IT was necessary to retrace1 our steps along the path to the foot of the great stairs in the island wall. There were treeless meadows here and there on the way, where we rested, and a lovely brook2 of cool, delicious water where we broke our fast, though it was not yet noon; but the openings or clearings all stopped before they reached the foot of the outer wall which was almost hidden in vegetation. I remembered the paths which had led off on either side from the stairs, too. We followed one to the north easily enough. It was not like the highway over which we had just come, being only partially3 paved, although it had once been thoroughly4 cleared, and the rise of the wall was such that it was still practicable. We turned to the right, plunged5 beneath the trees and pressed resolutely6 on, keeping as close to the main wall as possible.
[255]This wall to our left was dotted with openings of caves, but none of them seemed to fit the description we carried in our memories. The undergrowth deepened and grew denser7 as we progressed, and finally I had to open a way with my axe8. The tangled9 masses soon gave way before my sturdy energy, and at last we entered a considerable open space which extended to the wall. There above us were the three openings beneath the depression in the crest10; surely enough, the one in the middle being greater than the others. I deemed that the entrance would be high enough to admit me, who am much above the usual stature11, without bending my head. It was elevated halfway12 up the surface of the cliff, and the only approach to it was by the great heap of stones, not laid up with the order and regularity13 of the giant stairs, but apparently14 piled together haphazard15 by people unskilled to make any other practical way of ascent16.
It was difficult enough for us to climb just as it was. The heap of stones evidently had not been mounted for years, and the stones had broken and fallen away in many places. Indeed,[256] we had to rebuild the pile here and there, which entailed17 some hours of arduous18 labor19 on my part, in which my lady would participate until I laughingly threatened to take my belt and strap20 her to the nearest tree unless she desisted. Whereat, smiling strangely, she stopped and, sitting down near by, watched me at work in silence.
Reaching the top at last we stood on a shelf in front of the cave mouth. I peered within but could see nothing but the blackness. When we left the ship we had taken a lantern and a few candles, you remember. I had brought the lantern with me that day. We now lighted it with the flint and steel and tinder and stepped silently in. My lady followed me close, being, as she had said, unwilling21 to be left alone, and ever ready to face any peril22 in my company.
Above the low entrance the cave wall within rose to a height of perhaps twenty feet, making a vast vaulted23 chamber24 with Gothic suggestions about it, for the coral, before it hardened, had been built into curious shapes and fantastic figures. We did not notice this so much at first, for with a wild shriek25, my gentle companion[257] suddenly caught my arm and pointed26 downward.
The floor, like that of the central altar on the hill we had just left, was covered with human bones, a gruesome sight for anyone, and certainly for a woman, and made more gruesome because of the dull lighting27 of the cave. These bones also were bleached28 white and had evidently been there a long time. We could scarcely take a step without treading upon them. I had all I could do to keep my mistress from running back toward the mouth and thence to the ground and it was not until I had reassured29 her again and again that she would consent to go on further.
As we had been compelled to pass on by our desire to get our bearings before, so if we were to get the treasure we would have to suffer this now. I think if it had not been that her previous experience on the hillock had somehow given her some confidence, my lady could not have endured this sight, treasure or no treasure. But she was a brave woman and when I urged that we were not to be balked30 in our search of thousands of leagues by dead men’s bones which,[258] though horrible, were after all quite harmless, she summoned her courage and we went on.
As our eyes became accustomed to the light, for indeed the candle lantern cast but a dim radiance over the vast apartment and the entrance was so small comparatively that little daylight came through, we saw off to the right against that side of the cave the same kind of an altar built of the same stones as on the hill, though much smaller and surmounted31 by a similar image as ugly as the others, though nearer the human size. Bones of human beings, men, women and children I judged from the difference in sizes, lay before it, and there were heaps of bones on the floor around it. It came across me that it was another altar of sacrifice, and that the worshipers had also been eaters of flesh—cannibals! For I reasoned that in that island and especially in that dry cave, the bodies of the sacrificed would have been dried up, assuming the shape of mummies, if left to themselves. And I wondered if every cave possessed32 a similar altar, and if the whole island had simply been a place of sacrifice and death for some prehistoric33 race living in other islands[259] round about, like those on the horizon we could still see; or perhaps long ages ago engulfed34 in some great cataclysm35 of nature and sunk beneath the ocean these thousands of years and then raised again.
