CHAPTER XXXV
THE POPE'S TREASURE
"Now," said Marjory, at last disengaging herself from me, "let us getdown to business. We've got to find the treasure, you know!" So we setourselves down to a systematic search.
We explored one after another all the caves leading out of the maincavern. Some of them were narrow and tortuous; some were wide and lowwith roof dropping down, down, until it was impossible for anything inthe shape of humanity to pass. All these, however, with one exception,ended in those fissure-like clefts, running somewhere to a point, whichcharacterise cavern formations. The exception was at the north west sideof the cavern where a high, fairly wide passage extended, with an evenfloor as though it too had been levelled by rolling pebbles. It kept onstraight for a good length, and then curved round gently to the right,all the while fairly maintaining its proportions. Presently it grew sohigh that it was like a narrow way between tall houses. I lit a whitelight, and in the searching glare noticed that far overhead the rockywalls leaned together till they touched. This spot, just above us, wasevidently the highest point; the roof thence fell rapidly till at lastit was only some ten feet high. A little further on it came to a suddenend.
Here there was a great piled-up mass of huge, sharp-edged rocks, at thebase of which were stones of all sizes, some round and some jagged.Scattered near and isolated were many stones rounded by constantfriction.
As I looked, the whole circumstances seemed to come to me. "See," Icried to Marjory, "this was evidently another entrance to the cave. Thetides, ebbing or flowing, drove in through one way and out at the other;and the floor was worn level in process of countless years by rollingpebbles like these. Then came some upheaval or wearing away by waterdrift of supporting walls of rock; and this mouth of the cave fell in.We must be by now somewhere at the Cruden side of Whinnyfold; we arefacing almost due north."
As there was manifestly nothing to be done here, we took our way backto the main cavern. When we began to look around us for a new place toexplore, Marjory said:
"There doesn't seem to be any treasure cave at all here. We have nowtried everywhere." Then it was that my mind went back again to the Don'sdescription "Black on the one hand and red on the other." "Come,"I said, "let us go back till we find the joining of the gneiss andgranite." As we went back the floor was almost dry; only a few pools ofwater here and there, lying in the depressions, called attention to thefact that we were under tidal influence. As we went we kept a carefullook-out for the fusion of the rocks; and found it where the passagewith the descending roof debouched into that which led from the blockedup entrance of the cave. There was here, however, no sign of anotherpassage, and the main one outside was like that under my own house,entirely through the gneiss.
I could not help feeling a little disappointed. For many weeks my mindhad been set on finding the Pope's treasure; and though I believe it wasnot greed which controlled me even to any great extent, I was deeplychagrined. I had a sort of unworthy fear that it might lower me in theeyes of Marjory. This feeling, however, was only momentary; and when itwent, it went for good. Drawing in my note-book a rough outline ofWhinnyfold, I dotted lines where I took the various branches of the caveto lie and then marked in the line of fusion of the gneiss and thegranite as it was manifest on the cliffs and on the shore beyond.Marjory was at once convinced; indeed when I saw my surmise put down inblack and white it seemed to me quite apparent that it must be correct.The treasure cave must be within that space which lay between thedismantled entrance on the side of the Skares, and that which had fallenin on the north side. The logical inference was that if there was anentrance to be found at all it would be close to the debris from theDon's explosion. So we took in silence, our way back to that point andbegan at once to examine the debris for any sign of an opening in therock to the north side. Marjory scrambled up to the top of the pilewhilst I explored the base. Turning my lantern on the rocky wall I beganto examine it foot by foot and inch by inch.
Suddenly Marjory cried out. I raised my head and looked at her. Herface, lit by the rays of my own lamp which, with the habit of searchingnow familiar to me I had turned as my eyes turned, was radiant with joyand excitement.
"Look! look!" she cried. "Oh, Archie, there is the top of an openinghere. The stones fill it up." As she spoke she pushed at a stone on thetop of the pile; under her hand it moved and disappeared with a hollowrattle. By this time I had scrambled up the slippery pile and was besideher. The disappearance of the stone had enlarged the opening, andsomething like a foot square was discovered.
So we began to work at the heap of stones, only we pulled and threwthem into the cave where we were so as not to block the place we aimedat. The top layer of stones was easy to move, as they were comparativelysmall, and were not interlocked, but below them we found a much moredifficult task. Here the rocks were larger and more irregular in shape,and their points and edges interlocked. We did not mind, however, buttoiled on. I could not but notice as we did so, a trait of Marjory'scoolness of head in the midst of all her excitement, when she took fromher pocket a pair of heavy gloves and put them on.
In some fifteen or twenty minutes we had unmasked a hole sufficientlylarge to pass through comfortably. I found that the oil of my lamp wasrunning low; so I refilled it and Marjory's also. Then holding my ownlamp carefully, whilst Marjory turned hers in the direction I was going,I passed over the top of the miniature moraine, and in a few seconds wason the floor of the other cave. Marjory threw me the ball of string andscrambling down joined me at once. We went along carefully, for the roofof the cave dipped very low and we had in more than one place to bendconsiderably; even then we were walking in a couple of feet of water asthe floor dipped as well as the roof. When we had gone some distance,however, the roof rose as the cave turned sharp to the left, round acorner of very broken and jagged rock in which I could see signs of thefusion of the two geological formations. Our hearts beat high and wetook hands instinctively; we were now confident that we were in thetreasure house at last.
