CHAPTER XXXII
CONCLUSION
"What are the sticks for, Mr. Stoodles?" asked Dave Fearless.
"Shure, they're reed torches."
"Oh, we have to have a light, have we?" asked Bob Vilett.
"Shure, ye have. It's simmering darkness we're going into."
"This is the famous cave island, is it?" said Dave. "Well, it deservesthe name. Why, it's a regular honeycomb."
"No sign of Nesik and the others yet," said Captain Broadbeam. "Iwonder what has become of them?"
"That's aisy to surmise, captain," declared Pat Stoodles. "They leftthe fellows aboard the _Swallow_ to guzzle and get sthupid while theytook a yawl and came here to remove the threasure."
"Yes, you must remember," said Dave, "that their whole plan all alonghas been to delude their crew into the belief that the treasure wentdown in the _Swallow_.'"
"Wan, two, three, four, five," spoke Stoodles, patrolling a patch ofbeach, and looking up and counting along the immense row of fissures andopenings in the solid rock. "The lasht one I indicate is the place wemust go into."
"You mean to say," observed Dave, "that the treasure is hidden in thatcave."
"Thanks to you I mane to say it, and sthick to it, too, my brave lad,"cried Pat exuberantly.
"Thanks to me?" repeated Dave blankly.
"Begorra, yes."
"You puzzle me, Mr. Stoodles."
"Arrah, then, out with it: The outcast was dead when I saw him, but Ihappened to notice that his back was tattooed. It took me eight hoursto make out the marks. I can spake the native dialect well enough, butthe script was hard to figure out. But I did it."
"And what did it tell?" asked Dave interestedly.
"Well, two outcasts had found the gold. So as not to forget exactlywhere it was, one tattooed a diagram or chart, or whatever you may callit, on the back of the other. One of them died a little later. That'sall, come on."
The wonders of the next two hours, those who followed the guidance ofPat Stoodles never forgot. It was like a visit to fairy-land. Theypenetrated underground chambers of dazzling magnificence, the torchesilluminating walls and roofs of glittering splendor.
At last, in a depression of a great rock-crystal stone, they came acrossa heap of straw.
Pulling it aside, a golden gleam dazzled the eager eyes of theonlookers.
"It's there! Oh, it's there!" cried the enraptured Dave Fearless.
The ocean treasure, again recovered, lay before them.
It had come so easily, so naturally, that there was something unrealabout the whole thing.
The moment could not help but be filled with the intensest joy andexcitement. Yet in a plain, practical, business way they went to workto encase the great mountain of loose golden coins in sacks which theyhad brought with them.
It was nightfall when they had got the golden hoard all on board of the_Swallow_, and safely stored in the hold of the stanch little steamerthat had carried them through so many adventures and perils in safety upto this supreme moment of their lives.
What of Nesik and his cohorts? Fifty times during the evening thistheme was earnestly discussed.
Dave Fearless sat thinking over this and many other things late thatnight, enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze as he lay comfortably in ahammock.
Suddenly he jumped upright with a shock. A form dripping with waterclambered into view. He landed on the deck, staring wildly about him.
"Someone, quick!" he gasped. "I'm done out. Quick, Fearless! Startthe steamer, quick! Danger--explosion!"
"Daley!" shouted Dave. And then, as the man fell like a clod at hisfeet, he ran right down into the engine room.
Something told Dave that this man was giving an important friendlywarning.
He fairly pulled Bob Adams from his bunk. He ordered him to start theengines at once. He ran to the cabin and roused Captain Broadbeam.
"What's this--the steamer going?" cried Broadbeam.
"Yes, something is wrong," gasped Dave. "Come on deck--the mischief!"
A frightful roar rent the air. The whole ship shivered. Just behindhim as he came up on deck Dave saw a mighty flare, a great lifting ofthe waters. Then all was still.
It was not until the following morning, when Daley recoveredconsciousness, that they knew the terrible peril they had escapedthrough his friendly intervention.
It seemed that he had managed to get to the second west island. He wasnearly starved when he ran across Nesik and the others.
He decided it was politic to make friends with them. The night previoushe was the only trusted one of the crew that Nesik and the Hankers tookin the yawl that went for the treasure.
"They got the gold," narrated Daley.
"Oh, they did?" muttered Captain Broadbeam, with a jolly smile.
"I helped them--in bags just as Gerstein had left it."
"Smart boy, that same Gerstein!" chuckled Pat Stoodles.
"Then they discovered that you people had recaptured the _Swallow_,"continued Daley. "All day they hid with the yawl in a little cave. Theydecided you people would be too watchful to ever afford them a chance toagain get possession of the steamer. You certainly would try to findthem. Gerstein submitted a diabolical plan. They had some dynamiteused in clearing away a stopped-up passageway in the cave. They made upa float, fused the dynamite, and with a cord guided it down the beachtowards you. I got away from them."
"And warned us in time, brave mate!" cried Captain Broadbeam, heartilygrasping the sailor's hand. "We're your friends for life."
The _Swallow_ did not leave the Windjammers' Island for a week. Duringthat time Stoodles made several visits to the natives. On one of thesehe and Dave took with them the two boxes Dave had purchased at MinotaurIsland.
They returned feeling pretty good over something accomplished, andrefused to discuss it with the intensely curious Bob Vilett.
Jones and Lewis were found and taken aboard of the _Swallow_, whichstarted homeward-bound at last.
At Mercury Island their prisoners from the _Raven_ were set ashore. OfCaptain Nesik, the Hankers, and the others not a trace had been found.
Dave and his friends well knew that a terrible disappointment had facedthe plotters when they came to discover that the bags they had securedin one of the caves did not contain the gold.
The native outcasts they were certain had removed the gold to the placewhere they found it, filling the bags with something heavy and replacingthese at the original hiding-place.
Amos Fearless gave his friends a royal banquet the day the _Swallow_arrived at San Francisco.
Each one, down to the humblest sailor, received a generous share of theocean treasure they had suffered so much to secure.
The rest of the gold was shipped by rail to Quanatack, and DoctorBarren's curiosities to the Government at Washington.
Captain Broadbeam, Doctor Barrell, Pat Stoodles, and Bob Vilett werespecial guests of Dave and his father in the new beautiful home theybought on Long Island Sound.
"Dave, when are you ever going to tell us that secret of yours andStoodles' about those two boxes you took from Minotaur Island?" askedBob one evening, as they all sat on the broad veranda of the Fearlesshome, enjoying the lovely evening.
"Oh, that is only a side issue now," smiled Dave, "seeing we got thetreasure."
"A great scheme, though," said Stoodles. "I'll tell it. Dave simply gotthe royal sanction at the Windjammers' Island to establish a postalservice. We did it up officially before the whole tribe. We printedten thousand postage stamps."
"And as we control the whole issue," said Dave, "of course we can chargeour own price for them as rarities."
The old ocean diver and his son were sorry when their loyal friends hadto leave them for the duties of life that called them to business.
They saw much of one another, however, from time to time. Each wassplendidly provided for out of the ocean treasure. Good
fortune did notspoil any of them, and each settled down to a practical, useful, andhappy life.
THE END
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