CHAPTER XIV
A PILE OF FUEL
Four days had passed, and nothing had happened. The stone mound in thelake had not been visited, for there had been no reason for sending theblack men away, and with one of them nearer than a mile the captain wouldnot even look at his treasure. There was no danger that they woulddiscover the mound, for they were not allowed to take the lantern, and noone of them would care to wander into the dark, sombre depths of thecavern without a light.
The four white people, who, with a fair habitation in the rocks, withplenty of plain food to eat, with six servants to wait on them, and aclimate which was continuously delightful, except in the middle of theday, and with all fear of danger from man or beast removed from theirminds, would have been content to remain here a week or two longer andawait the arrival of a vessel to take them away, were now in a restlessand impatient condition of mind. They were all eager to escape from theplace. Three of them longed for the return of Rynders, but the other onesteadily hoped that they might get away before his men came back.
How to do this, or how to take with him the treasure of the Incas, was apuzzling question with which the captain racked his brains by day and bynight. At last he bethought himself of the Rackbirds' vessel. Heremembered that Maka had told him that provisions were brought to them bya vessel, and there was every reason to suppose that when thesemiscreants went on some of their marauding expeditions they travelled bysea. Day by day he had thought that he would go and visit the Rackbirds'storehouse and the neighborhood thereabout, but day by day he had beenafraid that in his absence Rynders might arrive, and when he came hewanted to be there to meet him.
But now the idea of the boat made him brave this possible contingency,and early one morning, with Cheditafa and two other of the black fellows,he set off along the beach for the mouth of the little stream which,rising somewhere in the mountains, ran down to the cavern where it hadonce widened and deepened into a lake, and then through the ravine of theRackbirds on to the sea. When he reached his destination, Captain Hornsaw a great deal to interest him.
Just beyond the second ridge of rock which Maka had discovered, thestream ran into a little bay, and the shores near its mouth showedevident signs that they had recently been washed by a flood. On points ofrock and against the sides of the sand mounds, he saw bits of debris fromthe Rackbirds' camp. Here were sticks which had formed the timbers oftheir huts; there were pieces of clothing and cooking-utensils; and hereand there, partly buried by the shifting sands, were seen the bodies ofRackbirds, already desiccated by the dry air and the hot sun of theregion. But the captain saw no vessel.
"Dat up here," said Cheditafa. "Dey hide dat well. Come 'long, captain."
Following his black guide, the captain skirted a little promontory ofrocks, and behind it found a cove in which, well concealed, lay theRackbirds' vessel. It was a sloop of about twenty tons, and from theocean, or even from the beach, it could not be seen. But as the captainstood and gazed upon this craft his heart sank. It had no masts norsails, and it was a vessel that could not be propelled by oars.
Wading through the shallow water,--for it was now low tide,--the captainclimbed on board. The deck was bare, without a sign of spar or sail, andwhen, with Cheditafa's help, he had forced the entrance of the littlecompanionway, and had gone below, he found that the vessel had beenentirely stripped of everything that could be carried away, and when hewent on deck again he saw that even the rudder had been unshipped andremoved. Cheditafa could give him no information upon this state ofthings, but after a little while Captain Horn imagined the cause for thisdismantled condition of the sloop. The Rackbirds' captain could not trusthis men, he said to himself, and he made it impossible for any of them toescape or set out on an expedition for themselves. It was likely that themasts and sails had been carried up to the camp, from which place itwould have been impossible to remove them without the leader knowing it.
When he spoke to Cheditafa on the subject, the negro told him that afterthe little ship came in from one of its voyages he and his companions hadalways carried the masts, sails, and a lot of other things up to thecamp. But there was nothing of the sort there now. Every spar and sailmust have been carried out to sea by the flood, for if they had been lefton the shores of the stream the captain would have seen them.
This was hard lines for Captain Horn. If the Rackbirds' vessel had beenin sailing condition, everything would have been very simple and easy forhim. He could have taken on board not only his own party, but a largeportion of the treasure, and could have sailed away as free as a bird,without reference to the return of Rynders and his men. A note tied to apole set up in a conspicuous place on the beach would have informed Mr.Rynders of their escape from the place, and it was not likely that any ofthe party would have thought it worth while to go farther on shore. Butit was of no use to think of getting away in this vessel. In its presentcondition it was absolutely useless.
