By the time the grappling-hooks returned empty upon him he had found another of the treasure-cases, which he at once sent aloft. He secured four cases in this way, and sent them up in about twenty minutes; and then, beginning to feel a slight nausea from the hot, rubber-flavoured air, he climbed out and made his way aboard the dhow.
Henninger took his place, and sent up two more cases, making seven that were stored in the dhow’s cabin. The first one had already been repacked, and Hawke and Bennett were busy stacking the chests in the strong-room, lashing each one strongly to ring-bolts to prevent shifting when the dhow rolled. They opened two more just enough to see that there was certainly gold in each, and closed them again. The heavy weight of the cases was evidence of the amount.
All day long the work went on, under the full blaze of an equatorial sun. The dhow’s decks ran with water from the dripping chests, and down below the cabin was flooded, for the boxes were like sponges. With the exception of Margaret, the adventurers were drenched to the skin, and the work grew increasingly difficult when it became necessary to shift the cargo about in the steamer to find the gold cases. When at last it seemed that all had been taken out, the tally showed only fifteen in the strong-room, while Bennett had counted twenty-three in the hold. The missing ones would have to be discovered, and Henninger went down again to search for them.
“I wonder what the crew are thinking of all this,” Margaret remarked to Elliott. He had paused at the entrance to the strong-room where she was keeping tally in a note-book as the precious cases came aboard.
“I don’t know what they think. I know what the reis told them,” returned Elliott. “He told them that we’re wrecking the steamer and taking out a lot of cases of cartridges for the sake of the brass and lead. He knows all about it, of course, but the crew would never dream of so much gold being in her.”
Margaret shivered a little. “Things have gone almost too smoothly since we sailed. I felt certain that we would get here in time, and I was right. But now I feel, I hardly know how, as if something was going wrong. I wish we could leave the rest of the gold and go away. We have more than we need now.”
“Oh, no,” Elliott expostulated. “And there are two more cases in the after-hold, which won’t be easy to get out.”
“I have been nearly happy,” she broke out, after a silence, “happier than I ever expected to be again in my life. I feel almost ashamed of it, after all that I suffered such a little while ago. I see now that it was a dreadful thing for me to come on this expedition; I am surprised that you let me do it. But everybody has been so nice to me. If I had been the sister of all these men they couldn’t have treated me with more respect and real kindness. Aren’t you almost glad I came, after all?”
“Yes,” said Elliott. He hesitated. “Do you know why I wanted all this money?” he went on, bending toward her. “It wasn’t for myself.”
“What, then?” said Margaret, faintly. “No, don’t tell me,” she exclaimed, “not yet. Let’s be comrades the same as ever, and we haven’t got the gold yet, anyway.”