Turning away from the altar to the right we found the way clear, and with a sigh of relief I drew Mistress Lucy reluctantly on. She clung to me and was so frightened that I finally slipped my arm about her waist, whereat she made no objection. She has confessed since that she was indeed greatly pleased and that it was a comfort to her to feel the strength and power of my grasp.
Holding the lantern before me, I cautiously proceeded further into the cave toward the inner wall. The cave wall apparently opened out into rooms. I did not dare go any distance from the main entrance for fear that I should lose my way, so I stopped undecided what to do; which opening to enter, that is.
“Oh, let us go back,” begged my mistress, “there is no treasure here, I am sure.”
“Nay,” I answered, “with your permission, Mistress Wilberforce, I intend to explore[260] further into the matter. Let us see.” I held the lantern high above my head as I spoke36. There above the entrance I saw a rude Latin cross! “Look,” I continued, “someone has been here, ’tis the sign of the cross!”
“Yes,” she said, her hopes reviving and her spirits returning a little at the unwonted sight of that sacred symbol of our faith in this place of idolatry and superstition37, “don’t you remember on the map marking the position of the cave there was a little cross?”
“So there was,” I exclaimed, “although the reading did not mention it.”
“No, but it is there, nevertheless.”
I stooped down—the entrance was scarcely three feet high but quite broad—and made to go through.
“Wait!” She seized me in great alarm. “You cannot go in there and leave me here,” she cried.
“I promise you that I will not stir three feet from the entrance, if you will suffer me that far,” I answered.
“I must come, too, then,” she urged.
“I will see what is there first, and if it is safe[261] you shall come with me immediately,” I answered, giving her no time for further objection.
As I spoke, I crawled through and found myself in another smaller chamber. There being no visible danger, I stretched out my hand to her and brought her through after me. From some distant crevice38 the air came to us, we could feel it blow upon us, and it was sweet. Also I could hear water bubbling over rocks in the distance. It was a little damp in the cave, perhaps because of that. There was little light, however, save that cast by the lantern. I could not see the further wall.
We did not need to go further into the cave, for there before us, clearly enough revealed by the dim radiance of the lamp, lay a number of large wooden boxes or chests, moldy39 and ancient. The boxes had once been iron strapped40, but we found the iron had rusted41 and the wood had rotted. I stepped over to one of them, lifted the lid which crumbled42 at my touch, and there was the treasure—ingots of gold and silver! Thousands of pounds lay to our hands! The old buccaneer had told the truth. The story of[262] the parchment was not a romance, the plunder43 of the ancient galleon44 was there.
I have read, as you all have, the great romance of Daniel DeFoe, and the uselessness of this mass of gold and silver of which the Spaniards had robbed the natives, making them toil45 to death in the mines, for which Sir Philip Wilberforce’s men had fought and died, for which the men on The Rose of Devon had committed murder, and which, had we been able to dispose of it, would have bought anything the world had to offer, came home to me, as in similar circumstances Robinson Crusoe had the same thought. For my part I would gladly have exchanged it all for a stout46 boat and a clear passage through the reef with a chance for freedom.
“Well, your great-great-great-grandfather, for how many generations back I know not, was right,” I said at last. “The treasure is here and we have found it. It is yours.”
“Yes,” she said, to whom the same thought had come, “but now that we have found it of what value or use is it?”
“None,” I admitted, “that I can see that is, but there is a certain satisfaction in having[263] found it, and in knowing that you can own it even if you cannot take it away. I am glad that events have proved that we came on no fool’s errand.”
“And what may be its value, think you?”
“It would make good ballast for a ship,” I answered lightly.
“But if we could take it hence to England?”
“Millions, I can only guess.”
“I will give you one-half of it for your share,” she said, laughing softly.
“I want none of it,” I returned seriously enough.
What possessed her to do it, I know not, and she has since confessed she knows not either. We stood there, looking down upon the useless heap of treasure, when she turned to me on a sudden.
“Now that you have seen it, are you still of the same mind,” she asked mischievously47, “that you would give up your portion of the treasure—for me?”
“Great God!” I exclaimed, moved beyond measure by her imprudent remark, and thrown off my balance by her—dare I say coquetry? “I[264] would give up the world itself for you. Don’t you know it?”
And I made a step toward her, but she put up her hand.
“Hush! stay! Master Hampdon,” she cried affrighted at the consequences of her pleasantry, “remember—”
“I shall never forget,” I said grimly. “This treasure removes you further away from me than ever.”
