Island Gold/Chapter 23

with fever though he was, his presence of mind did not forsake him. In a flash his whistle was at his lips and three shrill blasts rang piercingly among the rocks. With the other hand he snatched up his automatic.

It was done with such lightning speed that he had me at a disadvantage. Though I had my pistol in my hand when I challenged Grundt, I was completely thrown off my balance by the glimpse I had of Marjorie who, with the blood drained from her face, stood swaying against a boulder as if about to faint. For a fraction of a second I took my eyes off the cripple and in that second he had me covered.

“Move and you're dead!” he snarled at me. “Drop that gun! Drop it, d'ye hear?”

“You're welcome to it,” I said as I pitched it on a tussock between us. “I've come to capitulate, Grundt! You win!”

“Very clever! Oh, very clever, indeed!” he sneered. “You imagine, I suppose, that Clubfoot, the stupid old Boche, did not hear that gun from the sea just now? Your friends may have arrived back, Herr Major. But little good they'll do you. I am going to kill you!”

Even as he spoke, into the turquoise horseshoe of sea at his back the Naomi came steaming, the sun flaming here and there on her polished brass-work, a glittering white ship as snowy as the spume that creamed in her wake. So clear was the atmosphere that I could see the white-clad figures running about her decks. I strained my ears to catch if I might the clang of her engine-room telegraph ringing her down to “slow.” But the wind was off the land and no sound came from the Naomi. She might have been a phantom ship, such a spectre as, they say, visits a man in the hour of death.

And, in truth, it seemed as though for me the hour of death were at hand. Grundt's evil eyes and grim mouth set above the gleaming blue barrel of the great automatic were ample evidence that his words were no idle threat. He shifted his grip to get a better aim and I looked away from that sinister face, away from the Naomi and her promise of home, away from the glistening sea and the swaying green palms to Marjorie. She stood like a white marble statue. Only her eyes seemed yet to live and they were wide with terror.

Again Clubfoot's whistle rang out. I turned to see his forehead puckered in a questioning frown. I shrugged my shoulders.

“What chance has the Naomi against you and your men, Grundt?” I asked. “A pleasure yacht is not equipped to send off cutting-out expeditions, you know! You are fully armed and well-entrenched in the island! It seems to me that your fears are exaggerated!...”

“Fine words, fine words!” he muttered. “Nevertheless, in a minute you are going to die!...”

He took out his watch and laid it on the blanket before him.

“When I told you I had come to capitulate,” I rejoined, “I spoke the truth. I have found the treasure. And there is proof!”

I opened my left hand and flung at his feet a handful of gold. Twenty-mark pieces, they dropped softly on the blankets and lay there gleaming in the sunshine, the Kaiser's head and the Imperial eagle plain for him to see.

I had shaken him. I knew it at a glance. He looked down at the gold, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

“Also doch!” he murmured—that conveniently elastic German phrase which means “By Jove, he's done it!” or, “Well, I never!” or, “I'd never have thought it!” or anything more or less along these lines you care to fit to it.

“Let Miss Garth and me go free to rejoin the yacht,” I said. “And I'll tell you where the treasure's hid!”

He stiffened up at once.

“It is not for you to dictate to me, you scum!” he cried. “Unconditional surrender is the only kind of surrender 1 understand. Say what you have to say and I will then decide what I shall do with you...”

I glanced seaward. And my heart stood still. The Naomi had vanished. Had it been but a vision after all?

“Come on!” urged Grundt, scowling. “I have given you a respite. But I grow impatient...”

I noticed that the ague had taken him again and that, do what he might, he was trembling violently all over.

“If you will allow me to put my left hand to my jacket pocket,” I said, “I can show you some thing that will explain everything.”

“Bitte sehr! But remember that I can stretch you dead before you will have time to shoot, even through your pocket...”

From my jacket I produced the little mirror. The sun caught its polished surface as I brought it out and it flashed and flashed again.

Between the curving arms of Horseshoe Bay the launch of the Naomi came flying. I could see the white spray thrown up in two curving sheets as her bows cut the green water. To my ears stole faintly the quick chug-chug of her propeller. I wondered if Grundt had heard it. But he was staring fixedly at the little mirror which I kept turning over in my hand so that it flashed and flashed....

“This was wired to the grave, Grundt,” said I. “It was what failed you, to read the cipher. You remember the line 'Flimmer, dimmer viel'? That was the indication to throw a spot-light, thus!”—I caught the sun's rays in the glass and flashed it seaward to the Bay—“from the mirror set at an angle of eighty-five degrees; 'the garrison of Kiel,' 'die Fünf-und-Achtziger,' you know, Herr Doktor! Incidentally it was you yourself who were good enough to recall the allusion to my mind!...”

And I reminded him of our talk in the ravine in the forest.

Savagely he bit his lip.

“So that was what made you willing to hand me the message,” he commented. “I wondered what it was. But continue! We waste valuable time!...”

“The compass bearing indicated by 'the Feast of Orders' was, of course, 27, from January 27th, the date of the celebrations, as you probably guessed for yourself. The spot-light thrown on this line fell upon a peculiar pillar on the topmost terrace which your men are now searching. From this pillar, between two crags, the Sugar Loaf and the Lorelei, both quite easily identified, I saw the great image indicated by Puppchen in the message. I don't know whether you know the song 'Puppchen, du bist mein Augenstern'?

“'Augenstern—the star of my eyes, refers to the idol. It has one eye hollow. By mounting from the hillside at the back you can look through the eye and see the little cairn of stones which Ulrich von Hagel, with the hand of death upon him, built to mark the hiding-place of the gold. At the foot of the image the treasure lies buried. From a box at the surface I took this handful of gold. I could not move the rest, for I had neither pick nor spade and the ground is hard and rocky. And that, I think, is all!”

For the first time Grundt relaxed his forbidding expression.

“Your story sounds plausible, Herr Major,” he said. “This time I believe you are telling the truth...”

I gazed out into the Bay. The launch had disappeared. She must have gone in under the cliffs out of sight.

“In any case,” Clubfoot was saying, “I propose to risk it. Being a practical man you will realize that I cannot afford to chance the valuable information you have acquired falling into the possession of your friends. Furthermore, I bear you a grudge, Okewood. It has been the rule of my life that no man shall best me and live. Therefore I am going to shoot you now...”

A little cry, and even as I turned Marjorie pitched forward and fell prone on the grass between Grundt and me.

“Bah!” said Clubfoot, “let her lie! She will...”

He never finished the sentence. Quick as thought the girl half raised herself, two deafening reports rang out all but simultaneously, then, with a snarling cry, Grundt snatched at his wrist.

The next moment Garth and Lawless burst into the hollow. But I was staring at Marjorie who had fallen motionless on her face.