CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
BOB WANTS TO BE RICH.
The problem as to the working of the gold mine being so farsatisfactorily solved, it only remained to ascertain how thearrangements would answer when put into practice, and this the ladiesdid without loss of time. Their plan was that one of them should remainat home to look after Bob and little May, while the other two devoted afew hours of the day to the cave. As they took it in turns to remain athome in the capacity of nurse, each of them had two days in the cave toone at the cottage.
In the meantime, thanks to Lance's skill and the careful nursing of theladies, Bob was making steady progress toward recovery, and within amonth of the occurrence of his accident was beginning to ask how muchlonger he was going to be kept a prisoner.
He had been made aware of the gold discovery, by occasional referencesto it on the part of the others in his presence, but he had never heardthe complete story; so one day, when it was Blanche's turn to remain athome, he asked her to give him the entire history; which she did.
He listened most attentively; and when the story was over remainedsilent, apparently wrapped in profound thought, for several minutes.
Looking up at last, with a flush of excitement on his face, heexclaimed--
"Why, there must be gold enough there to make millionaires of every oneof us!"
"Yes," said Blanche, "I believe there is; at least Lan-- Mr Evelin saysso, and I have no doubt he knows."
"Oh yes," exclaimed Bob enthusiastically, "_he_ knows. I believe heknows _everything_. And what a splendid fellow he is, isn't he, MissLascelles?"
This last with a sly twinkle in his roguish eye.
Blanche appeared to think it unnecessary to comment upon or reply tothis remark; at all events she remained silent. But the window-curtainsomehow needed adjustment just at that moment, and the haste with whichshe rose to attend to this little matter--or something else--caused amost lovely pink flush to overspread her cheeks. Bob saw it; perhaps heknew exactly what caused it; but if he did he was too much of agentleman to show that he had noticed it. So when Blanche had adjustedthe curtain to her satisfaction he remarked with a heavy sigh--
"Oh dear! I _wish_ I was well enough to be out and at work again. Ilong to have the handling of some of that gold."
"You must have patience, Robert," said Blanche. "The worst part of yourillness is now over, and in due time you will no doubt be able to takeyour share of the work once more. But whether such is the case or not,you may rest satisfied that you will have your share of the gold.Whatever there may be, whether it be much or little, I know thegentlemen have decided that it shall be divided equally among us, evento little May."
"I am sure it's very kind of them," said Bob with a touch of impatiencein his tone; "but I want to be up and able to work at it--to gather itin and see it accumulate. I want to be a really _rich_ man."
"For shame, Robert," said Blanche, with just the faintest feeling ofdisgust--the first she had ever experienced toward Bob. "If you talklike that I shall leave you. I am disappointed in you; I should _never_have suspected _you_ of being mercenary."
"Well, I am then," returned Bob, quite unabashed. "I _am_ mercenary, ifthat means being anxious to be rich. And so would you be, MissLascelles, if you had seen as much misery as I have; misery, too, whichcould be cured by the judicious expenditure of comparatively triflingsums of money. Only think how jolly it would be to go up to every poorhungry man, woman, and child you met, clap a sovereign in their hands,and say, `There, go and enjoy the luxury of a good unstinted meal foronce in your life.' But a rich man's power goes a great deal furtherthan that. If ever _I_ am rich I shall not be satisfied with thebestowal of relief of such a very temporary kind as a solitary mealamounts to; I shall hunt up some really deserving cases and put them inthe way of earning their own livings. _Real_ relief consists, to mymind, of nothing short of the stretching out of a helping hand andlifting some poor soul clean out of that miserable state where one'svery existence depends upon the fluctuating charity of one's fellow-creatures. I've _seen_ it, and I know what it means. There's anyamount of real misery to be met with in the neighbourhood of the Docks,ay, and all over London, for that matter, if one only chooses to keepone's eyes open. Of course I know that many of the beggars and match-sellers, and people of that kind are rank loafers, too idle to work evenwhen they have the chance--people who spend in drink every penny that'sgiven them--and in my opinion they richly deserve all the misery theysuffer. But there are plenty of others who would be only too happy towork if they could; and _they_ are the people I should seek out andhelp, the poor women and children, you know. It makes me fairly sick, Igive you my word, Miss Lascelles, when I think of the vast sums of moneythat are squandered every year in ways which leave nothing to show forthe expenditure. Take gambling for instance. I've heard that thousandsof pounds are lost every year at card-playing and horse-racing. Themoney only changes hands, I know; but what good does it do? If a mancan afford to part with a thousand pounds in such a way, how much betterit would be for him and everybody else if he would expend it infurnishing a certain number of persons with the means to earn their ownliving. I don't believe it's _right_ for people to squander and wastetheir money; I believe that money is given to people _in trust_, andthat everybody will have to answer for the way in which they dischargethat trust; don't you, Miss Lascelles?"
