Across the Spanish Main - Harry Collingwood (best novels for beginners TXT) 📗

voices, being those of the men constituting the anchor watch. Roger and his friend strolled up to them, and, sitting down on the breech of a gun, prepared to listen to what was evidently a yarn that the old quarter-master, Cary, was spinning.

“Yes,” they heard him say, “this arn’t by no means the furst taime I was in thaise seas.—Good-even to ye, Mr Trevose and Mr Edgwyth!—No; I tall ’ee I was ’ere in the zummer of 1582, just after the taime that that there bloody pirate, José Leirya, was sailing of these vury seas. ’E was a fiend in ’uman shape, if there ever was one; nobody was zafe in anny of the ships ’e tuk. All the men—passengers or zeamen—that ’e captured ’e did bind and put under ’atches in their own ship, aifter ’e ’ad taken all out ’e wanted. Then ’e zet ’em adrift; but afore ’e zet ’em adrift ’e used to fire the ship in zeveral places, and all they poor creatures did roast. The childer ’e took aboard his own ship, keepin’ zum on ’em, and the others ’e zold to the plantations. ’E was a reg’ler devil, ’e was; and they do zay as ’ow ’e be about ’ere even now, although ’e baint been ’eard of for zum taime. And more; they zay that zumwheres near this vury plaace ’o ’as buried tons of goold and silver, precious stones, and all kinds of vallybles; but ’ow far that be true I doen’t knaw. But I do knaw as ’ow I would laike to fall in with ’e with these ’ere ships; we’d taich ’un a vaine lesson, wouldn’t us, laads?”

“Harry, come here a moment,” said Roger, jumping down from the gun at this point in the old man’s narrative, and walking aft. Harry joined him.

“What do you want, old fellow?” said he.

“Well, lad,” remarked his friend, “it has just come to me, somehow, as old Cary mentioned about the treasure of that scoundrel, José Leirya, being buried somewhere about here, that possibly that cipher of ours which we brought from the Gloria del Mundo may refer to that very treasure. You see, Cary says that Leirya hasn’t been heard of for some time. That seems to point either to his death or the disbandment of his crew.

“Now, Cary says he was here in 1582, in the summer, and mentions that that date was just after the time when Leirya was committing such atrocities on the high seas. There is what is presumably a date at the beginning of our document, and that date—if such it is—is 1581, the year before Cary came to these parts. People do not write in cipher save to conceal important information from the eyes of those not in the secret, do they? Very well.

“Now, what would any man wish to conceal by cipher save hidden treasure? There are other things, certainly, he might wish to write about in such a way that the ordinary run of people should not understand the writing, but, to my mind, treasure is the most likely, and the dates coincide very well. Our date is 1581, and Cary says that when he was here in 1582 it was just after the pirate’s depredations; and he has not, apparently, been heard of since. This, I say, points to his death or to the disbandment of his crew; and what more likely than that, before either of these occurrences, he should bury his accumulated booty and locate its position by cipher? I believe most strongly, Harry, that we have in our possession the key to the hiding-place of all the treasure of José Leirya—and he must have accumulated millions of dollars’ worth in his time—if we can but come upon the translation of it. What do you think of it, Harry?”

“Well, Roger, lad,” said Harry, “as you put it, certainly it does seem as though you might be right, and that there may be something in it. We must make another attempt to find the key to the cipher, and when that is found I certainly think we shall obtain something valuable for our trouble, even though it should not be this great treasure of José Leirya. But we had better go below now and try to get some sleep, for we shall have a hard day before us to-morrow.”

They were roused early next morning by the boatswain’s whistle, and, having dressed, came up on deck to find that the boats were just being got over the side again to take away the kedge anchors, by which to haul the ships closer inshore for careening purposes.

It was decided by Cavendish that, as the beach was very spacious, and there were four ships to be careened, they should careen two at a time, instead of one only, as usual. The vessels that most needed overhauling and repairing were the commander’s own ship and the captured Spanish vessel, El Capitan, which had been rechristened the Tiger. So it was determined to careen the Tiger and the Stag Royal first of all, leaving the other two vessels, the Good Adventure and the Elizabeth, afloat for purposes of defence, should an enemy appear in sight while the operations were being carried on.

The Tiger and the Stag Royal were therefore swung broadside-on to the beach. The anchors were then taken ashore in the boats and carried up the beach to above high-water mark, where they were buried in deep holes dug in the sand, with timbers laid lengthwise upon them to prevent them from being dragged out again when the strain was put on the cables.

The holes were then filled up and the sand heaped high above them, to get as much weight as possible upon the anchors, and to allow more purchase.

