear to be harmful, as it always seemed anxious to
get away. Frogs, small lizards and crabs were plentiful, and I presume
some of the latter were edible. Coming to a thicket of thorn-bush just
as the dusk began to settle across our path, we prepared to camp for the
night. A square space was cleared in the thicket, some leafy branches
were laid across the top to serve as a roof, wood was gathered, and a
fire was built in front; and we proceeded to roast a few yams and two
fat pigeons that I had shot late in the afternoon; and opening a can of
peaches, we made a bountiful repast. We soon sought repose, and, as no
sound save the murmuring of the breeze through the trees came from the
forest, sleep came quickly to all of us. We were aroused the next
morning at daybreak by Puff who was screaming at the top of his voice at
a flock of wild parrots in the trees above, and in an incredibly short
time we were again on the march. We had proceeded only a short distance
when we came to a small open place covered with grass, and we were about
to skirt its edge when close in front of us came an angry "woof."
"Wild pigs," I cried, greatly alarmed, for, from my previous encounter,
I understood their savage nature.
At the moment an ugly looking boar showed his head directly in front of
us. Mr. Harborough was about to fire, but I restrained him, knowing
that the least disturbance might bring a drove of these savage beasts
upon us.
"Let us quietly withdraw as quickly as possible," I said, "and make a
detour of the forest."
This plan was carried out, and, to my great relief, successfully, for
the boar disappeared in the grass, and we saw no more of it.
Having the compass, we were able to keep the right direction, pushing
forward rapidly, only stopping a short time at mid-day for dinner, and
the sun was yet high in the heavens when we came to the first rising
ground, and I knew that we had reached the foot of the mountain.
Presently I saw familiar land-marks, and I was able to lead the way to
the top. The beacon was standing exactly as I had left it. We
proceeded to my cave-dwelling, where everything was found pretty much as
I had left it, except that the barricade before the door showed some
decay. There was still some time before nightfall, during which, after
depositing our sacks within, we cut a quantity of grass for beds and
gathered a quantity of fire-wood. We also partitioned off one corner of
the room for Marjorie, fixing a bamboo across, to which hung cocoanut
cloth which we found in abundance a short distance away, fastening it
together with pegs, and thus we were comfortably settled soon after our
arrival; and, as we enjoyed the evening meal, we talked over future
plans. I promised to show my companions the ruined wall in the morning,
as we retired to rest.
The orange trees and banana plants near the ruin were still thrifty and
bore abundant fruit, and we regaled ourselves as I showed my companions
the old wall. Mr. Harborough took the greatest interest in it, and we
speculated as to its origin. Other matters, however, engaged our
attention from day to day. The compass was taken to the foot of the
beacon, and the bearings of the land which I had discovered in the
distance accurately determined.
It lay exactly southeast, half east, from where we stood.
"In my opinion," said Mr. Harborough, "this small island where we now
are is one of the most northeasterly of the Virgin Islands, and that
land in the distance is one of the same group."
"But," I said, "if that is the case should we not be able to see some of
the other islands to the westward?" I was aware that there were several
islands in the Virgin Group.
"Not necessarily," he answered, "for they lie very low on the ocean."
We spent much time about the beacon, improving our habitation, in
gathering fruit and shooting pigeons for our larder; and we took twelve
days in making a trip to the low south-east coast, marching along the
shore and returning from the northeast. We found animal life even
scarcer than on the west side. Birds were not so plentiful, though we
found some pigeons, and saw plenty of little green lizards and crabs.
We made no discoveries that promised to be of use to us. On our return
I took my companions to the mouth of the guano cave, but Marjorie
declined to enter and Mr. Harborough did not appear anxious to do so.
We made frequent trips to the ruined wall, and searched the enclosure
carefully. The more we studied it the more we were convinced that the
wall had served as a foundation for some structure.
One day as we were returning with fruit, Mr. Harborough had fallen
behind to examine a spot which had escaped attention, when we were
arrested by a sudden exclamation from him. He had dropped upon his knees
and was eagerly clearing away the plants and grass with his hands.
