The men gave out another loud hooray at this stump speech, which the skipper, quite relieved of his fears anent any allusion to Sam Jedfoot, delivered with much unction, as if he were holding forth from a platform at election time, his billy-goat beard wagging while he threw his arms about in the excitement of his oratory.
Jan Steenbock, for the moment, seemed puzzled how to reply; for, he stood silently facing the other in the pause that ensued after he had finished his harangue.
At length, however, he spoke, the wild cheer of the hands spurring him up and giving an impulse to the slow current of his thoughts and words-- the Dane not being p.r.o.ne, like Captain Snaggs, to talking for the mere pleasure of hearing his own voice.
"I vill egshblain vat I means," he began, in his deliberate way, answering the skipper"s question, but speaking as if addressing all of us collectively, his deep tones getting deeper and increasing in volume as he proceeded, so that all could hear. "I vas shpeak vat I reat in ze book dat Cap"en Shackzon vas bringt mit him vrom Guayaquil in ze schgooners dat time. I vas likevise rec"lect vat I zees here ven we vas arrife, an" Cap"en Shackzon"s vas murter"t, and ze mans vas kill ze ozers, and dere vas nuzzing but bloot and murter; vor, ze schgooners vas go down, mit only meinselfs dat vas eshgape mit mein lifes--and zo I zays to meinselfs, dere vas a curse on ze golt and ze dreazure of ze boocaneer vrom ze bloot of ze schlave dat vas murter"t!"
"Guess I don"t foller ye yet, mister," said the skipper. "Who kil"t thet air darkey ye air a-talkin" on, hey?"
"Ze boocaneer," promptly replied Jan. "Dey vas burit ze schlave vere dey vas burit ze dreazure."
"An" what did the cusses dew thet fur?"
"It vas to make ze Sbaniards and ze ozer beebles not vor to dig oop ze dreasure, or vor to go vere it vas burit. Zey vas zink dat ze sbirit of ze black man vas harmt dem and vork mizcheef, ze zame as vas done to hims, bekos he vas murter"t vor ze dreazure. "Bloot vor bloot" vas ze law of ze boocaneer, and dey vas zink dat ze black mans vas hab ze bloot of ze ozer mans dat coom vere his sbirit vas!"
"Oh, thet"s the yarn ye hev got holt on!" exclaimed Captain Snaggs, with a grin on his face, winking round to us. "Guess ye ain"t sich a durned fule ez ter swaller all thet bunk.u.m, hey?"
"I doos belief it, vor it vas droo," answered Jan Steenbock very impressively. "Oh, yase, I vas zee it meinselfs. It vas droo as droo!"
"Wa-al," drawled out the skipper, with a sn.i.g.g.e.r, which raised a sympathetic laugh from some of the men standing by, "thet beats ev"rythin" I ever know"d, it dew! Jest ter think of a straight up-an"-down c.o.o.n like ye, mister, with raal grit in ye, a-believin" in sich a yarn ez thet!"
"I beliefs it, vor it vas droo," repeated the Dane, in no way discomposed by the other"s ridicule. "I vas hab ze cause to beliefs!"
"What! Thet a durned n.i.g.g.e.r buried two hunder" year ago, or thaarabouts, hez the power to kinder hurt airy a livin" soul now?"
"I beliefs it," returned Jan, doggedly; adding, much to the skipper"s discomfiture and banishing his merriment in a moment. "Dere vas sdrange zings habben zometimes. I vas hear ze mans zay dat ze ghost of ze cook dat you shoots vas hoont dees very sheeps!"
Captain Snaggs made no reply to this crushing rejoinder: but a sort of murmur of a.s.sent came from the others, while I caught Hiram"s voice saying, "Thet"s so; right enuff!"
"And zo, cap"en," went on the Dane, perceiving that he had scored a point, and that the laugh was no longer against him, "I van hab nuzzing vor to do mit ze dreazure of ze boocaneer, and I vas hopes not vor to zee it a gains. It vas accurst, as I vas zay, vor ze boocaneer zemselves vas not able vor to vind it after zay vas burit it; and den, ven Cap"en Shackzon vinds it, he vas also murter"t, as the schlave vas, and his crew vas murter"t zemselves! Ze boocaneer dreazure vas accurst and bringt goot to no beebles. And zo, cap"en, I zays; zays I, let us not mindt it at all, mit its bat look, but go on vor to dig oot ze dock for ze sheep. We vas vaste ze time for nuzzin", if we hoonts vor ze dreazure; and if we vinds it, we vas nevaire get no goot vrom it-- nevaire, nozzing but bat!"
