CHAPTER IX.

IN SEARCH OF GOLD

“Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.” SHAKESPEARE.

“A pleasing land of drowsyhed it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, For ever flushing round a summer sky.” THOMSON.

We landed at last, and telling the man to wait for us, we started off to make our first call. We were all fairly well dressed, though for my own part I should have preferred some other rig-out, had it been but the garb of Old Gaul (Highland dress), to that black surtout, white waistcoat, and broad-brimmed soft felt hat. I also wore an eye-glass. Reeves was similarly attired, and Miguel looked quite the clergyman all over, and wore a pair of most classical-looking spectacles. It was a beautiful house we approached, just a little inland it lay, square, with verandas, and surrounded by nice gardens, which, late in the year though it was, were still gay with gorgeous flowers.

“Is Mr. C. H. in?” said Reeves to a young lady who was culling a bouquet with a small pair of scissors in her dainty fingers.

“Yes, my father is at home, and will be so all day. Of course you will walk in. I shall soon find him for you.”

We smiled, thanked the young lady, who by the way was very good-looking, and were soon seated in a large and prettily-furnished drawing-room.

In a few minutes Mr. H. himself came in, holding our cards in his hand.

“Glad to meet Britishers,” he said frankly; “for mind we Southerners can never forget that your country had a leaning towards us during the great Civil War.”

“That I can testify to,” I said, “for my own ship was what we sailors call chummy ship not only with the _Alabama_, but with the _Georgia_ and _Florida_; and once I and another officer had the pleasure of sending the big _Vanderbilt_, a Yankee who was looking for the daring cruiser, on a wild-goose chase of over a thousand miles.”

“Bravo! Well, what can I do for you?”

“We are what they call scientists, or _savants_, on the other side of the ocean,” replied Reeves. “They say the best study of mankind is man. Perhaps; but at present we prefer them dead, and nothing except bones.”

“I begin to see,” said our host.

“On this beautiful island of yours,” Reeves continued, “many hundreds of years ago, a strange tribe of Indians lived. They were probably different from any now in existence. So, too, were their arms and implements different. Well, we have it on pretty correct information that hundreds of these were buried in certain mounds which we possess the means of locating, and that with them rest their arms and implements. We wish, if permitted, to do a little in the way of excavation. Can you assist us?”

“I do not _think_,” returned Mr. H., “that there can be any mounds of interest on the patch I own; but farther back is the property of my neighbours, and I am sure they will only be too pleased to permit you to excavate as much as you please.

“Now listen, gentlemen,” he added. “To-day you must take luncheon with me all alone, and not trouble your heads about excavations or exhumations either. After luncheon, if you will allow me, I will drive you over the island.”

“We will be delighted,” said Reeves.

“Then you shall dine with myself and daughter to-morrow evening, and I will take care you meet just the landed proprietors that can assist you. The mounds you say are around here?”

“Within a radius of about three miles.”

“Capital!”

The luncheon passed off most pleasantly. Then our parson--that is, Miguel--and Miss H. found themselves by the piano.

Strange that under circumstances such as these two young folks always find out that the one knows precisely the same songs as the other. Well, most sweetly did they sing them too.

But yonder were the horses pawing the gravel, and very soon we were all off on one of the most pleasant drives ever I have had in my life.

The country seemed to me more pleasant now than it would have been in summer, for the air was cooler far, and there was no want of either trees, flowers, or foliage to gaze upon and admire. The farm blocks and the cottages, too, were all thoroughly American, and all the greater treat to behold on that account. It was indeed a lovely island!

The drive was a long one, and when we reached our little vessel that night, we were all just pleasantly tired.

But we were right well pleased with the progress things had made.

The dinner next day was a great success; the men we met professed themselves honoured at meeting _savants_ from the dear old mother country, gladly gave us permission to excavate wherever and whenever we pleased; and not only that, but they made us promise to dine with them as often as we could spare the time.

