As he began to climb, the bracing night air, acting as a stimulant, drove him up and up until at last he stood at the very top of the Citadel, one hundred and thirty feet above the ground.
“Here,” he told himself with a quick intake of breath, “Christophe the Emperor stood on that memorable night spreading mortar and laying bricks. And it may be,” he caught his breath, “that I am standing at this very moment above the treasure he buried so long ago.
“Oh, Christophe!” he exclaimed. “In your younger days, before the love of gold and power drove you mad, you dreamed great dreams for the good of your people. Now, as never before, they need the wealth you hid away in your time of great might.”
He would have added, “If it be within your power reveal the hiding place to me now,” but somehow a feeling came over him that this would be akin to the wild superstitions that pervaded the land, so he fell into silence.
The top of the Citadel is broad and very long; a perfect promenade for a moonlight night.
Now fancying himself a guard pacing his beat in the silent night, and now endeavoring to live again the days of long ago, Johnny paced the ramparts in silence.
Never had there been such a night, and never a lovelier sight in all the world. At the back of the Citadel distant mountains loomed, blue, indistinct, mysterious.
Before him he caught the glint of the far away sea. At its shore, he knew, palms grew rank and tall, shading beautiful white stucco homes. The water of the sea was blue and clear as the most transparent glass. Green parrots flitted from tree to tree. And in the evening the mocking birds sing.
“It’s the most beautiful island in all the world,” he told himself, as he walked slowly along with bowed head, “and yet its history is the saddest of all.
“Columbus found it. He made an earnest attempt to colonize it. Yet it brought him only sorrow, a dungeon and chains. The French conquered it. It brought them only death. Christophe dreamed dreams. He, too, ended in defeat. And why? Gold! Columbus might have succeeded but the greedy Spaniards demanded gold and more gold. He was obliged to enslave the natives to obtain gold. The French were no better. Slavery has always brought tragedy.