"Wa-all, thet"s good advice, anyhow," said the skipper, thinking the palaver had lasted long enough. "Guess ye chaps bed better sot to work agen, ez Mister Steenbock sez. If we shu"d light on this air treesor, well enuff, but our fust job, I reckon, "s to get the shep afloat agen; an" we won"t do thet, ye bet, by standin" hyar listenin" to ghost yarns an" sichlike! Now, ye jokers, let me see ye handlin" them picks agen.
P"r"aps ye"ll dig up another gold figger o" two; who knows?"
This set all hands busy, the men excavating the sand and hard lava from under the bilge of the vessel with an alacrity they had not displayed before; and, each man putting his heart to the job, the broad trench in which they were working was soon dug down considerably deeper than the level of the sea. To prevent the encroach of this latter all the stuff taken out was thrown up alongside, forming a sort of steep embankment on either hand, so that the _Denver City_ looked by-and-by as if she had run her head into a railroad cutting, the coffer-dam fixed across the beach, right under her keel, by the mizzen-chains, where the water just came up to, blocking the entrance to our dock effectually. The ship herself aided us in this respect, by settling down more in the sand there as it became loosened, and we only had to take care now that the slight rise and fall of the tide should not cause too great a leakage into the trench between the keel below and the upper strakes of her timbers above, at the height to which the dam reached; and, after a while, although a little water did trickle through the wall of sand and lava forming the side of the excavation towards the sea, there was not a sufficient quant.i.ty of it to interfere with the labour of digging to any material extent, nor to arrest our efforts.
The men, indeed, wielded their picks as if anxious to make up for the half-hour or so that had been wasted since Tom Bullover found the golden Madonna.
Nor did they content themselves merely with digging.
A keen watch was kept, in case something else might turn up, and every piece of hard substance disinterred was carefully scrutinised; but, alas! no more golden images or nuggets of the precious metal gladdened our eyes! Nothing came in view but sand and lava, lava and sand, varied occasionally by the sight of some fragment of half-fossilised tortoise-sh.e.l.l, or the chalky bones of cuttlefish and similar debris of the deep, washed up by the sea, and buried a fathom deep and more amid the strata of the sh.o.r.e.
This was disappointing; still, the men comforted themselves with the reflection that they were really digging for something else beyond the mere chance of picking up stray finds, such as that of Tom, who was thought a right good fellow for declaring he didn"t consider the Madonna his own special property, but would sell the figure, and go shares with all, when they got the ship afloat again, and reached San Francisco. My friend the carpenter thus artfully "pointed his moral," in order to make us work the harder at the novel navvy work at which we were engaged-- strange, at least, to us sailor-folk.
Of course, though, while toiling like this, digging and splashing about in the insidious water that percolated through the beach, and which gradually acc.u.mulated until it was now almost knee-deep in the bottom of the trench, we were by no means silent, for a lot of talk went on in reference to the buccaneers" buried treasure that Jan Steenbock had spoken of. So, in spite of the second-mate"s warning as to the "curse"
which he declared was a.s.sociated with the hidden h.o.a.rd, and would attach itself to any one discovering or touching the same, I heard more than one of the men give expression to a resolve to hunt for Captain Jackson"s cave as soon as he should have an opportunity, when his spell of work was over, or, at all events, on the completion of the dock and the floating of the ship--a halcyon period most devoutly prayed for by all of us as we slaved at our unaccustomed task.
Amongst those who had thus made up their minds to go after the treasure was myself; and I got full of the subject, though keeping my own council the while, and not informing any one of my intention.
Presently, at "eight bells," the skipper told me I might leave off work in the trench, and go with Hiram on board the ship to prepare tea for the hands. Morris Jones was ordered to accompany us, at the same time, to get the captain"s dinner ready; for, although we were ash.o.r.e on a desert island, our ordinary routine as to meals and other matters was adhered to as regularly as if we had been at sea--the only exception being that no particular watch was kept, and that we all turned in together of a night and out likewise in the morning without distinction, all at the same time. Throughout the day we worked at digging out the trench, or "dock" as Jan Steenbock persisted in calling it, under the ship, in gangs, in similar fashion to the mode that had been employed when unloading her, so as to get the task accomplished as quickly as possible; and, to facilitate this, the hands were divided into two batches, each having a spell of navvy"s work and a rest off between whiles, turn and turn about.