“We want,” one of them said, “to make it just all one pleasant kind of a picnic for you, so that you may have reason to remember the cosy little island of Amelia.”

We were profuse in our thanks, and on the very next day we set to work in earnest.

It must be understood that not one of the three of us went by his real name. We were very cautious indeed. Even those I had hired the little yacht from knew us not, nor did any man on board know where we came from when we sailed from Glasgow. We were going on a pleasure cruise, that was all, and it was connected with the study of science. But we paid our few men well: they had plenty of tobacco, good food, and a fair allowance of grog. What cares Jack for anything else? As far, therefore, as our sailors went, we were safe. But we had to have labourers as well to assist in digging. Herein lay our chief danger.

As for the removal of the gold, although Reeves was as honest a man as ever I met, no thought that he was doing any harm in removing the doubloons, if we had the good fortune to find them, ever crossed his mind. The island had been British. It was taken from the British. The gold belonged by right to the Spaniards, moreover, and more particularly to that branch or family of them from which he was directly descended.

No; he should be but repossessing himself of what belonged to him.

Now, in order to make everything seem straight and real, after having engaged two sturdy labourers, we did commence excavating burial-mounds, and every evening we appeared on the beach, our labourers, two sturdy men and true, carrying boxes of Indian bones, implements of warfare and domesticity; so that it was soon bruited abroad that we were just a band of British scientists, which meant, to most, British madmen, making a collection of old bones that no wise man would pick up at his feet.

So things went on for over a week. And frequently, almost every night indeed, we dined at one or other of the charming houses or villas in the neighbourhood.

Very delightful evenings these were, and never shall I forget them. The deceit we were practising, however, rankled in my mind very much indeed, and often kept me awake at night till far into the short hours, as Burns would call them, beyond midnight,--

“The wee short hoor ayont the twal’.”

I never saw a happier young fellow than Miguel was at this time, however.

Nor did he hesitate a moment to tell me the cause of his happiness.

He was very much in love with his sweet little cousin Mina; and she, he said, with him. He had the half of a sixpenny piece, which he had broken with her before leaving, sewn up into a blue ribbon she had given him, and which he wore next his heart.

One of his favourite songs was that sweetest of lilts (which even Jenny Lind loved so), “Logie o’ Buchan.” And perhaps the dearest lines to him in all the song were these:--

“He had but ae saxpence, he broke it in twa, And gave me the half o’t ere he gaed awa’, Sayin’, ‘Think na lang, lassie, tho’ I gang awa’-- think na lang, lassie, tho’ I gang awa’; For summer is comin’, cauld winter’s awa’, And I’ll come and see you in spite o’ them a’.’”

Ah! youth’s dreams of love and of the future are delightful beyond compare, and dazzlingly beautiful as the summer’s sunrise. Pity that the orange and crimson clouds do not last all day long; then indeed would life be worth living.

But poor Miguel looked forward to a handsome country church and a handsome manse in some romantic part of the country, where quiet and joy should ever dwell, and the presiding geniuses of which should be his dear old mother and Mina herself. No wonder he was so inexpressibly happy; that like birds in spring-time he was singing all day long, even while wielding pick and spade.

Poor Miguel! would his dreams or ours turn out to be true?

Our two excavators were strong young fellows, only one of whom, however, possessed much sense. This was George Winkey (this is not his real name). I somehow think that from the very first George smelt a rat.

But to hurry on. All the time we were filling up the hold of our little vessel with old bones, etc., we knew perfectly well where the pirate’s gold lay, and at last, choosing a time when the moon was at its full, we commenced this last excavation. We discharged one man now, saying our labours were nearly over. Pity we hadn’t discharged Winkey, as the sequel will show.

I must confess that I had grave doubts concerning the finding of that gold. Nay, more, I felt almost positive that the whole thing was a myth; or that if any gold had ever been buried at the foot of this old, old tree, it must have been found long, long ago.