We hastened to him, inquiring what he had discovered. He pointed to a
square, flat stone. It was about four feet square and seemed to open
like a hatchway. He had stepped upon it and felt it rock, very
slightly, beneath his weight, but enough to attract his attention. Did
the stone conceal an opening, the entrance to an ancient dungeon, or a
treasure vault? We were nearly overcome with excitement, not unmixed
with awe, and I confess to a feeling of dread as I contemplated what
might be below if the stone really covered an opening to a subterranean
chamber.
*CHAPTER XIX.*
_*An Ancient Ruin; A Wonderful Discovery*_*.*
The edges of the opening, around the stone, were crumbled and cracked,
and after scraping away the accumulation of moss and mold we found that
we were able to remove a large piece of rock which left a space of
sufficient depth to receive a lever. We hastened to the edge of the
forest, where we selected a small tree of hard wood, which we felled;
and from it we made a lever about fifteen feet in length. The larger
end was flattened a little with the axe, in order that it should fit
closely against the stone in prying it up.
We next moved a large stone from the wall, which we placed about three
feet from the aperture which was to receive the lever, to act as a
fulcrum. Then we lifted the great lever, placed the flattened end into
the aperture, let it rest against the stone fulcrum, and reaching up as
near the elevated end of the lever as possible, brought our combined
weight to bear upon it.
The flat stone moved slowly upward, and Marjorie, who stood near, in her
eagerness, bent over the opening. Almost at the same moment she started
violently back, gasping for breath. The foul air, which rushed from the
opening, had nearly suffocated her.
Working together nearer the upper end of the lever, the stone was lifted
a little higher and Mr. Harborough was able to hold it while I placed a
rock under the stone, which prevented it from falling back when the
lever was released.
We now gathered around the opening which was not yet wide enough to
enable us to see far below; but to our great astonishment we saw that a
flight of stone steps led downward. Below all was dark. Foul air still
came from the opening.
"We must wait for the air to purify before entering," I said; "and,
meanwhile, we will procure lights."
"Why in the world did we not remove the cabin lamps from the vessel?"
exclaimed Mr. Harborough, "If we only had them now."
"Come to the house," I said, "and I will show you how we will procure a
light."
Hastening to the house I opened my knapsack and held up the two binnacle
lamps for the inspection of my companions, much to their amazement.
Both were filled with oil, very little of which had escaped, as I had
wrapped strips of sailcloth tightly around them.
In answer to their inquiring looks, I reminded them that I had, for a
long time, believed that some such discovery as the present one might be
made, and that I had, unknown to them, packed the binnacle lamps which
had proved to be a fortunate act on my part.
Taking them, with plenty of matches, we returned to the ruin. Lighting
a wisp of dry grass, I threw it into the opening. It fell to the
bottom, where it continued to burn brightly, showing that the air was
now pure. In the momentary glare of the burning grass, we saw that the
opening was about eight feet deep.
We now procured another stone from the wall, which we placed under the
lever, increasing the height of the fulcrum so that we were able to lift
the stone still further; and by pushing the lever around toward one side
we quickly swung the stone from the opening until it rested at one side.
Lighting the lamps, we cautiously descended the stone stairs. They were
covered with what seemed to be finely pulverized mould which had worked
down from above; but the dampness, incident to an underground chamber
rendered the steps somewhat slippery, so we had to descend carefully.
There were ten steps. Reaching the bottom, Mr. Harborough and myself
leading and Marjorie bringing up the rear, we found ourselves standing
upon a solid floor, deeply covered with fine mould, but quite dry. The
floor of the chamber was evidently composed of stone, laid very closely,
without mortar. The roof was made of great flat stones, supported by two
rows of pillars made of square blocks of stone, extending the length of
the chamber. The walls, roof, pillars and floor were all thickly
covered with dust. Searching along the walls, we discovered, at the
further end, four niches sunk into the wall about five feet, and into
the rear wall of each niche, there was fixed a massive iron staple, to
which was fastened an iron chain of crude workmanship. At the end of
each chain there was a rough iron collar which was evidently designed to
be fastened with a rivet. Stepping into one of the niches, we
discovered that the floor of it was thickly studded with sharp iron
spikes which we found, on clearing away the dust, to be about two inches
in height. The purpose of the niches was apparent; they were
unquestionably designed as places of torture. Well must they have
served their purpose; for the wretched victim who, on account of the
short chain fastened to his neck, could not lie down, was compelled to
stand constantly upon the sharp pointed spikes which would pierce and
cruelly lacerate the feet.
