CHAPTER VII.

AILEEN O’MORE--HIDING THE TREASURE.

“Ever of thee I’m fondly dreaming, Thy gentle voice my spirit can cheer; Thou wert the star that, mildly beaming, Shone o’er my path when all was dark and drear.” _Old Song._

“Gold! gold! gold! gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold.”

“‘Aileen--for that was her beautiful name--was like a child in my hands, and willing to do what I told her. Her governess--a lady of thirty, and kind, almost motherly--brought me vinegar and water, and we bathed the girl’s hands, much to her relief.

“‘Then I said she must lie down for an hour or two. I and my men would bivouac near to the sea-shore and return to-morrow.

“‘She would not hear of the scheme.

“‘“No, no, no,” she cried. “Your men are being well used, and they are happy. The negroes will amuse them, dance and sing to them, and find them good beds; and you must stay here to-night. I could not sleep if I thought you were out under the trees in the dark forest.”

“‘My soul seemed to thrill at these words.

“‘“And father, you know, will be back before sundown. Do you promise, Mr. Bassanto?”

“‘“I will, if you call me Miguel; no one calls me anything else.”

“‘“Well--Miguel,” she said, blushing a little.

“‘“Then I will stay,” I said, right heartily.

“‘Aileen was down by five, quite recovered, and presiding over the tea-table. She looked radiantly lovely, I thought. The tea was good, but I hardly think I tasted it, and how many cups I drank I really do not know.

“‘Well, Mr. O’More himself arrived just as the sun was going down like a huge ball of red fire, and apparently setting the forest trees in flames.

“‘A hale, hearty, red-faced Irishman, probably some sixty years or over.

“‘We told him the story briefly, and the tears started to his eyes.

“‘“God bless you, my son,” he cried, seizing my hand. “It was heaven itself that sent you.”

“‘Then he held out his arms, and Aileen was pressed to his breast.

“‘“I’ve never had trouble before--that is, not since the first days, when I and my dear wife landed here and began to form the plantation. Ailie was very young then. But Red Toad has ever been faithful, and has done us many a good turn. Once some pirates landed here. In two hours Red Toad had assembled his braves and cut off their retreat--and their heads too, for not one escaped alive. They are all buried here. They then seized the ship, and having landed everything useful, they burned her.”

“‘“I wonder,” I thought to myself, “what this honest fellow will think when he knows he is entertaining pirates at this very moment.”

“‘“Red Toad was a fearful savage at one time,” he continued; “but we have converted him to Christianity, and Ailie there has actually taught him to read and write.”

“‘Presently an old white-haired negro entered. “Sah,” he said, “Red Toad he ’rrive, sah. Anoder red man too, sah. Cally basket. Say he bling you one boo’ful gift.”

“‘O’More and I went out to see the chief.

“‘Certainly he was by no means prepossessing; and so tall and broad and strong was he, that he would have made a foeman worthy of any one’s steel.

“‘His English was as perfect as that of any Indian I have ever heard speak, and his politeness and apologies for the indignities which his “rascally braves” had offered to Miss O’More were both pretty and profuse.

“‘He bent his head in his hands, too, and begged most earnestly for forgiveness.

“‘“And you will punish these renegades?”

“‘“Punish they are. On’y five bad men in my tribe. One shot by he,” he pointed to me. “De oders I flog.”

“‘“But, my dear Red Toad, what is to prevent the same thing from occurring again?”

“‘“Dear white chief, snake is one ugly thing, but snake not much danger if he not able to put on his head in the morning. Behold the gift I bring you!”

“‘He lifted his finger, and two red Indians advanced solemnly, carrying a basket. They removed the grass that hid the contents, and I confess that I, for one, was shocked to behold the heads of the very savages we had attacked in the clearing. The sardonic grin of death still overspread their features. It was a sight I shall never forget.

“‘O’More briefly told the chief he was forgiven, and beckoned them all away.