“What mean you?”
“When you get back to England and take your place once more among your friends in that society to which your birth entitles you and which this wealth will enable you to sustain—”
“And who is to take me back to England?”
“I.”
“How?”
“I know not, but I shall do it.”
“And with the treasure?”
“With the treasure, too, at least a sufficiency of it for all your needs.”
“And when you have done this amazing thing for me, you expect to disappear from my life, Master Hampdon?”
[265]“Aye, if need be.”
She laughed, and I did not understand the meaning of that laugh, either.
“Is it not idle for us to speculate upon treasures which we cannot carry hence, and which in our present situation are not so useful to us as the little pieces of flint and steel with the tinder in the pocket of your coat?” she asked, smiling.
“You are right,” I answered, smiling in turn, although what it cost me to smile in the face of the picture of the future that came to me, you cannot imagine. “But let us search and see if there be anything else. Your ancestor spoke of jewels.”
“Yes,” she said, “there should be a smaller casket, let us look further.”
There were perhaps a dozen large boxes. I opened them all. Some were quite empty, with little piles of dust in them, and a few shreds48 of color here and there which indicated silk had been packed in them. There were also broken barrels around which still clung a faint odor of spices. There were piles of rotted débris further on, and as I stirred one of them with[266] my sheath sword I struck something more solid. I brushed aside what seemed to be the decayed remains49 of cordage and wood and finally came upon a smaller casket bound, strapped, hinged, and cornered with some kind of metal which I afterward50 found to be silver—iron would have rusted long since. The casket was about a foot long by six inches wide and six inches deep. The metal which completely covered it was curiously51 chased. The casket was locked. I crumbled the wood in my hands, but could not open the lock. The edge of my axe, however, proved a potent52 key and at last I forced it apart. As I did so out fell a little heap of what I judged to be precious stones. There were green, red, blue, and white ones, among them many pearls sadly discolored and valueless. The stones glistened53 with an almost living energy. My mistress was more familiar with these things than I, and I presented a handful to her.
“Why, they are precious stones!” she cried, in an awe-struck whisper. “Look,” she held up a diamond as big as her thumb nail; it sparkled like a sun in the candlelight. “And there is an[267] emerald,” she cried, picking up one of the green stones, “this blue one is a sapphire54, this a ruby55. Why,” she exclaimed, “here is a fortune alone. These jewels must be of fabulous56 value. The gold and silver we might leave behind, but these we can carry with us.”
In my heart I was sorry we had found them, yet I had the grace immediately to say,
“I am glad for that. We must gather them up, but where shall we put them?”
“In the pockets of your coat for the present,” she answered.
Now there were not so many of them, perhaps three or four handfuls, not nearly enough to fill the casket. I figured that it had been a jewel box with little trays or drawers, and that the stones had been wrapped separately but had all fallen together when the partitions rotted away. I easily found room for them in the capacious side pockets of my coat and then we turned back to the outer room. Passing by the hideous57 altar we gained the open day again. It was now late in the afternoon, we found to our surprise. And yet how sweet it was, that outer air, after those caves of death and treasure!
[268]We had spent hours over the search, and we had just time to retrace our steps and get back to the boat on the beach and partake of our evening meal when night fell. As we sat by the fire that night, I made two little bags out of a piece of canvas taken from a bread bag, and we put the jewels into them, dividing them into equal parts. One bag she wore constantly thereafter on her person, and I the other.
My mistress was at first anxious to stow them away in some crack or cranny of the rock, but I said, I scarcely knew why, that it would be better to keep them always with us, and so we did. She insisted that the rough and ready division we had made was permanent, that the bag I carried belonged to me and the bag she carried belonged to her. But I refused to have it so in spite of her argument and there we left it.
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1
retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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4
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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5
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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6
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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7
denser
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| adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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8
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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9
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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10
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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11
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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12
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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13
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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14
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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15
haphazard
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| adj.无计划的，随意的，杂乱无章的 | |
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16
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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17
entailed
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| 使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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18
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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21
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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23
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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25
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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27
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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28
bleached
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| 漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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30
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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31
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cataclysm
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| n.洪水，剧变，大灾难 | |
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36
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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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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38
crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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moldy
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| adj.发霉的 | |
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40
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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41
rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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43
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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44
galleon
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| n.大帆船 | |
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45
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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47
mischievously
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| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
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48
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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49
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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50
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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51
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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52
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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53
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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55
ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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56
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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57
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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