Treasure of Kings

by Burt L. Standish

  CHAPTER XXVIII--CONCLUSION

  Early that afternoon we arrived at our destination, and found that wewere none too soon. For Rushby had long since consumed all the water wehad left him, but had managed somehow to move himself, though in thegreatest pain, to the bank of the stream that flowed near at hand, wherehe was able, from time to time, to fill his pannikin with water. Also,that very morning, he had eaten the last of the food that we had lefthim. So it was well we came no later.

  He told us that he had slept daily for many hours; and on one occasionhe had awakened quite suddenly, to find one of those small deer thatwere numerous in the Wood staring at him with its soft, mild eyes, froma distance of not more than ten yards.

  I asked him if he had not been afraid that some wild beast of prey mightfind him in the night. But he told me that he had never botheredhimself about such matters, since both by day and night he had kept afire alight. He had heard the report of the first shot, that which hadbrought about the death of Joshua Trust, though he had heard nothing ofthe other shots, upon the far side of the Wood, fired in the glade whereAmos Baverstock had met his tragic end.

  "I have lain here for days," said he, "wondering what was happening, andwhether I would ever set eyes upon any one of you again."

  When we told him the story of the death of Amos, he seemed little enoughimpressed; for he was a rough-and-ready seaman, without the gift ofimagination, and he had not been there himself to behold with his owneyes the terror of that incident or to hear the wild laughter of thefugitive as he fled before us through the Wood.

  "A fit end for such a man," said he. "He himself was as evil as anysnake, though he had courage of a sort; for I remember him well, when hefaced the mutineers on board the _Mary Greenfield_. And what of themap?" he asked, turning suddenly to Bannister, who shrugged hisshoulders.

  "We do not know," he answered; "but in default of certain evidence wemust presume that that little fragment which we brought with us all theway from Sussex went down into the water when Amos was crushed todeath."

  "So then," said William Rushby, who was of a practical turn of mind, "noone is any the wiser, so far as the Big Fish is concerned?"

  "No one," said Bannister, "save we five, and I do not suppose that anyone of us will ever care again to undertake such an expedition."

  I looked at Mr. Gilbert Forsyth; for I was inclined to think that he wasthe only member of our party who was likely to persevere upon the questof the Greater Treasure in spite of any promise he had made.

  I was surprised at the attitude he had assumed; for there was somethingin it that jogged my memory, that took me back to the day when I hadfirst seen him and Baverstock and Joshua Trust. For he lay upon hisback, with his hands clasped behind his head, and one knee throwncarelessly across the other. But how different was he now! He nolonger wore his highly polished boots, his double-breasted waistcoat,and his hat tilted at a jaunty angle on his head. He was in rags andtatters, burnt and blistered by the sun, deprived of an ear where theskin was all white and scarred owing to his having burnt it. And yet heyawned in the same lazy fashion.

  "I've had enough of it," said he. "I want nothing better than a land ofchimney-pots and gas-pipes. I shall rejoice at the sight of apoliceman."

  And he yawned again.

  Rushby, we found, was in no better plight than before. It was quiteimpossible for him to walk. We saw at once that we must carry him; andas delay would profit us nothing, we set forward that very afternoon,heading in the direction of the hills towards the east.

  It was a silent, almost a saddened, party that crossed the plain toCahazaxa's Temple. We took it in turns, two at a time, to carry Rushby;and on that account we could not make many miles a day. We crossed thesuspension bridge, and at last came within sight of the great ruin,whence from the hill-top we looked down upon the forest, wherein we hadall risked our lives so often, in the heart of which I had lived forweeks with the wild men of the woods.

  I asked Bannister how it was that they had treated me so kindly, when itwas these same people who had murdered Atupo's friends.

  "Curiosity," said he; for he could explain most things. "The SouthAmerican savage is not by any means as curious as the African; but youmust remember that the men who found you had never before set eyes upona white man. They probably looked upon you as a kind of god. With thePeruvians, it was different. Though the forest folk never ventured tothe Temple, they had regarded the priests for years as their naturalfoes."

  We remained for two weeks at the Temple, during which time Atupopersonally attended to Rushby's wound, bathing it with a decoction madefrom a herb that he procured in the forest. Whatever this was itproved, at any rate, effective; for the wound soon healed, and theboatswain was at last able to walk with the aid of a stick.

  We then set forward upon our journey towards the west, bidding good-byeto the quaint people whom we had already learned to love. We crossedthe plain and that marvellous suspension bridge that had existed forcenturies, and stands--for all I know--to this day, as evidence of thebygone civilisation of a great and ancient people. We came to thevalley in which lay the Wood of the Red Fish; but we passed so far tothe south that we did no more than see it dimly through the thickmorning haze that lay between the hills. And after that we entered intoa country very different from any we had yet seen--a land of highmountains and deep valleys, clothed with trees.

  We were days upon our march across the Andes. We were obliged toprogress by easy stages, because Rushby was half a cripple. There, inthe highlands, we found a mild, simple people, engaged in agriculturalpursuits, tending large flocks of llamas, or Peruvian sheep. Fromvillage to village we went, like beggars, and were always treated withhospitality and kindness.

  At last we gained the crestline of those immortal mountains, and couldsee, both to the north and to the south of us, peak upon peak, ruggedand inaccessible, towering like giants into the sky. Thence wedescended to the narrow tableland, where the grass was knee-deep andnative villages were many.

  All this was a journey of several weeks, and yet, in more ways than one,something in the nature of a pleasant picnic after the hardships and theperils we had been called upon to face.

  Sleeping night by night beneath the stars, wayfarers among the gloriousand rugged hills, we had learned the art of comradeship. We found thatthere was good even in Forsyth and the sleepy, idle Vasco; andfortunate, indeed, is he who never travels in worse company than that ofmen like Bannister and Rushby.

  And so, upon a certain day at sunset, I was strangely conscious of afeeling of sadness when I knew that we were come to the end of ouradventures, and that we soon must part. We stood then on a steep bluff,and looked down upon a narrow strip of sea-board, populous with townsand hamlets, with fertile fields between; and so we came to theseashore, and saw the sun go down upon the wide and golden PacificOcean.

  "AND SO WE CAME TO THE SHORE AND SAW THE SUN GO DOWN UPONTHE WIDE AND GOLDEN PACIFIC OCEAN."]

  And now my story is told. Since those days I have ventured often in thewild places of the world--upon great open spaces, amid the summits ofunknown mountains, in dense, steaming forests--but never again have Ijourneyed to the Wood of the Red Fish. Nor, to my certain knowledge,did any of the others.

  In that, as in much else, we thought alike. Let the Inca gold lie inthe dust, where it has lain for above four hundred years. He who willmay yet go forth to find it. As for me, whenever I remember that dreadWood I see the gold, stacked and glimmering in the torch-light, and Ihear the wild, mad laughter of Amos Baverstock as he fled before us, andsee him once again and hear his piercing shriek, when he was caught inthe silent, stealthy coils that crushed that evil man to death beforeour very eyes. And I ask God to have mercy on us who are yet alive, andto save us from a like living and ending.

  THE END.

  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LOND
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