CHAPTER XXVIII
BY FAVOR OF THE EARTHQUAKE
No thunder that had ever been heard could be compared with the sound ofthe explosion. It was like the bellowing of a thousand cannon. It wasas though the island were being ripped apart.
The earth shook and staggered drunkenly beneath the feet of thetreasure seekers. Great trees in the adjacent forest fell withtremendous uproar. The slope of the whale's hump was ridged until itlooked like a giant accordion. Crevasses opened, extending from thesummit of the hill downward. Rocks came tumbling down by the score,and a column of smoke and flame rose from the crater to a height of twohundred feet or more.
None of the party had been able to keep on a footing. All had beenthrown to the ground by the first shock, and there they lay, sick fromthat awful seismic vibration.
A cloud of almost impalpable dust spread broadly and shrouded the sun.There was not a breath of air astir. Not a living thing was to be seenin the open--even the lizards had disappeared.
The spot where they had delved the day before, was now in plain view tothe treasure seekers. They saw the hillside yawn there in an awfulparoxysm, till the aperture was several yards wide. Then, frombeneath, there shot into the open, smoking rocks, debris of many kinds,and--something else! Drew, seeing this final object, shrieked aloud.His voice could not be heard above the uproar, but the others saw hismouth agape, and struggled to see that at which he was pointing sowildly.
The crevasse closed with a crash and jar that rocked the whole island.It was the final throe of the volcano's travail. The lurid light abovethe crater subsided. The dust began to fall thick upon the treasureseekers as they lay upon the ground. They sat up, dazed andhorror-stricken. It was some time before their palsied tongues couldspeak, and when they did, the words came almost in whispers.
Drew found that his arm was around Ruth. She had been near him whenthe first shock came, and he had seized her instinctively. Now heturned to her and asked:
"You're not hurt, are you, Ruth?"
"N--no," she gasped, "but dreadfully frightened! Oh, let's get awayfrom here!"
She realized that he was holding her and drew away with a faint blush.He released her and staggered to his feet.
Tyke and the captain followed suit, and the three men looked at eachother.
"Now, if I was superstitious----" began Tyke in a quavering voice.
"Never mind any 'ifs' just now," interrupted the captain. "We've gotto get away from here just as fast as the good Lord will let us. Idon't believe in tempting Providence."
"And leave the doubloons?" queried Tyke, in dismay.
"Yes, and leave the doubloons," replied the captain stubbornly. "IfRuth weren't here, we men might take a chance, but my daughter is worthmore to me than all the pirate gold buried in the Caribbean."
Drew, if inaudibly, agreed with him. "Let's get Ruth down to theshore, anyway," he said. "Then, if you'll come back---- I sawsomething just at that last crash."
"By the great jib-boom!" roared Tyke, "so did I. What did you see,Allen? Something shot up out o' one o' them pits we dug yesterday. Isaw it. An' it wasn't a lava boulder, neither!"
"You're right, there," Drew agreed. "It was a box or something. Toosquare-shaped to be a rock."
"We can't fool with it now," Captain Hamilton said, with determination,though his eyes sparkled. "Come, Ruth. I must get you down to theboat."
But here the girl exercised a power of veto. "I don't go unless therest of you do--and to remain, too," she declared. "I am not a child.Of course, I'm afraid of that volcano. But so are you men. And it'sall over now. If Allen really saw something that looked like a box ora chest thrown out of that opening, I'm going to----"
She left the rest unspoken, but started boldly for the barren patchwhere they had dug the day before. It looked now like a piece ofplowed ground over which were scattered blocks of lava of all sizes andshapes.
Captain Hamilton hesitated, but Drew ran ahead, reaching the spotfirst. Anxious and frightened as he had been at the moment of thephenomenon, the young man had noted exactly the spot where the strangeobject had fallen. Half buried in a heap of earth was a discolored,splintered chest. Its ancient appearance led Drew to utter a shout ofsatisfaction.
