CHAPTER X.
THE PEARL DIVER'S PRICE.
However placid our adventurous Englishman might seem to be, he was aman, like another, to be dazzled by the play of his fancy, renderingalmost palpable to his mind all the jewelled dreams of _The ArabianNights_, where pearls and other sea gems play so brilliant a part, andare measured out in bushels by the heroes of those prodigious tales.
Now that he owned a fleet vessel, nothing seemed easier than to realiseall these visions, and to succeed in obtaining the treasure indicatedby Pepillo, so that, like another Aladdin, his fortune would enable himto eclipse even the dons of the European stock exchanges.
The first thing had been to obtain indisputable command of the ship. Sohe went to the port governor, a military man, who was incorruptible,and would, he could see, stand no nonsense from the robber chief andhis more or less public allies; Colonel Fontoro stamped the transferpaper of the late owner of the _Burlonilla_, and authorised captainGladsden to defend his property against all illegal claimants.
There were a score of American or English sailors knocking about atthe port. Gladsden selected eight, added a North American Negro as acolour line, a Chinaman for cook, a Karnak to help in the diving, and aValparaisan boy for the cabin. Ignacio he allowed to be his lieutenant"on trial," but protected himself by giving the second mate, JemHoldfast, a Bristol man, a sealed order to take command in event of hisabsence for twenty-four hours without notice, or the American actingsuspiciously.
There was a lack of the most important desideratum in his peculiarquest, pearl divers; Ignacio did not pretend to be expert, likehis brother-in-law had been, spite of overmuch assurance in mostpretensions, and the Karnak was doubtful.
As those waters were wont to have furnished a bountiful harvest ofpearls to Spain--up to 1530 from the conquest, a million dollars worthhad been sent home officially, heaven only knowing what supplementthe tyrants had smuggled to the Jews of Barcelona, Cadiz, Lisbon,and Oporto--Gladsden cherished the hope that he would pick up someIndian, versed by innate inheritance, skilful and strong, if not anytoo honest. Though the pearl fishery on the West Coast was practicallyexhausted in the seventeenth century, still a few essay it "for theirown hand." It is not impossible that notable pearls are still pickedup, and secretly disposed of, as only the other day (1883, to be exact)one was found in the Bay of Panama, so large as to rank among the fewcelebrated gems of historical note.
The search for a diver was fruitless to Gladsden. The Indians, nodoubt, scented a little coolie catching in the wind, where so rakish avessel was concerned, and had no inclination to be carried to Ceylonand set to work at coffee planting during an engagement of 99 years.
Besides, with so ugly an enemy, the captain of _bandoleros_ hatching ascheme to recover his property, with which don Jorge Federico was moreand more delighted, so that he wondered it had ever been valued at onlytwenty thousand dollars, he ought already to have sailed. He determinedto weigh, therefore, spite of his unsupplied want, obeying the rudealternative.
On the eve, while the men were putting the finishing touches to theseagoing trim, while captain Gladsden was in the cabin, lolling back ina Windsor (Connecticut) chair, smoking and seeing Gladsden Hall risingin a vast estate of new purchase like Chatsworth itself, the SouthAmerican page came to the doorsill, and announced the arrival alongsideof a strange gentleman, with the last provisions of fresh vegetablesand water.
Gladsden was in no good humour at the interruption, especially as heconjectured that the newcomer was an emissary of the ex-skipper of thepretty cotter. He was, therefore, about to rejoin that the cabin boyand the uninvited caller might go to Hades in company, when the partymentioned, probably of an impatient temperament, or too pressed by theurgency of his case to stand on ceremony, caught the boy by the waistbelt, tossed him aside, and, leaping into the cabin, said as easily asone could imagine and with a winning smile:--
"Be good enough to overlook the manner of my arrival, sir Captain, butI _must_ speak with you."
Without any invitation he sat himself down on a locker, and pulling outtobacco and paper from his sash at the waist, proceeded to roll up acigarette.
Rather taken aback by this abrupt intrusion, the Englishman took a longstare at the speaker, who did not show in the least that the attentionwas burdensome. Then he smiled, with a reflection which he did notcare just then to express. When the cigarette was made and lit, thestranger, half hiding his handsome young face in a cloud of smoke,leant towards his compulsory host with a somewhat mocking air, andbegan:--
"Senor Capitan, I am of the opinion that, though you should reckon meup by the hour together in the comprehensive style you are doing, thatwould in no way enlighten you as to who I am."
