Show PIECES OF EIGHT BEING beina THE AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF A TREASURE discovered IN THE BAHAMA ISLANDS IN THE YEAR 1905 NOW NOV FIRST GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC by RICHARD LE GALLIENNE copyright by doubleday page pae company CHAPTER VII continued 14 but alas they did not begin till some rome six feet above my head and the way was sheer ilow how was I 1 to reach the IoNi lowest iest rung rae hie rock was too sheer for me to cut steps in its as I 1 had done farther back I 1 looked about me again the luck was with me in one of the eaves caves I 1 had noticed some broken pieces of fallen rock They were terribly heavy but despair lent me streng strength ati and after an hour or twos work I 1 had managed to roll several of them to the foot of the ladder and with avith an effort ot of which I 1 would not have believed myself cap capable itile had been able to build them one on top of another against the wall so I 1 found myself able to grasp the lowest mug with ray my hands then fastening the lantern round my neck with my necktie I 1 prepared to mount the climb was not difficult once I 1 had managed to get my feet on the first rung of the ladder but there was always the he chance that one of the rungs might have rusted loose with time in which case of course it would have given way in my grasp and I 1 should have been precipitated backward to certain death belo below w Ilo however wever the man who had mortised morti sed thorn them had done an honest piece of work and they proved as firm as on the day they were placed there up and up I 1 went anent till I 1 must have been forty feet above the floor and then as I 1 neared the toot foot instead of coming to a trap door as I 1 had conjectured I 1 found that the ladder came to an end at the edge of a narrow ledge running along the ceiling much as a clerestory runs near the roof of some old churches on to this I 1 managed to climb it was barely a yard wide and the impending root roof did not permit ot of ones standing erect it was a dizzy situation and it seemed safest to crawl along on all fours holding the lantern in front of me presently it brought me up sharp in a narrow recess it had come to an end yes I 1 but imagine my joy I 1 it had come to an end at a low archway rudely cut in the rock deep set in the archway was r a stout wooden door uy my first thought was that I 1 was trapped again but to my infinite surprise and gratitude it proved to be slightly ajar and a vigorous push sent it grinding back on its hinges what next I 1 wondered at all events I 1 was no longer lost in the bowels of the earth step by step I 1 was coming nearer to the frontiers of humanity but I 1 was certainly not prepared for what next met my eyes as I 1 pushed through the low doorway with avith my lantern and looked around yes indeed man had certainly been here man too very purposeful and bustnes businesslike nes I 1 was in a sort of low narrow gallery some forty feet long to M I 1 W r 41 49 iti NN 0 V I 1 I 1 was in a sort of low narrow gallery some forty feet long which the arching rock made a crypt like ceiling cel ling at my first glance I 1 saw that there was another door nt at the far end similar to the one I 1 had entered by a and nd on the left side bide ot of the gallery built ot of rough stones from the low ceiling belling to the floor was a series of oc compartments each with locked wooden door they were strong and grim looking and might have been taken for prison cells or family faintly vaults or possibly wine bins the massive locke lock were red with rust and there wn wai plainly no possibility of 0 opening them on the other side of 0 the gallery there was a litter ot of old chains and tome some boards probably left over from froin ahe doers dorir sj yes and there were two old fbi flock guns and several cut lasses till nil eaten away with rust nio ni o i a rough seamans chest open and fall arg to pieces at the sight light of that a wild thought lastica through ray my brain what if good godl god I 1 what if this J treasury behind eliose grim doors I 1 threw myself with all my force against one and then the other for the moment I 1 forgot that my paramount business was to escape but I 1 might as well have hurled myself against the solid rock and at that moment I 1 noticed that the place was darker than it had been my lantern was going out in a moment or two I 1 should be e I 1 in the pitch dark and I 1 had discovered that the door at the end of the gallery was as solid as the others I 1 was to be trapped after all and I 1 pictured myself slowly dying there of hunger the pangs of which I 1 was already beginning to feel and some one years hence finding me there a moldering skeleton some one who would break open those doors uncover those gleaming hoards and moralize on the irony of my end condemned to die there of starvation with the treasure I 1 had so long sought on the other side of those unyielding doors old toms words suddenly flashed over me and I 1 could feel my hair literally beginning to rise there never was a buried treasure yet that claim its victim great god t and I 1 was to be the lie ghost and keep guard in this terrible tomb till the next dead man came along to relieve me of my sentry duty I 1 frantically I 1 turned up the wick of my lantern at the thought