The Pirate Island

by Harry Collingwood

  “Very well, then,” said Captain Staunton, “what I propose is this. Since the ladies are kindly disposed to give them we will thankfully accept their services to this extent. Let them collect the gold and convey it to the edge of the gulf or chasm which you so providentially escaped tumbling into to-day. Then we men must undertake the task of conveying it to the other side and stacking it up in a position from which we can easily remove it with the aid of a boat. If we succeed in securing the schooner, we shall simply have to call off the mouth of the cave and remove our booty in that way. Can anyone suggest anything better?”

  No one could; it was therefore decided that the skipper’s proposal should be adopted, especially as it left them free to alter their plans at any time, should circumstances seem to require it. This decision arrived at, the party retired for the night, most of them, it must be confessed, to dream of the wonderful cave and the equally wonderful wealth of which they had been talking.

  The next day was spent by all hands, Dale included, at the shipyard. This individual had, ever since poor Bob’s accident, manifested a growing dissatisfaction with himself, and an increasing amount of shame at the selfishness which caused him to live a life of idleness and comparative ease, while every one of his companions, the ladies included, were doing all they could to aid in maturing the great plan of escape; and now at last shame at his unmanly conduct fairly overcame him, and on this particular morning he startled everybody by putting in an appearance at the same time as the rest of the male portion of the party, saying in explanation that henceforward he too should go daily to work, as he was quite sure he could be of assistance. He was, of course, assured that he undoubtedly could be of very great use if he chose; and there the matter ended. But a rather unpleasant feeling was excited when Ralli, who was always promptly down at the beach to watch the departure of the working party, noticed and commented upon Dale’s presence.

  “Aha! my fine fellow,” he remarked sneeringly, “so you have made up your mind to go to work at last, have you? That is very well, sare. You must surely have dream last night that I had my eye on you. You think, perhaps, I have not take notice; but I have; and if you had not gone to work to-day, I should have said to you, ‘Look here, my good man, suppose you not work you not eat;’ and I should have stopped your ’lowance. But you are going to work; so now that is all right.”

  It certainly served Dale right; but, all the same, it was a disagreeable sensation to the rest to feel that this sly Greek had been in all probability keeping a stealthy watch upon them and their movements. They inwardly resolved to be very much more circumspect in their goings-out and in their comings-in for the future; and they lost no time either in communicating this resolve to each other.

  All day long their thoughts were busy upon the subject of the gold mine; and by the time that they got back to the cottage that evening each man had an idea in connection with it to communicate to the others. They were unanimous upon one point, which was that—after Ralli’s remark to Dale in the morning, and the espionage which it seemed to suggest—it would be most unwise for any of the male portion of the party to visit the cave during the day. Henceforward their visits there would have to be as few and far between as possible, and such visits as were unavoidable must be made during the night. With the women it would, of course, be different. They could now safely venture out every day, it was believed; and as the walk up the valley was the one which involved the least exertion, it would only appear natural that they should almost invariably take it. But, in order to disarm suspicion, in case anything of the kind happened to exist, it was deemed best that an occasional walk should be taken in some other direction until they could resume the road toward the ravine with the certainty that they had not been watched and followed.

  It was further agreed all round that the task of carrying the gold, when collected, over the most dangerous part of the path along the edge of the ravine was not to be thought of, especially as Captain Staunton had thought out a plan by which all danger might be completely avoided. His idea was exceedingly simple, and consisted merely in the erection on each side of the chasm of a short stout pair of sheers connected together at their heads by a good strong sound piece of rope, having rove upon it a thimble with a pair of clip-hooks attached. The gold could then be put into a canvas bag suspended from the clip-hooks, and, with the aid of a hauling-line, hauled easily enough across the chasm to the other side.

  These details agreed upon, they determined to proceed with their arrangements that same night. Accordingly, as soon as the evening meal was over, the men retired to their bunks for a few hours’ sleep—all, that is to say, except Dale, who, quite unaccustomed to bodily labour, felt thoroughly exhausted with his day’s work, and was therefore readily excused. He volunteered, however, to remain up on watch until all the lights in the pirates’ quarter were extinguished, and then to take a good look round the settlement, and call the others when all was quiet; a raid upon the capstan-house being the first thing necessary to enable them to carry out their plans successfully.

  The pirates, working hard all day in the open air, were, as a rule, tolerably early birds; and by eleven o’clock that night the place was wrapped in darkness and repose. Having thoroughly satisfied himself that this was the case, and that the coast was quite clear for his comrades, Dale roused the latter and then tumbled into his own berth with the comforting reflection that he had at last taken the right course, and done something to regain that respect from his companions which he was beginning to be acutely conscious of having forfeited.

  Five minutes later four forms might have been seen—had anyone been on the look-out—stealing quietly across the open space between Staunton Cottage and the capstan-house. Fortunately no one was on the look-out, and they reached the building undiscovered, ascended the ladder, and found themselves standing in the thick darkness which enshrouded the long loft-like apartment.

