“It wasn’t all their fault,” put in La Touche. “If those chaps on the bridge hadn’t put the engines on we wouldn’t have rammed her as we did.”
“Well,” said Cléo, “there is no use in going back over things. We have to get breakfast and then go and open the cache.”
She had told them of the cache overnight and, to her wonder, the thing had interested them, so this morning when they had finished their biscuits and beef she found not the slightest difficulty in making them start.
She put on her boots for the journey and then they reeled along the beach in the usual order, Cléo first, the two others following; the great skull made them halt and discuss it for a moment but the figure-head when they reached it held them entirely in its spell.
She could scarcely tear them away, they discussed it from every point of view, argued over it, pondered over it and were only brought to their senses by a hint that it would have to be chopped up for firewood.
Then, when they reached the cache, there was another long pause for discussion, the two sitting down to smoke whilst they talked it over.
It was not till she set to work pulling more stones away that they began to get busy; then when once started they laboured like negroes. The glimpse of the barrel end seemed to inflame them, but indeed they did not want even that, for the business they had set their hands to had all the fascination of treasure hunting mixed with the thrills of house-breaking. Here was “stuff,” plunder of some sort, who could tell what?
An hour and a half of labour brought them sweating to the end of the business and the presiding gulls saw exposed to the light of day two big barrels, two long cases and an amount of canned meat and vegetables enough to stock a small shop, also a harpoon of the old type and two shovels placed by the long cases. Then after a rest of half an hour the barrels were sampled. One contained flour, the other blankets and mens’ clothes, sweaters and coats and trousers. One of the long cases contained kitchen utensils and tin cups and plates, also knives and forks and spoons.
The other contained “comforts,” tea and coffee and sugar in sealed tins, some rolls of tobacco, drugs and a few surgical instruments. All the equipment, in fact, necessary for an expedition of a dozen men for six months. Not a drop of liquor.
Perhaps that was why the girl was more overjoyed by the details of the find than the mariners.