"Tiresome4 work," he said. "I need a blow." Then, "You see, I've been doing a bit of digging here."
I had walked along the lagoon beach and had not noticed before the series of trenches5 higher up the land. I should think he had been digging! I inspected the ditches under his guidance. There were three at least a quarter of a mile in length each and from three to four feet deep. These ran in parallel lines and were about four paces apart. Fifteen to twenty shorter trenches cut through them at right angles.
329 The sun was well above the horizon. We lit our pipes and sat down in the shade. After a few moments of silence he said: "I suppose you know what I'm doing here? If you have been in Papeete you must have heard. There is no secret about it—at least not any longer."
I said that I had left Papeete shortly after my arrival. I had spent several idle afternoons on the veranda6 of the Bougainville Club, but in the talk which went around there I didn't remember having heard of Pinaki.
"So much the better," he said. "Yes, seven years is a long time, and I'm not keen about feeding gossip; but when I first came down here there was a clacking of tongues from one end of the group to the other. I believe I have since earned the reputation of being rather queer. I thought you must know. The fact is I'm looking for treasure. Would you care to hear the story?"
"Very much," I said, "if it won't bore you to tell it."
"On the contrary, it will be something of a relief. Seven years of digging, with nothing to show for it, must strike an outsider as a mad business. Sometimes I'm half persuaded that I am a complete fool to go on with the search. But you can't possibly know the fascination7 of it. It seems only yesterday that I came here. As you see for yourself, it's not much of an island. And to know that there is a treasure of more than three million pounds buried somewhere in this tiny circle of scrub and palm—"
"But do you know it?" I asked.
"I'm as sure of it as that I am smoking your tobacco. That is, I am sure it was buried here. Whether it has 330 been removed since, I can't say, of course. The natives at Nukatavake remember a white man whom they called Luta, who came here about twenty years ago and remained for something over a month. One of the four men who stole the gold and brought it to Pinaki was a man named Luke Barrett, and it may have been he who came back, although he was supposed to have been killed in Australia forty years ago. It is the uncertainty8 which makes this such killing9 work at times. But when I think of giving it up—you would have to live with the thought of treasure for seven years, and to dream at night of finding it, before you could understand." He rose suddenly. "If you don't mind a short walk, I will show you something rather interesting."
We went along the lagoon beach for several hundred yards, then crossed toward the ocean side. Near the center of the island we came upon an immense block of coral broken from the reef and carried there by some great storm of the past. Cut deeply into the face of the rock I saw a curious design:
Curious Design
I asked what it meant.
"Man, if I knew that! I believe it's the key, and I can't master it! But we may as well sit down and be comfortable. If you would really care to hear the story from the beginning it will take the better part of an hour. I'll not give you all the details; but when I have finished you will be in a position to judge for yourself whether or not I was mad in coming here.
"Have you ever read Walker's book, Undiscovered Treasure? It doesn't matter, except that you have missed a very entertaining volume. It is a pity that 331 old work is out of print. Nothing in it but bare facts about all sorts of treasure supposed to have been buried here and there about the world. You might think it would be dry, but I found it better company than any romance I've ever read. However, that has nothing to do with this story, except in an indirect way. I first read the book as a boy and it started me on my travels.
"To me the facts about this Pinaki treasure are as interesting as any of Walker's. He, of course, knew nothing about it, for it had not been stolen when his book was published. Four men had a hand in the business: a Spaniard named Alvarez; an Irishman named Killorain; and two others of uncertain nationality, Luke Barrett, whom I spoke10 of a moment ago, and Archer11 Brown. They were a thieving, murdering lot by all accounts—adventurers of the worst sort; and in hope of plunder12, I suppose, had joined the Peruvian army during the war with Chile in eighteen fifty-nine to sixty. Their hopes were realized beyond all expectations. They got wind of some gold buried under the floor of a church, and the strange thing was that the gold was there and they found it. It was in thirty-kilo ingots, contained in seven chests, the whole lot worth in the neighborhood of three and a half million pounds. How they managed to get away with it I don't know; but I have investigated the business pretty thoroughly13 and I have every reason to believe that they did. They buried it again in the vicinity of Pisco, and then set out in search of a vessel14. Alvarez was the only one of the four who had any education. They had all followed the sea at one time or another, but he alone knew how to navigate15. The 332 others could hardly write their own names. At Panama they signed on as members of the crew of a small schooner16, and as soon as they had put to sea knocked the captain and the two other sailors in the head and chucked them overboard. They returned to Pisco, loaded the gold, and started for Paumotus.
