It was time to load the raft. Taking some small bags, of which they found a number, they filled them with sugar, coffee, rice, and flour; they brought out six hams, and, by opening a barrel, six pieces of mess-beef. In searching still further, they lit upon a barrel of mackerel, a firkin of good butter, and a case of English cheese; of each of which they took a portion, and laid all upon the most level part of the vessel's bottom, ready for lowering into the raft. The kegs of biscuit they found on trial to be too large to pass through their scuttle; they emptied them by parcels into a large bag outside.
Hitherto they had said nothing and thought little about money; for their minds had been fixed on supplying themselves with necessaries and comforts, together with the means of returning home. Indeed, the idea of enriching themselves at the expense of the dead, even if they were pirates, savoured rather of robbery, and the delicate sense of the young explorers was offended by the thought.
"But let us at least gather whatever of this sort we may find," said Harold, after exchanging thoughts with his cousin. "We can afterwards ask your father to decide what use shall be made of it."
Neither their consciences nor their pockets, however, were very heavily burdened with this new charge; for they found only a few hundred dollars' worth of money, chiefly in foreign gold, together with several rich jewels, the greater part of which was discovered in consequence of an act of kindness to Mary and Frank.
Resolving to return the next day, accompanied by the whole party, and unwilling to have Mary's nerves shocked as theirs had been, they determined to remove all unsightly objects from the cabin, and to close them up in the forecastle. A box of sperm candles enabled them to set a light along the dark passages, and in each room; and taking a small sail, upon which they carefully drew the skeletons, they carried them to the forecastle, and laid them decently in one corner. From the person of the man they took a gold watch and chain, a handsome pencil case, and pocket-knife, a purse containing several pieces of gold, and a pocket-book, containing papers, written apparently in Spanish, but almost perfectly illegible. The name of this man, marked upon the clothing, and occasionally appearing in the papers, was Manuel De Rosa. Upon the person of the lady were found a diamond ring, hanging loosely upon the slender bone of one finger, and on the lace cape over her bosom a sprig breast-pin, whose leaves were emerald, and its flower of opal. Her name, and that of the children also, was De Rosa. These valuables were collected into a parcel, together with a lock of hair from each, as the means of identifying them, should any clue be obtained to their history and their home.
While removing a coarsely clothed skeleton from that corner of the forecastle in which they wished to deposit the bones of the perished family, they found it so much heavier than the others, as to induce a closer examination. They found hid beneath the clothing, and belted to the bones, a large girdle, containing fifty-four Mexican dollars, a variety of gold pieces from different nations, and a lump of what appeared to be gold and silver fused into one mass. The name of this man could not be ascertained.
Their next work was to fumigate the cabin. They wrapped a little sugar in a piece of brown paper, and setting it on fire, walked around the room, waving it in every direction. The aromatic odour of the burnt sugar pervaded every crack and cranny, and overwhelmed so entirely the disgusting effluvium, that Robert snuffed at the pleasant fragrance, and remarked, "There, now! the cabin is fit for the nose of a king. Let us close up the forecastle, and return home."
Beside the provisions, which have been already mentioned as constituting a part of the intended load for the raft, the boys carried out such tools as they conceived needful for their work, consisting of adzes, drawing-knives, augers, gimlets, chisels, planes, saws, square and compass, and an oil-stone. They also took the box of sperm candles and a box of soap; three cutlasses and a rapier, four pikes, four pair of pistols, three rifles, two muskets, and flasks and pouches to suit. Gunpowder they did not see, except what was in the flasks; they knew there must be plenty in the magazine, which they supposed to be near the officers' rooms, but which they did not care then to visit.
A short but laborious tug against the tide, that set strongly up the creek, brought them to the river, on which they floated gently home. When within half a mile of the landing, they fired a gun, as a signal of their approach; and long before they reached the shore, Mary and Frank were seen running to meet them, with Mum and Fidelle scampering before, and Sam hobbling far in the rear.
"Here, Frank, is your Christmas present," said Robert, when the raft touched land; "and here, Sam, is yours, at least so long as we stay upon the island."