In a common impulse the little circle leaned to him.
"Yes, I have seen her. I wish I had not. Let me bring my story back to the cave on the island. After the volcanic gases had driven me to the refuge, I sat near the mouth of the cave looking out into the darkness. That was the night of the 7th, the night you saw the last glow. It was very dark, except for occasional bursts of fire from the crater. Judge of my incredulous amazement when, in an access of this illumination, I saw plainly a schooner hardly a mile off sh.o.r.e, coming in under bare poles."
"Under bare poles?" cried Slade.
"The halliards must have disintegrated from some slow action of the celestium. It could be destructive: terrifically destructive. You shall judge. There was the schooner, naked as your hand. Possibly I might have thought it a hallucination but for what came after. Darkness fell again. I supposed then that Handy Solomon"s crew were managing--or mismanaging--the _Laughing La.s.s_ without the aid of their leader, whom I had satisfactorily buried. I hoped they would come ash.o.r.e on the rocks. Yes I was vengeful ... then.
"Of a sudden there sprang from the darkness a ship of light. You have all seen those great electric effects at expositions. Someone touches a b.u.t.ton ... you know. It was like that. Only that the piercingly brilliant jewelled wonder of a ship was set in the midst of a swirl of vari-coloured radiance such as I can"t begin to describe. You saw it from a distance.
Imagine what it was, coming close upon you that way--dead on, out of the night. A living glory, a living terror...."
His voice sank. With a shaking hand he fumbled amid his cigarette papers.
"It came on. A human figure, glowing like a diamond ablaze, leaped out from it; another shot down from the foremast. I don"t know how many I saw go. It was like a theatric effect, unreal, unconvincing, incredible. The end fitted it."
Darrow"s eye roved. It fell upon a quaintly modelled ship, hung above the door.
"What"s that?" he cried.
"Fool thing some Malay gave me," grunted Trendon. "Pretended to be grateful because I cut his foot off. No good. Go on with the story."
"No good? You don"t care what happens to it?"
"Meant to heave it overboard before now," growled the other.
Someone handed it down to Darrow.
"If I had something to hold enough water," muttered he, "I"d like to float it. I"d like to see for myself how it worked out. I"d like to see that devil-work in action."
He spoke feverishly.
"Boy, fill the portable rubber tub in Mr. Forsythe"s cabin and bring it here," ordered the captain.
"That will do." said Darrow, recovering himself.
He floated the model in the tub.
"Now, I don"t know how this will come out," he said. "Nor do I know why the _Laughing La.s.s_ met her fate under Ives and McGuire, and not before.
Perhaps the chest lay open longer ... long enough, anyway. We"ll try it."
From his pocket he took a curious small phial.
"Is that what Dr. Schermerhorn gave you?" asked Slade.
"Yes," said Darrow. He set it carefully inside the little model and slipped a lever. Slade quietly turned down the light.
A faint glow shot up. It grew bright and eddied in lovely, variant colours. As if set to a powder train, it ran through the ship. The pale faces of the spectators shone ghastly in its radiance. From someone burst a sudden gasp.
"There is not enough for danger," said Darrow, quietly.
"As a point of interest," grunted Trendon.
Everyone looked at his outstretched hand. A little pocket compa.s.s lay in the palm. The needle spun madly, projecting blue, vivid sparklings.
"My G.o.d!" cried Slade, and covered his eyes for a moment.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed away his hands as a suppressed cry went up from the others.
"As I expected," said Darrow quietly.
The little craft opened out; it disintegrated. All that radiance dissolved and with its going the substance upon which it shaped itself vanished. The last glow showed a formless pulp, spreading upon the water.
"So pa.s.sed the _Laughing La.s.s_," said Darrow solemnly.
"And the chest is at the bottom of the sea," said Barnett.
"Good place for it," muttered Trendon.
"In all probability it closed as the ship dissolved around it," said Darrow. "Otherwise we should see the effects in the water."
"It might be recovered," cried Slade, excitedly.
"Could you chart it, Darrow? Think of the possibilities--"
"Let it lie," said the captain. "Has it not cost enough? Let it lie."
The water in the tub fumed and sparkled faintly and was still. Darkness fell, except where Darrow"s cigarette point glowed and faded.
THE END