Spanish Gold/Chapter 14

ELDON stretched himself along the seat of the Spindrifts cabin. He had dined very heartily off tinned corned beef and potatoes, followed by several cups of strong tea. He had lit his pipe and felt happy. The unpleasant duty of washing up the plates and cups was postponed until after the evening meal, when one job could be made of all the crockery dirtied during the day.

"There's one good thing about a morning's work such as we have had," he said. "Even if you haven't pulled off the exact thing you went out to do, you enjoy your dinner and your smoke afterwards tremendously. I expect there are fellows at this moment sitting in London restaurants and clubs and places smoking half-crown cigars after gorging themselves with iced soufflés and pâtés of various kinds, who aren't getting half the satisfaction that I am out of this pipe of common twist."

Major Kent grunted. He was disinclined for philosophic argument.

"There's something in one of Horace's odes about its not being Sicilian feasts but hard work and a good conscience which bring real satisfaction. I can't recollect the exact words, but if I had a Horace I could find them."

"I wouldn't give Horace too much credit for the remark, even if he made it. An obvious truth of that sort must, I should think, have been discovered by Adam."

"Adam couldn't have discovered it," said Meldon. "As long as he had a quiet conscience he did no work, and when he had to work his conscience was at him day and night."

Major Kent allowed this to pass without contradiction.

"Besides," said Meldon, "I doubt very much whether Adam understood the use of tobacco. If he did I don't see how the secret could have died out. It was Sir Walter Raleigh, as well as I recollect, who brought Hullo! there's somebody hailing us."

"Spindrift ahoy!"

The shout floated through the open skylight of the cabin while Meldon spoke.

"I wonder if that's Higginbotham back from Inishmore," said Major Kent. "I hope he hasn't brought a consumptive patient with him. If he has you may deal with him yourself, J. J. It's no affair of mine and I won't help."

"I hope it's not Higginbotham; I don't feel in the mood for dealing with Higginbotham just now. It's as likely as not that he'd be unreasonable about the bacillus hunt."

The hail was repeated: "Ahoy there! Spindrift ahoy!"

"It can't be Higginbotham," said Meldon. "He always comes on board without hailing. It must be that new Member of Parliament off the steam yacht."

"Let's lie low then and pretend we're not here."

"Nonsense. Members of Parliament are often extremely amusing. We'll have him in and listen to him talking about the Irish problem. Get out the whisky, Major. These fellows all drink whisky when they come to this country, whether they actually like it or not. I'll fetch him on board."

He went on deck and discovered to his surprise Sir Giles Buckley and Langton in the Aureole's punt alongside.

"Hullo!" he said. "What brings you here? If it's a new throat halyard you want you may as well go straight back again. We haven't a rope to spare, and I warned you to be careful about the one you had."

"The throat halyard is all right," said Sir Giles. "We haven't come about that. We want to have a little chat with you and your friend."

He smiled as he spoke. Langton also smiled. It was evident that they had agreed together to be civil and agreeable.

"Very well," said Meldon. "Come on board if you like."

His tone was not very cordial. Sir Giles evidently felt the necessity of making some sort of an apology before he accepted the invitation.

"I should like to explain," he said, "that I'm sorry for losing my temper with you in the cave this morning. I don't make any excuse for myself, of course, but"

"It's all right," said Meldon more graciously. "In fact, I ought to apologise first. I played you rather a shabby trick with the punt this morning."

"Oh, that was nothing. We didn't mind, did we, Langton?"

"Not a bit," said Langton. "We laughed."

"Come below," said Meldon, "and have a drink."

Sir Giles and Langton seated themselves at one side of the table in the Spindrifts cabin. Major Kent and Meldon faced them. A bottle of whisky and two syphons of soda-water stood on the table. Tumblers were filled and the ceremony of pledging each other duly performed. Then Sir Giles spoke:—

"Langton and I were naturally disappointed this morning when we found that those chests in the cave were empty. I think I may take it for granted that you two gentlemen were disappointed too, though I'm bound to say you didn't show it."

"You may take it that way for the sake of argument, if you like," said Meldon cautiously. "But I don't admit that we have any reason to be disappointed. It all depends on who emptied the chests."

"Come now," said Sir Giles. "We quite understand that you don't want to give yourselves away. But we don't believe you have the treasure. In fact, we're certain you haven't. I think it will pay you better in the long run to be straight with us. We're all of us out of it at present. What I've come to propose is this. Let us join forces and find the stuff wherever it is. I don't deny that Langton and I would rather keep it all to ourselves. So, no doubt, would you and your friend. But we'd rather go shares with you than lose it altogether. And that's what will happen if we spend our time chasing each other round and round this wretched little island as we've been doing for the last three days."

"What do you propose to do?" said Meldon.

"First of all I would suggest that we table all the information we have about the treasure. We'll tell all we know and you'll tell all you know. To show you that we mean to play fair I don't mind speaking first."

"Very well," said Meldon. "We agree to that. Go ahead with your story and I'll tell ours afterwards."

