by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XIX
THE TREASURE
The next morning Harry said:
"I will go upstairs to that look-out place again. I have been up therepretty nearly every day, and stared down. I can't get it out of my mindthat the key of the mystery lies there, and that that hole was made forsome other purpose than merely throwing stones out on to any of thosewho might go in behind the rocks. I have puzzled and worried over it."
"Shall I come up with you, Harry?"
"No, I would rather you didn't. I will go up by myself and spend themorning there; some idea may occur to me. You may as well all have aquiet day of it."
He lit his pipe and went upstairs. Jose went off to the mules, andBertie descended the ladder, and strolled round what they called thecourtyard, looking for eggs among the rocks and in the tufts of grassgrowing higher up. Dias scattered a few handfuls of maize to thechickens and then assisted Maria to catch two of them; after which hedescended the ladder and sat down gloomily upon a stone. He had becomemore and more depressed in spirits as the search became daily morehopeless; and although he worked as hard as anyone, he seldom spoke,while Harry and his brother often joked, and showed no outward signs ofdisappointment. An hour passed, and then Harry appeared suddenly at thewindow.
"Bertie, Dias, come up at once, I have an idea!"
They ran to the ladder and climbed up. The excitement with which hespoke showed that the idea was an important one. "Now, Dias," he brokeout as they joined him, "we know, don't we, that a part of the Incas'treasure was sent off by boat, and the belief of the Indians was thatit was never heard of again."
"That is so, senor. There was certainly a storm the day after itstarted, and, as I have told you, it was never heard of again. Had itbeen, a report of it would surely have come down."
"I believe, Dias, that the boat was dashed to pieces against that lineof rocks outside the entrance to the passage. We have reason to believethat the people here were expecting the treasure to arrive, and had theentrance to the cave in readiness to receive it. Certainly no betterplace could have been chosen for concealment. The boat may have beencoming here when the storm broke and drove them towards the shore. Theyprobably attempted to gain the mouth of the cove, but missed it, andwere dashed to pieces against the rocks. The Indians on guard here nodoubt saw it, and would be sure that the heavy sacks or boxescontaining the gold would sink to the bottom. They would lie perfectlysecure there, even more secure than if they had been removed and placedin the cave, and could always be recovered when the Spaniards left, sothey were content to leave them there. Still, they obeyed the ordersthey had received to keep watch for ever over the treasure, and to doso knocked that strange hole through the wall and always kept two menon guard there.
"So it must have gone on. They and those who succeeded them neverwavered. Doubtless they received food from their friends outside, orsome of them went out, as you have done, to fetch it in. Then came atime when, for some reason or other--doubtless, as I supposed before,when the Spaniards swept pretty nearly all the natives up to work inthe mines, and they themselves dared not issue out--the attempt to getfood was made, when too late, by the men whose skeletons we found onthe steps when we first came here; and the rest were all too feeble torepeat the experiment, and died--the two sentinels at their post, therest in the room where we found them."
"Hurrah!" Bertie shouted, "I have no doubt you have hit it, Harry. Ibelieve, after all, that we are going to find it. That is splendid! Ishall dance at your wedding, Harry, which I had begun to think I nevershould do."
"Don't be a young ass, Bertie. It is only an idea, and we have hadseveral ideas before, but nothing has come of them."
"Something is going to come of this, I am convinced; I would bet anymoney on it. Well, shall we go and have a trial at once?"
"What do you think, Dias?" Harry said, paying no attention to Bertie'slast remark.
"I think it is quite possible, senor. Certainly, if the Indians hadbeen told to guard the treasure, they would do so always. You know howthey kept the secrets entrusted to them whatever tortures they were putto. If the gold had been, as you say, lost amongst the rocks, I dothink they would have still watched the place. I thought it strangethat they should have made that hole, but when you said that they mighthave made it to throw stones down it seemed to me to be likely enough;but the other suggestion is more probable. Well, senor, I am ready totry it, but I am not a very good swimmer."
"My brother and I are both good swimmers, and we will do that part ofthe work. The hardest part will be getting it up, and you will be ableto give us your help at that."
"Well, let us be off," Bertie said; "I am all on thorns to begin. Weshall soon find it out. If it is there, it is almost certain to be atthe foot of the rocks, though, of course, it is possible that the boatsank before striking them. At any rate, I feel sure she went downsomewhere within the area that can be seen through that hole. It won'ttake many days' diving to search every yard of the bottom."
They hastily descended the ladder, and, divesting themselves of theirclothes, swam out through the opening. Dias climbed up on the rocks,the others swam round by the ends of the barrier. The water was so warmthat they would be able to remain in it for any time withoutinconvenience.
"We need not begin here, Bertie; we are outside the line of sight. Fromthat hole I could not see the end of these rocks. We will start at themiddle, and work in opposite directions."
On arriving off the centre of the wall both dived. The depth was abouttwelve feet, and as the water was perfectly clear, Harry could see fouror five feet round him. He was obliged to swim carefully, for thebottom was covered with rocks, for the most part rounded by the actionof the sea. For an hour he continued his search, by which time he hadreached nearly the end of the line of rocks. Then he landed on a ledgeof rock and sat down, calling to Bertie to join him.
"We will rest for a quarter of an hour," he said, "and then beginagain. This time we will keep twenty or thirty feet farther out; it ismore likely to be there than close in. If the boat struck, the nextwave would sweep over her, and she would probably go down stern first,and her cargo would fall out that way."
After their rest they started again, swam out a few strokes, and thendived. Harry had gone down five or six times, when, on his coming tothe surface, he heard a shout, and saw Bertie swimming towards him.