"This was in the autumn of eighteen fifty-nine. In the December following they landed at Pinaki, where they buried the treasure. The island was uninhabited then as now, and they crossed to Nukatavake to learn the name of it. The natives were shy, but they persuaded one man to approach, and when they had the information they wanted, shot him and rowed out to their boat. If you should go to Nukatavake you will find two old men there who still remember the incident.
"Then they went to Australia, scuttled17 their vessel not far from Cooktown, and went ashore18 with a story of shipwreck19. They had some of the gold with them—not much in proportion to the amount of the treasure, but enough to keep four ordinary men in comfort for the rest of their lives. It soon went, and the four were next heard of at the Palmer gold fields. Alvarez and Barrett were both supposed to have been killed there in a fight with some blacks. Brown and Killorain had not mended their ways to any extent, and both were finally jerked up for manslaughter and sentenced to twenty years' penal20 servitude. Brown died in prison, but Killorain served out his term, and finally died in Sydney hospital in nineteen twelve.
"Most of these facts—if they are facts—I had from Killorain himself the night before he died. I met him in a curious way; or, better, the meeting came as the 333 result of a curious combination of circumstances. You may have noticed the scar on my side?"
I had noticed it, a broad gash21 puckered22 at the edges where the flesh had healed, tapering23 to a point in the middle of his back.
"It was not much of a wound," he went on, "but it gave me a deal of trouble at the time. I got it in New Guinea in nineteen eleven, when I was prospecting24 for gold in the back country. I was a long way from a settlement, and one day a nigger took it into his head to stick me with a spear. I suppose he wanted my gun and ammunition25, for I had little else excepting my placer outfit26. I let him have one bullet from my Colt just as he was about to dive into the bush, and for all I know he may be lying there to this day. I have that little frizzly headed native to thank for my knowledge of the Pinaki treasure. Sometimes I am sorry that I killed him; but at other times I feel that shooting was altogether too easy a death for the man really responsible for bringing me here. I was in a bad way from the wound. Infection set in, and I had to nurse myself somehow and get down to a place where I could have medical attention. I managed it, but the ten days' journey was a nightmare. I was nothing but skin and bone when I left the hospital, and New Guinea not being a likely place for a convalescent, the doctor recommended me to go to Australia.
"I had a small bag of dust, the result of a year and a half of heart-breaking work in the mountains. Most of it went for the hospital bill, and when I reached Sydney I had very little left. I was compelled to put up at the cheapest kind of a boarding house, although the woman who kept it was quite a decent sort. Her 334 house was in a poor quarter of the town and her patrons mostly longshoremen and teamsters. It was a wretched life for her, but she had two children to support and was making the best of a bad job. I admired her pluck and did what I could in a small way to help her out.
"One evening I was waiting for supper in the kitchen when some one rapped. Before I could go to the door, it opened, and an old man came stumbling in, asking for something to eat. I thought he was drunk and was about to hustle27 him back the way he came when I noticed that he was wet through—it was a cold, rainy night—and really suffering from exposure and lack of food. I made him remove his coat—he had nothing on under it—but not without a great deal of trouble, and he insisted on drying it across his knees. He was a little wizened28 ape of an Irishman, about five feet three or four in height, with deep-set blue eyes, bushy eyebrows29, a heavy, discolored mustache, and a thick shock of white hair—altogether the most frightful-looking little dwarf30 that ever escaped out of a picture book. He was tatooed all over the arms and chest—Hands Across the Sea, the union Jack31, a naked woman—several other designs common in waterfront tatooing parlors32.