but it was no use it was plainly going out I 1 examined my match box bos I 1 had still a dozen or so matches left and then ray my eye fell on thit that shattered chest there were those boards too at all events I 1 could build a fire and make torches of slivers of wood so long as the wood lasted and then I 1 had an idea why not make the fire against the door at the end of the gallery and so burn my way through bravo my spirits rose at the thought and I 1 set to at once splitting some small kindling with my knife in a few minutes I 1 had quite a sprightly little fire going at the bottom of the door but I 1 saw that I 1 should have to be extravagant with ny my wood it if the fire was to be effective Ilo however wever it was neck or nothing so I 1 piled on beams and boards till my fire roared like a furnace and presently I 1 had the joy of seeing it begin to take hold odthe of the door which after a short time began to crackle and splutter in a very cheering fashion whatever lay beyond it was evident that I 1 should soon be able to break my way through the obstacle and indeed so it proved for presently I 1 used one of the boards as a battering ram and to my inexpressible joy it went crashing through with a shower of sparks and it was but the work of a few more minutes before the whole door fell flaming down and I 1 was able to leap through the doorway into the darkness on the other side As I 1 stood there peering ahead and holding aloft a burning stick which proved however a poor substitute for my lantern a wonderful sound smote my ears cars I 1 could not believe it and my knees shook beneath me it was the sound of the sea yes it was no illusion it was the sound that the sea makes singing and echoing through hollow caves the sound I 1 heard that night as I 1 stood at the moonlit door of calypsos cavern and saw that vision which my heart nearly broke to remember calypso oh calypso where was she at this moment pray god that she was indeed safe as her father had said but I 1 had to will anvill her from my mind to keep from going mad and ray my poor torch had gone out having however given me light enough to see e that the door which I 1 had just burnt through let out onto a narrow platform on the side of a rock that went slanting down into a chism of blackness through which as in c r great shell boomed that murmuring of ahe sea it had a perilous ugly look and it was plain that it would be foolhardy to attempt it at the moment without a light and my fire was dying down besides I 1 was beginning tw tv feel lightheaded light headed and worn out partly from lack of food no doubt As there was no food to be had I 1 recalled the old french proverb lie cats who sleeps or something to that effect and I 1 determined to husband my strength once more with a brief rest however its I 1 turned to throw some more wood on my fire preparing to indulge myself with fill a little campfire cheerfulness as I 1 dozed off my eyes tell fell once more on that grim line of locked doors and ray my curiosity and an idea made me wakeful again I 1 had burned down one door why not soother another why not indeed so I 1 raked over my fire to the family vault nearest to me and presently had it roaring and licking against tile hie stout door it was apparently not so EO solid its as the gallery door had been it at all events it kindled more easily and it was not long before I 1 had the satisfaction of battering that down too As I 1 did so I 1 caught sight of something in the interior inferior that made me laugh aloud and behave generally like a madman of course I 1 believe my eyes but they persisted in declaring nevertheless that there in front of me was a great iroll bound oaken chest to begin with it might not of course contain anything but bones but it might 1 the thing was too absurd I 1 must have fallen asleep must be already dreaming but no I 1 was laboring with all my strength to open it with one of those rusty cut lasses it was a tough job but my strength was as the strength of ten for the old treasure hunting lust was upon me and I 1 had forgotten everything else in the world tor for the time at last with a great wooden groan as though its heart were breaking at having to give up its secret at last it crashed open I 1 fell on my knees as though I 1 had been struck by lightning for it was literally brimming over with silver and gold pieces doubloons doub loons and pieces of eight english and french coins too guineas and louis fouls dor all as tobias manuscript had said 11 all good money for a while I 1 knelt over it dazed and blinded lost then I 1 slowly plunged my hands into it and let the pieces pour and pour through them literally bathing them in gold and silver as I 1 had read of misers doing then suddenly I 1 broke out into an irish jig never having had any notion of doing such a thing before in fact I 1 behaved as I 1 have read of ruen men doing whom a sudden fortune has bereft of reason for the time at till all events I 1 was a gibbering madman certainly there was to be no sleep for me that night but in the full tide of my frenzy I 1 suddenly noticed something that brought me up sharp out beyond the doorway it was growing light it was only a dim tremulous suffusion sulT of it indeed but it was real dall daylight glit oozing in from somewhere or other the blessed blessed daylight I 1 god