One could see the palms bending to the breeze, and the snow of the surf and the white flicker1 of the gulls2, whose voices came, now and then, weak and spirit-like, across the water.
Something fluttering beneath the palms drew Gaspard’s attention; he borrowed Sagesse’s glass and looked. It was the remains3 of the tent, a few rags of canvas; they seemed beckoning4 to him like brown hands, skeleton-thin and sinister5.
Even as he looked, the roar of the anchor-chain through the hawse pipe tore the air, and La Belle6 Arlésienne swung at her moorings in eight fathoms7 of water a few cable-lengths from the shore.
The barquentine had come in with scarcely a sound, but scarcely had she taken anchorage than Babel broke out on board. The voice of Jules could be heard above the others, ordering the boats to be got ready; stores were being brought on deck, whilst Sagesse, silent beside Gaspard, watched the preparations for landing with a brooding eye, throwing in a command now and then.
The longboat and a quarterboat were lowered and laden8 with stores and the diving apparatus9; it was nearly an hour before the business was complete and Sagesse and231 his companion, taking their places in the stern of the longboat, found themselves free of La Belle Arlésienne and making for the shore.
They rowed to the southern beach.
“I will take the quarterboat across the island,” said Sagesse. “It will be a bit of a job, but she’s light enough, and eight of the hands will be able to do it. I’m going to use her for the diving. Mordieu, but it’s a desolate10 place, this island of yours. There’s no gainsaying11 that. Who would ever think there was a ship sunk here, and lying in shallow water, too?”
“It’s lonely enough,” said Gaspard, his eyes fixed12 on the white beach, the palms, and the grey-green stretch of bay-cedar bushes. Now that he was close in shore, all the elation13 of the treasure hunt had passed from him, giving place to a feeling of melancholy14. Oh, those palms, that rag of tent fluttering in the wind, that scorching15 splash of sunlight on the beach—what visions of desolation did they not call up! The place seemed to him full of death and tragedy, repellant, as though the shade of Simon Serpente were walking in the sun-blaze of the beach, as though the voices of the gulls were the voices of his men; ghosts of old buccaneers condemned16 to eternal restlessness and discontent.
But with the grounding of the boat’s nose on the sand all this passed away. He flung himself over the side and helped to run her up as far on the beach as the weight of her cargo17 would let them pull her; the quarterboat was beached just beside her, and then the unlading began.
Whilst it was still in progress Sagesse, leaving Jules to superintend, took Gaspard’s arm.
“Come,” said he, “let’s have a look at her. The tide’s half out and she ought to show up well.”
232 “This way,” said Gaspard.
He led his companion amidst the bushes, avoiding the spot where he knew, face down amidst the bay cedars18, the body of Yves was lying; he dared not even look twice towards the place, and he breathed more freely when they had passed it.
The line he took would also lead them twenty yards or so to westward19 of the mound20 beside which Yves had discovered the belt and pouch21 and the skeleton to which they belonged.
In a few minutes they were free of the bushes and on the northern beach.
The tide was more than half out and the whole of the encircling reef of the lagoon22 was visible. Gaspard led the way on to the reef, then along it, till he reached the spot opposite the foretop, weed-grown and projecting from the water.
“Look,” said he, pointing into the lagoon.
Sagesse without a word, stared down at the vision beneath him.
It was a part of the mystery of the sea that the lagoon water changed in brilliancy and clarity with the tide; with a flooding tide, and at full, its diamond brightness dimmed almost imperceptibly and brightened almost imperceptibly with the ebb23. One would not have noticed the fact but for the submerged ship and her crust of coral jewellery; which shewed brighter or dimmer according to the clarity of the water.
Possibly outside the lagoon the sea floor held some clay that misted almost imperceptibly the incoming water—who knows?—but the fact remained that at half-tide of the ebb she was more brilliantly defined than at half-tide of the full—as to-day.