"Certainly I do, Robert," answered Blanche, very gravely. "But I mustadmit that I have never until now viewed the matter in the serious lightin which you put it. I must beg your pardon, and I do most sincerely,for the way in which I spoke to you just now. I had no idea that youhad any such good reasons as you have given for desiring to be rich.But what would you be able to do single-handed, no matter how rich youmight be?"
"Ah!" ejaculated Bob with a gesture of impatience, "that's just what_everybody_ says, and that's exactly where the mischief lies; they don'tdo anything because they can't do _everything_, and because they can'tget others to join them. But I shouldn't look at it like that; I shouldjust do my duty, whether other people did theirs or not; if otherschoose to shirk their duty it is their own look-out, it affords noexcuse for me to shirk mine. But there--it's no use for me to talk likethis; perhaps I never shall be rich; the gold is there, you say; butthat is a very different thing from having it banked in England. How dothey think we are going to get it away from the island withoutdiscovery? You may depend upon it that, whenever we go, it will be allin a hurry."
Blanche explained Captain Staunton's plan as to the carrying off of thegold; but Bob shook his head dubiously.
"It is a capital plan, I admit," he said, "but its success depends uponeverything turning out exactly as arranged, and--you mark my words--things _won't_ turn out that way at all; they never do. Will you do mea favour, Miss Lascelles?"
"Certainly I will, Robert, provided of course that it is in my power,"answered Blanche.
"Thank you," said Bob. "You can do it easily enough. Bring home here--and get the other ladies to do the same--every day when you return fromthe cavern, as many nuggets as you can conveniently carry--say two orthree pounds' weight each of you, you know--and hand them over to me.I'll contrive to find a safe hiding-place for them, and when the momentcomes for us to be off I'll see that they go with us if such a thing isat all possible; then we shall not be quite destitute if after all wehave to leave the heap in the cave behind us. But don't say anythingabout this to the gentlemen; Captain Staunton might not like it if heheard that I doubted the practicability of his plan."
Blanche readily gave the desired promise, and there the matter ended forthe time.
Meanwhile the work went steadily forward at the shipyard, and by thetime that Bob was once more able to go on duty the framework of theschooner was complete, and the planking had been begun, whilst thebattery was in so forward a state that another fortnight would see itready to receive the guns. Ralli was in a high state of delight; butBob had not been at work many days before he dis
covered that things wereno longer as they had been when he received his hurt. The Greek hadnever been courteous in his behaviour to the _Galatea_ party, but now hewas downright insolent, and his insolence seemed to increase every day.At the outset of the work the gentlemen of the party, that is to say,Captain Staunton, Lance, and Rex, had been required to look on anddirect the progress of the work only, but now Lance was the only one towhom this privilege was granted, a privilege which he scorned to acceptunshared by the others, and accordingly when Bob once more joined theworking party he found his friends with their coats off and sleevesrolled up to the shoulders performing the same manual labour as therest. Seeing this, he of course did the same, and thus they allcontinued to work until--the end came.
Bob was greatly surprised at this state of things; so much so that hesought an early opportunity to inquire of Lance the meaning of it.Neither Lance nor anyone else in the party were, however, able to giveany explanation of it; all they could say with regard to the affair wasthat Ralli had been gradually growing more insolent and tyrannical inhis treatment of them until matters had reached the then existingunpleasant stage. But he was earnestly cautioned by Captain Stauntonnot to mention a word respecting it to the ladies, as it was extremelydesirable that they should be kept for as long a time as possible quitefree from all anxiety of every kind.
