Show ta soft T at D tl A our 1111 AT BELL W vy ARTHUR D HOWDEN DEN SMITH BI amu an am u aurnt CHAPTER XI continued 13 my uncle turned to the tha mate cast loose from tho the prize master martin and make all ball anti the course to 1 by south douth 11 aye aye air there thera WAS w an interval of silence after he had gone tile the shouts of the pirates echoed from the deck with the creaking of halyards hal yards and fl lapp appin ln of 0 palls the royal james seemed to choke herself as she he sidled freo free of the battered hull of 0 the trint dad and through the stern windows showed the bowsprit and fonalo of the still smothered beneath a mess ot ol canvas and broken brohen spars end rigging slowly we drew past her murray roue rose if you will vill pardon me I 1 have much to see to on deck should you desire ony refreshment do but ring that bell end and state your wants to the steward flobert if you and peter can so BO far submerge your Ilan sympathies I 1 should appreciate luch buell aid ns as you might render in the accounting of the tr treasure ensure 11 ieter and I 1 went with film alro as aa much to escape the company of the irishman na as to satisfy our curios curiosity alty regarding the chests and boxes we lind had glimpsed in transit across the santis alma trinidada Trini dads deck a marvelous concentration of wealth the col dumns of figures I 1 set met down never descended condescended con to detill awo pieces of ight they would run or doubloons doub loons onzal anatel lonos lanos eights and so BO on there wits waa upward of two hundred thousand pounds in bar silver fifty pound ingots ingols sheathed rhen thea thed by threes in thick canvas whets jackets to facilitate their transport by mule intile trains each mule can carrying crying a load of three hundred pounds there was a quantity too of gold bullion each ingot of eighty pounds in its own canvas jacket there were s a chest cheat of pre prec cloua loun stones atones the value of which we could only guess at and three chests of plate the total value by the government estimates upon each package chest or keg was in english j money exclusive of the jewels and the plate and we lid did not conclude conc ludo the accounting ond bestowal of the treasure in ben bell bunns wine cellar until an hour post pnat dusk when murray dismissed nil hands with an extra ration of rum in tile the cabin we found colonel odonnell asleep sprawled on the alie table with ills his lead head rested on his folded arms a puddle of wine by his elbow my uncles eyebrows twitched upward this gentleman la Is a chamberlain to ning king james jaines robert lie he remarked a knight of malta and of Sun santiago tingo in spain a colonel of Sparil spanish mh engi and lord of I 1 know not how ninny many bog manors in ireland if ho he had ills hn rights and look at him V I 1 who brought him to this I 1 retorted not 1 I my boy I 1 to intrigue la not ilot necessarily to license appetite well well its fortunate I 1 induced ill ailin to fetch along tile the little maid consider her plight in a spanish convent it if anything happened to her father flit her consider lier her plight in a pirate ship it if anything happened to him film 11 I 1 1 I jeered lie ile appealed to peter whimsically littin humorous orous stop me the boy wears upon pon my nerves I 1 wua was ever a youth so callow tn in ills assurance of righteousness peters little eyes twinkled ile he to Is right andt you are right you are a big rascal but dot time maybe you wag waa right dont be an idiot peter I 1 romped rasped als you are the idiot affirmed my great uncle here are you end and peter two honest men if tiny any ever were ivere and myself with less claim to virtue perhaps but as acute nil an in forest crest if tile tho truth he be known and all three of us ua a bunkering to safe care pard the te insoft what mother might net more and flint I 1 amended billed protect her I 1 suppose I 1 Il hell willell never have lave the chance robert lie he answered gravely you and nold peter have played ducks and drakes 1 et acon you with my plans but john ilent la not the man to oi overreach tile me olve him rope ind and well present him film ills his chance to bang han I 1 wits was up early in the morning but r 74 itress odonnell and my great de cle were before me As I 1 climbed tile poop I 1 saw them standing by tae w weather rail murray inference jfe rence in every line of ills his straight t fure anti and handsome old id young face the fhe little maid eyeing min with a comical mixture of antipathy and respect ner Is my nephew who will ill all your remaining doubts mistress mog dolra proclaimed lV murray irray and with your hotle leave ill be about my inspection she watched hla his retreating back with it a kind of fascination sure I 1 nver never mer mec the like of him the said gald nt at lust lie ile puts me mind allind of the grand gentry the mines to see we tn in madrid and a prate but im thinking wu im iu the lie marne queer sort Mal matte o r vu that can be and gallant to a foolish maid and us its cruet cruel as a the wildcat tile the indiana allowed vad us in tile tho hills up behind porto 1 bello it must seem so BO to you I 1 an but the truth la Is that I 1 am Rs much the sport of fate as aa yourself do you tell me so she replied politely do but let me toll