CHAPTER XXVI
DOINGS ON THE LITTLE ISLE AGAIN
"Hurrah!" echoed Ray, with teasing, mock enthusiasm. "Hurrah!"
But we hadn't taken two more steps forward, now, when there broke outahead of us the voice of Hawkins again, singing:
_"She died of the fever, no doctor could save her."_
Smash! went our enthusiasm, and we turned tail and skedaddled back onthe path. We pulled up a moment at the edge of the open bit, and weheard:
_"She was a fish monger, and where is the wonder--"_
We hopped across the clearing, and still the song followed:
_"For they all wheeled wheel-barrows through streets wide and narrow,"_
_"Crying--'Cockles! and mussels! alive, alive, O!'"_
"That blooming idiot!" broke out Norris, when we came to a stand in thebrush. "What business had he coming back so soon!"
"He just couldn't wait to sing us that song," said Ray. "'Cockles! andmuscles!' But say--Hurrah for the gold mine!"
"Perhaps the black boy smelled a mouse," I offered.
We hadn't long to wait till Hawkins came pushing through the brush.
"I tell you wot, fellahs," he explained, "that nigger suddent gotstubborn, an' wouldn't go no farther. 'Ee was just afraid, I guess, as'ow the boss 'ud raise _ructions_ if we 'adn't got enough work done when'ee gets back. This last trip, the boss sure 'as got a big 'urry on;'ee'd 'ave us workin' night an' day, if 'ee 'ad the light."
"How much, now, do you suppose he has got out of the diggings?"questioned Norris.
"Hit's a 'eap more nor I can guess," answered Hawkins. "Hit's a 'eap o'pounds we 'ave got out the two years I 'ave been 'ere. An' now, 'ee's acartin' of it awye from some 'ole back in the rocks where 'ee's beenkeepin' it, 'ee don't let the nigger nor me go near the plyce. 'Ee says'ee 'as got a trap there; an' 'ee'll shoot us if we foller 'im anywhere'ee goes."
Norris had many queries to put the little cockney contortionist, but Isoon pressed him to go, lest the black boy should come seeking him. Andso he went, having exacted a promise that we would not go away from theregion without him. In return, he contracted to play into our hands incircumventing Duran. "And Hi'm slick," he declared. "He cawn't foolHandy 'Awkins."
"And now--" began Norris.
"Now we'll get back to our little camp," I said.
"It's hard to go without a sight of the gold diggings," said Norris,half in earnest, half playing the youngster.
"The diggings will keep till the time's ripe," I said, assuming thepaternalism forced on me.
"Hurrah for the gold mine!" teased Ray, keeping a wary eye on GrantNorris.
We were soon in the path, and presently scaled the cliff on Duran'scontraption. We coiled the halliard under the brush on the cliff-top, asDuran had left it, and picked our way to the cavern entry-hall. A flashfrom my electric lamp revealed that all the gold-laden bamboo cylinderswere gone from that niche, where we had seen them.
"I hope to Heaven our fellows saw what he did with that stuff," prayedNorris, when we had crawled out through the curtain of water into thatouter world again.
"Trust Bob for that," I assured him. "He'll have the place spotted ifhe's had half a chance."
Everything was ship-shape in the camp-place amongst the brush. There wasfood in plenty, and though it was late, I was glad to round out mybreakfast with some fruit and a nibble of cheese. We had nothing to dobut to rest until the return of our comrades. And that event we were notto expect until some time between sunset and morning, for we had alreadyseen that it was by night, by preference, that Duran traveled to andfrom that secret vale behind the cliffs.
It was a long and irksome time of waiting that day and night, for a goodshare of the night had passed ere they had come. Even now, so long sincethat time, I yawn to think of it. And I am thinking that I can do nobetter, to cover that space, than tell how our friends employed thetime, while they were gone down Crow Bay.
* * * * *
It was soon after nightfall, Carlos--on the lookout--had heard Duransplashing in the creek, below the cascade, and he made out theill-defined form of him as he moved away down the path in the murk.Carlos hurried over to the nook in the brush and made his report.
Duran's coming, of course, was expected--though he seemed a trifleearly--and the plan of procedure had already been outlined. Grant Norrisset off at once to again achieve that passage through the grotto andjoin Ray, who lingered at the cliff-top, where he had witnessed Duran'spassage. Captain Jean Marat, Robert, and Carlos prepared to follow onDuran's trail.