"But can nothing be done to make this fellow mend his behaviour?"inquired Bob of the skipper as they separated from the rest of theworking party and walked toward the cottage on landing from the boatsthat night.
"I fear not," was the reply. "While the schooner and the battery werestill to be built we had the man to some extent in our power; but nowthat the battery is so near completion, and the hull of the schoonerfully modelled, he is independent of us, and he has sense enough to knowit. His own people are quite capable of finishing off the schooner nowthat her framework is complete, so that threats on our part would beuseless--nay, worse than useless--since they would only irritate him andlead to increasing severity toward us."
Bob lay awake a long time that night, quite satisfied that the time hadarrived when something ought to be done, but what that something shouldbe he puzzled his brain in vain to discover.
About a fortnight after this a serious accident occurred at theshipyard, or rather at the battery. This structure was now so faradvanced that it was ready to receive the guns which were intended to bemounted in it. The armament was to consist of six 24-pounder ironmuzzle-loaders of the ordinary old-fashioned type, to which Johnson hadhelped himself in some raid on the Spanish-American coast; and on themorning in question a gang of men was told off to hoist these guns upthe cliff into the battery.
Lance had, as a matter of course, undertaken the supervision of thisoperation; but the work had hardly commenced when Ralli made hisappearance on the scene, announcing his intention to himself directoperations at the battery, and roughly ordering Lance to return at onceto his work on the schooner, "and to be quick about it too, or he(Ralli) would freshen his way."
Evelin of course returned at once to the shipyard without condescendingto bandy words with the Greek, and the work went forward as usual.
Ralli soon had a pair of sheers rigged, and in due time one of the gunswas slung ready for hoisting.
Lance had been watching Ralli's operations, first with curiosity andafterwards with anxiety, for he soon saw that the man knew nothingwhatever about handling heavy guns. He now saw that the gun which wasabout to be hoisted was wrongly slung, and that an accident was likelyenough to result. So, forgetting his former rebuff, he threw down histools and hurried to the place where the men were working about the gunand told them to cast off the slings.
"You have slung it wrong, lads," said he, "and unless you are verycareful some of you will be hurt. Cast off the slings, and I will showyou the proper way to do it."
The men, accustomed to working under his directions, were about to do ashe bade them, when Ralli looked over the parapet and angrily orderedthem to leave the lashings as they were and to sway away the gun.
"As for you, mister soldier," he said, shaking his fist at Lance, "youhave left your work contrary to my orders, and I will seize you up to agrating and give you five dozen to-night as a lesson to you. Now go."
Lance turned on his heel and walked away. Things had come to a crisisat last, he thought; and he began to wonder how the crisis was to bemet; upon one thing he was quite resolved, and that was that he wouldnever submit to the indignity of the lash; Ralli might kill him if hechose, but flog him--_never_.
His sombre meditations were brought to an abrupt ending by a suddencrash accompanied by a shout of consternation in the direction of thebattery. Looking that way he saw the tackle dangling empty from thesheers, with the lower block about half-way up the cliff face, and atthe base of the cliff were the men grouped closely together about someobject which was hidden by their bodies. Suddenly one of the men leftthe rest and ran toward the shipyard, shouting for help.
"There has been an accident," thought Lance. "The gun has slipped fromthe slings, and likely enough somebody is killed."
"Muster all the crowbars and handspikes you can, lads," said he, "andtake them over to the battery; there has been an accident, I fear."
A strong relief gang was soon on the spot, only to find Lance's fearsconfirmed. The gun had been hoisted nearly half-way up the cliff whenthe guide-rope had fouled a rock. The armourer had stepped forward toclear it, and in doing so had given it a jerk which had canted the gunin its slings, and before the unfortunate man had realised his dangerthe gun had slipped and fallen upon him, crushing both his legs to ajelly.