"I have found them, Harry! There are a number of ingots, but they wereso heavy that I could not bring one of them to the surface."
As Harry reached him the lad turned round and swam back. "There theyare, just opposite that cleft in the rock! I looked directly I came upso as to know the exact spot."
Harry trod water for half a minute, then took a long breath and dived.
It was as Bertie had said. Scattered among the rocks were a score ofingots. They had lost their brilliancy, but shone with a dull copperishhue, with bright gleams here and there where rocks had grated againstthem. Putting one hand on a block of rock he lifted one of them withthe other.
"About twenty pounds," he said to himself. "Thank God, Hilda is as goodas won!" Then he rose to the surface. "Shake hands, Bertie; there isenough there to make us all rich for life. Now we will get back again.We have to think matters over, and see how they are to be got ashore.There is no hurry; they have lain there for three hundred years, andwould lie there as much longer if we did not take them. We have foundthem, Dias!" he shouted; and the latter gave a yell of delight. "Swimashore, and we will join you there."
Not another word was spoken until they had dressed and walked out.
"I am too excited even to think," Harry broke out. "It is time fordinner. When we have had that and smoked a pipe I shall be able to talkcalmly over it."
Maria was wild with delight at the news, and laughed and cried byturns. Even Jose, who was accustomed to take all things quietly, wasalmost as excited. The woman was only called to herself when Harrysaid, laughing, "Maria, for the first time since we started from Lima,you are letting the dinner burn
."
"To think of it!" she cried. "It is your fault, senor; you should nothave told me about it till we sat down."
"You won't have to cook much longer, Maria. You will be able now tohave a servant, and a house as big as you like, and a beautiful garden."
"I should not like that, senor; what should I do all day with myself?"
"I am glad, senor, glad for your sake," Dias said gravely. "To us itwill make no difference. You said there was enough there to make usrich. Assuredly that is so; but not one peso of it will we touch. Noman with Indian blood in his veins, not even the poorest in Peru, wouldhave aught to do with an ounce of the Incas' treasures. When they wereburied, a curse was laid upon any who betrayed their hiding-place orwho ever touched the gold. It has brought a curse upon Spain. At thetime the Spaniards landed here they were a great nation. Now theirglory has departed; they no longer own the land they tyrannized overfor three hundred years, and we have heard that their power in Europehas altogether gone. It must be the curse of the gold, or they wouldnever have allowed your great Englishman, Cochrane, with but two orthree ships, to conquer them here. My mind is easy as to the finding ofthe treasure. You came here in spite of my prayers that you would notdo so. It is you who have made the discovery, not me. But I will takeno share in the gold. From the day I took it I should be a cursed man;my flesh would melt away, I should suffer tortures, and should die amiserable death."
"Well, Dias, I will not try to persuade you. I know that, Christianthough you be, your native belief still clings to you, and I will notargue against it; but I have money of my own, and from that I will giveyou enough to make you comfortable for life, and that you can takewithout feeling that you have incurred any curse from the finding ofthis treasure."
"I thank you heartily," Dias said gratefully; "I thank you with all myheart. I have ever been a wanderer, and now I will gladly settle down.I do not desire wealth, but enough to live on in comfort with my wife,and only to travel when it pleases me."
"You shall have enough for that and more, Dias."
After some more meat had been cooked and eaten, and he had smoked apipe, Harry said: "A boat would, of course, be the best thing, butthere are difficulties connected with it. There is no spot, as far as Iknow, where we could land for fifteen miles on either side, and therewould only be small villages where everything we did would be seen andtalked about. There is no place where we could keep a boat here, for ifeven a slight breeze sprang up the swell coming in round the passagebetween the rocks and the cliff would smash her up in no time."
"That is so, senor."
Harry was silent again for some time, and then said: "The only plan Ican think of is to get some strong leather bags. Then we could take onedown with us when we dive, with a strong cord tied to it, put a coupleof the ingots into it, and you could haul it up on to the rocks, and soon until we have finished a day's work. Then we could carry them tothis side of the rocks; there you could put them, three or four at atime, into the bag, and drop them down in the water. We would swim upthe tunnel and haul them in, and then bring the bag back again. Wesha'n't be able to get anything approaching all the ingots, for a greatmany of them must have gone in between the crevices of the rocks, andunless we broke it up with powder, which would be next to impossiblewithout a diving-dress and air-pumps and all sorts of things, whichcannot be bought in this country, we could not get at them. However, wehave only just begun to look for them yet; we may come across a pile.Heavy as the sea must be on this coast in a gale, I hardly think itwould much affect a pile of ingots; their weight would keep them steadyeven were big rocks rolled about.
"I think the best thing, Dias, would be for you to go off with two orthree mules. We shall soon be running short of provisions, and you hadbetter get enough flour and dried meat to last us for a month. I don'tsuppose we shall be as long as that, but it is as well to have a goodstore so as not to have to make the journey again. Then you had betterget twenty leather bags, such as those in which they bring the ore downfrom the mountains. We have plenty of stout rope, but we shall wantsome thin cord for tying the necks of the bags. You may as well bringanother keg of spirits, brandy if you can get it, a bag of coffee, andsome sugar, and anything else you think of. Now I am a millionaire wecan afford to be comfortable. By the way, we might as well thisafternoon get the rest of those silver brackets out. These are not apart of the Incas' treasure, and you can take them as your sharewithout fear of the curse. It would be best for you to smelt them down;I know all of you natives can do that."
"Do you think that they are not part of the Incas' treasure, senor?"Dias said doubtfully.