But there was a circumstance troubled Carlos, and he had a word to say.
"Duran, he walk ver' light, an' it seem' he keep ver' straight," hebegan. "I think he do not carry anything."
"Let's go see!" said Robert.
And he and Carlos hastened into the cavern, where Robert threw hisflashlight on the scene. There was that stack of gold-filled sections ofbamboo, quite of the same size as they had seen it hardly more than twohours before. And more--on the floor of the cavern lay a canvas pack,with its leather straps.
"He hasn't taken a thing!" broke out Robert.
And the two hurried out to where Marat stood waiting on the stream'sbank.
Robert gave him the news.
"Ah!" said Marat. "He go for help to carry thee big load away."
But Robert's mind was full of another idea, and he said, "Captain Marat,suppose you and Carlos go and see if you can see anything of him out inthe bay. I'll stay here. And if you see him going off in the canoe, sendCarlos after me. If you don't see him, wait for me."
"Ver' well," said Marat.
And the two set off in the murk. They moved rapidly, alternatelytrotting and walking, intent on covering as much of the space betweenthem and Duran as might be. And as they went, Marat--and Carlos aswell--began to have an inkling of the thought that was in Robert's mind.
When they got to the water they quickly satisfied themselves thatDuran's sturdy little canoe was gone from its place. Soon they were inthe skiff and out on the bay. Swiftly they moved down the shore, lookingover their shoulders now and again, for the sight of some dark object onthe quiet surface of the water. They had hardly gone a mile when theyrested on their oars, and took one good long look down the bay. Nothingshowed.
Robert, in the meantime, squatted on the bank of the creek, and waitedpatiently for perhaps two hours. A tree-toad trilled out, now and then,to mingle his song with the music of the nearby cascade. The tree-topshung over the stream with never a rustle, for the night breeze had notyet risen.
At last Robert became conscious of a new sound, seeming to come fromsome point way down the creek. In another minute it had grown moredistinct, and he knew it for the gentle and regular dip of a paddle. Andpresently, a black mass showed between the banks. And then a canoe pokedits nose to shore, not forty feet from where Robert crouched by the treetrunk.
The canoeist secured the painter to a root in the bank, and forthwithmoved to the cascade. In five minutes that figure appeared again, andRobert saw him stoop over the edge of the canoe and distribute somethingon its bottom. When he went back a second trip, Robert made a hurriedvisit to the canoe and satisfied himself that it was the gold-ladenbamboo that found placement there. Four trips that figure made, alltold, and then loosed the painter and re-embarked, moving quietly downthe stream in the dark.
Now, Robert took to the path and sped on down the way the others hadgone. He found them awaiting him in the skiff.
"He's got all the gold in the canoe," Robert explained. "And he's on theway."
"Thad w'at I been thinking," said Captain Marat. "He go roun' by onelagoon an' fin' thee creek. I think I have see where thad lagoon, it goin. We go there an' see."
So the three set the skiff in motion, skirting the marsh-grass, tillthey came to where a narrow channel opened inland.
"Another one leedle more down," said Jean Marat; "maybe he come out thadone."
They had got the boat to within vi
ew of the opening of that next
channel, when an object shot out from behind the grass.
"Down--queek!" spoke Marat, in a hurried whisper.
All ducked their heads and lay quiet for some minutes. Then theyventured to peer over the gunwale, and saw the canoe as a dark mass,moving steadily away down the bay.
"He didn't see us," observed Robert.
"No," agreed Marat, "fortunate' he did not look round."
There was little doubt as to Duran's destination, so the three made thepassage leisurely down over the same route they had rowed that othernight. And they turned the skiff up that same creek of the mainland.This time they were determined on a bolder move than before. They meantto risk discovery, and land with the boat on that little island, thoughunder cover of night. Carlos and Robert--who, like myself, stillretained his black-stained face and hands--were to remain in hidingthroughout the coming day, and observe, if possible, how Duran shoulddispose of that gold he had taken from Carlos' mine. The while, CaptainMarat would hold the skiff over at the mainland, ready to pick them upthe following night, when Duran shall have departed from the islandagain.
