He found Roger where he first looked for him,—near the mummy. The poor lad was too ill to stand; but he lay on the slimy bank, poking and grubbing, with a stick and with his fingers, as deep in the soft soil as he could penetrate. Oliver saw that he had found some more curiosities;—bunches of nuts,—nuts which were ripening on the tree many hundreds of seasons ago; but which no hand had plucked till now. Oliver could neither wonder nor admire, at this moment: nor was he vexed (as he might have been at another time) at Roger’s crawling hither, in pursuit of gain, to be made more ill by every breath he drew while stooping over the rank mud.
“Don’t be afraid, Roger,” said Oliver. “I am not going to touch your findings, or meddle with you. I want you to change your clothes,—to put off that finery,—and to let me know where the bag of money is that you took out of the chest.”
Roger stared.
“I am going to pack that chest again; and I want to see everything in it, that it may be ready if any boat should come.”
“Boat!” exclaimed Roger.
“Yes: a boat may come, you know; and we must not detain it, if such a thing should happen. If you die without restoring that money, Roger, it will be a sin upon your soul: so tell me where it is, and have an easy mind, I advise you. That will be a good thing, if you live an hundred years.”
“There is a boat here now! You are going to leave me behind!” cried Roger, scrambling up on his feet, and falling again from weakness, two or three times. “I knew it,” he continued; “I dreamt it all last night; and it is going to come true to-day.”
“Mildred dreamed the same thing; and it is because you are both ill,” said Oliver. “Lean upon me—as heavily as you like—and I will go home with you, as slowly as you will, if you will tell me where the money-bag is. You will find no boat there now, whatever there may be by-and-by: but if you will not tell me where the money-bag is, I will shake you off now, and leave you here. It is another person’s money: and I must have it.”
Roger said he would tell, if Oliver would promise him not to leave him alone on the island. Oliver assured him that there was no danger whatever of the deliverers of some of the party leaving others to perish. He owned that he was bound to make his sister his first care, and Ailwin his next. As boys, Roger and himself must be satisfied to be thought of last; but he hoped they should neither of them do an ill turn by the other. He asked if Roger had ever received an ill turn from him.
“That is the thing,” said Roger, sorrowfully: “and you have had so many from me and mine!”