tell you my story I 1 pleaded and you will think better of somo some things so I 1 began at the beginning and told her all front from the moment D darby arby me oraw grow find run nin into the count counting ing room in pearl street stroet and how remote in time and place that seemed as aa we 11 stared to red out upon the blue green rollers of the caribbean and the tropic sun warmed toward its noon I 1 intensity nten alty I 1 she listened with mounting late Int creat reit never interrupting save for an occasional Gl glory oryll 1 oh blessed sain saints I 1 holy virgin can such auch things bell be I 1 but when I 1 came to the escape from the walrus she brol broke ce in upon me I 1 and you did that to be handy by if I 1 had need of yoki yoi I 1 oil air forget the wicked suspicious auspicious I 1 owned ala 71 a true friend you will be and the large gentleman too what Is lie he called master allister corlzer Cor laer alas I 1 a am rn heavy in your debt and always shull shall be she was wholly trustful with peter and me from then on and spent most of her time with us on tile the seventh morning after the action with the trinidad we raised A a slow sandy islet densely choked with low trees and bush growth bare of any characteristic that invited human habitation murray approached it with caution a man in tho the chains dipping the lead continually and we came to anchor under its lee and a mile or more offshore in the meantime af martin artin and a party of some fifty men had been passing up treasure from the wine cellar or lazaret the anchor cable ra ran n ou out t a and nd murray issued an order to lower all the small boats lie ile took anuff staring contemplatively at the sand hillocks of the dead mans mana chest here la Is my plan he pursued 1 I will have eight hundred thousand pounds set ashore in the boats my iny own share of one hundred thousand thoua and chevalier via HI well as the seven hu hundred n thousand pounds guaranteed to your friends I 1 will then land you four with sufficient provisions and bear away in the james to tile the sp thard returning in five alve days to io pick you up in the intervening period you should be able to trans transport port the treasure to a sate safe spot and bury it in that way chev chevalier uller its safety can be assured until we are able to return for it with the james or some other craft dispatched by y your 0 u r friends your plan la in waybe maybe the best beat in the circumstances answered odonnell ODonnel lJ there was waa wore more talk back and forth but the end of it nil all was that odonnell accepted by great uncles plan and dolra was won over likewise by the argument via so long is as the treasure was wag stolen it had best reassured be assured to a worthy purpose peter and I 1 agreed for a complex of reasons because of tile tho little maid for one thing arid and for another because there was an excitement in the burial of treasure which neither nelt lier of us had tasted before and also of course because when all wits ans said and done we were prisoners and we ve must but id never seek to deny that we had pleasure from the thrill thrift that came to us late in the afternoon of that day as we stood on oil the narrow beach of the islet beside beshle a great stuck stack of kegs null and chests axes pickaxes pick axes and shovels a barrel of water and boxes botes of food from lien ben gunn goinns s larder watching the boat that lind had landed funded us pull back to tile the janies james the first afternoon end and evening wo we spent lit in selecting a hiding place in a shallow valley protected from the terrible storms storing which sweep those sens sells colonel odonnell ODon nelI and folrn were detailed to do tile the digging as neither was as capable as peter and I 1 of managing the weighty bulk of if the ie casks and chests and after that we worked unremittingly except for a couple of hours at midday and a chort snatch of steel about down dawn for tire starlit starlia nights with their bracing sea winds were the most comfortable times wo we had yet the of the james were within sight before we had disposed of the last lasi of sand front from the hiding place and re replanted plante d its aren area with the alie and bushes we vc biad removed with every care to preserve their roots CHAPTER XII suspicions irom from I rom the pend mans chest the royal james headed northwest into the atlantic murray knew that the trinidad must have sent the of ills his I 1 lie ne length and breadth of the And antilles lies by now the spanish squadrons would have put to sea from san sail junn juan de porto rico santo Doil domingo lingo and the and the caribbean would be with garda costas but more inore to be defred than oll ait a o ll it tha th spaniards efforts be the consequence of the complaint sure to be dispatched to the port admiral nt at kingston tile the jamaica frigates would carry a hunting call to every cruiser on tile tha west indian station we picked up a smart mart so easter and ran our down packet fashion with never a sail anti in sight for a week until a morning when the sun came up at our backs like a burnished copper plaque and we saw the cone of the spyglass lifting out of the haze ahead A league or two farther on the whole island shaped itself beneath its spine of hills a and lid a column