At the same instant, the man who had the lookout, and who had stationed himself on the topgallant forecastle, right in the eyes of the ship, turned sharply round, facing the poop, and reported—
“Land ho! right ahead.”
I had been so completely absorbed in contemplation of the magnificent spectacle of the sunrise that, for the moment, I had entirely forgotten the island, and everything connected with it; but the cry of the lookout brought it back to my mind with a flash, and, moving to the mizzen-rigging, and springing upon a hen-coop, I directed my gaze straight ahead, with my hand over my eyes to shield them from the dazzle of the sun.
Yes, there it was, undoubtedly; a faint, pinkish-grey shape, right over the starboard cat-head, as I then stood; a low hummock on the left, with a hill next it, the outline of which, even at that distance, bore a striking resemblance to a man’s nose, the upper lip on the right of it showing just clear of the horizon. Yes; there was the treasure island, beyond all question! The next point to be determined was, whether the treasure still lay buried there; and if so, how was I to obtain and retain possession of it?
Of one thing I felt morally certain, which was that, as soon as the men felt assured that the whole of the treasure was on board, they would take the ship from me, either by force or guile, if they could. It was of course open to me to make a fight for it, if I chose; but, even assuming that I could reckon upon Sir Edgar’s assistance—as I felt sure I could—that would make only four of us to oppose eleven men, who, I had no manner of doubt, would prove as resolute and determined in a stand-up fight as they had already shown themselves to be in the pursuit of their organised plans. The odds were nearly three to one against us. Opposed to these, with, for our antagonists, resolute men, whose knowledge of the consequences that must inevitably follow upon an unsuccessful attempt at piracy would nerve them to desperation—men who were unquestionably full of brute courage, and who, moreover, were doubtless as well armed as ourselves—was I justified in entertaining the slightest hope of success in the event of my submitting the matter to the arbitrament of battle? The answer to this question was an unqualified “No!”
If, then, it was hopeless to expect that a resort to force would enable me to retain my property, my freedom, and the freedom and property, ay, perhaps even the lives of those who, in such a crisis as this, would naturally look to me for the preservation of both, I must resort to guile. I mortally hate anything that in the slightest degree savours of deception, either in words or conduct, and have made it an invariable rule never to engage in any transaction needing the one or the other for its successful accomplishment; but here was a case in which I had no choice but to meet guile with guile. How was it to be done? Possibly, if the treasure happened to be in a compact form, and easily accessible, Forbes, Joe, and myself might be able to secure it and convey it on board the ship, unknown to the men, while they were busily engaged in digging for it elsewhere—for, now that they were aware of its existence, it seemed to me that my best chance of success lay in employing them in the search, while taking care that none of them should find it. This would naturally lead them to the conclusion that, if my document were not an ingenious hoax, the treasure had already been discovered and secured by somebody else.
This plan rather took my fancy. It was simple, feasible, and demanded no elaborate system of deception; the men would simply be set to dig upon a certain spot, and, failing, after a sufficiently exhaustive search, to find anything, the digging would be abandoned, and they would be sent to various more or less distant parts of the island to cut sandal-wood. The more I thought of it, the better I liked it; and when, later on, during the forenoon, I found an opportunity to talk it over with Sir Edgar and Forbes—having previously related to them the substance of Joe’s communication made to me during the middle watch—they agreed with me that, failing a better scheme, they saw no reason why it should not be successful. Sir Edgar, as I had anticipated, declared himself ready to act in any way that I might suggest, at a moment’s notice; and, now that he had had time to think over my former communication to him, and to grow accustomed to the idea of a coming contest, either of strength or wits, with the men, was as eager for the fray as a schoolboy is for the great cricket-match of the year.
Meanwhile, the wind had slightly freshened with the rising of the sun, and the ship was gliding along upon a taut bowline, under all plain sail, at a speed of about six knots, heading up about a point and a half to windward of the northern extremity of the island. We were approaching it from the south-west—the direction mentioned in my ancestor’s cryptogram—and as we gradually rose it above the horizon it was curious to note how exact a resemblance its outline bore to the profile of an upturned human face lying prone along the water. It was so striking that even the children remarked upon it; while, as for the men, they could scarcely remove their eyes from it, though their interest in the place was doubtless founded more upon the wealth they hoped to find upon it than upon its very singular appearance. I noted this morning, without appearing to do so, that there was a great deal of animated conversation going on upon the forecastle, accompanied by many stealthy glances toward the poop; while the late steward—now sweltering in the heat of the galley, and of his hirsute disguise—was being continually appealed to. Now that I knew this man’s secret I was filled with astonishment that I had not immediately penetrated it; for, disguise his features as he might, he could not divest himself of the sly, stealthy way in which he used his eyes, nor of the noiseless, treacherous way in which he moved. I had noted these characteristics in him as far back as the day on which he had signed articles at Sydney; yet, strange to say, familiar as they were to me, I had never for a moment suspected his identity, probably because, when I happened to think of him at all, I assumed as a matter of course that he would naturally make the best of his way to the gold-fields. Of course, since we had been at sea, his avocation as cook had confined him so closely to the galley that I had rarely seen him; and upon the rare occasions when he had been obliged to present himself in full view my thoughts had usually been so busy upon other matters that I had taken little or no notice of him. Indeed, I shrewdly suspected that it was the comparative privacy of the galley that had led him to choose the disagreeable functions of ship’s cook.
All that day, until three o’clock in the afternoon, we glided gently along over a smooth, sparkling sea, toward the island, noting with keen interest its various features as they imperceptibly resolved themselves out of the hazy blue tint that it had worn in the distance. The first marked change that occurred in its appearance was the breaking-up of the flat silhouette into a series of softly shadowed markings which indicated the shapes of the hills and valleys, the slopes and ravines into which its surface was broken. Then, as the sun swept over it and round toward its western side, the light fell more strongly upon its hillsides; its shadows grew deeper, and an all-pervading tone of green gave evidence of its exceeding fertility. Later still, the green became broken up into an infinite variety of shades; while the swelling rounded outlines that stood out from and yet indicated these multitudinous tints, revealed the fact that the island was densely wooded to its very summit. By six bells in the afternoon we had neared it to within three miles, and were enabled to see that its northern extremity was bold and precipitous, with naked, rocky cliffs, against the base of which the white surf chafed and roared with a ceaseless thunder that reached our ears even at that distance. The south-western extremity, while as bold as the northern, and almost as precipitous, was wooded right down to the water’s edge; while from the lofty hill, that in the distance had borne the appearance of a gigantic human nose, there was an irregular but general slope toward the south-western shore; the entrance to the river mentioned in the cryptogram being clearly indicated by a low projecting point stretching southward from the bold cliffs marking the northern boundary of the island.
Having satisfactorily made out the mouth of the river, I caused the helm to be shifted, and we bore away for our anchorage, which was reached about an hour later, in a small estuary situate at the southern extremity of the island, affording perfect shelter from all winds from south-west round by north and east to south-east.