"That is just where you are out, my friend," returned Gladsden, withsome Triumph. "It is I who know more about you than you do of me, orrather it is you who are more in my debt than ever I hope I shall be inyours."
It was the turn for the young Mexican to evince surprise, but he borethe shock very well.
"There is an error, sir," he responded, after reflecting, whilst heregarded the frank, hardy features over against him, repaying hismocking air with a derisive expression which was full of fun, though."I have never seen you before."
"That is true, perhaps. At the time when we were face to face there wasthe ugly head of a red Indian thrust between, a head, by the way, inwhich I lodged a bullet, thanks to which your hair remains on yours."
"Oh!" exclaimed Benito Bustamente, in a gush of joy and amazement."Was it you whose shot rang in my ear like the voice of a deliveringarchangel when that murderous savage's knife was hovering over my heartin order to precipitate the death which his envenomed darts had failedto inflict? How can I thank you?"
He sprang forward, let the cigar fly from his fine teeth, and seizingthe Englishman's hand, carried it effusively to his lips.
"Well, there, have done, do stop it, my good fellow!" said the other,embarrassed, "I am heartily glad I saved the life of so graceful acaballero, and more. I cannot say now, particularly, if your presenterrand has anything to do with the occurrence which culminated inplacing you, mighty pale and 'gone' looking, at the mercy of thatscalping fiend."
"Something to do with it? All, all!" cried Benito.
They exchanged stories. When the Mexican explained how his despair hadgoaded him into taking up the trail of Dolores, though ill fitted tocombat a horde of ruffians, the Englishman stayed him.
"I was on the same track," said he, "how singular! We might have fallenfoul of one another, and had a pretty mincing and slashing duet in thethicket, that stormy night. Well, such a fatal blunder was not in thebooks."
"Thank heaven! To proceed," went on Benito; "I found Dolores shelteredfrom the rain in a hollow tree. She was like the dead, speechless,inflexible, cold; but fortunately I carried the means of resuscitatingher. When she had been so revivified, I left her to await my returnwith the steed I proposed stealing from a frightened herd which couldbe seen by the lightning glare around the base of that Mound Tower. Therobbers were within the pile, I could move bodily; to my amazement, Ispied, on looking up, a man suspended as by a thread from the top ofthe cylinder of brick. There, in another part, I recognised anothervisage, hideous, demoniacally grinning, hovering over this doomedwretch. A knife soon glittered in the hand of the cruel scoundrel. Iknew the peculiar profile, the thin lips, the chin and hooknose nearlymeeting. It was don Anibal Cristobal de Luna, as he called himself,the visitor at don Jose's, suspected then to be affiliated to thesalteador. I hesitated not a moment. I could not stay your fall, Senor,but I was bound to revenge it, I fired with the untried gun, whichhandsomely did its work, and the scream of don Anibal, whose beauty Ihad marred, was my reward and an alarm to his gang. But I had time toselect a horse, stampede the others, gallop to Dolores' refuge, placeher on the saddlebow, and flee round the terrified animals over theprairie. When our flight became slower by fatigue, I lassoed a secondhorse for Dolores, and we two rode easily on to Guaymas."
"Whilst I was carried away, heaven knows how far, luckily I fell inwith a couple of decent fellows, professional protectors of the cattlefrom vermin, and they conducted me to the post, also whither they werebearing their pelts. What a strange meeting! So your idea of humanitywas to shoot close to the ear of a man suspended fifty feet on high, soas to startle him into the drop!" laughing. "Well, shake hands again,"continued Gladsden, extending his hand.
"But you are alive?"
"I agree with you there. But if I had not fallen on something so softas a couple of horses, one of which obligingly bolted and took me outof the robbers' camp, I should have been a pancake. All this thanks toyour _humanity_!"
Benito hardly understood this kind of jesting; but the ways of theAnglo-Saxon are often incomprehensible to the Southern American, and hedid not stop to require an elucidation.
"We are quits, then; that is manifest!" said he.
"Which means we are both, with the very natural proneness of each man,to overrate his vital value infinitely, under ceaseless obligation toone another. What can I do for you?"