As we went up the cave, here running, so far as I could ascertain by thecompass, straight in and from the sea, we could note, as we turned ourlamps now and again to either side, that on our left was all black rockwhilst on the right was all red. The cave was not a long one; nothingto compare with those we had left. It was not very many seconds, thoughwe had to go slow as we did not know for certain as to the floor level,before the cave began to expand.
When, however, it widened and became more lofty, the floor rose in allsome three feet and we went up a sharp incline though not of very greatmagnitude. This dipped a little again forming a pool which spread aheadof us so far as we could see by the dim light of our bicycle lamps. Aswe did not know the depth I waded in, Marjory enjoining me anxiously tobe careful. I found it deepened very slowly; so she joined me and wewent on together. By my advice, Marjory kept a few feet in the rear, sothat in case I should stumble or meet with a deep hole and so lose mylight, hers would still be safe. I was so intent on my feet, for Ifeared lest Marjory following so close might get into some trouble, thatI hardly looked ahead, but kept cautiously on my way. Marjory, who wasflashing her lamp all around as she went, suddenly called out:
"Look! look! There to the right, the figure of the San Cristobal withthe golden Christ on his shoulder."
I turned my lantern to the angles of the cave to the right to which wewere now close. The two lamps gave us light enough to see well.
There, rising from the water under the shelf of rock, was the figurethat Benvenuto had wrought, as Don Bernardino had left it threecenturies ago.
As I moved forwards I stumbled; in trying to save myself the lamp wasshaken from my hand and fell hissing in the dark water. As it fell I sawby the flash of light the white bones of a skeleton under the SanCristobal. Instinctively I called out to Marjory:
"Stand still and take care of your lamp; I've dropped mine!"
"All right!" came back her answer coolly; she had quite command ofherself. She turned the l
amp downwards, so that we could see into thewater, and I found I had stumbled against an iron box, beside which, inabout two feet of water, lay my lamp. I picked this up first and shookthe water from it and laid it on the shelf of rock. "Wait here amoment," I said, "I shall run back and get a torch." For I had left thetin box on the top of the heap of debris when we had scrambled throughthe hole. I was starting back at once when she said after me, andin that cave the voice came after me "monotonous and hollow like aghost's:"
"Take my lamp with you dear. How can you find the box, or even the wayto it, in the dark?"
"But I can't leave you alone here; all in the dark, too."
"Oh, I'm all right," she answered gaily, "I don't mind a bit! Andbesides it will be a new sensation to be here alone--with Olgaref andthe treasure. You won't be long, will you, dear?" I felt that her queryalmost belied her brave words; but I knew that behind the latter lay herpride which I must not offend; so I took the lamp she was holding out tome and hurried on. In a few minutes I had found the box and brought itback; but I could see that even those minutes had been a trying timeto Marjory, who was deathly white. When I came close, she clung to me;after a second or two she said, as she drew herself away, looking at mediffidently as though to excuse herself, or rather to account for herperturbation:
"The moment you had gone and I was alone in the dark with the treasure,all the weird prophecying of Gormala came back to me. The very darknessitself made light patches, and I saw shrouds floating everywhere. Butit's all right now that you are here. Light a torch, and we shall lookat the Pope's treasure." I took a torch out of the box and lit it; shelaid it so that the lighted end projected well beyond the shelf of rockand gave a fine if fitful, light to all around. We found water aboutthree feet deep at its worst; in the glare of the torch and because ofits crystal purity, it did not look even so much. We stooped down toexamine the box, which was only one of several lying in front of a greatheap of something, all dark with rust and age, which filled up a wholecorner of the cave.
The hasp was eaten through with rust, as well it might be after threecenturies in the water, and only retained its form. This was doubtlessdue to the stillness of the water, for even the shock of my striking thebox with my boot had broken it across. When I pulled at it, it crumbledto pieces in my fingers. In the same way the iron of the box itself wasrusted right through; and as I tried to lift the lid which was annealedby corrosion to the sides of the box, it broke in my hands. I was ableto tear it away like matchwood. The contents were not corroded, but wereblackened by the sea. It was all money, but whether silver or gold wecould not tell, and did not stop to see. Then we opened box after box inthe same way, and in all but one found coins. This took a considerabletime; but we did not in our excitement note its flying. The heap inthe corner was composed of great ingots, to lift any of which took adistinct effort of strength. The one box unfilled with coins containedsmaller boxes or caskets which were uncorroded and were, we presumed, ofsome superior metal, silver or gold. They were all locked; I lifted oneof them and laid it on the shelf of rock whilst I searched for a key. Itwas a difficult matter to find any definite thing whilst stooping in thewater, so I took my knife and tried with its point to prise open thecasket. The lock must have been of iron and corroded; it gave wayinstantly under pressure, disclosing a glittering heap of stones which,even through all the cloudiness of the saline deposit of centuries,flashed red lights everywhere.
"Rubies!" cried Marjory who stood close to me, clapping her hands. "Oh!how lovely. Darling!" she added kissing me, for her expression ofdelight had to find a vent on something.
"Next!" I said as I bent to the iron chest to lift out another of thecaskets.
I drew back with a shudder; Marjory looking anxiously at my face divinedthe cause and cried in genuine alarm:
"The tide! The tide is rising; and is shutting us in!"