CHAPTER XIX--THE BOATSWAIN TELLS HIS STORY
This that follows is the story that was told to me by William Rushby,sometime boatswain of the _Mary Greenfield_, as we sat together side byside in the ravine, the while John Bannister had gone forth alone inperil of his life.
To begin with, he reminded me of that evening when he had spoken to methrough the porthole on the ship, when I was held a prisoner in thecabin that I shared with Amos Baverstock. After that--it will beremembered--I never saw him again; for when the ship arrived at Caracas,I was transported by night to the hills beyond the town.
As for Rushby, he fell in with a friend--and that is the best of being asailor, who is never at a loss for a handshake and a word of greeting inevery port in all the world. For the boatswain, when the ship wasalongside the wharf, had seized the opportunity to desert, and lay inhiding in the town, until news was brought him that Amos and his partyhad set forth across the mountains. He then worked his way to Rio, anda month later turned up in Southampton, where by the merest chance hefound John Bannister, about to set forth in quest of me across theWestern Ocean.
The boatswain told Bannister all he knew, and together they searched inthe warren for the rabbit-hole in which I had hidden my fragment of themap. This they found at last, not much the worse for wear; and havingset my mother's fears at rest, so far as they were able, they startedforth together for the port of Colon; for Bannister, knowing whitherAmos Baverstock was bound, deemed that the shortest route.
From Colon they crossed the Isthmus to Panama, and thence sailed--asPizarro himself had done--down the coast to Guayaquil, the port ofEquador. From this place they journeyed inland, passed the great heightof Chimborazo, the summit of the Andes, and thence eastward, a march ofmany weeks, into the Wild Region of the Woods.
Bannister realised from the first that his task was well-nighimpossible. He might as well hope to find me in the forest as a needlein a haystack; and so, knowing where the treasure was, he went straightto the Wood of the Red Fish, there to await the arrival of Amos and theothers.
He had started some months after us, but he had taken the shorter routeand had been delayed by nothing. For all that, he arrived in theneighbourhood of the Red Fish some weeks after Amos; for he and Rushbyheard nothing of the fight which took place when Atupo laid his ambushand Forsyth was so badly wounded.
Amos--as we know--returned across the plain to wreak his vengeance uponthe Peruvian priests in the Temple of Cahazaxa. Then the man's greed ofgold drew him westward once again to search for the Big Fish, as thenatives called the treasure.
It was then that Vasco, the Spaniard, struck by the merest chance thetrail of John Bannister and Rushby. A fight took place between them,and those were the shots which I myself had heard, one of which hadsorely wounded the boatswain in the leg.
John Bannister had saved his comrade's life. William Rushby was a bigman, broadly made and heavy; but Bannister had whipped him up as thoughhe were a child and carried him all night throughout the jungle, withthe result that Amos, for the time being, lost all trace of them, thoughhe was searching in all directions in the Wood.
It is a wonder, indeed, and something to be thankful for, that Amos andhis friends never stumbled across myself, whilst I was wandering aboutwith my blow-pipe and my arrows in search of the Red Fish, not knowingwhere to look. For I was not then in possession of the map, of which Ihave now to tell, and how it was that I found it in so singular a place.
Rushby was a wounded man and weak from loss of blood, and now Bannisterhimself--great as was his strength--being overcome by his exertions,fell into a raging fever. Knowing the Wood of old, he had carriedRushby to the place of the Tomb of Orellano's soldier; and whilst inhiding there he became so ill that for three days he raved, delirious.And he had no one but a wounded man to tend him.
They had no food, and were without means of getting any; for theboatswain could not walk a dozen yards, but from time to time must draghimself on all-fours to the stream to fetch his companion water todrink.
Rushby, left to his own resources, and suffering the greatest pain, hadlittle doubt that they were lost. Look at the affair which way hemight, he could see no way out of their difficulties; they must eitherbe found by Baverstock or else starve to death. For himself, he carednot which way it ended; but upon one thing he was determined--thefragment of the map which they had brought with them from my rabbit-holein Sussex should never fall into the hands of Amos Baverstock.
And so it was William Rushby himself who opened the tomb, and hid themap in the helmet of the Spanish soldier. And that was how I found it,a few days afterwards; for the earth had been disturbed and trampledunderfoot.
The night after that, when John Bannister was a little recovered of hisfever, though still terribly weak, they heard the report of a shot-gun,fired not far from where they were; and Rushby, realising that Amos wasstill upon their track, made the supreme effort of his life, hopingthereby to save both Bannister and himself.
It was the old case of the blind leading the blind; for the one was soweak that he tottered when he walked, and the other was lame of a leg,with an open, septic wound that would not heal. But together, withtheir arms around each other, they made good their escape, only to becaught later in the great morass that lay upon the northern side of theWood, and being at the end of their resources and well-nigh starved todeath, they had no option but to surrender and without condition.
There is no question Amos would have killed John Bannister then andthere had it not been for one potent circumstance: Bannister knew thesecret of the Big Fish. Both Baverstock and Trust regarded my friend astheir arch-enemy, who had foiled them more than once; and Rushby told meof the look of unutterable hatred that was stamped upon every evilfeature of the face of Amos whenever he looked at Bannister--which hedid, by the same token, no more often than he had to, since it was plainto see that he found it hard to meet the eyes of one stronger thanhimself both in mind and body, and a thousand times more honest.
