CHAPTER XVII.
THE CHART OF MORTALLONE.
While the others drew their chairs closer, and while I spread flatthe parchment--which was crinkled (by the action of salt water,maybe)--I had time to assure myself that this was the selfsame chartof which Captain Coffin had once vouchsafed me a glimpse.I remembered the shape of the island, the point marked "CapeAlderman," the strange, whiskered heraldical monster depicted in theact of rising from the waves off the north-western coast, the equallyimpossible ship, decorated with a sprit-top-mast and a flag upon it,and charging up under full sail for the southern entry, the name ofwhich ("Gow's Gulf") I must have missed to read in the short perusalCaptain Coffin had allowed me. At any rate, I could not recall it.But I recalled the three crosses which showed (so he had told me)where the treasure lay. They were marked in red ink, and I explainedtheir meaning to Miss Belcher, who had pounced upon them at once.
"Fiddlestick-end!" said that lady, falling back on her favouriteejaculation. "Great clumsy crosses of that size! How in the worldcould any one find a treasure by such marks, unless it happened to betwo miles long?"
She pointed to the scale at the head of the chart, which, to be sure,gave six miles to the inch. By the same measurement the crossescovered, each way, from half a mile to three-quarters. Moreover,each had patently been dashed in with two hurried strokes of the penand without any pretence of accuracy. The first cross covered a"key" or sand-bank off the northern shore of the island; the secondsprawled athwart what appeared to be the second height in a range ofhills running southward from Cape Alderman, and down along the entireeastern coast at a mean distance of a mile, or a little over, fromthe sea; while the third was planted full across a grove of trees atthe head of the great inlet--Gow's Gulf--to the south, and, moreover,spanned the chief river of the island, which, running almost duesouth from the back of the hills or mountains (their size was notindicated) below Cape Alderman, discharged itself into the apex ofthe gulf.
"Without bearings of some sort," said Miss Belcher, "these marks aremerely ridiculous."
"You may well say so, ma'am," Captain Branscome answered, butinattentively. "Mortallone--Mortallone," he went on, muttering theword over as if to himself. "It is curious, all the same."
"What is curious?" demanded Miss Belcher.
"Why, ma'am, I have never myself visited the Gulf of Honduras, butamong seamen there are always a hundred stories floating about.In a manner of speaking, there is no such shop for gossip as the sea.In every port you meet 'em, in taverns where sailors drink and brag--the liquor being in them--and one man talks and the rest listen, nottroubling themselves to believe. It is good to find one's selfashore, you understand? And a good, strong-flavoured yarn makesthe landlord and all the shore-keeping folk open their eyes--"
"Bless the man!" Miss Belcher rapped her knuckles on the table."This is not a 'longshore tavern."
"No, ma'am."
"Then why not come to the point?"
"The point, ma'am--well, the point is that every one--that is to say,every seaman--has heard tell of treasure knocking about, as you mightput it, somewhere in the Gulf of Honduras."
"What sort of treasure?"
"Why, as to that, ma'am, it varies with the story. Sometimes 'tisbar silver from the isthmus, and sometimes 'tis gold plate andbullion that belonged to the old Kings of Mexico; but by the taleI've heard offtenest, 'tis church treasure that was run away with bya shipful of logwoodmen in Campeachy Bay. But there again you nosooner fix it as church treasure, and ask where it came from, thanyou have to choose between half a dozen different accounts. Some sayfrom the Spanish islands--Havana for choice; others from the Main,and I've heard places mentioned as far apart us Vera Cruz andCaracas. The dates, too--if you can call them dates at all--varyjust as surprisingly."
"The date on this chart is 1776," said Miss Belcher, who had beenpeering at it while the Captain spoke.
"Then, supposing there's something in poor Coffin's secret, thatgives you the year to start from. We'll suppose this is the verychart used by the man who hid the treasure. Then it follows thetreasure wasn't hidden before 1776, and that rules out all the yarnsabout Hornigold, Teach, Bat Roberts, and suchlike pirates, the lastof whom must have been hanged a good fifty years before: thoughhere's evidence"--Captain Branscome laid a forefinger on the chart--"that these gentry had dealings with the island in their day.'Gow's Gulf,' 'Cape Fea'--Gow was a pirate and a hard nut at that;and Fea, if I remember, his lieutenant or something of the sort; butthey had gone their ways before ever this was printed, andconsequently before ever these crosses came to be written on it.You follow me, ma'am?"
Miss Belcher gave a contemptuous sniff which, I doubt not, would haveprefaced the remark that an unweaned child would arrive unaided atthe same conclusions; but here I interposed.
"Captain Coffin," said I, "told me that a part of the treasure waschurch plate, and that he had seen it. He showed me a coin, too, andsaid it came from the island."
