CHAPTER VI
THE SUNKEN TREASURE
Phil put away the atlas and the boys redoubled their attention.
"It's a thing to be noticed all through these papers," Benton went on,"that the old pirate's prayers for vengeance were on the _souls_ of hisenemies. That was because their bodies had passed beyond the reach ofvengeance. For within a couple of hours after his comrades had maroonedhim, Santos had the satisfaction of seeing the pirate ship, the _SeaRover_, as it was named, go down in a hurricane with all hands on board.
"Just listen to this:
"God be praised," he read, "for what mine eyes this day have seen. Forscarce had Cerillos sailed, after he had landed me on this accursedisland and jeered at me as I sat in my misery on the beach, than ahurricane sprang up, one of the fiercest and most sudden that I haveever known in all my voyaging on the Main. It caught him unaware, andbefore ever he could furl sail the ship careened and went down less thana mile from shore. Never a man escaped, though for days after bodiesfloated to the beach. Among them was that of Cerillos, which I spat andstamped upon. How I danced! How I shouted! How I cheered! The devil hadgot his own. May their souls roast in flames for all eternity!"
"The old boy was certainly a good hater," remarked Phil.
"He sure was," laughed Benton, "and he never got over it. Ravings likethat are scattered all through the papers. But only second to that isthe old fellow's regret that so much treasure should have been swallowedup by the sea. He rejoiced in the fate of the crew but would have likedto save the ship, for from what he says it seems to have been a floatingmint. And he isn't speaking from guesswork either, for he had been on itall through its last voyage and knew what it contained. See what he sayshere:
"It irketh me sore," the writing ran, "to think that all that nobletreasure lieth at the bottom of the sea. For never had we taken suchgoodly prizes as on that last scouring of the Main. There was the plateon the galleon _Santa Maria_ that we cut out of the squadron off theIsle of Oruba, and the gold louis from the _Cite de Marseilles_ thatcost us so dear in blood and the treasure that came from the sacking ofPort au Prince--doubloons and pieces of eight that it might take a man aday to reckon. Yet now it is nought or as good as nought, though had I alugger and a dozen lusty fellows at my back I might e'en yet run myfingers through it. For it lieth not far from shore, and the waters beso shallow that had the mast not snapped they might yet be seen."
Then followed wild imprecations on the fate that had doomed him to bemarooned on that desolate island, while just beyond his reach wereriches almost beyond the dreams of avarice.
Other parts of the writings were in calmer mood and abounded in plansthat he purposed carrying out for the recovery of the treasure, if hewere ever rescued. But as time passed on, he seemed to have abandonedhope, and it was evident that his mind was giving way, for certainscraps of paper were full of incoherent exclamations and vaguemaunderings.
When Benton came to the last of them and gathered them up the room wasso silent that the boys could almost hear the beating of their hearts.Their thoughts were in a tumult.
Benton was the first to break the silence.
"There's just one thing to be added," he said. "The old Spaniard whogave me these papers told me that the family tradition, as it had comedown to him, was that his ancestor had finally been rescued, but onlywhen his mind was almost gone. But he still had sense enough to guardjealously these papers, which he bequeathed to his son with injunctionsto go and find the treasure. Nothing however had ever come of it, Isuppose from time to time some of the family had vague notions of doingsomething about it, but they never materialized.
"Now to sum the thing up. It seems to me perfectly clear that thesethings actually happened. The papers on their face bear evidence oftheir truth. This old pirate lived and sinned and cursed and sufferedand died on an island somewhere about latitude 14, longitude 81 in theCaribbean Sea. He saw the sinking of the _Sea Rover_ a little way offfrom the island. The ship was laden with a large amount of treasure. Thewaters where it sank were comparatively shallow.
"There's the story, and the only living people that know anything aboutit are gathered at this moment in this room."
"Except perhaps Ramirez," put in Phil reflectively.
"Oh yes, Ramirez," corrected Benton with a slight start. "But he justgot a hint of it. He hasn't the papers and he's probably forgotten mostof what he did read. He's just a worthless, ignorant half breed anyway.I think we can dismiss him from our calculations."
"I've told you now all I know. What about it?"
"Let's go!" cried Phil.
"I'm with you," exclaimed Dick.
"Count me in," added Tom.
Benton jumped to his feet.
"Hurrah!" he cried, as he shook hands with each in turn. "I knew Iwasn't making a mistake. You're all wool and a yard wide-fellows aftermy own heart--a red-blooded bunch of young Americans who are not afraidto take a chance!"
The Radio Boys Under the Sea; or, The Hunt for Sunken Treasure Page 6