be praised CHAPTER VIII in which I 1 understand the feelings of a ghost so I 1 surmised I 1 had been underground a whole day and two nights and this was the morning of the second day after calypsos disappearance what had been happening to her all this time sly my flesh crept at the thought and with that daylight stealing in like a living presence and the sound and breath of the sea my anguish returned a hundredfold As I 1 stood on the little rocky platform outside the door through which I 1 had burned my way and looked down into the glimmering chasm beneath and heard the fresh voice of the sea huskily rumbling and reverberating rever berating about hidden grottoes and channels all that calypso NN as to me came back with the keenness of a sword through my heart ah there was my treasure as I 1 had known when my eyes first beheld her compared with which that gold and silver in there whose gleam had made me momentarily distraught was but so much dust and ashes ardently as I 1 had sought it what was avas it compared to one glance of her eyes what if in the same hour I 1 had lost my true treasure and found the false at the thought that glittering heap became abhorrent to me and without looking back I 1 sought for some way by which I 1 could descend As my eyes grew accustomed to the ali dim light I 1 saw that there were some shallow sli allow steps cut diagonally in the rock arid and down jhc thc these e I 1 had soon made my way to find in a roomy corridor so much like that in which I 1 had seen calypso standing in the moonlight that for a moment I 1 dreamed it was avas the same saine and started to run down it thinking indeed that ray my troubles were over that in another moment I 1 would emerge through that enchanted door and face the sea but alas instead of a broad shining doorway and open arms of freedom widespread for me to leap into I 1 came at last to a mere long narrow slit silt through which I 1 could gaze as a man gazes through a prison window at the sky the entrance had once been wide and free but a mass of rock had fallen from above and blocked it up leaving only a long crack through which the he tides passed to and fro I 1 was still in my trap it seemed more terrible than ever now that I 1 could see freedom so close lier her very voice calling to me singing the morning song of the sea but in the caverns behind me I 1 heard another mocking song and I 1 felt a cold breath on my cheek for death stood by my sido agrin a grin the trea treasure surel he be whispered 1 I need you to guard that the treasure you have risked all to win the treasure for which you have lost your treasure you cannot escape go back and count your gold it Is all good money 1 iia nal I 1 ha hal I 1 it is all good money the illusion seemed so real to rue me that hat I 1 cried aloud 41 4 1 I 1 will mill not die I 1 will ili not diet diel cried it so loud that anyone in a passing boat might have heard me and shuddered wondering aliat poor ghost it was walling among the rocks but the fright had done me ine good and I 1 nerved metel for another effort I 1 it if only I 1 could wriggle past that contraction tr ac tion in the hie middle I 1 should be i safe and if 11 I 1 stuck fast midway I 1 but the more I 1 measured the width with my eye the less the narrowing seemed to be to be so slightly perceptible it could hardly be enough to make difference caution whispered that it might bo be enough to make the difference between life and death but already my choice of those two august alternatives was so limited as hardly to be called a choice on the one land hand I 1 could worm my way back through the eaves caves and tunnels through which I 1 had passed and try my luck again at the other end with half a dozen mat matches chesl 1 sneered a voice that sounded like tobias precisely and the horror of it was more than I 1 dared face again anyway so there was nothing for it but this aperture hardly wider than one of those deep stone tilts slits that stood for windows in n a norman castle it was my last chance and I 1 meant to take it like a man I 1 stood for a moment nerving myself i and taking deep breaths as though I 1 expected to take but few more then my loft left arm extended I 1 entered sidewise and began to edee myself along it was easy enough for a yard or two 1 c 0 P of c i ap 0 4 4 P 0 0 0 all good money after which it was plain that it was beginning to narrow very slightly indeed but still a little Ilo however wever I 1 could still go on and I 1 could still go back I 1 went on more slowly it is true yet still I 1 progressed but the rock was perceptibly closer to me I 1 had to struggle harder it was beginning to hug me very gently but it was beginning I 1 paused to take breath I 1 could not turn my head to look back but I 1 judged that I 1 had bad come over a third of the way may I 1 was coming up to the waist that I 1 had feared but I 1 could still go on very slowly scarce more than an inch at every effort yet every inch counted and I 1 had bad lots of time my feet and head were free which was the main thing another good push or two wo and I 1 should be at the waist should know ray my fate I 1 gave the good push or two and suddenly the arms of the rock were wera around me tight and close this time they hugged me they held me fast like a rude lover over an and would not let me go my knees and |