While the captain had been thinking and considering the matter, Cheditafahad been wandering about the coast exploring. Presently Captain Horn sawhim running toward him, accompanied by the two other negroes.
"'Nother boat over there," cried Cheditafa, as the captain approachedhim,--"'nother boat, but badder than this. No good. Cook with it,that's all."
The captain followed Cheditafa across the little stream, and a hundredyards or so along the shore, and over out of reach of the tide, piledagainst a low sand mound, he saw a quantity of wood, all broken intosmall pieces, and apparently prepared, as Cheditafa had suggested, forcooking-fires. It was also easy to see that these pieces of wood hadonce been part of a boat, perhaps of a wreck thrown up on shore. Thecaptain approached the pile of wood and picked up some of the pieces. Ashe held in his hand a bit of gunwale, not much more than a foot inlength, his eyes began to glisten and his breath came quickly. Hastilypulling out several pieces from the mass of debris, he examined themthoroughly. Then he stepped back, and let the piece of rudder he washolding drop to the sand.
"Cheditafa," said he, speaking huskily, "this is one of the Castor'sboats. This is a piece of the boat in which Rynders and the men set out."
The negro looked at the captain and seemed frightened by the expressionon his face. For a moment he did not speak, and then in a trembling voicehe asked, "Where all them now?"
The captain shook his head, but said nothing. That pile of fragments wastelling him a tale which gradually became plainer and plainer to him, andwhich he believed as if Rynders himself had been telling it to him. Hisship's boat, with its eight occupants, had never gone farther south thanthe mouth of the little stream. That they had been driven on shore by thestress of weather the captain did not believe. There had been no highwinds or storms since their departure. Most likely they had been inducedto land by seeing some of the Rackbirds on shore, and they had naturallyrowed into the little cove, for assistance from their fellow-beings waswhat they were in search of. But no matter how they happened to land,the Rackbirds would never let them go away again to carry news of thewhereabouts of their camp. Almost unarmed, these sailors must have falleneasy victims to the Rackbirds.
It was not unlikely that the men had been shot down from ambush withouthaving had any intercourse or conversation with the cruel monsters towhom they had come to seek relief, for had there been any talk betweenthem, Rynders would have told of his companions left on shore, and thesewould have been speedily visited by the desperadoes. For the destructionof the boat there was reason enough: the captain of the Rackbirds gavehis men no chance to get away from him.
With a heart of lead, Captain Horn turned to look at his negrocompanions, and saw them all sitting together on the sands, chatteringearnestly, and holding up their hands with one or more fingers extended,as if they were counting. Cheditafa came forward.
"When all your men go away from you?" he asked.
The captain reflected a moment, and then answered, "About two weeks ago."
"That's right! That's right!" exclaimed the negro, nodding violently ash
e spoke. "We talk about that. We count days. It's just ten days andthree days, and Rackbirds go 'way, and leave us high up in rock-hole,with no ladder. After a while we hear guns, guns, guns. Long time gunsshooting. When they come back, it almost dark, and they want supperbad. All time they eat supper, they talk 'bout shooting sharks. Shotlots sharks, and chuck them into the water. Sharks in water alreadybefore they is shot. We say then it no sharks they shot. Now we say itmust been--"
The captain turned away. He did not want to hear any more. There was nopossible escape from the belief that Rynders and all his men had beenshot down, and robbed, if they had anything worth taking, and then theirbodies carried out to sea, most likely in their own boat, and thrownoverboard.
There was nothing more at this dreadful place that Captain Horn wished tosee, to consider, or to do, and calling the negroes to follow him, he setout on his return.
During the dreary walk along the beach the captain's depression ofspirits was increased by the recollection of his thoughts about thesailors and the treasure. He had hoped that these men would not come backin time to interfere with his disposal, in his own way, of the gold hehad found. They would not come back now, but the thought did not lightenhis heart. But before he reached the caves, he had determined to throwoff the gloom and sadness which had come upon him. Under thecircumstances, grief for what had happened was out of place. He must keepup a good heart, and help his companions to keep up good hearts. Now hemust do something, and, like a soldier in battle, he must not think ofthe comrade who had fallen beside him, but of the enemy in front of him.
When he reached the caves he found supper ready, and that evening he saidnothing to his companions of the important discoveries he had made,contenting himself with a general statement of the proofs that theRackbirds and their camp had been utterly destroyed by the flood.