CHAPTER XXV--HOW THE SHEEP WERE SHORN
In the meantime, John Bannister and I journeyed together through theWood, and came in a few hours to the Brook of Scarlet Pebbles. This wecrossed, and took up our westerly route, in order to avoid the swamp ofwhich we knew. This was a far longer march than that accomplished byAmos; and that night we camped in the jungle--so far as we could tell--amile or two to the west of the Red Fish.
Early the following morning we continued on our way, and soon struck theBrook, as chance had it, at the pool of the electric eels, into which wewaded without a moment's hesitation. We found the tunnel withoutdifficulty, and through this advanced stealthily towards the open placewhere we knew the Red Fish to be. We took good care to make as littlenoise as possible; for we expected to find Amos and his friends encampedabove the vault. And then Bannister ordered me to remain behind, whilsthe went forward to get what news he could.
I should say that half an hour elapsed before he returned; and that wasan anxious time for me. Expecting every moment to hear a rifle-shot, Iwaited, knee-deep in water, in the impenetrable darkness of the tunnel.So dark was it, indeed, that I never knew that Bannister had returned,until I heard his voice quite close to me.
He told me what he had seen. There was little doubt that the vault hadbeen visited since my departure, several days before; but there was onecircumstance which he could not by any means explain.
"A great boulder has been rolled upon the slab," said he, "as if toweigh it down. It looks as if Amos meant to keep the Treasure safe."
"I know nothing of that," said I.
"Then, you had best come with me," said Bannister. "The road's clearenough, though something extraordinary has happened."
We came forth together from the tunnel, and I was at once half-blindedby the sudden daylight, just as I had been before, when I first beheldthe red rock standing forth from the ground in the very semblance of afish with opened mouth. But when I could use my eyes again, I saw thateverything in that strange place was just as I had left it, with theexception that the stone slab was no longer covered with earth, and agreat boulder, round as a snowball, lay upon the top of it.
"Who placed this here?" I asked; and that was more than Bannister couldanswer.
We went together to the slab, and there he lay down and listened, withhis ear upon the stone.
"I can hear nothing," said he. "It will be safe enough to enter."
At this we removed the boulder, lifted the slab, and went down the stonesteps into the Treasure-chamber below.
It was quite dark, for we had neither torch nor lantern. We had madecertain that the place would be deserted, and it therefore came to ussomething in the nature of a shock, when we beard a jingling sound--asif some one, who had been asleep upon the gold, had sprung on a suddento his feet. And then a human voice cried out to us; and this was soloud and unexpected that I confess I jumped as if I had been prickedwith the point of a knife. For all that, I recognised the voice at onceas that of Joshua Trust.
"You've come back!" he cried. "Stand clear of me, or else I'll wringyour neck! Who's he who swore that he never yet went back upon hisfriends?"
There followed a pause, during which I tried my best to make head andtail of what the man had said. It speaks much for John Bannister'sintelligence that he tumbled to the truth at once. To my bewilderment,he answered in a voice that was like enough to that of Amos Baverstock.
"I've come back all right," said he. "But I'm here to offer terms,which you may accept or not, as you wish."
And thereupon, for some reason or other, the Spaniard, Vasco, burstforth into such a rapid stream of language that it seemed to me--whounderstood not a word of what he said--that he swore with the mostamazing fluency and violence. At all events, when at last he ended,apparently for want of breath, it came as a kind of relief to us to hearthe lazy drawl of Mr. Forsyth.
"_Amicus certus in re incerta_," he observed. "Sure friend in doubtfulcircumstances. Amos, we welcome you. We greet you as Joseph receivedhis brethren."
It was then that Bannister spoke in his natural voice; and, as Ilistened, I tried to imagine the feelings of those others whom his wordstook so wholly by surprise.
"Amos Baverstock has not returned," said he; "and I am prepared to takemy oath he never will. A certain friend, in very truth, was he who ledyou here, and then entrapped you that you all might starve to death!"
"Who's that?" cried Trust.
"My name's John Bannister. And it was you, Joshua Trust, who once triedto kill me--who, indeed, left me for dead. Do you remember that day inthe mountains, when Amos caught me in Cahazaxa's Tomb? Well, now he hasdone the same for you. He has buried you alive; and when he comes backfor the gold he covets, he will think to find it strewn with the bonesof those who were fools enough to believe he was their friend."
