"It just comes to this," said Messenger, when they had argued the matter for the tenth time, "we must find a place we can hold while one of us gets to Ferrol and brings a ship. For that purpose we shall want something a little stronger than bushes above us; and we don't look to camp in this ship it may be for a week, it may be for two. My own inclination sends me round the eastward headland, there to learn what's beyond the village; and if there's no ground likely, it won't kill us to pull back again."
"If my inclination led me, I should shift straight for a square meal and a long drink at the nearest bar," responded Kenner dolefully; but, finding that he had no sympathy from the others, who put the boat at once upon the course Messenger had indicated, he turned to the nigger and addressed him with sorrow, to which the man responded with a great show of teeth and an ambiguous "By golly!" He meant to convey the intimation that he was hungry; but so, indeed, were all of them, though there could be no leisure for food neither then nor for many hours; and they rowed in a determined silence right round the eastern headland, standing in the dark a couple of miles away from the village, and coming at length to a second bay, which was not so deep as the other; but had cliffs of repelling steepness and seemingly impregnable face.
Here they coasted for a half-mile or more, until at last the cliffs, though of equal height, were split into close ravines of whitish earth, and showed numberless inlets and tiny creeks—some of them with a stretch of sandy beach, some shoreless fjords. It was the work of an hour or more to explore the first half-dozen of these with any exactitude; but after many rejections and selections they put at last into a natural harbour which seemed to be cut by nature just for their own purpose. Not only did a channel of the sea, some eight feet wide, run into this haven, giving water even at the bottom of the tide, but the passage turned some thirty feet from the shore, and there disclosed a perfect fjord. Cliffs of great altitude almost shut out the sky; a still basin of water gave to the retreat all the aspect of a lagoon. It was in all things such a harbour as they might have prayed for; and when, they being just come to the head of it, the moon sent radiating beams down through the white cañon and a thousand pinnacles of rock glinted in the yellow light, there was a wild picturesqueness about their retreat which surpassed description.
Burke's first exclamation when the boat grounded was one of delight.
"If there's a finer spot for throwing the stuff ashore between here and Lisbon, I'll give you my share!" said he; and with that he sprang upon the beach, of which there was not three feet, and the others followed him, stretching themselves as men whose limbs were racked with cramp and confinement. To haul the ship up was not their purpose; but they forced her broadside to the sand, and then, at Messenger's dictation, they began to act.
"Now, boys," said he, and he spoke exultingly, "out with the stuff; there's another journey to be made before dawn, and the night's short enough, any way."
In half an hour kegs and cases lay piled upon the sand, and the life-boat stood high in the water. Then Burke, who had taken a hasty sounding, gave his advice for the disposition of the cargo with a readiness which again emphasized the quick working of a curiously ill-balanced brain.
"Look you," said he, "there's a rock bottom at the turn of the passage, and a pool two feet deep here. You couldn't want better if it had been made for you. Drop the stuff there, and there it lies till the Day of Judgment for all the sea'll do to it."
At these words they rolled the freight into the sea-pool, where it sank with a heavy splash; and then, scarce consenting to wait, as Burke insisted, for a cloud, which was coming up with a gentle westerly wind, to cover the moon, they pushed out heedlessly to sea, and by dawn a second load lay in the calm water of the cove, and the men prepared in the light of the day for their own concealment and for that of their boat.
As the morning light flooded their retreat, yet left it dim, for the sky above them where the cañon opened was black with rain clouds, they could begin to see their environment and its possibilities. On either side of them was a wall of rock, but on the left side the precipice was broken into irregular ridges. The first of these, at the height of five feet or less, appearing to form a rude path leading right through the cañon to the hill-land beyond it. It was this ledge which the quick eye of Messenger selected for the camping-place, and, having hauled himself up to it, he found by walking no more than fifty yards that there was a hollow under the rock where the whole of them could be in shelter and almost absolute concealment.
In such a retreat they camped during that day, feeding upon the biscuits and the fruit, and suffering their insatiable hunger for meat; but early in the night, leaving Kenner in charge of the haven, the other four put out again; and, holding off the land in their hope of escaping all observation, they came, after rowing for a couple of hours, within a quarter of a mile of the reef before they were able to observe it closely.
The moon had not yet risen; and the night was dark with storm cloud. The westerly wind, which had been increasing since the dawn, blew freshly, and they could see the silver of surf beating up upon the pinnacles and flecking them with foam. This deterred them in no way, but, having ceased to row for a spell that they might shape the best course possible to make the inner pool, they were suddenly startled by a low cry from Fisher, who had the tiller, and whose eyes were glued upon the reef.
"Prince," said he, "is that a man moving on the poop there, or can't I see straight?"
"By gosh! it is a man!" said Burke; and the nigger, chiming in, cried—
"Two men, sah, and a keg for to lug, by golly!"
If a shot had come among them, you could not have surprised them more sharply. For some moments they sat speechless, laying upon their oars, and watching the two fellows who were were well occupied hauling out one of their kegs into a boat anchored on the shoreward side of the islets; but whose mast stood above the ledge with a triced-up lug-sail flapping to the breeze. So busy were they that no sound of the approaching ship's boat had disturbed them; nor did they see her as she lay with her crew stupefied and wordless. And when they had lowered the keg of bullion, they disappeared into the cabin again, seemingly unconscious of observation or of danger. But Messenger had already made up his mind, and, pulling out his revolver, he said—
"Burke, if a man among them goes ashore living, the game's up. Have you got any cartridges in your belt?"
"I've half-a-dozen, and five in the shooting-iron," replied Burke. "What's the youngster got?"
"He'll stand by the boat," said Messenger quickly, "and come aboard only when I call him. Are you quite ready?"
"Ay, ay!" cried Burke; and upon that they shot the boat with rapid strokes to the inner pool of the reef, and sprang nimbly to the poop.
A lantern was burning in the depth of the cabin, and by its light they saw two men bending over a case of sovereigns which they had broken open, and whose dazzling contents held them spell-bound.
Though the light was dim enough, and burned flickeringly, the saloon shone with a dazzling radiance of brightness which was blinding to the eyes. Before the astonished men there lay a fortune of gold; a cube of sovereigns pressing thick upon each other; a mass of glittering, scintillating metal which was as a sun to the cabin. To bathe their hands in it, to pour it in cupfuls back to the treasure-box, to listen to the chink of it—this was the occupation of the two Spaniards upon whose vision such a sight had come, and it held them indifferent to sound and suspicion, cast upon them that inexplicable spell which is the potency of treasure. But to the others watching the spectacle was one which moved every impulse of greed; and, with clenched teeth and nerves playing, they prepared to leap down the ladder and begin the attack.
"Mark your man," said Messenger in a whisper, "and shoot straight! They'll have knives, and it's best fought apart. I go first."
He went lightly down the ladder as he spoke, and, the Spaniards immediately turning, he shot at the one upon the left