“‘But we soon forgot the adventure.

“‘Then after dinner--and a delightful one it was--I was asked for my story.

“‘I begun by saying, “What will you say and do, Mr. O’More, and you, Miss Aileen, when I tell you plainly that you are at this minute entertaining pirates?”

“‘Aileen started, and turned red and white by turns.

“‘O’More merely lit his pipe.

“‘“Then the ships seen in the offing yesterday were pirates?”

“‘“Yes; they belong to my fleet.”

“‘“Were you the blackest-souled pirate that ever lived,” said O’More, stretching out his hand to shake, “you saved my daughter’s life, and I shall never forget you when I pray. But tell us all your story.”

“‘I did so simply and straightforwardly, as I have told it in these pages, mitigating only as much as I could the horrible cruelties of the awful murderer Morgan.

“‘Once again O’More shook hands with me, and so also, much to my joy, did innocent little Aileen.

“‘“Instead of being a guilty pirate,” said my host, “I look upon you as a martyr, living a life that is horribly distasteful to you for the sake of being able, now and then, to save from slaughter some of your unhappy countrymen. Nay, nay, you have nothing to regret or be ashamed of. But you say you now wish to retire.”

“‘“That I shall, if possible.”

“‘Then O’More told me his story. It was a very simple one. He too was going home, much though he loved life on the old plantation. One-half of the island really belonged to him, and he had amassed some wealth here.

“‘The evening sped away all too soon with talking, with music and singing; and having turned in, I hardly knew where I was until a bird, trilling a low, sweet song at my open window, awoke me, and I found it was broad daylight.

“‘When Aileen appeared at our early breakfast, she was dressed in plain white, with ribbons of blue, and hardly looked her age, which was seventeen. I seemed to love her better every hour.

“‘She was down before her father. We strolled in the morning sunshine, all among the beautiful flower-gardens.

“‘While still here, O’More himself came up. He was rubbing his hands and laughing.

“‘“Ha, Mr. Ferocious Pirate!” he cried, “I have news for you. I have just been up to the top of my timber tower, which commands a view of all the isle and the sea for twenty miles at least. Yes: and there isn’t a sign of your ship.”

“‘“How strange!”

“‘“You are marooned, my boy. But there is nothing strange about it. Your Admiral Morgan is a good sailor and a long-headed fellow. He knows right well there is a storm brewing that would wreck every ship he has if he didn’t sheer off and give the shore a very wide berth indeed.”

“‘And sure enough by noon that day the storm did come. It shook the great house till I expected every moment it would fall; it tore through the woods, rooting up great forest trees that had braved the elements for centuries; and it raised breakers along the island shore as high, I thought, as mountains. The sea, as seen from the tower, was all one smother of breaking, angry waves. I could not help wondering if it were possible for even our sturdy ships to brave that eastern gale.

“‘Even when the hurricane force of the storm subsided, it settled down into a steady gale, which lasted for a whole fortnight.

“‘And that gale, how I blessed it! For during this time I wooed and I won sweet Aileen O’More; and her father consented to our union six months after this, when both myself and they, we hoped, would be safe on Irish shores.

“‘But one day the admiral’s ship appeared, and cast anchor not a long way off.

“‘Oh that sad parting!

“‘It may be imagined; it cannot be described.

“‘Morgan met me at the gangway, and was evidently glad to see me.

“‘He appeared haler and stronger than I had known him for many a month, and attributed his resurrection, as he called it, to his limiting his drink, reducing, in fact, almost to nil.

“‘But he had a strange story to tell me.

“‘The gale had separated him from his ships, but he had given them orders before this that if they lost each other they should bear up for Jamaica. He had another reason for this. From all accounts the man-o’-war that was convoying the bullion-ship was so large and formidable that it would have been madness to attack her. He had ordered, therefore, a large English man-o’-war to come to his assistance with all speed. Meanwhile he had determined to depend as much on the fleetness of his vessel as upon anything else.

