*CHAPTER XX.*
*"*_*The Golden Treasure;*_*" *_*Its Removal*_*.*
It was finally settled that we would transport the golden treasure toSargent, at the cove, in the knapsacks on our backs. To do this wouldrequire several journeys through the forest; but as time was no objectto us, what more could we ask than to be able, during our exile, to soeasily acquire wealth which would render us independent for life; forrescued we must surely be, sooner or later.
We decided that no part of the walls should remain uninspected. Everysquare foot of it was carefully examined, but we found no indications ofother openings. One day, however, while looking at the east wall, Inoticed one of the stones which seemed to be more loosely set into thewall than any of the others; and on examining it more closely, the upperedge appeared to be chipped as though some pointed instrument had beeninserted. It at once occurred to me that this may have been caused byprying the stone out--in other words, I mistrusted that the stone mightconceal the entrance to another chamber.
We examined it closely and came to the conclusion that it would be worthwhile to remove the stone. We worked at it for several days withoutmaking any perceptible impression.
It was too heavy and we could devise no appliance to assist usmaterially. Finally it occurred to me that we might remove a flag-stoneof the floor, dig under the stone and compel it to drop from its place.We soon discovered, however, that it rested upon the flag-stone next toit. Not to abandon the project, we at last succeeded in removing thesecond flag-stone from the wall, which enabled us to excavate the earthfrom beneath the flag-stone next to the wall. This we accomplishedafter a great deal of hard work, for our only excavating tools consistedof sharpened and flattened pieces of wood. At last, however, theflag-stone settled into the the excavation and the stone in this wayfell outward. To our great astonishment this was followed by a rush ofair from the aperture. We did not, at first, know what to make of this,but we shortly agreed that we had found the entrance to an undergroundpassage leading to the open air.
Indeed this idea seemed quite reasonable, for we had often read of suchpassages in connection with the strongholds of the early days; either asa means of offence or defence, or of escape.
Taking the two lamps I preceded Mr. Harborough into the passage,Marjorie bringing up the rear. From the first it was evident that thepassage was not artificial, but a natural cavern. Indeed as we proceededit proved to be a simple guano cave, the stalactites being grimy and thestalagmites buried beneath long years accumulations of guano. In itsgeneral character it did not differ materially from the cave which I haddiscovered on the east side of the mountain during my former sojourn.The ceiling of this one, however, was higher so that we were able towalk upright; and it had no windings. Proceeding a few rods we came to asecond chamber, leading off at right angles; but the opening was sosmall that we would have had to crawl through it and we did not considerit worth while to enter it, at present, at least. The thought occurredto me that the passage connected this cavern with the one which I hadpreviously discovered; for, as I thought the matter over, I believedthat the two must run nearly parallel. Myriads of bats flitted about,almost flying against our faces, and several times nearly extinguishingour lamps. In a few minutes we came to a fair-sized chamber, nearlycircular and perhaps a dozen feet in diameter; and as we entered it wewere astonished to find that it was partially illumined by daylight.Stranger still, mounted on two huge wooden blocks were two brass cannon,pointing away from us.
"An ingenious fortification," remarked Mr. Harborough.
"A masked battery," said Marjorie.
We now examined the guns closely. They were covered with a greenishcorrosion, and were, as I have said, brass. They were of exactly thesame size, about four-inch, and on the breech of each was stamped thefollowing, together with the arms of Spain: "Espana: 1512." We saw thatwe had reached the mouth of the cave, which was thickly filled with amass of bushes and creepers. We resolved to clear away the obstructionat once, and I returned to the chamber for the axe. With it and ourknives we soon cleared away the vegetable growths, and behold, we stoodon the side of the mountain a few yards from the mouth of cave,overlooking the ocean to the eastward. The purpose of the guns was quiteapparent. They commanded the approach to the mountain, and to anadvancing enemy were utterly invisible, as a shelf of rock hid theentrance from below. This latter discovery did not promise to be of anyspecial importance to us, it was most interesting. Our whole effort,now, was put forth toward transporting the gold to the cove on the westcoast; and placing as many of the coins in each knapsack as we couldeach carry comfortably, we packed enough provisions to last at least twodays, and set out. As we had done on the journey to the mountains, wefollowed the edge of the forest making a short detour, when about halfway, to avoid a possible encounter with the wild pigs. Mr. Harboroughand myself would have liked very much to risk an encounter with them,but the safety of Marjorie was our first consideration, and theseanimals were very fierce. So as we had grave doubts as to theirdesirability for food we decided to give them a wide berth. Nothingoccurred to give excitement to the march and toward the end of thesecond day we reached the house in the cove, where we found everythingentirely undisturbed. We immediately set to work to make several strongbags of sail-cloth, each being about two feet long and half as wide, inwhich to store the gold. This occupied us one full day, and afterstoring the gold we had brought, in a corner of the hut, burying itbeneath the kitchen utensils, we took sufficient provisions to last usduring the return march and set out. Numerous trips were made to andfrom the mountain which consumed several weeks. Meanwhile we had madean additional discovery, almost as important as the first. As wegradually removed the gold contained in the chest we saw that there wasanother chest beyond it. Like the first it fell to pieces on beingmoved. Beyond it was a solid wall of stone. But the second chest wasnot so heavy as the first, and it proved to be only about half filledwith gold. The rest was occupied with rolls of manuscript, all of whichfell to powder when exposed to the air, leaving not one scrap on whichthe faded writing was legible.
At last only what gold we could carry away on one more trip remained.During our march to and fro from the coast we had kept a sharp watch forthe "wild man," as we called him, and Marjorie always kept very close tous while passing through that part of the forest.
But we saw no signs of him.
A Boy Crusoe; or, The Golden Treasure of the Virgin Islands Page 20