To what period of the New World's history this dungeon belonged we could
not even conjecture; but, judging from the style of architecture and the
cunningly devised method of torture, Mr. Harborough, who had seen the
ruined forts along the Spanish Main, had no doubt that this chamber was
connected, in some way, with the old Castilian days in this part of the
world.
The west wall seemed to be perfectly smooth and unbroken; but on the
east side of the chamber we found a square stone, measuring something
like two feet each way, being almost a perfect cube, protruding half way
from the wall. This was easily removed, and thrusting in one of the
lamps, we saw what appeared to be a square chest. Brushing away the
dust which covered the end of the chest next to us, we saw that it was
of wood, bound with bands of iron, the whole being thickly studded with
nails.
"A treasure chest," exclaimed Marjorie; "oh, it seems like the stories
of the buccaneers."
An iron ring was fastened to the chest, but when we took hold of it and
tried to draw the chest toward us, we found it to be so heavy that we
were unable to stir it. So I went to procure a lever which I cut from a
small tree near the wall, and returned with it to the chamber. One end
of the lever was inserted, upward through the ring of the chest and we
lifted with our combined strength.
The chest was raised slightly, and then the iron bands, eaten by years
of rust, broke, and the chest, rotten with age, fell apart.
Marjorie was holding one of the lamps so as to illuminate the chest,
and, as it broke open, she almost dropped it, while Mr. Harborough and I
dropped the lever and gazed at the broken chest and at each other in
speechless astonishment; for the aperture seemed to be full of gold
coins.
We had discovered a treasure chest, indeed. The coins were of several
sizes, and all were covered with a brownish dust. But gold they were,
and there were thousands and thousands of them.
We examined many of the coins, on which the legends were plainly
legible. Each one bore a male head on one side, with dates ranging from
1517 to 1540; and on the reverse, this superscription:--"Carlos I.,
Espana: Rex"--Charles I., King of Spain. We concluded that we had
discovered a favorite trysting place of sea-rovers who sailed these
waters carrying death and desolation afloat and ashore under the
protection of royal authority, with the understanding that the Spanish
treasury should be enriched thereby.
Here, before us, with no one else to claim it, was wealth beyond our
power to estimate.
"It is utterly useless to us here," said Mr. Harborough, as we discussed
the importance of our discovery.
"True," I replied, "but as we have no intention of always remaining on
this island, it may prove to be of great service to us. To this end we
must consider what immediate disposal we will make of all this wealth."
"And," I continued, as we replaced the stone in the aperture and
withdrew from the chamber, "it seems to me that the first step toward
ensuring to ourselves the future enjoyment of all this wealth, should be
to transport it to the cove and store it in our house."
This proposition of mine was the beginning of much discussion and
consideration for several days thereafter, during which it was
definitely decided that the gold must be transported to our house at the
cove; and we began to consider how this task, not a trifling one, could
be accomplished.
Clearly there was but one sure and safe way, and that, to carry it there
ourselves.
*CHAPTER XX.*
*"*_*The Golden Treasure;*_*" *_*Its Removal*_*.*
It was finally settled that we would transport the golden treasure to
Sargent, at the cove, in the knapsacks on our backs. To do this would
require several journeys through the forest; but as time was no object
to us, what more could we ask than to be able, during our exile, to so
easily acquire wealth which would render us independent for life; for
rescued we must surely be, sooner or later.
We decided that no part of the walls should remain uninspected. Every
square foot of it was carefully examined, but we found no indications of
other openings. One day, however, while looking at the east wall, I
noticed one of the stones which seemed to be more loosely set into the
wall than any of the others; and on examining it more closely, the upper
edge appeared to be chipped as though some pointed instrument had been
inserted. It at once occurred to me that this may have been caused by
prying the stone out--in other words, I mistrusted that the stone might
conceal the entrance to another chamber.