  Here Lance promptly produced his box of matches, and, on striking a light, they were fortunate enough to discover hanging to a nail near the door a lantern ready trimmed. This they at once lighted, and, carefully masking it, proceeded to rummage the place for such things as would be likely to prove useful to them. The place was almost like a museum in the variety of its contents; and they were not long in confiscating a dozen fathoms of three-inch rope, the remains of a coil of ratline, a small ball of spun-yarn for seizings, a sledge-hammer, an axe apiece, a marline-spike, a few long spike-nails, which Lance decided would be capital tools for the ladies to use in picking out the nuggets, and a few other trifling matters. Then, hanging the lantern upon its nail once more, they extinguished it, and made the best of their way down the ladder again.

  A pause of a minute or so to look round and assure themselves that no midnight prowler was in their vicinity, and they set off at a brisk pace up the valley, lighted on their way by the clear soft effulgence of the star-studded sky.

  They were not long in reaching the shelter of the dense wood at the head of the valley; and once fairly through it, they laid down the bulk of their booty where they could easily find it again, and, returning to the wood, selected a couple of young pines, which they quickly felled. The branches were soon lopped off, after which they cut from the tall slender trunks four spars about ten feet in length to serve for sheers.

  Shouldering these, they sought out the remainder of their belongings, and—by this time pretty heavily loaded—continued their way into and up the ravine, arriving at last, under Lance’s guidance, at the great rock which veiled the entrance to the cavern.

  Lance and Brook at once scrambled up to the narrow ledge before the entrance, taking with them the ratline and such other small matters as they could carry, while Captain Staunton and Rex remained below to “bend on” and send up the remainder. Many hands—especially if they be willing—make light work, and a quarter of an hour sufficed to transfer everything, themselves included, to the ledge. Torches, chopped out of the remainder of the pines, were then lighted, and, once mor
e loading up their possessions, they plunged boldly into the cavern, Lance as pilot leading the way.

  In about half an hour they found themselves standing in the great central hall or cavern, which, lighted up as it now was by the glare of four flaming torches, looked more bewilderingly beautiful than ever. A hurried glance round was, however, all that they would now spare themselves time to take, and then they at once set vigorously to work. The first thing necessary was to mark in a legible manner—and in such a way that the mark could be identified in the darkness if need be—the inner extremity of the passage through which they had just passed. Rex and Brook undertook to do this; and as they had already agreed what the mark should be, these two began, with the aid of the sledge-hammer and a spike, to chip in the face of the rock a circular depression on the right-hand side of the passage, at a height of about three feet from the ground, so that it could easily be found and identified in the dark by a mere touch of the hand. Leaving these two busily employed, Lance and Captain Staunton hurried away in search of the other passage. They soon found an opening which proved to be the right one, though a third was afterwards found to exist further along the circular wall of the cavern. The second, however, was the passage they wanted; for, on going a short distance into it, Lance’s and Blanche’s footprints were distinctly traceable in a thin coating of fine dust which was met with. The identity of the passage being thus established, it was marked in a similar way to the other, but with a cross instead of a circle. The marking of the two passages proved to be a long and tedious job, owing to the hardness of the rock and the imperfect character of the tools, but it was done at last; and then they set out to execute the real task of their journey, namely, the erection of the sheers.

  Now that they had lights the journey along the second passage to the spot where the sheers were to be erected was accomplished in a trifle less than an hour; but a shudder ran through them all as, following the footprints, they saw that Blanche had twice or thrice walked for several yards on the extreme verge of the yawning chasm without being aware of it. And when at last they came to the narrowest part of the path—that which Blanche had traversed blindfold—they felt their very hair rising as they craned over the edge and heard the pebbles they threw in go bounding down until the sound of their ultimate splash in the water was so faint as to be hardly distinguishable. It was nervous work, the passage along that narrow ledge, but it had to be done and they did it, hauling the poles across afterwards with the aid of the rope; and this part of the work successfully accomplished, the rest was not long in the doing; another hour saw both pairs of sheers erect, properly stayed, and the three-inch-rope bridge strained across, with the clip-hooks and hauling-line attached, and, in short, everything ready for the commencement of operations. The axes and other matters were then taken back to the great central chamber, where they were left for future use, and the party made the best of their way into the open air, and thence homeward, arriving finally at Staunton Cottage about an hour before the great bell rang the summons for all hands to come forth to another day’s labour.

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  * * *

  Chapter Seventeen.

  Bob wants to be rich.

  The problem as to the working of the gold mine being so far satisfactorily solved, it only remained to ascertain how the arrangements would answer when put into practice, and this the ladies did without loss of time. Their plan was that one of them should remain at home to look after Bob and little May, while the other two devoted a few hours of the day to the cave. As they took it in turns to remain at home in the capacity of nurse, each of them had two days in the cave to one at the cottage.

  In the meantime, thanks to Lance’s skill and the careful nursing of the ladies, Bob was making steady progress toward recovery, and within a month of the occurrence of his accident was beginning to ask how much longer he was going to be kept a prisoner.