“‘The gale had been so terrible for nine whole days that nothing could be done; his fleet, tacking and half tacking--for the wind had a deal of north in it--must now be at Jamaica. But he had determined to look out for the Spaniard.

“‘Good luck, as he called it, seemed to favour him; for one wild morning, when the sun leaped red out of the ocean, tipping the foaming wave-crests with blood, lo! down to leeward, and staggering under bare poles almost, was the huge Spanish bullion-ship.

“‘And no man-o’-war was in sight.

“‘Morgan could see quite a host of armed men on board.

“‘The sight might have staggered some. It only made Morgan savage. It was like the red rag shaken in sight of a bull.

“‘He determined to lay her aboard.

“‘And he did.

“‘The helmsman brought her beautifully alongside, and next minute a fearful hand-to-hand fight was raging on the decks of the Spaniard.

“‘The enemy fought well. The pirates fought like fiends. Nothing could withstand them, and in less than half an hour the Dons threw down their arms and begged for mercy.

“‘Well, for once in a way, Morgan was inclined to spare life.

“‘But he had the gold brought up at once.

“‘It amounted in all to about three hundred thousand dollars.

“‘No wonder that the eyes of Morgan and his merry men sparkled with delight.

“‘But there was no time to lose. The great man-o’-war, which had got separated from her charge, might appear at any moment; then the tables would be turned with a vengeance.

“‘So the gold--it was contained in iron boxes--was speedily transferred to Morgan’s ship.

“‘“I’m going to spare your lives,” he told the captain of the Don; “but I must draw your teeth, so that when your man-o’-war finds you he’ll have to take you in tow.”

“‘Then at Morgan’s orders the small-arms were put on board his ship, also the ammunition. The large guns were thrown into the sea.

“‘Provisions and light wines were requisitioned, and then the rigging was hacked in pieces, and the sails and sheets rendered completely useless; so that when the admiral’s ship cast off from her, she rolled like a log in the water.

“‘That was Morgan’s story to me.

“‘“And now,” he said, “I have distributed a goodly portion of gold among my brave fellows, and I am going to hide the rest.”

“‘“And why?”

“‘“Why? because ten to one the man-o’-war will catch us. That we will be retaken by a British man-o’-war shortly I know, but I mean that neither the Don nor the Briton shall touch one dollar of this gold. Can you suggest a place?”

“‘“Yes; I know the very trees under which it can be hidden. Even the Indians never enter this part of the jungle, because they believe it haunted by fearful spirits.

“‘“But,” I continued, “the Indians are far away at the other end of the island, holding a war-dance. Two men besides you and myself will be amply sufficient.”

“‘To make a long story short, three hours before sunset that afternoon the boxes containing the gold were lowered into the boat, and we rowed on shore. There was no one to watch our proceedings, and we felt easy enough in mind.

“‘In an hour’s time, hard though the work was, it was finished, as far as the digging and hiding went.

“‘The next thing, however, was to take our bearings. This I managed to do most perfectly, partly by written descriptions, and partly by drawings of rocks on the sea-shore, and by measuring the distance inwards to the trees.

“‘It was dark before we left the shore, and I was rejoiced when a rain-storm came on, because I knew it would completely obliterate all our trail, so that not even a redskin would be able to find it.

“‘I gave Morgan the papers I had made, and he placed them in the locker on top of which he slept.

“‘But Morgan, as soon as he came on board, would not permit the men to go forward, and I was a little astonished, and I’m sure the poor fellows were, to find that they were placed in a prison cabin right abaft the captain’s own cabin.

“‘They had a plentiful supper handed in to them by Morgan himself, as well as a huge can of rum and another of water.

“‘We got up anchor, and stood out to sea immediately: for the wind had gone round, and was now fair for Jamaica; and as we had no great wish to encounter the Don, we took advantage of it.

“‘But now comes the horror which for ever after steeled my heart against the monster Morgan.