CHAPTER XXIV
HIS FORTUNE UNDER HIS FEET
Notwithstanding the fact that the captain had, for the present, closedhis account with the treasure in the lake cave, and had determined not togive another thought to further drafts upon it, he could not prevent allsorts of vague and fragmentary plans for getting more of the gold fromthrusting themselves upon him; but his hand was strong upon the tiller ofhis mind, and his course did not change a point. He now began to considerin what condition he should leave the caves. Once he thought he would gothere and take away everything which might indicate that the caves hadbeen inhabited, but this notion he discarded.
"There are a good many people," he thought, "who know that we livedthere, and if that man who was there afterwards should come back, I wouldprefer that he should not notice any changes, unless, indeed,"--and hiseyes glistened as a thought darted into his mind,--"unless, indeed, heshould find a lake where he left a dry cave. Good! I'll try it."
With his hands in his pockets, the captain stood a few moments andthought, and then he went to work. From the useless little vessel which,had belonged to the Rackbirds he gathered some bits of old rope, andhaving cut these into short pieces, he proceeded to pick them into whatsailors call oakum.
Early the next morning, his two canvas bags filled with this, he startedfor the caves. When he reached the top of the mound, and was just aboutto hold his lantern so as to take a final glance into its interior, hesuddenly turned away his head and shut his eyes.
"No," he said. "If I do that, it is ten to one I'll jump inside, and whatmight happen next nobody knows."
He put the lantern aside, lifted the great lid into its place, andthen, with a hammer and a little chisel which he had brought with himfrom the tools which had been used for the building of the pier, hepacked the crevices about the lid with oakum. With a mariner's skill heworked, and when his job was finished, it would have been difficult fora drop of water to have found its way into the dome, no matter if itrose high above it.
It was like leaving behind a kingdom and a throne, the command of armiesand vast navies, the domination of power, of human happenings; but hecame away.
When he reached the portion of the cave near the great gap which openedto the sky opposite the entrance to the outer caves, the captain walkedacross the dry floor to the place where was situated the outlet throughwhich the waters of the lake had poured out into the Rackbirds' valley.
The machine which controlled this outlet was situated under theoverhanging ledge of the cave, and was in darkness, so that the captainwas obliged to use his lantern. He soon found the great lever which hehad clutched when he had swum to the rescue of Ralph, and which had gonedown with him and so opened the valve and permitted egress of the water,and which now lay with its ten feet or more of length horizontally nearthe ground. Near by was the great pipe, with its circular blacknessleading into the depths below.
"That stream outside," said the captain, "must run in here somewhere,although I cannot see nor hear it, and it must be stopped off by thisvalve or another one connected with it, so that if I can get this leverup again, I should shut it off from the stream outside and turn it inhere. Then, if that fellow comes back, he will have to swim to themound, and run a good chance of getting drowned if he does it, and ifanybody else comes here, I think it will be as safe as the ancientPeruvians once made it."
With this he took hold of the great lever and attempted to raise it. Buthe found the operation a very difficult one. The massive bar was ofmetal, but probably not iron, and although it was not likely that it hadrusted, it was very hard to move in its socket. The captain's weight hadbrought it down easily, but this weight could not now be applied, and hecould only attempt to lift it.
When it had first been raised, it was likely that a dozen slaves hadseized it and forced it into an upright position. The captain pushed upbravely, and, a few inches at a time, he elevated the end of the greatlever. Frequently he stopped to rest, and it was over an hour before thebar stood up as it had been when first he felt it under the water.
When this was done, he went into the other caves, looked about to seethat everything was in the condition in which he had found it, and thathe had left nothing behind him during his many visits. When he wassatisfied on these points, he went back to the lake cave to see if anywater had run in. He found everything as dry as when he had left it, norcould he hear any sound of running or dripping water. Considering thematter, however, he concluded that there might be some sort of an outsidereservoir which must probably fill up before the water ran into the cave,and so he came away.
"I will give it time," he thought, "and come back to-morrow to see if itis flooded."
That night, as he lay on his little pallet, looking through the openfront of his tent at the utter darkness of the night, the idea struck himthat it was strange that he was not afraid to stay here alone. He was abrave man,--he knew that very well,--and yet it seemed odd to him that,under the circumstances, he should have so little fear. But his reasonsoon gave him a good answer. He had known times when he had been verymuch afraid, and among these stood preeminent the time when he hadexpected an attack from the Rackbirds. But then his fear was for others.When he was by himself it was a different matter. It was not often thathe did not feel able to take care of his own safety. If there were anydanger now, it was in the daytime, when some stray Rackbirds might comeback, or the pilferer of the mound might return with companions. But ifany such came, he had his little fort, two pistols, and a repeatingrifle. At night he felt absolutely safe. There was no danger that couldcome by land or sea through the blackness of the night.
