CHAPTER XLIX
A GOLDEN AFTERNOON
When Ralph met Captain Horn that afternoon, there rose within him asudden, involuntary appreciation of the captain's worthiness to possess aship-load of gold and his sister Edna. Before that meeting there had beendoubts in the boy's mind in regard to this worthiness. He believed thathe had thoroughly weighed and judged the character and capacities of thecaptain of the _Castor_, and he had said to himself, in his moments ofreflection, that although Captain Horn was a good man, and a brave man,and an able man in many ways, there were other men in the world who werebetter fitted for the glorious double position into which this fortunatemariner had fallen.
But now, as Ralph sat and gazed upon his sister's lover and heard himtalk, and as he turned from him to Edna's glowing eyes, he acknowledged,without knowing it, the transforming power of those two greatalchemists,--gold and love,--and from the bottom of his heart he approvedthe match.
Upon Mrs. Cliff the first sight of Captain Horn had been a littlestartling, and had she not hastened to assure herself that the compactwith Edna was a thing fixed and settled, she might have been possessedwith the fear that perhaps this gentleman might have views for hisfuture life very different from those upon which she had set her heart.But even if she had not known of the compact of the morning, all dangerof that fear would have passed in the moment that the captain took herby the hand.
To find his three companions of the wreck and desert in such high stateand flourishing condition so cheered and uplifted the soul of the captainthat he could talk of nothing else. And now he called for Cheditafa andMok--those two good fellows whose faithfulness he should never forget.But when they entered, bending low, with eyes upturned toward the loftypresence to which they had been summoned, the captain looked inquiringlyat Edna. As he came in that afternoon, he had seen both the negroes inthe courtyard, and, in the passing thought he had given to them, hadsupposed them to be attendants of some foreign potentate from Barbary orMorocco. Cheditafa and Mok! The ragged, half-clad negroes of thesea-beach--a parson-butler of sublimated respectability, a liveriedlackey of rainbow and gold! It required minutes to harmonize thesepresentments in the mind of Captain Horn.
When the audience of the two Africans--for such it seemed to be--hadlasted long enough, Edna was thinking of dismissing them, when it becameplain to her that there was something which Cheditafa wished to say ordo. She looked at him inquiringly, and he came forward.
For a long time the mind of the good African had been exercised upon thesubject of the great deed he had done just before the captain had sailedaway from the Peruvian coast. In San Francisco and Paris he had askedmany questions quietly, and apparently without purpose, concerning themarriage ceremonies of America and other civilized countries. He had notlearned enough to enable him, upon an emergency, to personate an orthodoxclergyman, but he had found out this and that--little things, perhaps,but things which made a great impression upon him--which had convincedhim that in the ceremony he had performed there had been muchremissness--how much, he did not clearly know. But about one thing thathad been wanting he had no doubts.
Advancing toward Edna and the captain, who sat near each other, Cheditafatook from his pocket a large gold ring, which he had purchased with hissavings. "There was a thing we didn't do," he said, glancing from one tothe other. "It was the ring part--nobody thinked of that. Will captaintake it now, and put it on the lady?"
Edna and the captain looked at each other. For a moment no one spoke.Then Edna said, "Take it." The captain rose and took the ring from thehand of Cheditafa, and Edna stood beside him. Then he took her hand, andreverently placed the ring upon her fourth finger. Fortunately, itfitted. It had not been without avail that Cheditafa had so often scannedwith a measuring eye the rings upon the hands of his mistress.
A light of pleasure shone in the eyes of the old negro. Now he had donehis full duty--now all things had been made right. As he had seen thepriests stand in the churches of Paris, he now stood for a moment withhis hands outspread. "Very good," he said, "that will do." Then, followedby Mok, he bowed himself out of the room.
For some moments there was silence in the salon. Nobody thought oflaughing, or even smiling. In the eyes of Mrs. Cliff there were a fewtears. She was the first to speak. "He is a good man," said she, "and henow believes that he has done everything that ought to be done. But youwill be married to-morrow, all the same, of course."
"Yes," said Edna. "But it will be with this ring."
"Yes," said the captain, "with that ring. You must always wear it."
"And now," said Mrs. Cliff, when they had all reseated themselves,"you must really tell us your story, captain. You know I have heardnothing yet."
And so he told his story--much that Edna had heard before, a great dealshe had not heard. About the treasure, almost everything he said was newto her. Mrs. Cliff was very eager on this point. She wanted every detail.
"How about the ownership of it?" she said. "After all, that is thegreat point. What do people here think of your right to use that goldas your own?"