"Hey, lad? What sort of coin?"
But to this I could give no answer, except that it was a piece ofgold, and in size perhaps a trifle smaller than a guinea.
"That's a pity, lad. The coin might have helped us. You're sure nowthat you can't remember? It hadn't a couple of pillars engraved onit, for instance?"
I shook my head. I had taken no particular heed of the stamp on thecoin.
Captain Branscome sighed his disappointment.
"The church plate don't help us at all," he said, "or very little.Why, I've heard this Honduras treasure dated so far back as Morgan'stime, when he sacked Panama. The tale went that the priests atPanama or Chagres, or one of those places, on fright of Morgan'scoming, clapped all their treasure aboard ship under a guard ofmilitia--soldiers of some sort, anyway--and that the seamen cut thesoldiers' throats, slipped cable, and away-to-go. But Morgan!He must have died before Queen Anne was born--well, not so far backas that maybe, but then or thenabouts. I tell you, ma'am, this storyhangs around every port and every room where seamen gather and drinkand take their ways again. 'Tis for all the world like the smell oftobacco-smoke, that tells you some one has come and gone, but leavesyou nothing to get hold of. Hallo!--"
As the exclamation escaped him, Captain Branscome, who had casuallypicked up a corner of the parchment between finger and thumb, with anervous jerk drew the whole chart from under my outspread palms andturned it over face-downwards.
"Eh? But see here!"
He fumbled with his glasses, while Miss Belcher and I, snatching atthe chart, almost knocked our heads together as we bent over a cornerof it--the left-hand upper corner--and a dozen lines of writingscrawled there in faded ink. They ran thus--
1. Landed by cuttar when wee saw a sail. Lesser Kay N. of Gable. Get open water between two kays S.W. and W. by S., and N. inner point of Gable (where is green patch, good watering) in line with white rock (birds), neer as posble. S. a point E. 3 feet bare, being hurried.
2. Bayse of cliff second hill S.S.W. from Cape Alderman. Here is bank over 2 waterfals. Neer lower fall, 12 paces back from egge, getting island open N.E. beyond rock W. of inlet, and first tree Misery Swamp over Crabtree, W.S.W Bush above rock to rt of fall. Shaddow 1/4 to 4, June 21st, when we left digging.
3. R. bank river, 1 and 1/2 mile up from Gow crikke. Centre tree in clump 5 branch bearing N. and by E. 1/2 point, two forks. R. fork 4ft. red cave under hill 457yds. foot of tree N.N.W. N.B.--The stones here, under rock 4 spans L side.
That was all, except two short entries. The first scribbled aslantunder No. 1, and in Captain Coffin's own handwriting--so CaptainBranscome, who knew it, assured us.
N.B.--Took out 5 cases Ap. 5, 1806, besides the boddies. Avging 3/4 cwt. 1 case jewels. We left the clothes, wh. were many.
The second entry appeared to have been penned by the same hand as theoriginal, but more neatly and some while l
ater. The ink, at anyrate, was blacker and fresher. It ran:
S.W. ann. aetat. 37. R.I.P.
The handwriting, though rugged--and the indifferent ink may have beento blame for this--was well formed, and, but for the spelling, mighthave belonged to an educated man.
The reader, if he choose, may follow our example and discuss theabove directions for half an hour--I will warrant with as littleresult. Miss Belcher ended by harking back to the summer-house andto the latest crime--if we might guess, the latest of many--for whichthis document had been responsible.
"What puzzles me is this: Since the Major had pockets in his coat,why should he have hidden the parcel as he did? So small a parcel,too!"
"Captain Coffin," I suggested, "may have known that he was beingfollowed."
"Well?"
"And in handing it over he may have warned my father that there wasdanger."
"I believe the boy is right," said Captain Branscome. "Now I recallthe Major's face at the moment when I rattled the latch, I feel surehe was on his guard. Yes--yes, he had been warned against carryingthis on his person--he was wrapping it away for the time--"
"Why, what ails the man?" demanded Miss Belcher, as Captain Branscomestopped short with a groan.
"I was thinking, ma'am, that but for my visit he might never haverelaxed his guard--that it was I who helped the murderer to take himat unawares. Nay--worse, ma'am, worse--his last thought may havebeen that I was the traitor--that the blow he took was from the handhe had filled with gold--that I had returned to kill him in hisblindness!"
Captain Branscome bowed his head upon his hands. I saw Plinny--whoall this while had sat silent, content to listen--rise, her facetwitching, and put out a hand to touch the captain's shoulder.I saw her hand hesitate as her sense of decorum overtook her pity andseemed to reason with it. And with that I heard the noise of wheelson the road.
"Hallo!"--Miss Belcher pricked up her ears. "Here's that nuisanceJack Rogers turning up again!"