I heard Trust groan in the darkness; or, I think, perhaps, a growldescribes it better. Forsyth, judging by the tones of his voice, wasjust as calm as ever.
"Bannister!" he exclaimed. "So this is the end of it all! We are toowe our lives to you!"
"That's a matter," answered Bannister, "for yourselves to settle. Howlong have you been here?"
"Not many hours," said Forsyth; "but it seems like days and nights. Wehave had time enough in which to consider the misery of our end--withoutwater, food, or light, in the midst of all this gold."
Bannister was silent a moment. He had not descended the stairs into thechamber, but stood upon a step about midway down with myself closebehind him.
"I'll have no treachery," said he. "It is very needful that youunderstand the situation as it is. I am a man of my word, as you may ormay not know, and I set you free on certain conditions only."
"Fire ahead," said Forsyth. "State your terms. Anything for daylightand for freedom--for the certain knowledge that we have been granted anew lease of life."
"Good!" said Bannister. "I go before you up the staircase, and wait foryou above. Whatever arms you have you leave behind you. If any one ofyou comes forth with a rifle in his possession, I shoot him dead uponthe spot."
"We share the gold with you?" asked Joshua Trust.
"Not an ounce of it, you fool!" cried Bannister. "Years ago I mighthave had it for myself, had I wished to play the robber. All thistreasure is not yours or mine or anyone's; it belongs by right to theGovernment of the country. I am neither a smuggler nor a thief. Wereit worth less, I might not be so honest; but here are millions, such asto release would be to let loose a great force of evil that would profitno one, and ourselves least of all. Here this gold has lain for ages,and here let it lie. That is one of my conditions."
"Let us out!" cried Trust. "All night I have dreamed that I must eatbars of gold to live. I have sucked golden ingots with parched, drylips. I have slept upon gold, and never before had I a couch souninviting. Let us out, I say! I agree to anything."
At that, Bannister bade me ascend the stairs, and followed close upon myheels. When we reached the top, we waited both with our rifles at theready, prepared to fire upon the first sign of trouble. But the threeof them, one behind the other, came forth out of the vault as meek asshorn lambs--first Trust; then Vasco; and finally, Mr. Gilbert Forsyth,who, swaggering into the daylight in no particular haste, had theaudacity to hold out a hand to Bannister, as if he greeted an oldacquaintance.
John Bannister, however, did no more than shrug his shoulders, and thenwent to the stone slab and threw it back into its place.
"When did Amos leave here?" he asked, turning again to Forsyth.
"Last night."
"Did he say anything before he went?"
"Yes, he was so gracious as to tell us we could die where he had leftus. As for himself, he was going back into the forest to find nativeporters to carry the gold away."
"Just as we thought!" said Bannister. "Rushby was in the right."
And, thereupon, our attention was immediately attracted by the strangeconduct of Joshua Trust,
who looked up at the little patch of blue skyjust visible between the overhanging branches of the trees, clenchedboth his fists in an amazing burst of passion, and shook them above hishead.
"He shall pay for this!" he cried, with an oath that can never berepeated. "And I have served him faithfully for years! He has goneback upon me, when he saw that he had gained everything he wanted! Bythunder, he shall pay for it!"
Bannister looked at him, and smiled.
"Have more sense, man," said he. "What use is all this anger? AmosBaverstock is mad."
"Mad or sane," cried Trust, "he shall answer for what he has done. Come,tell me, what's the time?"
"I should think no more than ten," said Bannister. "We started atdaybreak, and we were not two hours upon the march before we found thebrook."
When I looked at Joshua, I was reminded of the man whom I had known onboard the _Mary Greenfield_, who was wont to sit drinking at his cards.He was red of eye and flushed of countenance, and I saw that his lipstrembled with a passion he was quite unable to contain. He was a roughman, in any case; and now that he had lived for months in thewilderness, and had been saved from death as it were at the eleventhhour, he was the greatest savage of the five of us.
"Ten o'clock," he repeated. "Four bells, by Christopher! Then, hecan't be far away. He can never have travelled far by night, for hetook with him a hundredweight of gold. I'll go after him," he cried."He shall answer yet for what he tried to do."
Bannister stretched out an arm to detain the man; but Trust sprang asideand, with another oath, dived into the thickets.