Part 23 (2/2)

I should say that half an hour elapsed before he returned; and that was an anxious time for me. Expecting every moment to hear a rifle-shot, I waited, 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 had been visited since my departure, several days before; but there was one circ.u.mstance which he could not by any means explain.

”A great boulder has been rolled upon the slab,” said he, ”as if to weigh 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 clear enough, though something extraordinary has happened.”

We came forth together from the tunnel, and I was at once half-blinded by the sudden daylight, just as I had been before, when I first beheld the red rock standing forth from the ground in the very semblance of a fish with opened mouth. But when I could use my eyes again, I saw that everything in that strange place was just as I had left it, with the exception that the stone slab was no longer covered with earth, and a great boulder, round as a s...o...b..ll, lay upon the top of it.

”Who placed this here?” I asked; and that was more than Bannister could answer.

We went together to the slab, and there he lay down and listened, with his 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 stone steps into the Treasure-chamber below.

It was quite dark, for we had neither torch nor lantern. We had made certain that the place would be deserted, and it therefore came to us something in the nature of a shock, when we beard a jingling sound--as if some one, who had been asleep upon the gold, had sprung on a sudden to his feet. And then a human voice cried out to us; and this was so loud and unexpected that I confess I jumped as if I had been p.r.i.c.ked with the point of a knife. For all that, I recognised the voice at once as that of Joshua Trust.

”You've come back!” he cried. ”Stand clear of me, or else I'll wring your neck! Who's he who swore that he never yet went back upon his friends?”

There followed a pause, during which I tried my best to make head and tail of what the man had said. It speaks much for John Bannister's intelligence 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, burst forth into such a rapid stream of language that it seemed to me--who understood not a word of what he said--that he swore with the most amazing 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 hear the lazy drawl of Mr. Forsyth.

”_Amicus certus in re incerta_,” he observed. ”Sure friend in doubtful circ.u.mstances. Amos, we welcome you. We greet you as Joseph received his brethren.”

It was then that Bannister spoke in his natural voice; and, as I listened, I tried to imagine the feelings of those others whom his words took so wholly by surprise.

”Amos Baverstock has not returned,” said he; ”and I am prepared to take my oath he never will. A certain friend, in very truth, was he who led you 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 tried to kill me--who, indeed, left me for dead. Do you remember that day in the mountains, when Amos caught me in Cahazaxa's Tomb? Well, now he has done the same for you. He has buried you alive; and when he comes back for the gold he covets, he will think to find it strewn with the bones of those who were fools enough to believe he was their friend.”

I heard Trust groan in the darkness; or, I think, perhaps, a growl describes it better. Forsyth, judging by the tones of his voice, was just as calm as ever.

”Bannister!” he exclaimed. ”So this is the end of it all! We are to owe our lives to you!”

”That's a matter,” answered Bannister, ”for yourselves to settle. How long have you been here?”

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