233 Gaspard, as he stood beside Sagesse, looking also, followed with his eyes the fish-like form and the trend of the bulked-out bulwarks24. At the sight of her and the thought of the diving apparatus and all the tackle for salving, the treasure-fever was on him again, hot and strong. Mordieu! when she was broken open, what might they not find?
He turned from her to Sagesse, expecting to read his own eagerness in the Captain’s face, but the face of Sagesse shewed nothing.
“Well,” said Gaspard, “what do you think of her?”
Sagesse did not seem to hear the remark; he seemed plunged25 in thought.
Then he spat26 into the water and turned back along the reef to the shore. Gaspard followed him.
“Well, what do you think of her?”
“What do I think? Ma foi! I think she was sunk at her moorings.”
There was a note of gloom in his tone.
“You think she was not wrecked27?”
“She’s lying on too even a keel; she’s lying by that reef just as a ship would lie if scuttled28 at her moorings.”
“But, see here, if she was moored30 in that basin, she must have entered it, and there is no opening to admit a ship.”
“Not now—but eighty or so years ago there was likely an opening, and that place was a kind of harbour. Serpente would have used that harbour.”
“But,” said Gaspard, “why should he have scuttled his ship?”
“Ah, why?—who knows? We know he was chased; we know he had a cargo of slaves, and a crew each man of whom was a witness against him. He may have kept a234 boat provisioned and moored to the ship’s side; then, at night, with a confederate, battened the hatches, main and fo’cs’le, scuttled her, and made for the American coast in the boat—see?”
Sagesse seemed to have worked out the whole question in his dark mind and seemed deeply dissatisfied with the solution arrived at.
“But,” said Gaspard, “how about those bones we found, that skull31?”
“Oh, the skull! He may have been killed in turn, and robbed of his treasure by his confederate,—who knows? there are a hundred ways of making skulls32 in a job like that. Only I say this: I lay a hundred to one, if he scuttled his ship, he didn’t scuttle29 her with the money on board.”
“Then it’s a hundred to one we will find nothing.”
“I said it was a hundred to one if he scuttled her the money wasn’t on board. I don’t know whether he scuttled her or not; I’m only supposing that he did it. No, the chances are not so bad as that, but they aren’t as good as I thought. But—”
“Yes?”
“I don’t smell money there. It may be stupidity, it may be I don’t know what, but when there’s money in a thing I seem to know it. I don’t seem to feel there is money on that ship.”
They were returning not by the path through the bushes, but by the eastern beach. From their left came the crying of the gulls, from their right the cries and shouts of the negroes unlading the last of the boat’s cargo.
The diving apparatus was already ashore33, under shelter of a sail stretched between two of the palms; the white sand was strewn with packages and boxes. Sagesse, who235 thought of everything, was going to run no risks; provisions for three months for the shore party were being landed, for there was always the chance of the vessel34 being blown off the island and leaving the shore party marooned35.
Not only had stores to be landed, but a tent had to be erected36 to protect them from the sun. This was now being put up.
Two of the crew with cutlasses were slashing37 a path through the bushes for the men who would have to carry the boat to the lagoon.
As Gaspard and Sagesse watched the busy crowd, Sagesse drew a cigar from his pocket and lit it. Gaspard searched for his pipe in his pocket, found it and filled it; but before he could strike a light a horrible thing happened.
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1
flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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2
gulls
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| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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3
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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4
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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5
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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6
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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7
fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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8
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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9
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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10
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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11
gainsaying
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的现在分词 ) | |
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12
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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13
elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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15
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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16
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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17
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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18
cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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19
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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20
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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21
pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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22
lagoon
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| n.泻湖，咸水湖 | |
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23
ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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24
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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25
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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26
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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27
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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28
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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29
scuttle
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| v.急赶，疾走，逃避；n.天窗；舷窗 | |
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30
moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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31
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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32
skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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33
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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34
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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35
marooned
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| adj.被围困的；孤立无援的；无法脱身的 | |
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36
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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37
slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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