"I guess we've got it," he remarked in a tone that he tried to keepcalm, but which trembled in spite of himself.
A cry of delight rose from all. The men joined Drew, and helped himclear away the earth. The chest soon stood revealed. Then by usingtheir spades as levers, they pried it loose and by their united effortsdragged it over to the shade at the jungle's edge. They sat beside itthere, panting, almost too exhausted from the excitement and theirtremendous efforts to move or speak.
Ruth fluttered about like a humming bird, excited and eager. Shelooked somewhat less disheveled and begrimed than the men. But if theylooked like trench diggers, they felt like plutocrats, and their heartswere swelling with jubilation.
The map had not lied! The paper had not lied! That old pirate, RamonAlvarez, who had probably told a thousand lies, had told the truth atlast in his ardent desire for the shriving of Holy Church. Thetreasure lay before them!
And how wonderfully the chest had been revealed to them! Not by theirown exertions had the pirate hoard been uncovered!
A moment more and they were on their feet, Tyke panting:
"Now, if I was superstitious----"
They would have plenty of time for resting later on. Now a fierceimpatience consumed them. They must see the contents of the box!
The chest was about five feet long, two feet wide and three feet deep.It was made of thick oak, and was bound by heavy bands of iron. A hugepadlock held it closed.
The box had originally been of enormous strength, but time and natureand the earthquake had done their work. The wood was swollen andwarped, the iron bands were eaten with rust. But the lock resistedtheir efforts when they sought to lift the cover.
"Stand clear!" cried Captain Hamilton, raising his spade.
He struck the padlock a smashing blow. Then he stooped and lifted thecover, which yielded groaningly.
A cry burst simultaneously from the treasure seekers.
"Gold!"
"Doubloons!"
"Jewels!"
"Riches!"
Priceless treasures heaped in careless profusion, glinting, glowing,coruscating, scintillating threw back in splendor the rays of thetropic sun.
None of them could remember afterward quite how they acted in thosefirst few minutes of unchained emotion. But they laughed and sang,cheered and shouted, and it was a long time before the rioting of theirblood ceased and they regained a measure of self-control.
There was no attempt made to measure the value of the treasure trove.There would be time for that later on. What they did know beyond theshadow of a doubt was that wealth enough lay before them to make themall rich for the rest of their lives.
Gold there was, both coined and melted into bars; Spanish doubloons,Indian rupees, French louis, English guineas; cups and candelabra;chains and watches; jewels too, in whose depths flashed rainbow hues,amethysts, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, strings upon strings ofshimmering pearls.
The discoverers bathed their hands in the golden store, running thecoins in sparkling streams through their fingers, all the time feelingthat they were moving in a dream from which at any moment they must berudely awakened.
At last the captain's voice, a bit husky from emotion, brought themback to practical realities.
"Well, the first log of our voyage is written up," he said. "But nowlet's get down to the question of what we're to do next. How are we toget this stuff aboard?"
All sobered a little as they faced the problem.
"We can take the chest just as it is," said Tyke. "A four-man load,though."
"What will the crew think?" Drew asked somewhat anxiously.
"Let 'em think and be hanged to 'em!" replied Captain Hamilton. "Yet,"he added a moment later,
"with things in the shaky condition they areand that rascal, Ditty, planning mischief, we don't want to take toomany chances."
"Couldn't we make a number of trips back and forth and take some of thetreasure with us each time until we got it all on board?" suggestedRuth. "We could carry a lot in our clothes and we could wrap some upto look like the bundles we brought ashore."
"Take too long," objected her father.
"How would this do?" was Drew's contribution. "As has already beensaid, the men would be surprised to see us bring a box aboard if theyhadn't first seen us take it ashore. Now, suppose we take one of theship's chests, load it with some worthless junk that would make it asheavy as this box, and bring it ashore. We could bring it up here,throw away the contents, put the treasure in it, and then call on themen to take it back to the ship. They'd recognize it as the same onethey'd brought over, and their thinking would stop right there."