"His body was as shriveled as a withered33 apple, but his little bloodshot eyes blazed like bits of live coal. Except for the fire in them, he might have been a hundred years old and, as a matter of fact, he wasn't a great way from it. Eighty-seven, he told me, and that is about all he did tell me. He gorged34 some food and was all for getting away at once. But it had set in to rain very hard and I persuaded him to wait until 335 the worst of it was over. He was very suspicious at first. I believe he expected me to call a policeman. Later he thawed35 a little, and became even talkative in a surly way when I told him, with the landlady36's consent, that he might stay the night if he had no place else to go. Wouldn't hear of it, though. He said he had a job as night watchman at Rush-cutters' Bay. That might or might not have been true. At any rate, I went with him to the car line—the boarding house was a good mile from Rush-cutters' Bay—and gave him a couple of shillings, as a loan, I said. He could return it sometime. Just before I left him he asked for my name and address, mumbling37 something about doing me a bit of good one of these days. He was insistent38, so I gave it to him, but not at all willingly. He had frightened Mrs. Sharpe, the landlady, just by the way he looked at her, and I didn't want him coming back.
"He didn't come back. That was in May, nineteen twelve, and I heard nothing more of him until September. I was still at the boarding house, getting slowly better, but not yet good for anything. I kept out of doors as much as possible, took long walks in the country and along the waterfront looking at ships. When I came in one evening Mrs. Sharpe told me that an attendant from the Sydney hospital had called twice during the day. An old man named Killorain, a patient at the hospital, wanted to see me. The name meant nothing to me and I couldn't imagine who the man could be. The attendant called again later in the evening. Killorain was about to die, he said, and wouldn't give them any peace until I was brought to see him.
336 "It was getting on toward midnight when we reached the hospital. The old man was in one of the public wards39. I recognized him at once, although he had shriveled away to nothing at all. It was impossible to forget his eyes, once you had seen them. He was dying—no doubt of it, but I could see that he wasn't going to die until he was ready.
"'Sit down close here,' he said. 'I'm glad you came. You did me a good turn once and I haven't forgot it. Few good turns I've had in my life. Not so many but what I can remember the lot.' The night nurse had approached quietly and was standing on the other side of the bed. All at once he saw her. 'Hey, you!' he said. 'Grease off out of this! Stand over there on the other side of the room where I can watch you!' When she had gone he rose from his pillow and looked cautiously around the room. The beds on either side of him were empty. There was a patient in the one across the aisle40, but he was sleeping. Killorain watched him for a moment to make sure of this. Then he motioned me with his finger to come still closer. 'Listen!' he said. 'I've cut more throats in my time than you might think.' Sounds a bit stagey, doesn't it? But these were his exact words. Nothing remarkable41 about them, of course. Throat-cutting is still a fairly thriving business. I waited for him to go on. He again looked up and down the room, and then asked me to hand him the coat which was lying across the foot of the bed. It was the same coat he had been wearing in May, when he came to the boarding house.
"'When they brought me here,' he said, 'they took my clothes, and I've had some trouble getting this back.' The attendant had told me as much. The old man 337 had raised the very devil of a row until it was found. He asked me to rip open the lining42 of the right sleeve and to give him the paper I would find there. It was a soiled, greasy43 sheet of foolscap, pasted on a piece of cloth. 'Once,' he went on, 'you gave me two shillings for car fare to Rush-cutters' Bay. It probably wasn't any hardship on you, but never mind about that. You said I could pay it back if I'd a mind to. Well, I'm going to pay it back with a bit of interest. I'm going to give you this paper, and it's as good as three million pound notes of the Bank of England.'
"I thought, of course, that he was completely off his chump, and the fear that I would think so was uppermost in his mind. He kept repeating that he was old and worn out, but that his mind was clear. 'Don't you think I'm balmy,' he said. 'I know what I'm talking about as well as I know I'm going to die before morning.' He gave me a circumstantial account of the whole affair. I have outlined it briefly44. There were many other interesting facts, but it is not worth while to speak of them here. As he talked, the conviction grew upon me that he was perfectly45 sane46 and was telling the truth. He went over the chart with me. It had been made by Alvarez, the scholar of the party, he said. There had been a good deal of quarreling and fighting later for the possession of it.