There was an immediate outcry among the men for Lance, an outcry whichRalli would have checked if he could; but his first attempt to do soshowed him that the men were now in a temper which would render ithighly dangerous for him to persist, so he gave in with the best gracehe could muster and ordered one of the men to fetch Evelin to the spot.On receiving the message Lance of course at once flung down his toolsand hastened to the assistance of the injured man. When he reached thescene of the catastrophe he found all hands, Ralli included, crowdedround the prostrate gun, and everybody giving orders at the same time,everybody excited, and everything in a state of the direst confusion.
As he joined the group Ralli stepped forward with a smile on his lips,which in nowise cloaked his chagrin at being obliged to yield to thedemands of the men, and began--
"You see, mister soldier, we cannot do without you it seems, after all.Just lend the men a hand to--"
But Lance brushed past him without deigning the slightest notice; and,pushing his way through the crowd, called upon a few of the men by nameto assist him in relieving the unfortunate armourer from the ponderousweight of the gun, which still lay upon the poor fellow's mangled limbs.Such implicit confidence had these men in him, prisoner among themthough he was, that his mere presence sufficed to restore them to order;and in a few minutes the armourer, ghastly pale, and with every nervequivering from the excruciating pain of his terrible injuries, wassafely withdrawn from beneath the gun.
"Now, make a stretcher, some of you--ah, Dickinson, _you_ are the manfor this job; just make a stretcher, my good fellow--the same sort ofthing that you made for the lad Bob, you know--and let's get our patientinto a boat as quickly as possible; I can do nothing with him here,"said Lance.
"Ay, ay, sir," answered Dickinson promptly; and away he went with two orthree more men to set about the work, Lance plying the injured manfrequently with small doses of rum meanwhile.
Ralli stood upon the outskirts of the crowd angrily watching theproceedings. He could not shut his eyes to the fact of Lance'spopularity with the men, and he vowed within himself that he would makehim pay dearly for it before the day was done, even if he were compelledto seize him up and flog him himself.
The stretcher was soon ready, and the armourer having been placed uponit, was carried as carefully as possible down to the boat. As theprocession passed the shipyard Lance
beckoned to Captain Staunton,saying--
"I shall need your assistance in this case. It will be a case ofamputation unless I am greatly mistaken, and if so, I shall require thehelp of someone upon whose nerve I can depend."
Captain Staunton, upon this, hurried back for his coat, and rejoinedLance just as the party was on the point of embarking in the boat. Asthe men propelled the craft swiftly across the bay Lance related in aloud tone to the skipper Ralli's behaviour during the morning, and histhreat. They were still discussing the matter anxiously together whenDickinson, who was pulling stroke-oar, and who doubtless guessed fromcatching a stray word or two what was the subject of their conversation,broke in upon their conference by inquiring of Lance whether he thoughtthe armourer would recover.
"It is impossible to say yet," answered Lance cautiously. "Of course weshall do our best for him, poor fellow, but he will require moreattention than I fear Ralli will allow me to give him."
"If that's all," remarked Dickinson, "I think you needn't troubleyourself, sir; the Greek knows too well what he's about to interferewith you when it comes to doctoring a hinjured man--a man as was hurttoo all along of his own pride and obstinacy. And as to that othermatter--the flogging, you know, sir--axing your pardon for speakingabout it so plain, sir--don't you trouble yourself about that. Hesha'n't lay a hand upon you while me and my mates can pervent it--shallhe, mates?"
"No, that he sha'n't, bo'," was the eager answer.
"No, he _sha'n't_," coincided Dickinson. "We can't do much to help you,you see, sir," he added, "'cause, worse luck, we don't all think alikeupon some things; but we've only got to say the word to the rest of thehands, and I _knows_ as they won't hear of you bein' flogged. Thereisn't one of us but what respects you, sir, but what respects yougentlemen both, for that matter; you've always had a good word foreverybody, and that goes a long way with sailors sometimes--further thana glass o' grog--and you may make your mind easy that the Greek won't belet to--to--you know what, sir."