of smoke from tile the spyglass told us that mints flints lookout lied had detected us the wind had continued strong through the night but after dawn it turned puffy and nearly noon when we ve passed into captain kidds anchorage on on the last of the flood there was a great bustle aboard the walrus with boats plying to and from tile the shore and as our anchor splashed the longboat put off from her side flints red coat like a flame in the stern sheets Gi glory oryl 1 exclaimed dolra odonnell herblum her blue eyes wide with delighted horror theres one id not need to have pointed out to me to know him a pirate or the dreadful knaves that do bo be rowing the oars her father glowered down at the heap of treasure kegs chests and packages which murray had ordered 16 PIT alf if flint has ha der feel tor for it it dont matter what you show him he wants wanta all fetched on deck that morning and then stared oft off at flints gaudy figure and to scoundrels like yon yell be trusting the lives of 0 all of us andrew murrayl murray I 1 he snarled by times man I 1 think theres theroa a green madness in your brain why tho the view of that gold and silver below would be sufficient to tempt better men than they to commit murder my great uncle took snuff your diagnosis Is correct chevalier chevailer he retorted they would cheerfully commit murder for a coveted knife or a sixpence with a hole in it my design in revealing to them the entire extent of the treasure we carry Is to impress them at once with my good faith and benumb their acquisitive faculties by the sight of greater wealth than they ever dreamed of obtaining at one time A snort from peter diverted attention to the dutchman if flint lias has tier der feel for it it dont matter what you show him lie ile wants all ali ah I 1 murray regarded more attentively the boatload of pirates just juat rounding up to our port quarter 1 I see that captain fit flint nt has with him john silver and the rd haired irish boy he calls ills his luck you may be right friend peter but I 1 should not be greatly concerned over that twill do no harm if I 1 reveal that it occurred to me ma that in many ways it might simplify our problem did captain flint resort to force the irishman counted the dumpor gun porta ts lit in the walrus side lift ila seems to carry as aa heavy metat metal but on the sea na as on the land the brain which overmatches over matches brute force chevalier you who are tin an en elneer do not need to be reminded of this axiom however we are not yet come to the issue and I 1 am never one for engaging in a search for trouble we are in an impasse reflected odonnell gloomily not at all rejoined m my y great uncle we have played our hand with entire success so go far in the game no BOW NY for us to sit alt back and await the plays of other participants what they do must determine our next but captain flint Is come aboard this conversation Is without purpose since fact must now displace conjecture lie he eyed us all somewhat gravely 1 I have but one word more to say he added whatever happens leave me to do the talking do it whether we would or no growled odonnell flint climbed over the bulwarks bulwa with a racket of oaths and swaggered up to the poop martin dropped a whip from a block on the mainyard and john silver was hauled up in its bight his bis crutch hanging from him bis neck darby and the rest scaled the side ide ladder and mingled with the james crew their eyes popped from their heads as they circled the heap of treasure their chief was equally frank in re the lust of gf greed the picture warmed in him alim ills green eyes flickered hotly on either side bide of his thin beaked nose and ills his blue jowl was bluer than ever the weatherworn weather worn skin over his bis cheekbones laced with a network of crimson veins that brightened as his excitement increased yet he forgot the treasure the instant his gaze fell upon peter and me so your hostages returned to ye murray urray T gut me etwas a pretty trick Y ye e played us I 1 keep faith wl wil me yo ye would I 1 oil oh yest give me two hostages instead 0 one fulfill your contract you will theres no need for it to be sure but yell do anything to prove good faith to me mel I 1 and take both or none soya says you both or none I 1 well ye fooled me that time murray but ye never will again by thunder not if my names john flint I 1 my great uncle heard him out in silence waiting until he be had bad stepped off the poop ladder and stood facing us 1 I am not responsible for your log losing the hostages he replied then in his iciest tones stop roe me flint I 1 warned you your ship was in a disgraceful condition with till all hands hand 8 drunk did you think to ke keep ep fast two men of strength and intelligence drunk or sober we wore were promised them assented flint a trifle less belligerently and sure ye could ila ha turned pent cm back to us not that that will do me any good for the two men they killed they or whoever helped em to break from the walrus 11 nobody from the royal james jaines assisted them said murray you have my word for that abat I 1 cannot bay ay sit a much for your own ehli although they told me when they discovered themselves to me several days after our sailing that they had acted alone 0 alone or not wheres my two men blustered |