Suddenly he sat up. His forehead was moist with perspiration. A shiverran through him, not of cold, but of fear. Never in his life had he beenso thoroughly frightened; never before had he felt his hands and legstremble. Involuntarily he rose and stood up in the tent. He wasterrified, not by anything real, but by the thought of what might happenif that lake cave should fill up with water, and if the ancient valves,perhaps weakened by his moving them backward and forward, should give wayunder the great pressure, and, for a second time, a torrent of watershould come pouring down the Rackbirds' ravine!
As the captain trembled with fear, it was not for himself, for he couldlisten for the sound of the rushing waters, and could dash away to thehigher ground behind him; but it was for his treasure-bags, his fortune,his future! His soul quaked. His first impulse was to rush out and carryevery bag to higher ground. But this idea was absurd. The night was toodark, and the bags too heavy and too many. Then he thought of hurryingaway to the caves to see if the lake had risen high enough to bedangerous. But what could he do if it had? In his excitement, he couldnot stand still and do nothing. He took hold of one end of his trunk andpulled it out of his tent, and, stumbling and floundering over theinequalities of the ground, he at last got it to a place which hesupposed would be out of reach of a sudden flood, and the difficulties ofthis little piece of work assured him of the utter futility ofattempting to move the bags in the darkness. He had a lantern, but thatwould be of little service on such a night and for such a work.
He went back into his tent, and tried to prevail upon himself that heought to go to sleep--that it was ridiculous to beset himself withimaginary dangers, and to suffer from them as much as if they had beenreal ones. But such reasoning was vain, and he sat up or walked aboutnear his tent all night, listening and listening, and trying to think ofthe best thing to do if he should hear a coming flood.
As soon as it was light, he hurried to the caves, and when he reached theold bed of the lake, he found there was not a drop of water in it.
"The thing doesn't work!" he cried joyfully. "Fool that I am, I mighthave known that although a man might open a valve two or threecenturies old, he should not expect to shut it up again. I suppose Ismashed it utterly."
His revulsion of feeling was so great that he began to laugh at his ownabsurdity, and then he laughed at his merriment.
"If any one should see
me now," he thought, "they would surely think Ihad gone crazy over my wealth. Well, there is no danger from a flood,but, to make all things more than safe, I will pull down this handle, ifit will come. Anyway, I do not want it seen."
The great bar came down much easier than it had gone up, moving, in fact,the captain thought, as if some of its detachments were broken, and whenit was down as far as it would go, he came away.
"Now," said he, "I have done with this cave for this trip. If possible, Ishall think of it no more."
When he was getting some water from the stream to make some coffee forhis breakfast, he stopped and clenched his fist. "I am more of a foolthan I thought I was," he said. "This solitary business is not good forme. If I had thought last night of coming here to see if this littlestream were still running, and kept its height, I need not have troubledmyself about the lake in the cave. Of course, if the water were runninginto the caves, it would not be running here until the lake had filled.And, besides, it would take days for that great lake to fill. Well, I amglad that nobody but myself knows what an idiot I have been."
When he had finished his breakfast, Captain Horn went to work. There wasto be no more thinking, no more plans, no more fanciful anxieties, nomore hopes of doing something better than he had done. Work he would, andwhen one thing was done, he would find another. The first thing he setabout was the improvement of the pier which had been built for thelanding of the guano. There was a good deal of timber left unused, and hedrove down new piles, nailed on new planking, and extended the littlepier considerably farther into the waters of the cove. When this wasdone, he went to work on the lighter, which was leaky, and bailed it out,and calked the seams, taking plenty of time, and doing his work in themost thorough manner. He determined that after this was done, and hecould find nothing better to do, he would split up the little vesselwhich the Rackbirds had left rudderless, mastless, and useless, and makekindling-wood of it.
But this was not necessary. He had barely finished his work on thelighter, when, one evening, he saw against the sun-lighted sky thetopmasts of a vessel, and the next morning the _Finland_ lay anchored offthe cove, and two boats came ashore, out of one of which Maka was thefirst to jump.
In five hours the guano had been transferred to the ship, and, twentyminutes later, the _Finland_, with Captain Horn on board, had set sailfor Acapulco. The captain might have been better pleased if hisdestination had been San Francisco, but, after all, it is doubtful ifthere could have been a man who was better pleased. He walked the deck ofa good ship with a fellow-mariner with whom he could talk as much as hepleased, and under his feet were the bags containing the thousands oflittle bars for which he had worked so hard.
The Adventures of Captain Horn Page 24