The captain smiled. "That is not an easy question to answer, but I thinkwe shall settle it very satisfactorily. Of course, the first thing to dois to get it safely entered and stored away in the great money centresover here. A good portion of it, in fact, is to be shipped toPhiladelphia to be coined. Of course, all that business is in the handsof my bankers. The fact that I originally sailed from California was agreat help to us. To ascertain my legal rights in the case was the mainobject of my visit to London. There Wraxton and I put the matter beforethree leading lawyers in that line of business, and although theiropinions differed somewhat, and although we have not yet come to a finalconclusion as to what should be done, the matter is pretty wellstraightened out as far as we are concerned. Of course, the affair isgreatly simplified by the fact that there is no one on the other side tobe a claimant of the treasure, but we consider it as if there were aclaimant, or two of them, in fact. These can be no other than the presentgovernment of Peru, and that portion of the population of the countrywhich is native to the soil, and the latter, if our suppositions arecorrect, are the only real heirs to the treasure which I discovered. Butwhat are the laws of Peru in regard to treasure-trove, or what may be thedisposition of the government toward the native population and theirrights, of course we cannot find out now. That will take time. But of onething we are certain: I am entitled to a fair remuneration for thediscovery of this treasure, just the same as if I claimed salvage forhaving brought a wrecked steamer into port. On this point the lawyers areall agreed. I have, therefore, made my claim, and shall stand by it withenough legal force behind me to support me in any emergency.
"But it is not believed that either the Peruvian government, or thenatives acting as a body, if it shall be possible for them to act in thatway, will give us any trouble. We have the matter entirely in our ownhands. They do not know of the existence of this treasure, or that theyhave any rights to it, until we inform them of the fact, and without ourassistance it will be almost impossible for them to claim anything orprove anything. Therefore, it will be good policy and common sense forthem to acknowledge that we are acting honestly, and, more than that,generously, and to agree to take what we offer them, and that we shallkeep what is considered by the best legal authorities to be our rights.
"As soon as possible, an agent will be sent to Peru to attend to thematter. But this matter is in the hands of my lawyers, although, ofcourse, I shall not keep out of the negotiations."
"And how much percentage, captain?" asked Mrs. Cliff. "What part do theythink you ought to keep?"
"We have agreed," said he, "upon twenty per cent. of the whole. Aftercareful consideration and advice, I made that claim. I shall retain it.Indeed, it is already secured to me, no matter what may happen to therest of the treasure."
"Twenty per cent.!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. "And that is all that you get?"
"Yes," said the captain, "it is what I get--and by that is meant wha
t isto be divided among us all. I make the claim, but I make it for every onewho was on the _Castor_ when she was wrecked, and for the families ofthose who are not alive--for every one, in fact, who was concerned inthis matter."
The countenance of Mrs. Cliff had been falling, and now it went down,down, again. After all the waiting, after all the anxiety, it had come tothis: barely twenty per cent., to be divided among ever so manypeople--twenty-five or thirty, for all she knew. Only this, after thedreams she had had, after the castles she had built! Of course, she hadmoney now, and she would have some more, and she had a great many usefuland beautiful things which she had bought, and she could go back toPlainton in very good circumstances. But that was not what she had beenwaiting for, and hoping for, and anxiously trembling for, ever since shehad found that the captain had really reached France with the treasure.
"Captain," she said, and her voice was as husky as if she had beensitting in a draught, "I have had so many ups and so many downs, and havebeen turned so often this way and that, I cannot stand this state ofuncertainty any longer. It may seem childish and weak, but I must knowsomething. Can you give me any idea how much you are to have, or, atleast, how much I shall have, and let me make myself satisfied withwhatever it is? Do you think that I shall be able to go back to Plaintonand take my place as a leading citizen there? I don't mind in the leastasking that before you three. I thought I was justified in making that myobject in life, and I have made it my object. Now, if I have beenmistaken all this time, I would like to know it. Don't find fault withme. I have waited, and waited, and waited--"
"Well," interrupted the captain, "you need not wait any longer. The sumthat I have retained shall be divided as soon as possible, and I shalldivide it in as just a manner as I can, and I am ready to hear appealsfrom any one who is not satisfied. Of course, I shall keep the largestshare of it--that is my right. I found it, and I secured it. And thislady here," pointing to Edna, "is to have the next largest share in herown right, because she was the main object which made me work so hard andbrave everything to get that treasure here. And then the rest will shareaccording to rank, as we say on board ship."
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" murmured Mrs. Cliff, "he never comes to anypoint. We never know anything clear and distinct. This is not anyanswer at all."
"The amount I claim," continued the captain, who did not notice that Mrs.Cliff was making remarks to herself, "is forty million dollars."
Everybody started, and Mrs. Cliff sprang up as if a torpedo had beenfired beneath her.
"Forty million dollars!" she exclaimed. "I thought you said you wouldonly have twenty per cent.?"
"That is just what it is," remarked the captain, "as nearly as we cancalculate. Forty million dollars is about one fifth of the value of thecargo I brought to France in the _Arato_. And as to your share, Mrs.Cliff, I think, if you feel like it, you will be able to buy the town ofPlainton; and if that doesn't make you a leading citizen in it, I don'tknow what else you can do."
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