"Certainly not; they were undoubtedly here before the Incas' time. Buteven had they been put there by Incas, you could not call them hiddentreasure. They might be part of the Incas' property, but certainly notpart of the treasures they hid."
"But it is altogether too much, senor; it is noble of you to offer itme."
"Not at all; we owe everything we find to you, and it would be onlyfair that you should have at least a third of the gold. But still, ifyou won't touch that, you must take the silver."
"But I heard you say that it was worth four thousand pounds."
"Well, if we are lucky we shall get twenty times as much, Dias."
"Certainly we will take it, senor, and grateful we shall both be toyou," Maria said; "and so will Jose, who will inherit it all some day,as he is the only relative we have. I agree with Dias about the gold. Ihave heard so often about the curse on it that I should be afraid."
"Well, Maria, you see there is a lot of nonsense in all yoursuperstitions. You know it was one of them that this place was guardedby demons. Now you have seen for yourself that it was all humbug. Ifyou are afraid about the silver, I will take it to England and sell itthere and send you the money it fetches; but that would give a greatdeal of trouble. It will be difficult to get the gold safely away,without being bothered with all this silver.
"You had better buy some bags of charcoal, Dias. I suppose you will usethat small hearth we have?"
"No, senor, it would take an immense time to do it in that. I will loadone of the mules with hard bricks."
"You will want two mules to carry a hundred, Dias--I think they weighabout four pounds and a half each. Will that be enough?"
"Plenty, senor; but I shall want another bellows. Jose and I can workthe two of them, and that will make a great heat. We can melt two orthree hundred pounds a day. I have helped to make many a furnace up inthe mountains, and I know very well all about the way to build and workthem."
"Very well, then, that is settled. You had better start to-morrowmorning with Jose, and we will spend the day in finding out a littlemore about the gold."
Dias started the next morning, and the two brothers were in the watermost of the day. Harry found, as he had expected, that a great deal ofthe treasure had sunk out of reach between the rocks; but he came uponone pile, which had apparently been originally packed in sacks orskins, lying in a heap a little farther out than they had beforesearched. He had no doubt that this was the point where the stern ofthe boat had sunk, and a considerable portion of the contents had beenshot out, while the rest had been scattered about as the boat broke up,and as the skins rotted their contents had fallen between the rocks.There were, as nearly as he could calculate, two hundred and fifty tothree hundred ingots in the pile.
"I need not trouble about the rest," he laughed to himself. "Eachingot, if it weighs twenty pounds, is worth a thousand. Two hundred ofthem would make me as rich as any man can want to be. I can hardlybelieve in my luck; it is stupendous. Fancy a half-pay lieutenant withtwo hundred thousand pounds! Old Fortescue will become one of the mostcomplaisant of fathers-in-law."
The evening before Dias left, Harry had written a letter for him topost at Callao, telling Hilda to keep up a brave heart, for that hehoped to be at home before the end of the second year with money enoughto satisfy her father.
"I should not tell you so unless I felt certain of what I am saying.
Itold you before I left that it was almost a forlorn hope that I wasundertaking, and that the chances were ten thousand to one against me.I think now that the one chance has turned up, and I hope to be homewithin two months of the time that you receive this letter."
He did not say more; but even now he could scarcely believe that thegood fortune had befallen him, and feared that some unlucky fate mightinterfere between him and the fulfilment of his hopes. When Diasreturned after two days' absence the work began. Each morning theyworked together at bringing up the gold and piling the ingots on therock. It was slower work than Harry had expected, for on hauling thebag to the rocks it was often caught by the boulders, and he and Bertiesometimes had to dive four or five times before they could free it andget it ashore. The gold was piled in the tunnel just beyond the water.In a fortnight the last ingot they could get at was stored with itsfellows--two hundred and eighty-two in all.
They had repeatedly talked over the best plan of getting the gold away,and finally concluded that it would be risking too much to take it intoa town, and that the best plan would be for Harry to buy a boat atCallao, which, as a naval officer, would be natural enough. Theydecided to procure three times as many bags as the ingots would reallyrequire, and that they should put in each bag three ingots only,filling it up with pieces of stone, so that the weight should notexceed what it would have been were the contents heavy ore. Harryarranged that he would go down to Callao, buy a large boat, and afterhaving made several excursions, to accustom the officials at Callao toseeing him going about, he would make a bargain with the captains oftwo ships about to sail to England, to carry about two tons each ofore, which he could put on board them after dark, so as to avoid theextortion he would have to submit to before the port officials andothers would allow him to ship it. The question that puzzled them mostwas the best way of taking the bags into the boat. Dias was in favourof their being carried on the mules to a point lower down the coast, atwhich they could be loaded into the boat.
"It would be only necessary to carry the gold," he said, "the stones tofill the bags could be put in there."
The objection to this was that they might be observed at work, and thatat most points it would be difficult both to run the boat up and to gether off again through the rollers. If the boat were brought round intothe inlet she could be loaded there comfortably. The only fear was ofbeing caught in a gale. But as gales were by no means frequent the riskwas small; and should a sudden storm come on when she was lying there,and she were broken up, it would be easy to recover the gold from theshallow water behind the rocks. This was therefore settled. Only halfthe treasure was to be taken away at once, and not till this had beengot on board a ship and the vessel had sailed would the boat come backfor the rest of their treasure.
Dias was at once to start with the mules and carry the silver, in twojourneys, to a safe place among the mountains. There he could bury itin three or four hiding-places, to be fetched out as he might requireit, only taking some fifty pounds to Lima. Here he was to dispose of aportion of it to one of the dealers who made it his business to buy upsilver from the natives. As many of these worked small mines, and sentdown the produce once a month to Lima, there would be nothingsuspicious in its being offered for sale, especially as it would beknown that Dias had been away for a very long time among the mountains.It was necessary that the sale should be effected at once, becauseHarry's stock of money was running very low, and he would have to payfor the passages of Bertie and himself to England, and for the freightof the gold. Dias was to dispose later on of all the remaining stores,the powder and tools, and the three riding mules.
