Part 24 (1/2)
”Not many hours,” said Forsyth; ”but it seems like days and nights. We have had time enough in which to consider the misery of our end--without water, food, or light, in the midst of all this gold.”
Bannister was silent a moment. He had not descended the stairs into the chamber, but stood upon a step about midway down with myself close behind him.
”I'll have no treachery,” said he. ”It is very needful that you understand the situation as it is. I am a man of my word, as you may or may not know, and I set you free on certain conditions only.”
”Fire ahead,” said Forsyth. ”State your terms. Anything for daylight and for freedom--for the certain knowledge that we have been granted a new lease of life.”
”Good!” said Bannister. ”I go before you up the staircase, and wait for you above. Whatever arms you have you leave behind you. If any one of you comes forth with a rifle in his possession, I shoot him dead upon the spot.”
”We share the gold with you?” asked Joshua Trust.
”Not an ounce of it, you fool!” cried Bannister. ”Years ago I might have had it for myself, had I wished to play the robber. All this treasure is not yours or mine or anyone's; it belongs by right to the Government of the country. I am neither a smuggler nor a thief. Were it worth less, I might not be so honest; but here are millions, such as to release would be to let loose a great force of evil that would profit no one, and ourselves least of all. Here this gold has lain for ages, and here let it lie. That is one of my conditions.”
”Let us out!” cried Trust. ”All night I have dreamed that I must eat bars of gold to live. I have sucked golden ingots with parched, dry lips. I have slept upon gold, and never before had I a couch so uninviting. Let us out, I say! I agree to anything.”
At that, Bannister bade me ascend the stairs, and followed close upon my heels. When we reached the top, we waited both with our rifles at the ready, prepared to fire upon the first sign of trouble. But the three of them, one behind the other, came forth out of the vault as meek as shorn lambs--first Trust; then Vasco; and finally, Mr. Gilbert Forsyth, who, swaggering into the daylight in no particular haste, had the audacity to hold out a hand to Bannister, as if he greeted an old acquaintance.
John Bannister, however, did no more than shrug his shoulders, and then went to the stone slab and threw it back into its place.
”When did Amos leave here?” he asked, turning again to Forsyth.
”Last night.”
”Did he say anything before he went?”
”Yes, he was so gracious as to tell us we could die where he had left us. As for himself, he was going back into the forest to find native porters to carry the gold away.”
”Just as we thought!” said Bannister. ”Rushby was in the right.”
And, thereupon, our attention was immediately attracted by the strange conduct of Joshua Trust, who looked up at the little patch of blue sky just visible between the overhanging branches of the trees, clenched both his fists in an amazing burst of pa.s.sion, and shook them above his head.
”He shall pay for this!” he cried, with an oath that can never be repeated. ”And I have served him faithfully for years! He has gone back upon me, when he saw that he had gained everything he wanted! By thunder, he shall pay for it!”
Bannister looked at him, and smiled.
”Have more sense, man,” said he. ”What use is all this anger? Amos Baverstock is mad.”
”Mad or sane,” cried Trust, ”he shall answer for what he has done. Come, tell me, what's the time?”
”I should think no more than ten,” said Bannister. ”We started at daybreak, and we were not two hours upon the march before we found the brook.”
When I looked at Joshua, I was reminded of the man whom I had known on board the _Mary Greenfield_, who was wont to sit drinking at his cards.
He was red of eye and flushed of countenance, and I saw that his lips trembled with a pa.s.sion he was quite unable to contain. He was a rough man, in any case; and now that he had lived for months in the wilderness, and had been saved from death as it were at the eleventh hour, he was the greatest savage of the five of us.
”Ten o'clock,” he repeated. ”Four bells, by Christopher! Then, he can't be far away. He can never have travelled far by night, for he took with him a hundredweight of gold. I'll go after him,” he cried.
”He shall answer yet for what he tried to do.”
Bannister stretched out an arm to detain the man; but Trust sprang aside and, with another oath, dived into the thickets.