"Thank you, Dickinson," said Lance with outstretched hand, "thank youwith all my heart. You have relieved me of a heavy load of anxiety;for, to tell you the truth, I had quite made up my mind not to submit tothe indignity; and if Ralli attempts to carry out his threat it willprobably lead to precipitate action on our part, which at the presenttime would be simply disastrous."
"So 'twould, sir; so 'twould," agreed Dickinson. "You needn't sayanother word, sir; _we_ understands. Only we'd like you to know sir--and this here's a very good opportunity for us to say it--that whenever_the time comes_ you may reckon upon all hands of us in this here boat."
"How do you mean?" ejaculated Lance, considerably startled. "I reallydo not understand you."
"Oh, it's all right, sir," returned Dickinson cheerfully. "We warn'tborn yesterday, ne'er a one of us, and you don't suppose as we believesyou've all settled down to stay here for the rest of your nateral lives,do you? Lord bless you, sir, _we_ knows you must have got some plan inyour heads for getting away out of this here hole; and the long and theshort of it is this:--When you're ready to go, we're ready to lend you ahand, perviding you'll take us with you. We're sick and tired of thishere cursed pirating business; we wants to get away out of it; and we'vebeen talking it over--me and my mates--and we've made up our minds thatyou're sartain to be off one of these fine days, and we'd like to gowith you, if you'll have us. We want to give the world another trial,and see if we can't end our days as honest men; ain't that it, mates?"
"Ay, ay, Bill; that's it and no mistake; you've put it to the gentlemenjust exactly as we wanted it; what you says, we'll say, and whateverpromises you makes we'll keep 'em; we wants another chance, and we hopesthat if so be as these here gen'lemen are thinking of topping theirbooms out of this they'll just take us along with 'em," replied the manwho was pulling the bow-oar, the others also murmuring an assent.
"But what makes you think we have an idea of effecting our escape? Andhow many others of you have the same opinion?" inquired CaptainStaunton.
"Well, I don't know as I can rightly say _what_ makes us think so; butwe _do_," answered Dickinson. "P'raps it's because you've took thingsso quiet and cheerful like. As to how many more of us thinks the sameas we do--why, I can't say, I'm sure. I've only spoke about it to somehalf a dozen or so that I _knowed_ would be glad of a chance to leave,like myself."
"Well," said Captain Staunton after a pause, "I really do not think wecan say anything to you, either one way or another, just now. What youhave just said has been so utterly unexpected that we must have time tothink and talk the matter over among ourselves; but I think we mayperhaps be able to say something definite to you to-morrow in answer toyour proposition. Don't you think so, Evelin?"
"I think so," answered Lance.
"Very well, then," said the skipper. "Let the matter rest until to-morrow, and we will then tell you our decision. In the meantime it mustbe understood that none of you say a word to anyone else upon thesubject until you have our permission."
A promise to this effect was readily given by each of the men, and thenthe matter dropped, the boat shortly afterwards reaching the landing-place at the bottom of the bay.
The armourer was at once taken out of the boat and carried by Lance'sdirections up to the building in which he slept. The miserable man wasby this time in a dreadfully exhausted condition; but on the arrival ofthe medicine-chest Lance mixed him a powerful stimulating draught, underthe influence of which he revived so much that Evelin felt himselfjustified in attempting the operation of amputation. This, with CaptainStaunton's assistance, was speedily and successfully performed; afterwhich the patient was placed in his hammock, and Lance sat himself downnear at hand, announcing his intention of watching by the poor fellowuntil next morning.
The operation successfully performed, Dickinson and his three companionsreturned to the shipyard, maintaining an animated and anxiousconsultation on the way. The result of this consultation was that whenthe four men resumed work they had a great deal to say--after answeringnumberless anxious inquiries as to the state of the wounded man--uponthe subject of Ralli's treatment of Lance and his threat to flog him.They denounced this conduct as not only unjust but also impolitic to thelast degree, dwelling strongly upon the unadvisability of offending aman so skilled as Lance in medicine and surgery, and impressing theiraudience with the necessity for discouraging--and, if necessary,interfering to prevent--the carrying out of the threat.