We examined it closely and came to the conclusion that it would be worth
while to remove the stone. We worked at it for several days without
making any perceptible impression.
It was too heavy and we could devise no appliance to assist us
materially. Finally it occurred to me that we might remove a flag-stone
of the floor, dig under the stone and compel it to drop from its place.
We soon discovered, however, that it rested upon the flag-stone next to
it. Not to abandon the project, we at last succeeded in removing the
second flag-stone from the wall, which enabled us to excavate the earth
from beneath the flag-stone next to the wall. This we accomplished
after a great deal of hard work, for our only excavating tools consisted
of sharpened and flattened pieces of wood. At last, however, the
flag-stone settled into the the excavation and the stone in this way
fell outward. To our great astonishment this was followed by a rush of
air from the aperture. We did not, at first, know what to make of this,
but we shortly agreed that we had found the entrance to an underground
passage leading to the open air.
Indeed this idea seemed quite reasonable, for we had often read of such
passages in connection with the strongholds of the early days; either as
a means of offence or defence, or of escape.
Taking the two lamps I preceded Mr. Harborough into the passage,
Marjorie bringing up the rear. From the first it was evident that the
passage was not artificial, but a natural cavern. Indeed as we proceeded
it proved to be a simple guano cave, the stalactites being grimy and the
stalagmites buried beneath long years accumulations of guano. In its
general character it did not differ materially from the cave which I had
discovered on the east side of the mountain during my former sojourn.
The ceiling of this one, however, was higher so that we were able to
walk upright; and it had no windings. Proceeding a few rods we came to a
second chamber, leading off at right angles; but the opening was so
small that we would have had to crawl through it and we did not consider
it worth while to enter it, at present, at least. The thought occurred
to me that the passage connected this cavern with the one which I had
previously discovered; for, as I thought the matter over, I believed
that the two must run nearly parallel. Myriads of bats flitted about,
almost flying against our faces, and several times nearly extinguishing
our lamps. In a few minutes we came to a fair-sized chamber, nearly
circular and perhaps a dozen feet in diameter; and as we entered it we
were astonished to find that it was partially illumined by daylight.
Stranger still, mounted on two huge wooden blocks were two brass cannon,
pointing away from us.
"An ingenious fortification," remarked Mr. Harborough.
"A masked battery," said Marjorie.
We now examined the guns closely. They were covered with a greenish
corrosion, and were, as I have said, brass. They were of exactly the
same size, about four-inch, and on the breech of each was stamped the
following, together with the arms of Spain: "Espana: 1512." We saw that
we had reached the mouth of the cave, which was thickly filled with a
mass of bushes and creepers. We resolved to clear away the obstruction
at once, and I returned to the chamber for the axe. With it and our
knives we soon cleared away the vegetable growths, and behold, we stood
on the side of the mountain a few yards from the mouth of cave,
overlooking the ocean to the eastward. The purpose of the guns was quite
apparent. They commanded the approach to the mountain, and to an
advancing enemy were utterly invisible, as a shelf of rock hid the
entrance from below. This latter discovery did not promise to be of any
special importance to us, it was most interesting. Our whole effort,
now, was put forth toward transporting the gold to the cove on the west
coast; and placing as many of the coins in each knapsack as we could
each carry comfortably, we packed enough provisions to last at least two
days, and set out. As we had done on the journey to the mountains, we
followed the edge of the forest making a short detour, when about half
way, to avoid a possible encounter with the wild pigs. Mr. Harborough
and myself would have liked very much to risk an encounter with them,
but the safety of Marjorie was our first consideration, and these
animals were very fierce. So as we had grave doubts as to their
desirability for food we decided to give them a wide berth. Nothing
occurred to give excitement to the march and toward the end of the
second day we reached the house in the cove, where we found everything
entirely undisturbed. We immediately set to work to make several strong
bags of sail-cloth, each being about two feet long and half as wide, in
which to store the gold. This occupied us one full day, and after
storing the gold we had brought, in a corner of the hut, burying it
beneath the kitchen utensils, we took sufficient provisions to last us
during the return march and set out. Numerous trips were made to and
from the mountain which consumed several weeks. Meanwhile we had made
an additional discovery, almost as important as the first. As we
gradually removed the gold contained in the chest we saw that there was
another chest beyond it. Like the first it fell to pieces on being
moved. Beyond it was a solid wall of stone. But the second chest was
not so heavy as the first, and it proved to be only about half filled
with gold. The rest was occupied with rolls of manuscript, all of which
fell to powder when exposed to the air, leaving not one scrap on which
the faded writing was legible.
