Chapter Thirty Six.
“Sail Ho!”
“Gold!” exclaimed Fritz in astonishment.
“Yes, gold,” repeated the other, excitedly. “There are a lot of coins here each bigger than an eight-gulden piece.”
“Nonsense?”
“Yes, there is, really. Come down here and see for yourself. There’s plenty of room for both you and me.”
Trembling with excitement, Fritz jumped down beside his brother, who, stooping down in the crevice of the gully, had discovered a cavity in the rock further in the face of the cliff. This the fringe of the now destroyed tussock-grass had previously hidden from view as they ascended and descended the ladder-way; else they must have noticed the place the very first time they came up to the tableland from the valley below. It was exactly facing the ledge from whence they climbed on to the plateau; so, had it not been then covered over, they could not have failed to see it.
The cavity, which had been probably worn away by the water trickling down, was like a little grotto; and there, piled on the bare rock, were hundreds of coins!
These were quite bright, strange to say, although this circumstance was most likely owing to the action of the fire that had burnt the tussock-grass; for, some heavy iron clamps and hinges, that had evidently belonged to the box which contained the coins originally and had been consumed at the same time, lay on either side of the golden treasure. A number of the coins, too, if any further proof was needed, were fused together in a solid lump.
With eyes dilated with joy, the brothers gazed at the mine of wealth, hardly daring to believe that what they saw was real.
Then, Fritz put out his hands and touched the heap.
“It is there—I feel it!” he exclaimed. “We are not dreaming?”
“I’m sure I’m not,” said Eric, laughing with delight. “Why, it is a regular fortune—it will beat all that we have earned by our sealing!”
Fritz took up one of the coins and examined it carefully. He had some knowledge of numismatics from his mercantile education in Herr Grosschnapper’s office, that worthy merchant trading to all parts of the globe and having considerable dealings with foreign monies.
“It is a doubloon,” he explained to his brother after studying it a bit. “The treasure consists of old Spanish coins that must have lain here for years.”
“I wonder who put them in this little hole?” said Eric.
Fritz did not answer this query for the moment; but, almost at the same instant, there flashed across his recollection a curious story which an old man at Tristan d’Acunha had told him—at the time when he and Eric were inspecting the settlement on that island, before coming over to their own little colony—concerning an old pirate who had buried a lot of treasure either there or on Inaccessible Island.
After the brothers had gazed to their hearts’ fill at the precious hoard which had so suddenly been, revealed to them, the next thought was how to remove it to their hut below.
“We’ll roll up the lot in a blanket,” said Eric, who as usual was always to the fore when anything had to be planned out. “Tie up the gold securely; and then chuck the bundle containing it down below, along with the poor pigs we have slaughtered! There’s no fear of anybody making off with our doubloons before we accomplish the swim round the headland back home.”
“Yes, that will be the wisest course,” acquiesced Fritz; “but, talking of swimming round the headland, the sooner we’re off the better. Those clouds look very threatening.”
“Only rain, I think,” replied Eric, looking up at the sky.
“Good, that will not make us very wet when we are in the water, with our bare skins,” said Fritz quizzingly.
“No,” replied Eric, laughing. “But, the sooner we are now off the better, as you say; for, even if the weather holds up, there are a lot of things for us to do when we get home. We have the pigs to skin, as well as cut up and salt; and, besides, there’s all our money to count over.”
“We can do that now, as we roll it up in the blanket,” replied Fritz, proceeding to suit the action to the word.
To their high delight, they found that there were nearly two thousand separate gold coins, apart from the solid lump fused together, the whole being probably worth some three thousand pounds, or thereabouts.
“Why, it’s a perfect fortune!” exclaimed Eric. “You and Madaleine will now be able to marry and settle down, and mother be comfortably provided for, and everything!”
“But, how about your share?” said Fritz, looking at the unselfish lad with glistening eyes. “Your share, indeed, why it’s all yours!”
“Nonsense,” replied Eric; “we are partners, are we not? Besides, I don’t want any money. When we leave here, you know, I’m going to sea again with Captain Brown, in the Pilot’s Bride; and a sailor, unlike you poor land folk, carries his home with him. He does not continually want cash for housekeeping expanses!”