And as sailors are very much like sheep--where one jumps the rest jumpalso--they had not much difficulty in arranging for a generaldemonstration of popular disapproval in the event of Ralli's attemptingthe threatened indignity. Fortunately for himself--fortunately also inall probability for those in whom we are chiefly interested--he allowedthe affair to pass over; in going about among the workers that day heoverheard enough to feel assured that, for the moment at all events, hewas an unpopular man, and as among such turbulent spirits as those withwhom he had to deal, unpopularity means loss of power, his own commonsense suggested to him the extreme impolicy of pitting himself againstthem while they continued in so antagonistic a mood. But he was quiteresolved that if he could not have in one way what he called his"revenge," he would have it in another; and from that day forward hisinsolence and tyranny of demeanour toward Lance and his friends grewmore and more marked, until at length it became so unbearable that theywere driven to the very verge of desperation.
Meanwhile Lance, sitting there watching his patient, soon saw that hewas about to have his hands full. The hectic flush of fever began tochase away the deadly pallor from the sufferer's cheek; his eyesglittered and sparkled like coals of fire; and as feeling began toreturn to his hitherto benumbed limbs, and the smart of his recentoperation made itself felt, he tossed restlessly in his hammock,tormented with an unquenchable thirst.
"Water! water!" he muttered. "For the love of God give me water!"
Lance gave him some in a tin pannikin. In an instant the vessel wasglued to the unfortun
ate man's lips, and in another instant it wasdrained to the last drop.
"More--give me more," he gasped, as soon as he had recovered his breath.
But this Lance declined to do. Bidding the poor fellow be patient for afew minutes, he went to the medicine-chest and mixed him a coolingdraught. This also was swallowed with avidity; and then the armourerlay quiet for a few minutes. Not for long, however; he soon began totoss restlessly about once more; and by the time that the hands returnedfrom their day's work at the shipyard he was in a raging fever--ravingmad in fact; and Lance was at last compelled to have him laced up in hishammock to prevent him from doing himself a serious injury.
Lance Evelin will probably remember that night as long as he lives. Inthe delirium of the fierce fever which consumed him the unhappy armourerwas visited by visions of all the evil deeds of his past life; andLance's blood curdled in his veins as he listened to his patient'sdisjointed ravings of murder, rapine, and cold-blooded cruelty of sorevolting a character that he wondered how any human mind could conceiveit in the first instance, and how, after it had been conceived, humanhands could bring themselves to perpetrate it. And then the man'sguilty conscience awakened from its long torpor, and, acting upon hisexcited imagination, conjured up a thousand frightful punishmentsawaiting him. He writhed, he groaned, he uttered the most frightfulcurses, and then, in the same breath shrieked for forgiveness and mercy.It was perfectly appalling; even his comrades--those who had sharedwith him in the dreadful deeds about which he raved--found the scene tootrying for their hardened and blunted feelings; and such of them as hadtheir hammocks slung in the same dormitory abandoned them and slept inthe open air rather than remain to have their souls harrowed by hisdreadful utterances.
This terrible state of things existed until the afternoon of thefollowing day--rather more than twenty-four hours after he had receivedhis injuries--and then the fever subsided, but only to leave the oncepowerful man in the last stage of exhaustion. So completely prostratewas he that he had no power to so much as lift his hand, and he was onlyable to speak in the merest whisper. Now was the time when all Lance'sskill was most urgently required. Fagged as he was by his long night ofwatching, he tended his patient with the most unremitting assiduity,administering tonics and stimulants every few minutes; and racking hisbrain for devices by which he might help the man to tide over thisperiod of extreme prostration. But it was all of no avail; the poorfellow gradually sank into a state of stupor from which all Evelin'sskill was unable to arouse him; and at length, about eight o'clock inthe evening, after a temporary revival during which all the terrors ofdeath once more assailed him, his guilty soul passed away withoutopportunity for repentance; prayers and curses issuing from his lips inhorrible confusion up to the last moment of his existence. His deathwas witnessed by several of his companions in crime; and, while sometried to laugh and scoff away the unwelcome impression which the sceneproduced upon their minds, there were others who went into the open airand wandered away by themselves to ponder upon this miserable ending ofa crime-stained life.