Two days later the last of the silver brackets had been melted, andDias and Harry started with the eight mules, six of them being ladenwith the silver. They struck back at once into the hills, and aftertravelling for two days, ascended a wild gorge. "It is not once a yearthat anyone would come up here, senor. There is no way out of it. Wecan bury the silver here with a certainty that it will be safe fromdisturbance."
"Yes, it will be safe here; and as you want it you have only to make ajourney with a couple of mules to fetch as much as you require, carryit home, and bury it in your garden or under the house; then you couldfrom time to time take a few ingots into the town and dispose of them.But to begin with, I will borrow fifty pounds weight of it, and get youto dispose of it for me at Lima. My money is beginning to run short. Ishall have to pay for the freight of the gold and my own passage home,and to buy a boat large enough to carry half the treasure. It is notlikely that there will be two vessels sailing at the same time, inwhich case I shall make two trips. As I should not put it on boarduntil the night before the ship sailed, of course I could go home withthe second lot."
"I shall never know what to do with a tenth part of this silver, senor.It would never do for me to make a show of being rich; the authoritieswould seize me, and perhaps torture me to make me reveal the source ofmy wealth."
"Well, there are thousands of your countrymen in the deepest poverty,Dias; you could secretly help those in distress; a single ingot, tenpounds in weight, would be a fortune to them. And when you die youmight get a respectable lawyer to make out a will, leaving yourtreasure to some charity for the benefit of Indians, giving, of course,instructions where the treasure is to be found."
"That is good," Dias said. "Thank you, senor! that will make me veryhappy."
They had brought a pick and shovel with them, and, dividing the bags,buried them at some distance apart, rolling stones to cover up thehiding-places, and obliterating any signs of the ground having beendisturbed. A hundred pounds were left out, and with this in theirsaddle-bags they arrived at Lima two days later.
Harry went on alone into Callao. He had no difficulty in purchasing aship's boat in fair condition. She carried two lug-sails, and was amplylarge enough for the purpose for which she was required, being nearlythirty feet long with a beam of six feet. He got her cheaply, for theship to which she belonged had been wrecked some distance along thecoast, and a portion of the crew had launched her and made their way toCallao; the mate, who was the sole surviving officer, was glad toaccept the ten pounds Harry offered for her, as this would enable thecrew to exist until they could obtain a passage home, or ship on boardsome British vessel short of hands. The boat was too large to be workedby one man, and seeing that the mate was an honest and intelligentfellow, Harry arranged with him to aid him to sail the boat, and eachday they went out for some hours. After spending a week in apparentidleness, and getting to know more of the man, Harry told him that hehad really bought the boat for the purpose of getting some ore he haddiscovered on board a ship homeward-bound.
"You know what these Peruvians are," he said, "and how jealous they areof our getting hold of mines, so I have got to do the thing quietly,and the only way will be to take the ore off by night. It is on a spotsome eighty miles along the coast. I am going off tomorrow to get itready for embarkation, and I shall be away about a week. I find thatthe _London_ will leave in ten days, and I shall get it put on boardthe night before she sails. While I am away, look after the boat. The_Nancy_ will sail five days later. I am going to put half on board eachship, as I am anxious to ensure that some at least of the ore shallreach home, so as to be analysed, and see if it is as rich as I hope.But be sure not to mention a word of this to a soul. I should haveimmense trouble with the authorities if it got about that I haddiscovered a mine."
"I understand, sir. You may be quite sure I shall say nothing about it."
"How are your men getting on?"
"Four are shipped on board the _Esmerelda_, which sailed yesterday, theothers are hanging on till they can get berths. I hope a few will beable to go in the two ships you name, but they haven't applied atpresent. Some of the crew may desert before the time for sailing comes,and of course they would get better paid if they went as part of thecrew than if they merely worked their passage home."
"I am sorry for them," Harry said. "Here is another five pounds to helpthem to hold on. As an o
ld naval officer I can feel for men in such aplace."
Dias, after selling the silver, had, a week before, returned with themules to the castle, and on his arrival there had sent Jose to joinHarry and bring news to them of the day on which the boat would arrive.Dias and Bertie were packing half the bags, of which the former tookwith him an ample supply, to get the gold out on the rocks facing theentrance, so that they could be shipped without delay. Great pains weretaken in packing the bags so that the three ingots placed in eachshould be completely surrounded by stones. Anyone who might take afancy to feel them, in order to ascertain their contents, would have noreason to suppose that they carried anything beyond the ore they werestated to contain.
Harry had had no difficulty in arranging with the captain of the Londonto take from a ton and a half to two tons of ore the night before hesailed, and three days before this Harry started with the mate. Therewas but a light breeze, and it was daylight next morning before theyarrived. A pole had been stuck up at the edge of the cliff just abovethe cavern, and as it became dark a lantern was also placed there, sothey had no trouble in finding the entrance of the little cove.
"It is a rum-looking place, sir," the man said. "As far as I can seethere is no break in the cliffs."
"It is a curious place, but you will find the bags with the ore on therocks inside here ready for us, and my brother and one of my menwaiting there. They will have made us out an hour ago, so we can loadup at once and get out of this tiny creek. I don't want to stay inthere any longer than is necessary, for if there is anything of a swellwe could not get out again."
