The Pirates' Treasure Chest (7 Gold Hunt Adventures & True Life Stories of Swashbucklers). Эдгар Аллан ПоЧитать онлайн книгу.
"Don't move or shout," I warned.
From the bushes Alderson had been waiting for us and his boat was in place. He flung up a rope ladder with grappling hooks on the end. Gallagher fixed them to the rail and helped Evelyn down.
"You next," I ordered.
"Yes, sir."
"Your turn now, Sambo," I told the peon after the sailor had gone.
The fellow rolled his eyes wildly toward the stem of the vessel but found no hope from that quarter. He clambered over the rail like a monkey and went down hand after hand. I followed him.
We were huddled promiscuously in the little boat so that it rocked to the very lip. For a half a minute I was afraid we were going down, but a shift in position by Gallagher steadied the shell.
Meanwhile Alderson had thrown his muscles into the oars and we drew away steadily; fifty strokes, and the shadows had swallowed us.
Alderson pulled across the river and let the boat drift down the opposite bank. The outgoing tide carried us swiftly. We slipped past the schooner unobserved. Gallagher blew twice on a whistle and the two boats commanded by Blythe and Yeager at once drew back into safety.
Some three hundred yards farther down stream they caught up with us.
"All right, Jack?" Blythe called across to me.
"All right, Sam."
"Miss Wallace is with you, of course?"
"Yes, and one other passenger who nearly swamped us. Can you take our prisoner?"
His boat pulled up beside us and relieved us of one very frightened Panama peon. We were very glad to be rid of him, for a dozen times the waves had nearly swamped our overloaded skiff and I had been bailing every second.
A few minutes later we reached the Argos.
From Blythe I learned that Gallagher had been responsible for the plan by means of which he had rescued us. Moreover, he had insisted on taking the stellar rôle in carrying it out, dangerous as the part had been. It was his way of wiping out his share in the mutiny.
Chapter XXVI.
The Last Brush
We resumed next morning the digging for the treasure. The shore party was made up of Blythe, Yeager, Smith, Higgins and Barbados.
Those of us left on board had a lazy time of it. I arranged watches of two to guard against any surprise on the part of the enemy either by an attack upon the yacht or by a sally along the shore upon the treasure diggers.
Having divided my men into watches, I discharged my mind of responsibility. Evelyn and I had a thousand things to tell each other. We sat on the upper deck under the tarpaulin and forgot everything except that we were lovers reunited after dreadful peril.
Youth is resilient. One would scarce have believed that this girl bubbling over with life and spirits was the same one who had been in such hopeless despair a few hours earlier.
A night's good sleep had set her up wonderfully.
Last night I had looked into tired eyes that had not yet fully escaped from the shadows of tragedy, into the sharp oval of a colorless face from which waves of storm had washed the life.
This morning the sun shone for her.
Courage had flowed back into her heart. Swift love ran now and again through her cheeks and tinted them.
She was herself, golden and delicate, elastic and vivid as a captured nymph.
"When I left the old Argos I thought I never wanted to see the yacht again, but now I think I could be happy here all my life," she confided.
"Wouldn't you prefer to have your cousin just a few miles farther away?"
She fell grave for a moment.
"Do you think he'll try to do more mischief?"
"He'll try. That's a safe bet. But I think we have him checkmated. By night we ought to have the bulk of the treasure on board. Once we get it the Argos will show him her heels."
Four bells sounded, six, eight. Dugan came down from the bridge to report to me.
"Captain Blythe's party coming down to the beach, sir."
Two of the men were carrying a large chest. It was so heavy that every forty or fifty yards relays relieved each other. The box was brought down to the edge of the water and loaded into a boat. Smith and Higgins took their places at the oars and Blythe stepped into the bow.
The cargo seemed to call for tackle and ropes. I had them ready before the boat reached us. Blythe superintended the hoisting of the chest, arranging the ropes so as to make a slip impossible. We hauled it safely aboard.
"Have it taken to the strong room, Sam. There's another waiting for us ashore," Blythe explained.
"Want me to go back for it?"
"No. Keep a sharp lookout for our friend up the river."
He was pulled ashore again and returned two hours later with a second chest, this time leaving Yeager and Barbados on guard at the cache. Gallagher and Alderson were sent ashore later to join Tom's party for the night watch.
A few more hours' work would be enough to lift the rest of the treasure. Already we had on board a fortune in doubloons and bars of gold, but there was still one more chest to be unearthed. We felt that we were near the end of our adventure and our spirits were high.
Blythe got out his violin and Evie sang some of her plantation songs, her soft voice falling easily into the indolent negro dialect.
My stunt was Irish stories. We dragooned the staid Morgan into playing the piano while we ragged.
It must have been close to midnight before we spoke of breaking up.
Evelyn and I took a turn on the deck. Our excuse was to get a breath of fresh air, but the truth is that we were always drifting together.
Even in the company of others our eyes had a way of sending wireless messages of which we two only understood the code.
We leaned against the rail and looked across the bay. It was a night of ragged clouds behind which the moon was screened.
"Isn't that a boat over there?" Evie asked, pointing in the direction of the river mouth.
The moon had peeped out and was flinging a slant of light over the water. I looked for a long minute.
"Yes. I believe it's Bothwell's schooner. He has slipped out unnoticed. The fellow must mean mischief."
"Oh, I hope not," said Evie, and she gave a little shiver.
A sound came faintly over the water to us from the shore.
"Did you hear that?" Evelyn turned to me, her face white in the shining moonbeam.
A second pistol shot followed the first.
"Trouble at the cache!"
I turned toward the pavilion and met Blythe. Already he was flinging a crisp order to the watch.
"Lower a boat, Neidlinger. Smith will help you. That you, Higgins? Rouse all hands from sleep. We've work afoot."
Again came a faint echo across the still waters, followed by two sharper explosions. Some one had brought a rifle into action.
Blythe turned to me. "It's my place to stand by the ship, Jack. This may be a ruse to draw us off. I can spare you one man to go ashore and see what the trouble is. Take your pick."
I chose Smith.
"Keep a sharp lookout, Jack. He's wily as the devil, Bothwell is. Better not land at the usual place.