“I must come, too, then,� she urged.
“I will see what is there first, and if it is safe you shall come with me immediately,� I answered, giving her no time for further objection.
As I spoke, I crawled through and found myself in another smaller chamber. There being no visible danger, I stretched out my hand to her and brought her through after me. From some distant crevice the air came to us, we could feel it blow upon us, and it was sweet. Also I could hear water bubbling over rocks in the distance. It was a little damp in the cave, perhaps because of that. There was little light, however, save that cast by the lantern. I could not see the further wall.
We did not need to go further into the cave, for there before us, clearly enough revealed by the dim radiance of the lamp, lay a number of large wooden boxes or chests, moldy and ancient. The boxes had once been iron strapped, but we found the iron had rusted and the wood had rotted. I stepped over to one of them, lifted the lid which crumbled at my touch, and there was the treasure—ingots of gold and silver! Thousands of pounds lay to our hands! The old buccaneer had told the truth. The story of the parchment was not a romance, the plunder of the ancient galleon was there.
I have read, as you all have, the great romance of Daniel DeFoe, and the uselessness of this mass of gold and silver of which the Spaniards had robbed the natives, making them toil to death in the mines, for which Sir Philip Wilberforce’s men had fought and died, for which the men on The Rose of Devon had committed murder, and which, had we been able to dispose of it, would have bought anything the world had to offer, came home to me, as in similar circumstances Robinson Crusoe had the same thought. For my part I would gladly have exchanged it all for a stout boat and a clear passage through the reef with a chance for freedom.
“Well, your great-great-great-grandfather, for how many generations back I know not, was right,� I said at last. “The treasure is here and we have found it. It is yours.�
“Yes,� she said, to whom the same thought had come, “but now that we have found it of what value or use is it?�
“None,� I admitted, “that I can see that is, but there is a certain satisfaction in having found it, and in knowing that you can own it even if you cannot take it away. I am glad that events have proved that we came on no fool’s errand.�
“And what may be its value, think you?�
“It would make good ballast for a ship,� I answered lightly.