As they approached the place Harry gave a shout, which was at onceanswered. The sails were lowered, and the boat passed round the edge ofthe rocks.
"It is a rum place," the mate repeated. "Why, one might have rowed pasthere fifty times without thinking there was water inside the rocks. Ofcourse you must have lowered the sacks down from the top?"
"It was a difficult job," Harry said carelessly; "but we were anxiousto get the things away quietly. If we had taken them down to the portwe should have had no end of bother, and a hundred men would have setoff at once to try and find out where we got the ore."
Bertie and Dias had everything ready, and as the boat drew up alongsidethe rocks on which they were standing the former said, "Everything allright, Harry?"
"Yes, I hope so. We are to put the ore on board the _London_ to-morrowafter dark; she will get up her anchor at daylight. You have got allthe bags ready, I hope?"
"Everything; the others will be ready for you when you come back forthem."
"The next ship sails in about a week. Now, let us get them on board atonce, I don't want to stop in here a minute longer than is necessary.There is scarcely a breath of wind now; if it doesn't blow up a bit inthe morning, we shall have a long row before us to get there in time.This is my brother, Owen; the other is a mule-driver, who has been myguide and companion for the past year, and whom I am proud to call myfriend."
"You don't want anything in the way of food, do you?" Bertie asked.
"We have got some here," Harry laughed. "I am too old a sailor to putto sea without having provisions in my craft. Now, let us get the bagson board."
It did not take them long to transfer the sacks into the boat.
"They are pretty heavy," the mate said, "I should say a hundredweighteach."
"About that," Harry said carelessly. "This ore stuff is very heavy."
As soon as all was on board Harry said: "Now we can put out at anymoment, but I don't want to leave till dark. We may as well begin toget the rest of the bags out here at once. We might finish that jobbefore we start. Then you could come down with us, Bertie, and Diascould pack up the remaining stores to-morrow and start for Lima withthe mules, and his wife and Jose.
"Very well, Harry. I think we can leave the sacks here safely."
"Just as safely as if they were ashore. So far as we know no one hasbeen in here for the past two hundred years, and no one is likely tocome in the next week."
By evening all the work was done. The mate had been greatly surprisedat the manner in which the bags had been brought on board, but hadhelped in the work and asked no questions. As soon as it was dark theyrowed out from the cove. There was not a breath of wind. Bertievolunteered to take the first watch, the mate was to take the next.
Harry was not sorry to turn in. He had had but little sleep for thepast week. Everything had seemed to be going well, but at any momentthere might be some hitch in the arrangements, and he had been anxiousand excited. Wrapping himself in his poncho he lay down in the stern ofthe boat and slept soundly until morning.
"I have had a sleep," he said on waking. "I have slept longer to-nightthan I have done for the past fortnight. Now I will take the helm. Howfast have we been moving?"
"We have not gone many miles, and if what tide there is hadn't beenwith us we should not have moved at all, for the sails have not beenfull all night. A breeze only sprang up an hour ago, and we are notmoving through the water now at more than a knot and a half; but Ithink it is freshening."
"I hope it is," Harry said. "It is not often that we have a dead calm;but if it doesn't spring up we shall have to row. With two tons and ahalf of stuff on board it is as much as we can do to move two knots anhour through the water."
"All right, sir! when you think it is time to begin, stir me up."
In half an hour the breeze had increased so much that the boat wasrunning along three knots an hour. By eight o'clock she was doing aknot better. So she ran along till, at four o'clock in the afternoon,the wind died away again, and they could just see the masts of theships at Callao in the distance.
"I should think that we are about fifteen miles off," Harry said.
"About that," Bertie replied. "We had better get our oars and help heralong, she is not going much more than a knot through the water anhour."
They got out the oars and set to work. Occasionally a puff of wind gavethem a little assistance, but it was one o'clock before they arrivedalongside the _London_.
A lamp was alight at the gangway as arranged, and two sailors were onwatch.
"The captain turned in an hour ago, sir," one of them said. "He leftorders that the mate was to call him if you arrived. We will soon havehim up."
In five minutes the mate and four other sailors were on deck.
"We have got a whip rigged in readiness," the officer said. "How muchdo the packages weigh, sir?"
"They are leathern bags, and weigh about a hundredweight each."
"How many are there?"
"Forty-six."
"We have got the fore-hatch open, and can hand them down in no time. Ifyou will pass the boat along to the chains forward we shall be readyfor you. Shall I send a couple of hands down into the boat to hook themon?"
"No, you needn't do that."
As soon as the boat reached her station a rope with a couple of smallchains attached descended. One of the chains was fastened round a bag,and this was at once run up. By the time the rope came down again theother chain was passed round another bag, and in a quarter of an hourthe whole were on board and down in the hold. The captain had now comeout.
"So you have got them off all right, Mr. Prendergast?"
"Yes. There are forty-six bags. We will say, roughly, two ton and ahalf; though I doubt whether there is as much as that. At any rate, Iwill pay you for the freight agreed upon at once. They have all gotlabels on them, and on your arrival, after being handed into store, areto remain till called for. I am coming on in the _Nancy_. I do not knowwhether she is faster than you are or not. At any rate, she is notlikely to be long behind you."
"I think that possibly you will be home first, sir; the _Nancy_ madethe voyage out here a fortnight quicker than we did; but it depends, ofcourse, on what weather we meet with. I was on board her thisafternoon, and her captain and I made a bet of five pounds each as towhich would be in the port of London first. I shall have the anchor upby daylight. Now, gentlemen, will you come down
into the cabin and wewill take a glass together."