And here, in his narrative, the boatswain became, on a sudden, wildlyexcited, and pointed to a palm-tree that stood not far away from wherewe both were seated, about a hundred yards down the ravine.
"You see that tree?" he cried; and I nodded in reply. "Well, then,"Rushby continued, "the villain bound Bannister to that--bound him handand foot, and stood before him with a loaded rifle in his hands. Hecursed him; he threatened and blasphemed. He said that if Bannisterwould not tell him where the treasure was, he would shoot him on thespot. But he might as well have tried to frighten those white bones inthe tomb where I myself had hid the map."
William Rushby paused, and ran his fingers through his beard. I neversaw a man who looked more miserable than he. And yet, so foolish was I,indeed, that I did naught but ask him silly questions, when time was ofas much account as the life of the most heroic man that ever lived.
"And Bannister would not speak?" said I.
"Speak!" the boatswain cried. "Speak he did, and to the point. He toldBaverstock to shoot."
He was silent for a moment, and sat looking at the open wound in hisleg.
"I never saw any one more angry," he continued, "and I have served in myday under many men of the same stamp as James Dagg, if not so bad as he.All that night I lay awake, dead sure that Baverstock would murderBannister, if on the following morning he still refused to speak."
"And you were camped in this ravine?" I asked.
"In this same place," said Rushby; "for I have not moved since a hundredyards."
"And where are the others?" I asked.
"Listen!" said the boatswain. "I can do no more than spin a yarn fromthe beginning. I am coming to what you want to know. Baverstock, histhreats having failed with Bannister, played his trump-card upon me, andwon the trick. Leaving Bannister still weak from fever, bound hand andfoot, he came to me by night and talked in whispers. He told me that heheld you a prisoner, and, like a fool, I believed him. He said that ifhe did not learn the truth in re
gard to the exact position of the BigFish he would put not only Bannister and myself to death, but also you,whose life he had purposely preserved throughout all these months."
"He lied!" I interrupted.
"I know he did," said Rushby. "But I swallowed all those lies as ashark takes a baited hook. I was neither strong nor wise likeBannister. For my own life I cared not greatly, but I was loth tobehold John Bannister put to death, and I knew how much he cared foryou, and how he would grieve if you were to die through any fault ofmine. And thus it was that I told Amos Baverstock the truth. I toldhim that we had brought with us from Sussex your little fragment of themap; and I told him that I had hidden it within the helmet in the Tombof the Spanish soldier.
"He said no more to me that night, but posted Vasco, the Spaniard, as asentry, with orders to see that Bannister and I did not communicate. Andat daybreak the next morning, in the utmost haste, he and his threecompanions went back into the Wood to find the map in the Spaniard'sTomb, and thence to discover the Red Fish itself, where the gold of Peruis hidden."
When I heard that, I burst into loud laughter. Rushby looked at me,surprised, and asked me why I laughed.
"He will never find it," I cried. "He will never find the map! For itis no longer in the Tomb."
"Not in the Tomb!" he burst forth. "Then, where is it? And how do youknow where it is?"
"Because it is here," said I. And as I said the words, I pulled forththe little piece of parchment from the quiver in which I kept myblow-pipe arrows.
Rushby looked at it, recognised it at once, and sat staring at me, asif, on a sudden, he had been bereft of his senses.
"How did you get this?" he blurted out.
I told him in a few words how I had found it.
"Merciful powers!" he groaned. "What have I done? Bannister is on awild-goose chase after all!"
He again carried his hands to his head, and sat rocking from side toside, as he had done before. I got to my feet, and shook him violently;for--though as yet I understood no more than half the matter--I saw thatthere had been some great mistake that was like to cost us dearly.
"What is it?" I cried. "Tell me the truth! Even now, it may not be toolate to make amends. Tell me what has happened."
He looked up at me with a sad face. I am inclined to think that therewere even teardrops in his eyes.
"When Baverstock and those with him were gone," said he; "when they werereturned to the Wood and lost to view, I picked up my jack-knife, andlimped to the tree, where I cut Bannister's bonds. You must understandthat Amos departed that morning in such hot haste that he left behindour knives and rifles, as well as much of his own equipment. However,that is neither here nor there. I was obliged to tell Bannister thetruth; and, no sooner had I done so, than he made me realise what asimpleton I was.
"He told me that I had been a fool to hide the map in any place where itcould afterwards be found. It had been better had I torn it to shreds.Nor would he believe that you were still in the hands of AmosBaverstock. And the very thought that this unholy villain was to solveat last the riddle of the Big Fish gave, upon the instant, new strengthto Bannister. For then and there he rose to his feet, and said that hewas going himself into the Wood, that he would reach the Tomb in advanceof Amos and take possession of the map."
"He has gone there!" I shouted, like a maniac, springing to my feet andpointing towards the Wood.
"Yes," said Rushby. "He said that he would rather die a thousand timesthan that Amos should find the Treasure."
I felt as if I had received a violent blow. I knew not, for the moment,what to do. And then I saw my course quite clear before me.
"I'll go to him!" I cried. "Take that, and keep it safe."
And I flung at him my portion of the map, and then snatched up myblow-pipe and my quiver filled with darts, and set off running down theravine, as fast as my legs would carry me, towards the Wood.