Bannister realised from the first that his task was well-nigh impossible. He might as well hope to find me in the forest as a needle in a haystack; and so, knowing where the treasure was, he went straight to the Wood of the Red Fish, there to await the arrival of Amos and the others.
He had started some months after us, but he had taken the shorter route and had been delayed by nothing. For all that, he arrived in the neighbourhood of the Red Fish some weeks after Amos; for he and Rushby heard nothing of the fight which took place when Atupo laid his ambush and Forsyth was so badly wounded.
Amos--as we know--returned across the plain to wreak his vengeance upon the Peruvian priests in the Temple of Cahazaxa. Then the man"s greed of gold drew him westward once again to search for the Big Fish, as the natives called the treasure.
It was then that Vasco, the Spaniard, struck by the merest chance the trail of John Bannister and Rushby. A fight took place between them, and those were the shots which I myself had heard, one of which had sorely wounded the boatswain in the leg.
John Bannister had saved his comrade"s life. William Rushby was a big man, broadly made and heavy; but Bannister had whipped him up as though he were a child and carried him all night throughout the jungle, with the result that Amos, for the time being, lost all trace of them, though he was searching in all directions in the Wood.
It is a wonder, indeed, and something to be thankful for, that Amos and his friends never stumbled across myself, whilst I was wandering about with my blow-pipe and my arrows in search of the Red Fish, not knowing where to look. For I was not then in possession of the map, of which I have now to tell, and how it was that I found it in so singular a place.
Rushby was a wounded man and weak from loss of blood, and now Bannister himself--great as was his strength--being overcome by his exertions, fell into a raging fever. Knowing the Wood of old, he had carried Rushby to the place of the Tomb of Orellano"s soldier; and whilst in hiding there he became so ill that for three days he raved, delirious.
And he had no one but a wounded man to tend him.
They had no food, and were without means of getting any; for the boatswain could not walk a dozen yards, but from time to time must drag himself on all-fours to the stream to fetch his companion water to drink.
Rushby, left to his own resources, and suffering the greatest pain, had little doubt that they were lost. Look at the affair which way he might, he could see no way out of their difficulties; they must either be found by Baverstock or else starve to death. For himself, he cared not which way it ended; but upon one thing he was determined--the fragment of the map which they had brought with them from my rabbit-hole in Suss.e.x should never fall into the hands of Amos Baverstock.
And so it was William Rushby himself who opened the tomb, and hid the map in the helmet of the Spanish soldier. And that was how I found it, a few days afterwards; for the earth had been disturbed and trampled underfoot.
The night after that, when John Bannister was a little recovered of his fever, though still terribly weak, they heard the report of a shot-gun, fired not far from where they were; and Rushby, realising that Amos was still upon their track, made the supreme effort of his life, hoping thereby to save both Bannister and himself.
It was the old case of the blind leading the blind; for the one was so weak that he tottered when he walked, and the other was lame of a leg, with an open, septic wound that would not heal. But together, with their arms around each other, they made good their escape, only to be caught later in the great mora.s.s that lay upon the northern side of the Wood, and being at the end of their resources and well-nigh starved to death, they had no option but to surrender and without condition.
There is no question Amos would have killed John Bannister then and there had it not been for one potent circ.u.mstance: Bannister knew the secret of the Big Fish. Both Baverstock and Trust regarded my friend as their arch-enemy, who had foiled them more than once; and Rushby told me of the look of unutterable hatred that was stamped upon every evil feature of the face of Amos whenever he looked at Bannister--which he did, by the same token, no more often than he had to, since it was plain to see that he found it hard to meet the eyes of one stronger than himself both in mind and body, and a thousand times more honest.
And here, in his narrative, the boatswain became, on a sudden, wildly excited, and pointed to a palm-tree that stood not far away from where we both were seated, about a hundred yards down the ravine.
"You see that tree?" he cried; and I nodded in reply. "Well, then,"
Rushby continued, "the villain bound Bannister to that--bound him hand and foot, and stood before him with a loaded rifle in his hands. He cursed him; he threatened and blasphemed. He said that if Bannister would not tell him where the treasure was, he would shoot him on the spot. But he might as well have tried to frighten those white bones in the tomb where I myself had hid the map."
William Rushby paused, and ran his fingers through his beard. I never saw a man who looked more miserable than he. And yet, so foolish was I, indeed, that I did naught but ask him silly questions, when time was of as much account as the life of the most heroic man that ever lived.
"And Bannister would not speak?" said I.