Harry did so, and after emptying a tumbler and wishing the captain aquick and pleasant voyage, he got into the boat and rowed two or threemiles along the shore, as a landing at that time of night might causequestions to be asked; and then they lay down and slept by turns untilmorning broke. A light breeze then sprang up, and hoisting sail theyreturned to Callao. The _London_ was already far out at sea.
CHAPTER XX
HOME
Two days later, Dias, Jose, and Maria arrived at Callao, having leftthe mules at Lima.
"Was it got off all right, senor?" Dias asked.
"Yes. It was a pretty near touch, for we had to row nine hours, andonly saved our time by an hour."
"And when will you start again?"
"The _Nancy_ sails in four days, so I shall go down tomorrow morning. Idon't want to run the risk again of losing the boat."
"Well, we shall be stronger handed," Bertie said. "Of course I shall godown with you; Dias says he will too; so we will be able to man fouroars, if necessary."
"What have you done with the goods?" Harry asked.
"I sold them all at Lima, senor, to the man I got them from. He tookoff a third of the price, and said he could not have taken them if ithad not been that he had just got an order down from the Cerro mines,and was short of some of the things they had ordered."
"That is all right, Dias."
Harry secured two rooms at the hotel, and they all sat talking far intothe night. "I hope you will get your silver down as comfortably as wehave got the gold."
"I have no fear about doing that, senor. The difficulty will be for meto know what to do with it. I can never spend so much."
"Oh, nonsense, Dias!"
"I mean it, senor. Maria and I are quite agreed that we don't want anylarger house than we have got; and I know that if we did want a bigone, there would be all sorts of questions as to where I had got themoney from."
"There would be no difficulty in answering that, Dias. You told me howyour friend found five mule-loads of silver in the bats' cave. You haveonly got to say that you found yours hidden away, which would be thetruth. Jose is nineteen now, and you will want to provide him with somegood mules, and to put by some money for him when he wants to marry andsettle. I know you spoke very highly of an institution at Lima for theorphans of natives. You can hand them over some, and when you and Mariadon't want it any longer you can leave them the rest."
Maria cried bitterly in the morning when they said goodbye. "I shalllove you and pray for you always, senors," she sobbed. "I shall neverforget all your kindness."
"We owe you more than you owe us," Harry said. "You have always beenready to do everything, and you have kept us alive with your merry talkand good spirits. You may be very sure that we shall never forget you."
Jose was almost equally affected. "You will never come back, senor," hesaid, as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
"I may some day, Jose. I think it likely that I shall some day get up acompany to drain that lake in the golden valley. The gold will be moreuseful as money than lying there. It must depend partly upon whetherthe country is settled. People will not put money into Peru as long asyou are always fighting here."
Maria and Jose would have accompanied them down to the boat the nextmorning, but Dias pointed out to them that they were apparently onlygoing out for a day's sail, and that if there were any partings on theshore it would at once attract the suspicions of the customs-houseofficials there.
Accordingly, after a painful farewell, Dias and the two brothers wentdown to the boat, where the mate was already awaiting them. The voyagewas as successful as the previous one had been. On the return journeythe wind held, and they arrived alongside of the _Nancy_ by eleveno'clock; the bags were all safely in the hold by midnight. The firstmate of the ship had two days before been taken with fever and sentashore, and the captain had gladly accepted the offer of Harry'sassistant to take the berth of second mate, that officer havingsucceeded to the post of the first. Harry had told him that he couldsell the boat, and he had, before starting on the trip, done so, on theunderstanding that it would be found on the beach in charge of Diaswhen the _Nancy_ had sailed.
Harry had given him another ten pounds to provide himself with anoutfit, and had also asked him to distribute twenty among his formershipmates for the same purpose, as these had lost all their clothingexcept what they stood in. The ship's dinghy, with a couple of hands,towed the boat, with Dias in it, to the shore. The muleteer was greatlyaffected at parting with Harry and his brother.
"It has been a fortunate journey for us both," Dias said, "and I shallalways look back to the time we spent together with the greatestpleasure."
"Here is a piece of paper with my address in London. I know that youwill have no difficulty in getting letters written for you. Let me hearfrom you once every six months or so, telling me how you are gettingon, and I will write to you. Good-bye! We shall always remember you,and be thankful that we had so faithful a guide here, and, I may say,so faithful a friend."
The voyage home was an uneventful one, save that they met with a heavystorm while rounding the Horn, and for some days the vessel was ingreat danger. However, she weathered it safely, and when she arrived inthe Thames she found that the _London_ had come up on the previous tide.
"If it hadn't been for that storm we should have beaten her easily,"the captain said. "But I don't mind losing that fiver, considering thatwe have gained four days on her."
On landing, Harry went straight to the Bank of England and informed themanagers that he had two hundred and eighty-two ingots of gold,weighing about twenty pounds each, which he wished to deposit in theirvaults until they could weigh them and place their value to his credit,and he requested them to send down one of their waggons to the docksthe next day to receive them. On the following evening he had thesatisfaction of knowing that the whole of the treasure was at last insafe-keeping. Then he took a hackney-coach and drove to Jermyn Street,where he had taken rooms, having the night before carried there thetrunks which he had stored before he left England. He smiled as hespread out suit after suit.
"I don't know anything about the fashions now," he said, "and for aughtI can tell they may have changed altogether. However, I don't supposethere will be such an alteration that I shall look as if I had come outof the ark. Certainly I am not going to wait till I get a new outfit.