  He had been made aware of the gold discovery, by occasional references to it on the part of the others in his presence, but he had never heard the complete story; so one day, when it was Blanche’s turn to remain at home, he asked her to give him the entire history; which she did.

  He listened most attentively; and when the story was over remained silent, apparently wrapped in profound thought, for several minutes.

  Looking up at last, with a flush of excitement on his face, he exclaimed—

  “Why, there must be gold enough there to make millionaires of every one of us!”

  “Yes,” said Blanche, “I believe there is; at least Lan— Mr Evelin says so, and I have no doubt he knows.”

  “Oh yes,” exclaimed Bob enthusiastically, “he knows. I believe he knows everything. And what a splendid fellow he is, isn’t he, Miss Lascelles?”

  This last with a sly twinkle in his roguish eye.

  Blanche appeared to think it unnecessary to comment upon or reply to this remark; at all events she remained silent. But the window-curtain somehow needed adjustment just at that moment, and the haste with which she rose to attend to this little matter—or something else—caused a most lovely pink flush to overspread her cheeks. Bob saw it; perhaps he knew exactly what caused it; but if he did he was too much of a gentleman to show that he had noticed it. So when Blanche had adjusted the curtain to her satisfaction he remarked with a heavy sigh—

  “Oh dear! I wish I was well enough to be out and at work again. I long to have the handling of some of that gold.”

  “You must have patience, Robert,” said Blanche. “The worst part of your illness is now over, and in due time you will no doubt be able to take your share of the work once more. But whether such is the case or not, you may rest satisfied that you will have your share of the gold. Whatever there may be, whether it be much or little, I know the gentlemen have decided that it shall be divided equally among us, even to little May.”

  “I am sure it’s very kind of them,” said Bob with a touch of impatience in his tone; “but I want to be up and able to work at it—to gather it in and see it accumulate. I want to be a really rich man.”

  “For shame, Robert,” said Blanche, with just the faintest feeling of disgust—the first she had ever experienced toward Bob. “If you talk like that I shall leave you. I am disappointed in you; I should never have suspected you of being mercenary.”

  “Well, I am then,” returned Bob, quite unabashed. “I am mercenary, if that means being anxious to be rich. And so would you be, Miss Lascelles, if you had seen as much misery as I have; misery, too, which could be cured by the judicious expenditure of comparatively trifling sums of money. Only think how jolly it would be to go up to every poor hungry man, woman, and child you met, clap a sovereign in their hands, and say, ‘There, go and enjoy the luxury of a good unstinted meal for once in your life.’ But a rich man’s power goes a great deal further than that. If ever I am rich I shall not be satisfied with the bestowal of relief of such a very temporary kind as a solitary meal amounts to; I shall hunt up some really deserving cases and put them in the way of earning their own livings. Real relief consists, to my mind, of nothing short of the stretching out of a helping hand and lifting some poor soul clean out of that miserable state where one’s very existence depends upon the fluctuating charity of one’s fellow-creatures. I’ve seen it, and I know what it means. There’s any amount of real misery to be met with in the neighbourhood of the Docks, ay, and all over London, for that matter, if one only chooses to keep one’s eyes open. Of course I know that many of the beggars and match-sellers, and people of that kind are rank loafers, too idle to work even when they have the chance—people who spend in drink every penny that’s given them—and in my opinion they richly deserve all the misery they suffer. But there are plenty of others who would be only too happy to work if they could; and they are the people I should seek out and help, the poor women and children, you know. It makes me fairly sick, I give you my word, Miss Lascelles, when I think of the vast sums of money that are squandered every year in ways which leave nothing to show for the
expenditure. Take gambling for instance. I’ve heard that thousands of pounds are lost every year at card-playing and horse-racing. The money only changes hands, I know; but what good does it do? If a man can afford to part with a thousand pounds in such a way, how much better it would be for him and everybody else if he would expend it in furnishing a certain number of persons with the means to earn their own living. I don’t believe it’s right for people to squander and waste their money; I believe that money is given to people in trust, and that everybody will have to answer for the way in which they discharge that trust; don’t you, Miss Lascelles?”

  “Certainly I do, Robert,” answered Blanche, very gravely. “But I must admit that I have never until now viewed the matter in the serious light in which you put it. I must beg your pardon, and I do most sincerely, for the way in which I spoke to you just now. I had no idea that you had any such good reasons as you have given for desiring to be rich. But what would you be able to do single-handed, no matter how rich you might be?”

  “Ah!” ejaculated Bob with a gesture of impatience, “that’s just what everybody says, and that’s exactly where the mischief lies; they don’t do anything because they can’t do everything, and because they can’t get others to join them. But I shouldn’t look at it like that; I should just do my duty, whether other people did theirs or not; if others choose to shirk their duty it is their own look-out, it affords no excuse for me to shirk mine. But there—it’s no use for me to talk like this; perhaps I never shall be rich; the gold is there, you say; but that is a very different thing from having it banked in England. How do they think we are going to get it away from the island without discovery? You may depend upon it that, whenever we go, it will be all in a hurry.”