They waited till midnight, and then rowed to the isle where Robert andCarlos disembarked.
"Two flashes will be the signal," said Robert in a whisper.
"All right," returned Marat. And he rowed away.
The two crawled into the shelter of the brush. In time, they had gainedthe clearing in which stood the little hut. No gleam of light shonethere. Creeping close, they could hear the snoring of one, and the heavybreathing of another sleeper within. This was enough. They got to theshore again, and found where the skiff of the isle was lying on thebeach.
"Well, Carlos," said Robert, "suppose we have a snooze. There won't beanything going on till daylight."
"Yes," agreed Carlos.
And they crawled into a close piece of underbrush.
Carlos was the first abroad when day had come. Robert missed him when heopened his eyes; but he had hardly finished rubbing the sleep from themwhen Carlos appeared, to say that the negro was already setting off inthe skiff for a trip to mainland.
"That Duran is sending him off on an errand again," observed Robert, "sohe will be alone to bury the gold."
"Yes," said Carlos. "I heard Duran say to him that he must not forget tobring the drug. He say something about someone who do not work anythingwithout he have the drug."
Robert puzzled a moment over this intelligence, and then, seeming togive up the problem, he said, "well, let's have a bite and then see whatDuran's up to."
Presently they got themselves behind a shelter, whence they could lookout into the little clearing. Duran was nowhere in view. They waitedpatiently some minutes, and were rewarded with the spectacle of Durancoming into the clearing from a point to their left, and bearing on hisback a heavy pack. He passed the cabin and moved to its north side. Inten minutes he returned without his burden, going back the way fromwhich he had brought his load.
Now, when Duran had gone out of view again, they scurried round to apoint of vantage situate to the northeast of the hut. So when Duranappeared with his next load, they followed him with their eyes till hedisappeared in a thicket that debouched from the wood on the north intothe clearing.
In a little, Duran again appeared. And he had no sooner vanished to thesouth for a third freight of the gold, than Robert and Carlos werestartled with the spectacle of a naked, lithe, black body springing fromthe ground, as it seemed, and who stole snake-like to the edge of thethicket where Duran had gone in and out.
Our two looked at one another in their astonishment. It was evidentthere was at least one other than themselves spying upon Duran and hisdoings.
On an impulse, Robert took up a cudgel and threw it hard to the placethat naked black had gone into. He immediately followed it with anothermissile. That black body suddenly appeared, like a rabbit flushed out ofhis brush, and sped for the shelter of the wood.
When Robert and Carlos came to the wood's edge, by the north shore, theysaw the black head of a swimmer making haste across the bay.
"I wonder where he came from?" queried Robert.
"I don' know," said Carlos. "Maybe from the _Orion_."
"Well, we gave him a scare," said Robert. "He won't come back."
They got to their point of vantage again, and watched till Duran hadtaken into the thicket a fourth, and last burden. This time they hadabove an hour's wait for sight of him again. And now he bore a shovel,with which implement he disappeared into the cabin.
"I guess he's through with his job," observed Robert. And such was thecase, for no more was seen of Duran for some hours; and then heappeared, but to go down to the south shore, apparently to look for thereturn of his black. That portly individual indeed showed up, down thebay, his oars rising and dipping leisurely. Robert and Carlos watchedthe landing of the skiff. For cargo, there was a coffee-sack, holdingsome parcels of stores. And the desired drug the black brought, too, forCarlos heard him report as much to Duran.
It was already past the middle of the afternoon when those twodisappeared again in the cabin with the coffee-sack. From then tilldark, neither showed a face except the once, when--near dark--the fatblack came out for an armful of wood. And then the coming murkencouraged our two to creep closer, and they had their appetites set onedge by the smell of fresh-made coffee. They peeked through the windowto see those within having their snack.
Duran rose from the table at last. Robert and Carlos were down by theshore when the canoe was pushed into the water, and Duran began hisreturn voyage up Crow Bay.
The flash of Robert's light brought Marat over; and it was aninteresting report Robert had to make to him as they propelled the skiffagain on Duran's track.
"Ah, thad ver' good," said Captain Marat. "We find where he hide it nowwithout much pain."
Duran's canoe was in its place near the bay end of that path; and withinthe hour the three were received by their comrades in the camp.