"It did not seem to me," he said to himself, "that I left aridiculously large wardrobe before I went. But after knocking about fortwo years with a single change, it really does seem absurd that Ishould ever have thought I absolutely required all these things. Now, Isuppose I had better write to the old man and say that I have returned,and shall call upon him to-morrow. The chances are ten to one againstmy catching him in now, and as this is rather a formal sort ofbusiness, I had better give him due notice; but I cannot keep Hilda insuspense. I wonder whether she has the same maid as she had before Iwent away. I have given the girl more than one half-guinea, and to doher justice I believe that she was so attached to her mistress that shewould have done anything for her without them. Still, I can't very wellknock at the door and ask for Miss Fortescue's maid; I expect I musttrust the note to a footman. If she does not get it, there is no harmdone; if he hands it to her father, no doubt it would put him in atowering rage, but he will cool down by the time I see him in themorning."
He sat down and wrote two notes. The first was to Mr. Fortescue; itonly said:--
"Dear Sir,--I have returned from abroad, and shall do myself thepleasure of calling upon you at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning todiscuss with you a matter of much importance to myself."
The note to Hilda was still shorter:--
"My darling,--I am home and am going to call on your father at eleveno'clock tomorrow morning. I am two months within the two years.--Yoursdevotedly,
"HARRY PRENDERGAST."
Having sealed both letters, he walked to Bedford Square. When the dooropened, he saw th
at the footman was one of those who had been in Mr.Fortescue's service before he left.
"You have not forgotten me, Edward, have you?"
"Why, it is Mr. Prendergast! Well, sir, it is a long time since we sawyou."
"Yes, I have been abroad. Will you hand this letter to Mr. Fortescue.Is he in at present?"
"No, sir; he and Mrs. Fortescue are both out. Miss Fortescue is outtoo."
"Well now, Edward, will you hand this letter quietly to Miss Fortescuewhen she comes in?" and he held out the note and a guinea with it.
The man hesitated.
"You need not be afraid of giving it to her," Harry went on. "It isonly to tell her what I have told your master in my letter to him, thatI am going to call tomorrow."
"Then I shall be glad to do it," the man said--for, as usual, theservants were pretty well acquainted with the state of affairs, andwhen Harry went away, and their young mistress was evidently indisgrace with her father, they guessed pretty accurately what hadhappened, and their sympathies were with the lovers. Harry returned toJermyn Street confident that Hilda would get his note that evening. Hehad no feeling of animosity against her father, It was natural that, asa large land-owner, and belonging to an old family, and closelyconnected with more than one peer of the realm, he should offer strongopposition to the marriage of his daughter to a half-pay lieutenant,and he had been quite prepared for the burst of anger with which hisrequest for her hand had been received. He had felt that it was aforlorn hope; but he and Hilda hoped that in time the old man wouldsoften, especially as they had an ally in her mother. Hilda had threebrothers, and as the estates and the bulk of Mr. Fortescue's fortunewould go to them, she was not a great heiress, though undoubtedly shewould be well dowered.
On arriving the next morning Harry was shown into the library. Mr.Fortescue rose from his chair and bowed coldly.
"To what am I indebted for the honour of this visit, Mr. Prendergast? Ihad hoped that the emphatic way in which I rejected your--you willexcuse my saying--presumptuous request for the hand of my daughter,would have settled the matter once and for all; and I trust that yourrequest for an interview to-day does not imply that you intend to renewthat proposal, which I may say at once would receive, and will receiveas long as I live, the same answer as I before gave you."
"It has that object, sir," Harry said quietly, "but under somewhatchanged conditions. I asked you at that time to give me two years, inwhich time possibly my circumstances might change. You refused to giveme a single week; but your daughter was more kind, and promised to waitfor the two years, which will not be up for two more months."
"She has behaved like a froward and obstinate girl," her father saidangrily. "She has refused several most eligible offers, and I have tothank you for it. Well, sir, I hope at least that you have the grace tofeel that it is preposterous that you should any longer stand in theway of this misguided girl."
"I have come to say that if it is her wish and yours that I shouldstand aside, as you say, I will do so, and in my letters I told herthat unless circumstances should be changed before the two years haveexpired I would disappear altogether from her path."
"That is something at least, sir," Mr. Fortescue said with morecourtesy than he had hitherto shown. "I need not say that there is noprospect of your obtaining my consent, and may inform you that mydaughter promised not to withstand my commands as far as you areconcerned beyond the expiration of the two years. I do not know thatthere is anything more to say."
"I should not have come here, sir, had there not been more to say, butshould simply have addressed a letter to you saying that I withdrew allpretensions to your daughter's hand. But I have a good deal more tosay. I have during the time that I have been away succeeded inimproving my condition to a certain extent."
"Pooh, pooh, sir!" the other said angrily. "Suppose you made a thousandor two, what possible difference could it make?"
"I am not foolish enough to suppose that it would do so; but at leastthis receipt from the Bank of England, for gold deposited in theirhands, will show you that the sums you mention have been somewhatexceeded."
"Tut, tut, I don't wish to see it! it can make no possible differencein the matter."
"At least, sir, you will do me the courtesy to read it, or if youprefer not to do so I will read it myself."
"Give it me," Mr. Fortescue said, holding out his hand. "Let us getthrough this farce as soon as possible; it is painful to us both."
He put on his spectacles, glanced at the paper, and gave a suddenstart, read it again, carefully this time, and then said slowly:
"Do you mean that the two hundred and eighty-two ingots, containing inall five thousand six hundred and forty pounds weight of gold, are yourproperty? That is to say, that you are the sole owner of them, and notonly the representative of some mining company?"
"It is the sole property, Mr. Fortescue, of my brother and myself. Iown two-thirds of it. It is lost treasure recovered by us from the sea,where it has been lying ever since the conquest of Peru by Pizarro."