"Thet wer a mighty rum yarn the Dutchman spun jest now, I guess,"
observed Hiram, as soon as we had got on board and reached the galley, Morris Jones leaving us awhile to ourselves, and going aft to fetch the skipper"s grub out of the pantry, where it was stowed. "I"m jiggered if I ever heerd tell o" sich a yarn afore!"
"Don"t you think it true?" I said. "Mr Steenbock isn"t given to cramming, from all I have seen of him."
"No; he air a straight up-an"-down c.o.o.n, I reckon," replied Hiram, proceeding to cut off a piece of tobacco from a plug he produced from his pocket, and placing a "chaw" in his jaw. "Still, b"y, jest think o"
buccaneer tree-sors, an" all sorts o" gold an" silver a-waitin" fur us to dig "em up! Why, it beats Californy an" all I"ve heerd tell o" the diggin" days, when thaar wer the first rush, an" the folks ez got in time made their pile!"
"But you heard what he said of the spirit protecting the treasure," I remarked, "Don"t you think he"s right about the curse hanging over it?
I believe it would be unlucky to touch it."
"B"y, thaar"s allars a cuss tied on to gold an" greenbacks, sich ez we used ter hev a little time back," said Hiram sententiously. "But, I reckon, the harm don"t lie in the durned stuff itself: it"s in the way some folks kinder handles it--thet"s whaar the pizen is! Guess I ain"t afeard o" no cuss, once I comes across thet cave the Dutch mate wer a-speakin" on!"
"And the ghost?"
"Oh, durn the sperrit, Cholly!" said he, with a laugh. "I ain"t afeard."
"Recollect though, Hiram," I remarked, in answer to this, "how frightened we all have been on board by Sam, and the way you were in only a couple of days ago, when you said you saw him again here."
He looked serious again in a moment.
"Guess I don"t want ter run down thet air ghostess," said he apologetically. "Fur I reckon a man can"t go agen a thin" he sees right afore his eyes."
"And how about the other one that Mr Steenbock spoke of?"
"Oh, thet"s different, Cholly. A chap ye sees a-sottin" down an"
a-playin" a banjo aint like a c.o.o.n thet"s ben buried two or three hundred year, an" thet no one hez seed, ez I knows on, fur Jan Steenbock never sed ez how he seed it hisself. No, b"y, I guess I"ll hev a hunt fur thet thaar tree-sor ez he spoke on, ez soon ez ever I hev the chance."
"Suppose we go this evening, when we strike off work?" said I--"that is, Hiram, if you don"t mind my coming with you?"
"Nary a bit, Cholly," he replied good-heartedly to this tentative question of mine; "glad to hev ye along o" me, seeing as how we both hev ben a-prospectin" the line o" country already."
"All right," I exclaimed joyfully. "We"ll have a good hunt for the cave. I wouldn"t be surprised if we find it near the place where I saw the doves, by the pool between the hills over there."
"Most like, b"y," said he, bustling about the galley and going on with his culinary work; "but hyar comes the stooard. Don"t ye tell him nuthin" o" what we hev ben talkin" on, or I guess the c.o.o.n "ll be wantin" to jine company, an" I don"t wants him, I doesn"t. He"s a won"erful slimy sort o" cuss, an" since he"s ben skeart by Sam Jedfoot"s ghostess he hez ben a durned sight too mealy-mouthed fur me!"
"I won"t speak a word to him," said I. "He"s a queer sort of man, and I don"t like him either."
The entrance of the Welshman thus stopped our further conversation; for, although Morris Jones seemed anxious to talk, Hiram only spoke in monosyllables, giving curt answers, so that the steward in, the end became silent too, busying himself in cooking the skipper"s dinner at one, fireplace, while the American attended to the men"s tea at the other--filling the copper with the proper ingredients, as mentioned before, and diligently stirring its contents till it boiled.
At "two bells," later on, in the first dog-watch, work was abandoned for the day, all hands coming aboard to have their tea, Tom Bullover amongst them.
"May I tell him?" I said to Hiram, when I saw the carpenter coming forward, after slinging himself over the bulwarks; "may I tell Tom where we are going, and ask him to come too?"
"I don"t mind, I guess," replied Hiram--"the more the merrier!"
Tom was perfectly willing; and so, half an hour later, the three of us started on our expedition, getting over the side of the ship while the rest of the crew were still busy with their pannikins and beef and biscuit, so departing un.o.bserved.