"After my father's death," said Sir Giles, "I got the family place, house, furniture, and so forth, and precious little else. I gave orders to have the furniture sold and the lawyer sent me out a bundle of old papers. I wouldn't have bothered myself about the papers at all, only that just at the time they came I had nothing in the world to do. I don't mind owning that I was pretty well stony-broke just then and was stuck in a lodging in a dirty little French town. I read the papers. Among them was an old diary kept by my grandfather. It appears that he paid a visit to this island in 1798, and"

"You needn't go into that," said Meldon. "We have papers ourselves which give us all the information your grandfather had. Major Kent's grandfather kept a log, as he called it, of that expedition. I expect that both the old gentlemen wrote down pretty much the same thing—all they knew about the matter."

"I didn't think anything of it," went on Sir Giles, "until I happened to meet another stony-broke Englishman."

"I'm an Irishman," said Langton.

"It's all the same thing," said Sir Giles.

"I beg your pardon," said Langton. "It's not the same thing at all."

"Gentlemen," said Meldon, "if this conference is to go on it must be conducted on strictly non-political lines."

"What!" said Sir Giles.

"My friend, Major Kent," said Meldon, "is a strong Unionist, and I can't allow him to be compromised by any political arguments of a Nationalist kind."

Sir Giles gaped at him.

"I wasn't talking politics," he said. "I wasn't thinking about politics. As a matter of fact, I don't care a hang for any politics."

"Langton was talking politics," said Meldon, "and you were arguing with him. He said he was an Irishman and you said he wasn't. Any one with any experience of this country knows where that sort of talk leads to. The Major can't be expected to stand it. He's a Unionist, one of the loyal and oppressed minority, and it isn't right to outrage his feelings by introducing politics into what ought to be a simple business discussion."

Sir Giles checked what was evidently a strong impulse to curse.

"Go on with your story," said Meldon. "I'm sorry for having to interrupt, but do try and keep politics out of it. You were just telling us that you met Langton."

"I met Langton," said Sir Giles, "who was also at the time stony-broke. We got yarning together, having nothing better to do. Naturally we talked a good deal about money, the thing both our minds were dwelling on, because we hadn't got any. I told Langton the story of my grandfather's diary and the Spanish treasure on Inishgowlan. It turned out that Langton had read somewhere"

"In Trinity College Library," said Langton, "before I resigned my post there."

"Resigned?" said Meldon with a grin.

"If politics are barred," said Sir Giles, "so are offensive remarks. I have agreed to respect Major Kent's feelings about the Union Jack, though I'm blest if I understand how they come in. You must not insult my friend Langton."

"I apologise," said Meldon. "We'll be non-sectarian as well as non-political."

"You tell this part, Langton," said Sir Giles.

"There's not much to tell. While I was in the College Library I came across an old manuscript written in Spanish. It was a good deal mutilated in fact there was neither beginning nor end to it. It appeared to be the log of one of the Armada captains. It began with an account of being shipwrecked on a small island off the west coast of Ireland. The island wasn't named, nor was the situation described, but he told how he and his crew left the island in two curraghs. Their own boats were, I suppose, destroyed. Before they went"

"They hid the treasure," said Meldon.

"Precisely. They couldn't take it in the curraghs. They meant to go back for it."

"Did he mention the hole in Thomas O'Flaherty's field?"

"Yes."

"I see. I could not understand how you got at that. This is most interesting. Go on."

"There isn't much more to tell," said Sir Giles. "We put our stories together"

"Oh, but I want to hear what happened to the Spaniard," said Meldon.

"It doesn't matter about him. The log broke off abruptly, didn't it, Langton? What we did was, put our stories together. We made up our minds that the thing was good enough to try for. The sale of the furniture in Ballymoy House brought in some money. I sent Langton over to hire a small yacht. He knew nothing about boats, and you stuck him badly with your old Aureole."

"I don't like that," said Meldon. "We agreed to be non-sectarian and you go introducing religion."

"I only said you stuck him over the boat. There's nothing religious about that remark."

"There is," said Meldon. "To stick a man is a form of swindling, and swindling is a distinct breach of one of the Ten Commandments. There isn't a sect of Christians in the world which doesn't profess to have more or less respect for the Ten Commandments, therefore your remark about sticking Langton over the boat is in the highest degree sectarian and a distinct infringement of the terms of our agreement."

"I've knocked about a good deal in my day," said Sir Giles, "and I've met lots of queer people. In fact, I thought I'd met every kind of man there is in the world. But I'm hanged—'hanged' isn't swearing, it's only a form of emphasis—I'm hanged if I ever met quite as queer a fellow as you."

"What do you propose to do now?" said the Major.

It was his first contribution to the discussion, and the other three men looked at him in surprise.

"Before going into that," said Sir Giles, "we'd like to hear what you know about the treasure. You've had our story. Let us hear yours."

"We've no story," said Meldon. "We had the information in Major Kent's grandfather's log, pretty much the same as what you got from your grandfather. That's all."

Sir Giles and Langton looked at each other. Suspicion was in both their faces.

"We had nothing else to go on," said Meldon.

"Then how did you find the cave?"

"By inductive reasoning," said Meldon. "By careful observation, and a proper use of what is called the scientific imagination."