"There is no mistake about this? The word pounds is not a mistake forounces?--although even that would represent a very large sum."
"The bank would not be likely to make such a mistake as that, sir. Theingots weigh about twenty pounds each. I had a small piece of the goldassayed at Callao, and its value was estimated at four pounds perounce. Roughly, then, the value of the sum deposited at the bank is twohundred and seventy thousand pounds."
"Prodigious!" Mr. Fortescue murmured.
"Well, Mr. Prendergast, I own that you have astounded me. It would beabsurd to deny that this altogether alters the position. Against youpersonally I have never had anything to say. You were always a welcomevisitor to my house till I saw how matters were tending. Your family,like my own, is an old one, and your position as an officer in theKing's Naval Service is an honourable one. However, I must ask you togive me a day to reflect over the matter, to consult with my wife, andto ascertain that my daughter's disposition in the matter is unchanged."
"Thank you, sir! But I trust that you will allow me to have aninterview with Miss Fortescue now. It is two years since we parted, andshe has suffered great anxiety on my account, and on the matter of mysafety at least I would not keep her a moment longer in suspense."
"I think that after the turn the matter has taken your request is areasonable one. You are sure to find her in the drawing-room with hermother at present. I think it is desirable that you should not see heralone until the matter is formally arranged."
Prendergast bowed.
"I am content to wait," he said with a slight smile.
"I will take you up myself," the other said.
Harry could have done without the guidance, for he knew the house well.However, he only bowed again, and followed the old man upstairs.
The latter opened the door and said to his wife: "My dear, I havebrought an old friend up to see you;" and as Harry entered he closedthe door and went down to the library again.
"Nearly two hundred thousand pounds!" he said. "A splendid fortune!Nearly twice as much as I put by before I left the bar. How in theworld could he have got it? 'Got it up out of the sea,' he said; acurious story. However, with that acknowledgment from the bank therecan be no mistake about it. Well, well, it might be worse. I alwaysliked the young fellow till he was fool enough to fall in love withHilda, and worse still, she with him. The silly girl might have had acoronet. However, there is no accounting for these things, and I amglad that the battle between us is at an end. I was only acting for hergood, and I should have been mad to let her throw herself away on apenniless officer on half-pay."
Mrs. Fortescue waved her hand as Harry, on entering, was about to speakto her.
"Go to her first," she said; "she has waited long enough for you."
And he turned to Hilda.
He made a step towards her and held out his arms, and with a little cryof joy she ran into them.
"And is it all right?" she said a minute later. "Can it real
ly be allright?"
"You may be quite sure that it is all right, Hilda," Mrs. Fortescuesaid. "Do you think your father would have brought him up here if ithadn't been? Now you can come to me, Harry."
"I am glad," she said heartily. "We have had a very bad time. Now,thank God, it is all over. You see she has only had me to stand by her,for her brothers, although they have not taken open part against her,have been disposed to think that it was madness her wasting two yearson the chance of your making a fortune. Of course you have done so, oryou would not be in this drawing-room at present."
"I have done very well, Mrs. Fortescue. I was able to show Mr.Fortescue a receipt for gold amounting to nearly three hundred thousandpounds, of which two-thirds belong to me, the rest to my brother."
Mrs. Fortescue uttered an exclamation of astonishment.
"What have you been doing, Harry?" she asked--"plundering a Nabob?"
"Nabobs do not dwell in Peru," he laughed. "No, I have discovered along-lost treasure, which, beyond any doubt, was part of the wealth ofAtahualpa, the unfortunate monarch whom Pizarro first plundered andthen slew. It had been sent off by sea, and the vessel was lost. It istoo long a story to tell now."
"And Papa has quite consented, Harry?"
Harry smiled.
"Virtually so, as you might suppose by his bringing me up here.Actually he has deferred the matter, pending a consultation with youand Mrs. Fortescue, and will give me his formal answer to-morrow."
The two ladies both smiled.
"If he said that, the matter is settled," the elder said; "he has neverasked my opinion before on the subject, and I have never volunteeredit. But I am sure he has not the slightest doubt as to what I thoughtof it. So we can consider it as happily settled after all. If I hadthought that there was the slightest chance of your making a fortunequickly I should have spoken out; but as I thought it absolutelyhopeless, I have done what I could privately to support Hilda, alwayssaying, however, that if at the end of the two years nothing came ofit, I could not in any way countenance her throwing away the chances ofher life."
"You were quite right, Mrs. Fortescue. I had fully intended to write toHilda at the end of that time releasing her from all promises that shehad made to me, and saying that I felt that I had no right to troubleher further; but from what she wrote to me, I doubt whether her fatherwould have found her altogether amenable to his wishes even at the endof the two years."
A month later there was a wedding in Bedford Square. Among thosepresent no one was more gratified than Mr. Barnett, whose surprise andsatisfaction were great when Harry told him in confidence the result ofhis advice, and especially of his introduction to the Indian guide.
It had been arranged that nothing should be said as to the source fromwhich Harry had obtained his wealth, as it was possible that thePeruvian government might set up some claim to it, and it was in Mr.Fortescue's opinion very doubtful what the result would be, as it hadbeen discovered so close to the shore.
Harry never took any steps with reference to the gold valley, for theconstant troubles in Peru were sufficient to deter any wealthy men frominvesting money there.
The correspondence between him and Dias and his wife was maintaineduntil they died full of years and greatly lamented by numbers of theircountrymen to whom they had been benefactors.
Bertie never went to sea again except in his own yacht, but when hecame of age, bought an estate near Southampton, and six years laterbrought home a mistress for it.