But I would not say so to Miguel; I would not shatter his splendid hopes and his happiness. Nevertheless to Captain Reeves I did say one morning,--

“It will be very pitiful, my friend, but at the same time somewhat laughable, if, after all our trouble and outlay, we have to leave the coast with only a cargo of defunct Indians’ decayed skeletons!”

Reeves laughed, but at the same time he looked somewhat serious.

Both he and Miguel seemed extra hopeful, however, on the morning when Winkey turned the first sod. We allowed him to do the heaviest of the work, and get well down, severing the hard, entangled branches of the trees with the axe. When these were all out, and a very large hole made, we found the ground softer.

It was eventide now.

“We shan’t do more to-night, Winkey,” Reeves said; “but meet us on the beach to-morrow at eight, and we shall commence filling up this most unpromising hole again. Good-night.”

Away went Winkey, but I think he gave Captain Reeves a strange sort of look before he started, and that he smiled satirically, if I may so word it.

Miguel himself went with him fully a mile, quite into Ocean City in fact, where the young man dwelt. It was his pay-night, and he went under pretence of getting change. Miguel paid him in an inn, and made him drink several glasses of old rye whisky, leaving him apparently very happy and careless while discussing a fourth tumbler.

Meanwhile, to my astonishment, Captain Reeves, who was digging, had exposed no less than five iron boxes. I and he attempted to lift one; it was all we could do.

But it was getting rapidly dark now, for the full moon would not rise over the island until eight o’clock.

Then Miguel himself returned.

“O thank God!” he cried, rapturously, and verily the tears of joy were choking him.

“And you think,” said Reeves, “that Winkey, who I am certain is suspicious, is safe for the night.”

“I feel sure of it, uncle, for he could hardly stand when I left. The only fear I have is that he may let out our secret to-night.”

“Well, Miguel, now comes the tug of war. All that gold must be got off to-night, and we must weigh anchor before morning. I did think of waiting till moonrise; but after what you have told us, we had better begin at once.”

“I’m ready and glad,” I said.

“Here are a couple of revolvers, Miguel. Defend the gold against all comers until we return. Your duty is the most dangerous and difficult, but I feel certain you are not afraid.”

“I am not afraid, uncle,” was the calm reply.

The tree where the gold-hole was stood not over one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, and we were in our boat and speeding off to the yacht in five minutes’ time.

Our crew all told was but seven. Of these we took five, promising all that they should be well rewarded for their night’s work.

Biscuit-bags were brought on shore, and a rudely-fitted litter, on which two boxes could be conveyed at once, one man bending on to each of the four handles, and being relieved occasionally by myself, Reeves, and the spare hand. The bags were meant to cover the boxes.

I think the men suspected that they were carrying gold, and that they would have a share of it, for they worked like slaves.

The work was hard and tedious, however, but all the boxes save one were safely taken off before the moon had been well up above the waves and shining over the sea.

We were just getting this last box on board the boat, when to our great alarm we heard a confused hum of voices in the distance, and presently recognized that of Winkey.

“Hurry, men, hurry!” cried Reeves; “there is not a moment to lose!”

The box was hoisted in, and the boat, which had been drawn up to receive it, was quickly launched.

We were all in save Miguel, the young minister; when, headed by Winkey, who was in a state of great excitement, down rushed ten hulking roughs.

“Hold!” cried Winkey; “I command you to hold in the name of the State of Florida!”

As he spoke he seized young Miguel by the breast. But he had not reckoned on that young minister’s mettle, nor on the hardness of that good Scottish fist of his. It fell like a hammer, straight from the shoulder, and took effect between Winkey’s eyes. The fellow went down like a shot, and lay there stunned and insensible.

Then Miguel sprang into the boat, and away she dashed.

There was no wind, but steam was already up, and soon the yacht was moving fast away in a south-westerly direction from the shores of the beautiful island.

This was not our course, but from the gradually-increasing mob on the beach, we knew we should be chased.

Nor were we mistaken.