"If you won't be open and above-board with us," said Sir Giles, "there's no use our talking to you. It's neither fair nor honourable of you to keep a card up your sleeve in this way when we've laid all ours on the table."

"I've got no card up my sleeve," said Meldon. "As a matter of fact I don't play cards, so I wouldn't be likely to have one about me—up my sleeve or anywhere else. I haven't played cards since I left college, and even there I didn't cheat."

"Do you expect us to believe that out of all possible places on this island where that treasure might have been hidden you lit on that cave straight off by accident?"

"I don't expect you to believe anything of the sort. What I said was, that I arrived at the cave by a process of reasoning. You may not be able to reason yourself, but there's no use denying that other people can."

"Strikes me as a bit thick, that. What do you say, Langton?"

"It's a damned lie," said Langton.

"Now, if I said a thing like that to either of you," Said Meldon, "you'd lose your tempers and try to break my head with a stone. But I happen to have some self-control."

"I believe," said the Major to Meldon, with a broad grin, "that this is the first time you've spoken the truth since we came to this island, and it's the only time you haven't been believed."

"We may as well go," said Sir Giles. "There's nothing to be gained by staying here arguing with men who have no sense of honour or decency."

Langton gulped down the remains of his whisky and water and stood up. A sharp bump against the yacht's side shook him into his seat again.

"What the devil's that?" said Sir Giles.

"It must be Higginbotham," said Major Kent. "He always does that. He's come on board twice before, and each time he has rammed the yacht as if he were a torpedo specially paid to knock holes in the sides of ships."

"I'll fetch him down," said Meldon. "Don't go yet, Sir Giles. You'll like Higginbotham when you meet him, I'm sure. He'll want to talk to you about tuberculosis. He's frightfully keen on every kind of consumption, and he's got it into his head that you're interested in the subject."

He rose to go on deck. Before he succeeded in getting clear of the table, Higginbotham descended rapidly, legs first, into the cabin. He was flushed, eager, and evidently in a condition of great nervous excitement.

"I've just got back," he said. "I came off at once—I haven't a minute to spare—to tell you that the Granuaile is in."

"What is the Granuaile?" said Sir Giles.

"Oh, I beg your pardon. I didn't see that you were here, Sir Giles. I was going over to your yacht to tell you. I thought you'd like to know. It will be time enough to give my report later on, won't it? I can't stay now."

"What's the Granuaile?" said Sir Giles. "Let's get that first."

"She's the C.D.B. yacht, and the"

"For God's sake, man, don't talk alphabetical riddles. What's the A.B.C.?"

"C.D.B.," said Meldon mildly, "stands for Congested Districts Board. Mr. Higginbotham is part of the C.D.B. He's the Board's representative on Inishgowlan."

"The Chief Secretary is here," said Higginbotham. "I can't possibly stay. I'm expecting him up at my place every minute. I must be there to meet him. Goodbye. I suppose you'll come ashore soon and pay your respects. Goodbye for the present."

He backed rapidly up the companion ladder and disappeared. A minute later there was a sound of scraping and another bump against the yacht's side.

"Am I to understand," said Major Kent, "that the Chief Secretary is on the island?"

"Apparently he is," said Meldon. "I wasn't expecting him, but now that he has turned up we must all try to make his stay as pleasant for him as possible."

"Who is the Chief Secretary?" said Sir Giles. "What is he Chief Secretary of? Is it that A.B.C. thing which the last lunatic talked about?"

"You've lived abroad," said Meldon, "or else you'd know that the Chief Secretary is the principal boss of the Government of this country. In fact, he is the Government. He's far and away a bigger man than the Lord-Lieutenant, although he doesn't wear such good clothes or look so ornamental. He varies, of course, from time to time according to circumstances, that is to say, according to whether the English people think they'd like a Conservative or a Liberal for Prime Minister. At present he's a man called Willoughby—the Right Honourable Eustace Willoughby, M.P. By the way, Major, I told you there was sure to be a Member of Parliament on that steam yacht. I turned out to be right, you see, in spite of your sneers. I don't happen to have met this Chief Secretary, but they tell me he's not a bad sort of man in private life. I shall look forward to having some quiet chats with him while he's here."

"You won't get them," said the Major, in a determined tone. "I'm off at once."

"Whatever he is, he has nothing to do with us," said Sir Giles. "We've got our own business to see to. Come now, Mr. Meldon, before we go, you may as well tell us the truth about how you found that cave."

"There's no use my repeating what I've said before. I've told you all we know about the matter. If you don't choose to believe me, don't believe me. I can't help it."

Sir Giles scowled at him.

"Very well, Mr. Parson, if you are a parson, which I doubt. We've offered to run this business in partnership with you and to go shares. It was a fair offer and you've refused it. You won't have me for your friend. You'll find me a nasty enemy to deal with. I tell you straight I mean to handle that treasure before I leave the island. Come along, Langton."

Meldon went on deck with them, saw them into their punt, and waved a cheerful farewell as they rowed away. Sir Giles, who was rowing and faced the Spindrift, scowled in reply, and, to Meldon's intense delight, began to swear.