"By Jove, I believe you've hit it, Allen!" exclaimed the captain.
"That sounds sensible," conceded Tyke. "I guess it's the only way."
"Well, now that that's settled," went on the captain, "what are wegoing to do with the treasure in the meanwhile? It's getting late now.We can't get it aboard to-day. We'll want eight men besides Rogers.Then, there's all this hardware," and he indicated the firearms.
"Couldn't we leave it just where it is until we come back to-morrow?"ventured Ruth. "There isn't a soul on the island, and we'll be herethe first thing in the morning."
"A little too risky, I'm afraid," said Tyke. "It's dollars todoughnuts that there's no one on the island but ourselves and theboat's crew; yet we'd go 'round kicking ourselves for the rest of ourlives if we found to-morrow that some one had been here an' helpedhimself."
"Let's pile some of these loose lava blocks on top of the chest," saidDrew. "Make a regular mound. It will look as though the earthquakehad done it."
That plan seemed the best, and they acted on it. They closed the coverafter one more lingering, delighted look at the chest's gleamingcontents, then they built the cairn.
"One sure thing," observed Tyke. "There isn't anybody going to come uphere for jest a little pleasure jog--not much! That volcano's likelyto spit again 'most any time."
The party started for the lagoon with their hearts bounding withexultation. But as they entered the forest path they were startled bythe sight of Rogers and his men hastening toward them.
The captain was about to utter a rebuke, but when he saw the pale andfrightened faces of the men he checked his tongue.
"Well, Mr. Rogers, what is it?" he asked. "Got a pretty good scare, Isuppose, like the rest of us. I guess the quake's all over now."
"I hope so, sir," replied the second officer. "I thought sure it wasall over with the lot of us. But it isn't that, sir, that I came backfor. The boat's gone."
"Gone!" exclaimed the captain, staring.
"Yes, sir. It must have pushed away from the shore when the earthshook so. Just down here below a bit is a place where you can see thelagoon, and I caught sight of the boat about half-way between the shoreand the ship."
"Oh well, if that's all, there isn't any great harm done. Mr. Dittywill send out and pick up the boat."
"But there's something else, sir," went on the seaman hoarsely. "As Ilooked out, it seemed to me, sir, as if the reef had closed up behindthe schooner."
"What?" roared the captain.
"It's gospel truth sir," persisted the second officer. "I thought atfirst I must be dreaming. But I looked carefully, sir, and you cancall me a swab if it isn't so! I couldn't see any sign at all of thepassage where we came in, sir."
The captain's bronzed face paled, as the full significance of the newsburst upon him.
"Come along and show me the place where you can see the schooner," hecommanded, and started to run, followed by the whole party.
They had not far to go. At a place where the earthquake had rooted outa monster tree, a clear view could be had of the entire lagoon.
There lay the _Bertha Hamilton_, straining at her cable in thecommotion of the waters that had been stirred up by the earthquake.And there was the small boat tossing about like a chip. But thecaptain wasted not a second glance at these. He had seized hisbinoculars and his gaze was fixed upon the reef. As he looked, hisvisage became ashen.
The passage through which the ship had come into the lagoon wasentirely closed!
A barrier had been thrown up from the ocean floor, and this completelylandlocked the lagoon in which the schooner rode at anchor. The lagoonhad welcomed the ship as though with extended arms. Now those armswere closed and the hands were interlocked.
The captain groaned at the magnitude of the disaster.
"Oh, Daddy, dear!" cried Ruth, darting to his side. "Don't take it sohard! There'll be some way out!"
"Never!" cried the captain. "The _Bertha Hamilton_ is done for.There's no way to get her out. She'll lie there now until she rots."
"And we're prisoners on this island," gasped Drew.
They looked at each other, appalled. This last statement seemed to beirrefutable. They were captives on the island, which seemed itself tobe in the throes of dissolution.