"Before I left him he made me promise that I would go to Pinaki. He wouldn't rest easy in his grave, he said, unless he knew that I was looking for the treasure. 'It's there, and it will always be there if you're bloody47 fool enough to think I'm queer. It ain't likely I'd lie to you on my deathbed.' Rest easy in his grave! There was an odd glimpse into his mind. He wasn't 338 worrying about his crimes, and there were enough of them, according to his own confession48. It was the thought of the gold lying forever forgotten which worried him. He could rest quietly if he knew before he died that some one else was fighting and throat-cutting over it. I asked him why he hadn't gone back for it himself. He told me that of the fifty-three years since it had been buried he had spent forty in prison and the rest of the time he was trying to earn or steal the money to buy a schooner. I told him that I would come back to see him the following day. 'You needn't bother,' he said. 'I'm finished.' And it was true. He died three hours later.
"I tried to forget the incident, but it was one of those things which refuse to be forgotten. It was always in the back of my head. I decided49 to check up Killorain's story where I could. I made inquiries50 in Peru, and found that the gold had actually been stolen. The dates and circumstances coincided with his account. A friend in the customs at Cooktown confirmed for me the story of four shipwrecked sailors who landed in February, eighteen sixty, from a ship called the Bosun Bird. I had a small piece of property on the outskirts51 of Cooktown which I had bought years ago. With the money realized from the sale of it I took passage for Tahiti on my way to Pinaki.
"That voyage was the longest one I have ever made. By that time the thought of those seven chests of gold, all in thirty-kilo ingots, was with me twenty-four hours out of the twenty-four. Yes, even at night. I slept very little, and when I did it was to dream of hunting for the treasure; of finding it. I became suspicious of a villainous-looking old man who was traveling third 339 class. I thought he might be Brown or Luke Barrett. Perhaps they were not dead, after all. At Papeete I told no one of my purpose there, with the exception of one governmental official. If the treasure should be found the French government would have a claim to certain percentage on uncoined gold, and I meant to be aboveboard in my dealings with it. This official was sworn to secrecy52, but the business leaked out eventually and created a great deal of excitement. I was immensely annoyed, of course, for I had guarded the secret as well as old Killorain ever had. However, I had in my pocket all the necessary papers, drawn53 up accurately54, witnessed, signed, and sealed. I went on with my preparations, and finally, in February, nineteen thirteen, I was put ashore from a small cutter, not four hundred yards from where we are sitting.
"I started the search before the cutter was two miles on the return voyage. For two months I slept in the open—had no time to build a house—and ate tinned food which I had brought with me. Killorain's chart was of but little use. It made reference to trees which had long since rotted away or had been cut down by the natives of Nukatavake. The marks which I found corresponded precisely55 with those on the chart, but several of the most important ones were missing."
The treasure hunter rose. "Well," he said, "there's the end of the story. You know the rest of it."
"But I don't know the rest at all!" I said. "You have left out the most interesting part. Tell me something of your life here."
"You have seen three days of it. It has gone on for seven years in the same way."
"You were diving just now in the lagoon. Do you 340 think the gold may have been buried there or that the land has fallen away?"
"My dear fellow, I'll not weary you with an account of what I think. It's rather warm here. Shall we go back to the house?"
I was hoping for a week of calm, and when we went to bed that evening there was reason to believe we might have it. A few hours later, however, I was awakened56 by the Englishman. "There's going to be a bit of a blow presently," he said. "Your skipper has just sent for you. He wants to get away at once."
The stars had been blotted57 out. The wind was soughing in the palms, and the waves slapping briskly on the lagoon beach. Our farewell was a brief one.
"When shall you come to Tahiti?" I asked.
"Not until I have found what I'm looking for."
"Well," I said, "I hope that will be soon."
But if he holds fast to his resolve my belief is that it will be never.
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1
lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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6
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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14
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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scuttled
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| v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 )；快跑，急走 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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shipwreck
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| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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gash
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| v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝 | |
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puckered
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| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tapering
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prospecting
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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parlors
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| 客厅( parlor的名词复数 )； 起居室； （旅馆中的）休息室； （通常用来构成合成词）店 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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thawed
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| 解冻 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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49
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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50
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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51
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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52
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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53
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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54
accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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55
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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56
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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57
blotted
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| 涂污( blot的过去式和过去分词 )； （用吸墨纸）吸干 | |
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