Then from the cables attached to the anchors themselves, at a distance of about twelve feet before they disappeared into the sand, a spring of stout manila rope was led, and fastened securely to a palm-tree at the edge of the brushwood in a direct line with the ship and the anchor, thus affording a doubly secure purchase when the time came to heave on the cable and haul the vessels up on the beach.

Roger and Harry had been sent ashore by Cavendish to take part in this work, as he wished them to get an insight into every part of the duties of a sailor, and thus make themselves two useful members of the crew, for the captain could not afford to carry any man who was not thoroughly proficient, the capacity of his ships being too small to afford accommodation to mere idlers.

The lads were, however, very quick to learn, and very anxious to master all the details of their profession, and therefore never complained, whatever the duty that was assigned to them. They thus increased their knowledge and efficiency very quickly, and Cavendish had no grounds for regret that he had taken them on board his ship.

The anchor belonging to the flag-ship had been taken ashore and securely buried, and the cable, with the rope attached, bent on to the anchor, and the Stag Royal was ready for careening. The seamen then tramped off along the beach to where the anchor for the Tiger had been brought ashore and laid on the sand, and proceeded with their preparations for careening that craft also.

They had begun to dig the hole in the sand in which to deposit the anchor, when Roger’s attention was attracted by a sound of rustling in the wood behind them. He looked round, and perceived that for a considerable distance along the beach the foliage appeared to be moving to and fro, as though stirred by a slight breeze. Yet, so far as he could tell, down there on the beach, there was no wind at all stirring, nor had there been a breath of air all the morning; the atmosphere, in fact, was so still, and withal so heavy, that a thunder-storm was anticipated.

Another circumstance that he noted was that this peculiar movement in the bush extended only from just beyond where the seamen were now occupied to a point a trifle beyond where they had been at work a few minutes before, fixing the anchor of the flagship. Everywhere else the foliage was absolutely without movement of any kind, as it had been during the whole of the morning.

Much perplexed how to account for this singular phenomenon, he stood gazing at the moving foliage, and wondering what it could portend.

The movement seemed to be confined to the one place only, but as he gazed the motion suddenly ceased, and all was quiet as before.

He looked round to see if any of the other men had observed anything, but they were all much too intent on the work in hand to take notice of anything else; and his friend Harry was just as busy as the rest of the men. He therefore dismissed the matter from his mind, thinking that his eyes might perhaps have deceived him, and set to work again with the other men.

The hole was soon dug and the anchor deposited therein, planks and baulks of timber being laid upon it as before. The sand was filled in and a mound raised above the work, and it only remained to further secure the anchor by putting a spring on to the cable, and fastening to a palm-tree as before.

As this last part of the work was being done, and the spring being lashed round the palm-tree, one of the seamen, named Martin, grasped Roger by the arm.

“Do you see that, Master Trevose?” said he, pointing.

“What do you mean, Martin?” answered Roger.

“Why, over there, sir,” said the man, pointing in the same direction as that in which Roger had seen the peculiar movement of the foliage some little time before. “I be sure I saw something shining among the trees just now. What d’ye think it can be? I only just caught a sight of it for a moment; but I be sure I beaint mistaken.”

Roger looked in the direction indicated by the seaman, but could distinguish nothing.

“Are you sure, Martin?” asked he. “Because I fancied that I, too, saw a peculiar movement among the trees over in that direction a little time ago.”

“Yes, I be sartin sure, master,” replied Martin. “I only see’d it for a minute, ’tis true, but there warn’t no mistake about it; and it seemed to me to be very like the glitter of steel.”

Roger was much puzzled, and also somewhat perturbed; he therefore determined to inform the captain of what he and Martin had observed, immediately upon his return to the ship, but to say nothing to the men until the work on shore was finished, for fear of distracting their attention from the task in hand.

This was soon completed, and Roger, calling the men together, got them into the boats and they pulled back to the ships, leaving the party of men from the Tiger upon their own vessel, and taking his own crew on board the flag-ship.

He then sought out the captain, and found him seated in his cabin working out some observations. The lad duly reported that the work he had been sent to execute was completed satisfactorily.

“Very good, Roger; very good indeed!” replied the captain. “I will come on deck presently and see how the tide serves; and if it is suitable we will haul in at once. For I am anxious to get these repairs effected as soon as possible, and the sooner we start the sooner we shall be finished. By the way, Roger,” he continued, “as you know, we are somewhere on the eastern coast of the Spanish island of Cuba; and while you were ashore with the men just now I have been busy working out our exact position on the chart.”

Cavendish here pointed to a chart which he had open on a table before him, together with a pair of compasses and