"Captain, you have been beating up Guaymas for a pearl fisher--adiver of the rare old sort, who could go deeper and stay under longerthan the degenerate descendants of that almost forgotten man-fishMiguelillo, of Tehuantepec, who, in 1620 or so, dived an incrediblenumber of fathoms, and brought up the 'Queen of the Gulf,' whichprecious pearl, worthy of being called a 'Cleopatrina,' and dissolvedin an Imperator's cup, was, up to a few years ago, the largest gem inthe coronet of Our Lady in Saragossa Cathedral!"
"My learned friend, I want a diver, indeed. Only I mean to fish inbulk; that is, draw up at one scoop a mass of pearls!"
"Did you never hear the men about the port mention one Benito Vazquez,of the Upper Gulf?" went on the Mexican, without reference to thisannouncement.
"Well, several did say that the person you name was the very man I wasfeeling for. But no one had seen him for some time back."
"Benito Vazquez is Benito de Bustamente! Fond of the seas, acquaintedwith an old Indian, one of the many who assert a descent from the earlykings, I know almost every inch of water, far below the surface, too,from the mouth of the Gila to Cape Palmo. I am that diver!"
"Famous diver," said Gladsden. "My dear fellow, you will make myexpedition a short and surely successful one. You are the very man Iwant. I won't say now, engage with me at a sum; but come, point out thespot I seek, help me to drag up the sunken treasure, and as I live, Ishall turn my head whilst you dip with your cap into the chest."
"Are you speaking seriously, Captain?" demanded Benito, not surprisedat the sudden friendship he had excited, that not being an unexampledevent.
"Most seriously."
"Then our bargain is made. The conditions lie thus: ask me whatsoeveryou will, my Englishman, and I will do my best to gratify it. On yourpart, let me be accompanied on the voyage by my wife, dona Dolores deMiranda."
"Is that all! Delighted to turn myself out of my cabin for the younglady."
"Afterwards you will land me and her where I indicate."
"Right, but about your remuneration?"
"Not a seed of a pearl. I shall consider myself sufficiently rewarded,if you loyally keep this arrangement, on which depends the happiness ofall my life."
"Senor Benito Vazquez de Bustamente," said Gladsden, rising and gravelyholding out his hand. "I read in some old newspaper which beguiled thedreary watch, that your father, in resigning the Presidency of theseMexican States, said: He retired with nothing but his family, whomhe would rear to be like himself, content with the grand but simpleambition to be _good Mexicans_. You are worthy your father, who musthave been a fine gentleman! And I tell you, one such Mexican sufficesto make me reckon very little in the opposing balance a thousandmongrels like that don Anibal, the robber chief, and his citizenallies. Bring the young lady aboard--she shall be the Queen of the Seahere, my very sister!"
"By my soul!" cried the young Mexican: "You have a gallant heart, and Ianticipated little less from a seaman and an Englishman! So, the ladyis alongside at this very moment, in the dugout that I paddled out in,awaiting the result of my pleading."
"Enough, the young lady shall have a stateroom, and even a sittingroom apart, for the carpenter can soon knock up a partition here.No one but you and I, if I may be considered a guest now and then,may enter there, and I never without you. It is needless to say thatMadam Bustamente shall be treated on my ship with all the respectfulconsideration which is her due."
"Then the sooner we are off soundings the better. Both of us haveactive enemies ashore."
"Not while my flag covers you. The fiery flag of England is one thatgrasping fingers have been burnt again afore now, Senor. Now let'sbless the ship with the presence within her bulwarks of your lifecompanion, let's have her here."
Benito shook the generous foreigner's hand cordially, ran up thecompanionway and vanished for a short moment, after which he returned,preceding Dolores. She had even sooner and more completely than heryoung mate recovered from the privations of the desert, and grief atthe loss of her only parent. Her beauty was exhilarating, and Gladsdenwas really enchanted at her salutation, so fraught with modesty andgrace. Her soft, harmonious voice fluttered faintly in her answer tohis welcoming address, but she was soon encouraged to the top of herheart, and even laughed at having been fearful up to then.
To think they were in some sort old friends; that this indolent captainhad been on the trail of her abductor, and had besides visited withcondign punishment the assassin of her father. It was as good as herbrightest dreams.
The Treasure of Pearls: A Romance of Adventures in California Page 10