“Very well, we’ll see about that bye-and-bye,” said Fritz, putting all the coins into the blanket, which Eric then tied up securely, lashing it round with a cord in seaman fashion. After that, they pitched the bundle down below, when the chink of the coins at the bottom of the gully sounded like pleasant music in their ears!
The barrel of the needle-gun was then unscrewed from the stock, Fritz having kept the weapon ready for use as long as they remained on the plateau, thinking that as Fortune had so strangely endowed them with the pirate’s treasure, perhaps some outlandish bird might equally suddenly make its appearance for him to add to their spoil. However, as nothing new in the feathered line came in sight, the albatross having taken their departure with the penguins, and not even an “island hen” being to be seen, the two now clambered down to the west beach once more.
Here, packing up their cask again with the various impedimenta they still had, they proceeded also to put in their clothing.
Then, fastening up the cask and lashing the tarpaulin round it again with the fastenings and beckets, which had been taken off in order the easier to unpack it, they entered the sea for their return swim round the headland—starting off in the best of spirits on their way back home once more.
This time, the swim back was far more fatiguing, the wind and a slight swell being against them; but, the good living they enjoyed while on the plateau had nerved them up to any amount of exertion, so the journey, if more wearying, was performed in almost the same time they had taken to go to the western coast.
Besides, as soon as they neared the headland, the currents there, which had been against them, were now all in their favour, the waves bearing them and their oil cask, once they had turned the point, buoyantly up to their own beach in the little bay, without the trouble almost of swimming a stroke!
It was now well on towards the latter end of July, in the second year of the island life; and, the next week or two, they were busy enough salting down their pigs and attending to their garden, some cabbages from which with their newly acquired pork making them many a good meal.
Then, came the return of the penguins to their breeding-place in August; so, there was now no further fear of their suffering from a scarcity of food, for, in case they tired of pork, they had plenty of fresh eggs for a change, as well as an occasional roast of one of the inhabitants of the rookery, whose fleshy breasts tasted somewhat, Eric said, like goose—albeit Fritz called him a goose for saying so!
September was ushered in by a strong north-easterly gale, similar to that in which the brig had been wrecked.
This alarmed the brothers, who began to fear, when the gale had lasted over the middle of the month, that the stormy weather might possibly prevent the Pilot’s Bride from venturing near the island, Captain Brown having said that it would have been more than madness while the wind prevailed from that quarter for any vessel to approach the coast.
However, towards the third week in the month, the north-east wind shifting round, a gentle breeze sprang up from the south-west. A like change had very similarly occurred at the time of their own landing on the island; so, the brothers’ hearts beat high with hope.
Everything was got ready for their instant departure; the consequence of which was that all their own personal little goods and chattels were packed up so soon that they had frequently to open the bundles again to take out some article they required for use!
The golden treasure was not forgotten either—that may be taken for granted.
The result of their sealing for the past year was also put up for shipment. This consisted of eighty-five sealskins and fifty barrels of oil—a result that said much for their industry during the period.
And so, the brother crusoes waited and looked out, day after day, with longing eyes for the anxiously expected vessel that was to terminate their exile on Inaccessible Island and bear them back to the loved ones at home!
Fritz of late had somewhat reformed his lazy habits, rising much earlier than he used to do, this reformation being caused by a natural desire to be up and stirring when the Pilot’s Bride should arrive; but, still, Eric invariably forestalled him. The sailor lad was always down on the beach on the look-out, in default of being able to climb up to his former signalling station on the cliff, at the first break of day!
Morning after morning, he went down to the shore; morning after morning, he returned with a disconsolate face and the same sad report—
“Nothing in sight!”
This was the case every day.
There was never the vestige of a vessel on the horizon.
At last, one morning became a gladdened one in their calendar!
Eric had proceeded to the beach as usual; but, not returning so soon as was his general habit, Fritz had time to awaken and rouse up from bed.
Anxious at the lad’s delay, he went to the door of the hut, peering out to seaward as the sun rose in the east, flooding the ocean with a radiance of light.
At the same instant, Fritz heard Eric hailing him in the distance.
It was the cheeriest shout, he thought, he had ever heard!
Only two words the lad called out.
“Sail ho!”