At last only what gold we could carry away on one more trip remained.
During our march to and fro from the coast we had kept a sharp watch for
the "wild man," as we called him, and Marjorie always kept very close to
us while passing through that part of the forest.
But we saw no signs of him.
*CHAPTER XXI.*
_*Preparing for Departure; Death of the Monster*_*.*
On the morning of the day on which we were to set out with the last
packs of gold, the sky was partly overcast, and far down in the eastern
horizon the sky line was blended into a leaden haze, which gradually
disappeared as the sun ascended toward the zenith. This I knew, was a
premonition of the approaching rainy season, which I knew was always
preceded for several weeks by a thin veil of clouds and the murky
atmosphere of the horizon in the morning.
This decided us to make this our last journey, and to remain at the cove
after our next arrival there; for there we were sheltered, to a great
degree, from the rain and our house was much more comfortable than the
abode beneath the rock on the mountain, which was dreary during the long
rain, as I knew from experience. At the cove we had a substantial
house, and, with the stores and utensils from the wreck we should be
very comfortably situated. And, beside, we had gradually, as we marched
back and forth, evolved a scheme to remove some of the deck planks of
the vessel and such lumber as we found available, and to try, during the
rainy season, to construct a substantial boat in which we might venture
to leave the island. We planned to construct a great shed, closed in on
three sides and left open at the end facing the beach. Beneath this we
would lay the keel of our craft and test our skill as ship-builders.
So, with our guns, clothing, such other articles as we wished to take
back with us, and of course, Puff, after closing the cliff-house we
proceeded to the chamber beneath the ruin to pack the remaining gold.
Our knapsacks were speedily filled, and we prepared to leave the
chamber.
Marjorie preceded us to the stairs, but scarcely had she reached the
first step when she darted back to us shrieking and trembling, her face
ashy pale.
She crouched between us, unable to speak, her eyes staring wildly toward
the stone steps. I sprang forward and looked up toward the opening.
There I saw, standing between us and the sky, silent as a statue, with
eyes glaring down at us--the wild man of the forest.
There was no mistaking it; but this time it looked less like an ape and
more like a human being.
Without looking around I beckoned to Mr. Harborough. He stepped to my
side, and catching sight of the horrible thing above us, he raised his
rifle and fired. The report roared around the chamber and the stairway
was filled with smoke. Simultaneously a heavy body rolled down the
slippery stairs and lay outstretched at our feet. It was the wild
man--lifeless; its limbs outstretched and its wide-open eyes staring up
at us.
Never again do I wish to look upon such a horrible object. We shrank
back in the doorway, feeling weak and faint; Marjorie clung to her
father, her eyes gleaming with terror, a look of horror upon her face.
After we had recovered our courage and the first shock had partly passed
away, we approached closely and examined the strange being. It was
human in every detail, the hair, arms, legs, feet, eyes and face. It
had once been a man, but what a marvelous transformation had taken
place! The body was entirely covered with short brownish hair which
grew several inches long on the breast. The hair of the head was dark
brown in color, long, tangled and matted. The nose and mouth were
regular, and the teeth were in fair condition. The eyes were either
blue or gray, we could not tell exactly which. The finger-nails were
long, which made the hands look like claws.
The skin was tanned by exposure to sun and rain until it was a dark
bronze hue. We pondered long concerning the history of this strange
being; for a human being it surely was; once like ourselves.
In death it was less repugnant than in life. Now that we had become
accustomed to look at it, it impressed us only as a poor dead outcast,
of whom we knew nothing.