"Speak!" the boatswain cried. "Speak he did, and to the point. He told Baverstock to shoot."
He was silent for a moment, and sat looking at the open wound in his leg.
"I never saw any one more angry," he continued, "and I have served in my day under many men of the same stamp as James Dagg, if not so bad as he.
All that night I lay awake, dead sure that Baverstock would murder Bannister, if on the following morning he still refused to speak."
"And you were camped in this ravine?" I asked.
"In this same place," said Rushby; "for I have not moved since a hundred yards."
"And where are the others?" I asked.
"Listen!" said the boatswain. "I can do no more than spin a yarn from the beginning. I am coming to what you want to know. Baverstock, his threats having failed with Bannister, played his trump-card upon me, and won the trick. Leaving Bannister still weak from fever, bound hand and foot, he came to me by night and talked in whispers. He told me that he held you a prisoner, and, like a fool, I believed him. He said that if he did not learn the truth in regard to the exact position of the Big Fish he would put not only Bannister and myself to death, but also you, whose life he had purposely preserved throughout all these months."
"He lied!" I interrupted.
"I know he did," said Rushby. "But I swallowed all those lies as a shark takes a baited hook. I was neither strong nor wise like Bannister. For my own life I cared not greatly, but I was loth to behold John Bannister put to death, and I knew how much he cared for you, and how he would grieve if you were to die through any fault of mine. And thus it was that I told Amos Baverstock the truth. I told him that we had brought with us from Suss.e.x your little fragment of the map; and I told him that I had hidden it within the helmet in the Tomb of the Spanish soldier.
"He said no more to me that night, but posted Vasco, the Spaniard, as a sentry, with orders to see that Bannister and I did not communicate. And at daybreak the next morning, in the utmost haste, he and his three companions went back into the Wood to find the map in the Spaniard"s Tomb, and thence to discover the Red Fish itself, where the gold of Peru is hidden."
When I heard that, I burst into loud laughter. Rushby looked at me, surprised, and asked me why I laughed.
"He will never find it," I cried. "He will never find the map! For it is no longer in the Tomb."
"Not in the Tomb!" he burst forth. "Then, where is it? And how do you know where it is?"
"Because it is here," said I. And as I said the words, I pulled forth the little piece of parchment from the quiver in which I kept my blow-pipe arrows.
Rushby looked at it, recognised it at once, and sat staring at me, as if, on a sudden, he had been bereft of his senses.
"How did you get this?" he blurted out.
I told him in a few words how I had found it.
"Merciful powers!" he groaned. "What have I done? Bannister is on a wild-goose chase after all!"
He again carried his hands to his head, and sat rocking from side to side, as he had done before. I got to my feet, and shook him violently; for--though as yet I understood no more than half the matter--I saw that there had been some great mistake that was like to cost us dearly.
"What is it?" I cried. "Tell me the truth! Even now, it may not be too late to make amends. Tell me what has happened."
He looked up at me with a sad face. I am inclined to think that there were even teardrops in his eyes.
"When Baverstock and those with him were gone," said he; "when they were returned to the Wood and lost to view, I picked up my jack-knife, and limped to the tree, where I cut Bannister"s bonds. You must understand that Amos departed that morning in such hot haste that he left behind our knives and rifles, as well as much of his own equipment. However, that is neither here nor there. I was obliged to tell Bannister the truth; and, no sooner had I done so, than he made me realise what a simpleton I was.
"He told me that I had been a fool to hide the map in any place where it could afterwards be found. It had been better had I torn it to shreds.
Nor would he believe that you were still in the hands of Amos Baverstock. And the very thought that this unholy villain was to solve at last the riddle of the Big Fish gave, upon the instant, new strength to Bannister. For then and there he rose to his feet, and said that he was going himself into the Wood, that he would reach the Tomb in advance of Amos and take possession of the map."
"He has gone there!" I shouted, like a maniac, springing to my feet and pointing towards the Wood.
"Yes," said Rushby. "He said that he would rather die a thousand times than that Amos should find the Treasure."
I felt as if I had received a violent blow. I knew not, for the moment, what to do. And then I saw my course quite clear before me.
"I"ll go to him!" I cried. "Take that, and keep it safe."
And I flung at him my portion of the map, and then s.n.a.t.c.hed up my blow-pipe and my quiver filled with darts, and set off running down the ravine, as fast as my legs would carry me, towards the Wood.
CHAPTER XX--I RETURN TO THE SOLDIER"S TOMB