Part 17 (2/2)

”Listen!” said the boatswain. ”I can do no more than spin a yarn from the beginning. I am coming to what you want to know. Baverstock, his threats having failed with Bannister, played his trump-card upon me, and won the trick. Leaving Bannister still weak from fever, bound hand and foot, he came to me by night and talked in whispers. He told me that he held you a prisoner, and, like a fool, I believed him. He said that if he did not learn the truth in regard to the exact position of the Big Fish 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 a shark takes a baited hook. I was neither strong nor wise like Bannister. For my own life I cared not greatly, but I was loth to behold John Bannister put to death, and I knew how much he cared for you, and how he would grieve if you were to die through any fault of mine. And thus it was that I told Amos Baverstock the truth. I told him that we had brought with us from Suss.e.x your little fragment of the map; and I told him that I had hidden it within the helmet in the Tomb of the Spanish soldier.

”He said no more to me that night, but posted Vasco, the Spaniard, as a sentry, with orders to see that Bannister and I did not communicate. And at daybreak the next morning, in the utmost haste, he and his three companions went back into the Wood to find the map in the Spaniard's Tomb, and thence to discover the Red Fish itself, where the gold of Peru is 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 it is no longer in the Tomb.”

”Not in the Tomb!” he burst forth. ”Then, where is it? And how do you know where it is?”

”Because it is here,” said I. And as I said the words, I pulled forth the little piece of parchment from the quiver in which I kept my blow-pipe arrows.

Rushby looked at it, recognised it at once, and sat staring at me, as if, 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 a wild-goose chase after all!”

He again carried his hands to his head, and sat rocking from side to side, 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 that there 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 too late to make amends. Tell me what has happened.”

He looked up at me with a sad face. I am inclined to think that there were even teardrops in his eyes.

”When Baverstock and those with him were gone,” said he; ”when they were returned to the Wood and lost to view, I picked up my jack-knife, and limped to the tree, where I cut Bannister's bonds. You must understand that Amos departed that morning in such hot haste that he left behind our knives and rifles, as well as much of his own equipment. However, that is neither here nor there. I was obliged to tell Bannister the truth; and, no sooner had I done so, than he made me realise what a simpleton I was.

”He told me that I had been a fool to hide the map in any place where it could 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 Amos Baverstock. And the very thought that this unholy villain was to solve at last the riddle of the Big Fish gave, upon the instant, new strength to Bannister. For then and there he rose to his feet, and said that he was going himself into the Wood, that he would reach the Tomb in advance of Amos and take possession of the map.”

”He has gone there!” I shouted, like a maniac, springing to my feet and pointing towards the Wood.

”Yes,” said Rushby. ”He said that he would rather die a thousand times than 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 s.n.a.t.c.hed up my blow-pipe and my quiver filled with darts, and set off running down the ravine, as fast as my legs would carry me, towards the Wood.

CHAPTER XX--I RETURN TO THE SOLDIER'S TOMB

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