Part 4 (1/2)

The chief looked doubtful; but when Stephen added a crimson silk handkerchief he closed with the bargain at once. He would indeed have given them for the looking-gla.s.ses alone if Stephen had held out for them, for he regarded the chronometers with a certain sense of dread; they were to him mysteries, having made, when first brought ash.o.r.e, a ticking noise, and were generally considered to be in some way alive. They were, therefore, left out in the air for some days, and it was then found that they were, as supposed, dead. None of the other natives would have given them house-room; but the chief, who was less superst.i.tious than the majority of the tribe, had brought them into his hut, although he had not had sufficient courage to break them up for the sake of the bra.s.s.

Having disposed of these the chief opened the lid of the chest. He took out some clothes and held them up, but Stephen shook his head decidedly.

Then he brought out a gold watch and a heavy bag; he untied the latter, and handed it to Stephen for inspection. The lad had difficulty in repressing an exclamation, for it was full of guineas, but put it down and placed the watch beside it, a.s.sumed an air of indifference, and then made up another pile of about equal value to the first, but threw in a couple of dozen bra.s.s b.u.t.tons. The chief nodded, and Stephen slipped the bag and watch into his coat pocket. While this transaction had been going on, Jim had carried the boxes containing the chronometers and quadrants to his comrades.

”Anything more, sir?” he asked, as he appeared at the door of the hut.

”Nothing more to carry, Jim, as far as I am concerned; but there is a good pea-jacket and some togs in that chest. I have no doubt that it belonged to the captain of the s.h.i.+p; they have cut off all the b.u.t.tons. I will buy them for you.”

The coat and trousers, and half a dozen s.h.i.+rts were, to Jim's great delight, purchased for him. Stephen then examined the whole contents of the chest, thinking that some papers might be found that would give a clue to the name of the s.h.i.+p that it had belonged to, but nothing of the sort was discovered. However, he bought the whole of the clothes, and, calling in the sailors one by one, divided them among them, and then went back and joined the captain.

”I have been doing some trading, captain,” he whispered to him. ”It is white plunder; and I have no doubt that a s.h.i.+p has been surprised and her crew ma.s.sacred somewhere near here. I have bought the chronometers and quadrants, and they have certainly not been in the water; also the contents of a sea-chest, which I divided among the men. There were no papers of any kind, but from the appearance of the chronometers, I should say that they cannot have been here long.”

The captain nodded.

”We will talk it over when we get on board, Steve. We will be off at once, for these fellows are beginning to get drunk with this beastly liquor of theirs, and it is best that we should get out of the place before there is any excuse for a quarrel.”

A few minutes later they took their seats in the boat and rowed off to the s.h.i.+p.

CHAPTER III.

A CYCLONE.

As soon as they arrived on board, Captain Pinder examined the chronometers and p.r.o.nounced them to be excellent ones.

”I would not wind them up until it is Greenwich time as they now stand, and would then compare them with our own.”

”Of course, sir,” Stephen said, ”I have bought these not for myself but for the s.h.i.+p.”

”Not at all, Steve; you have traded as you have a right to do, and the s.h.i.+p has nothing to do with it. At the same time I don't know whether you will be able to keep or sell them. I must give notice on our return home that such things have been found here under circ.u.mstances that leave no doubt that the crew of the s.h.i.+p to which they belonged have been ma.s.sacred, and the s.h.i.+p herself burned. No doubt owners of vessels that have been missing will call at the office to inspect the chronometers. I do not say that anyone would have a legal right to them; they have been absolutely lost and gone out of their possession, and you have bought them in the way of fair trade.”

”If they wish to have them back again, sir, of course I will give them up.”

”Well, at any rate, if you did so, lad, you would get a reward proportionate to their value. However, they may never be claimed. Owners whose s.h.i.+ps are missing, and who have received the insurance money, are not likely to trouble themselves further in the matter.”

”This is not all I have, sir,” Stephen went on. ”I also got this gold watch and this bag of money. I suppose the chest belonged to the captain, and that he carried this gold with him for the purchase of stores.”

”You are a lucky fellow, Steve. Come down into my cabin and we will count the money. Two hundred guineas,” he went on, when they had finished; ”well, that is about the best bit of trade that I have seen done; you had better hand this over to me to keep.”

”Oh, I don't mean it to be kept, sir,” Stephen said; ”it would not be fair at all. I would not think of it. It is like prize-money, and ought to be divided in the same way. I don't mind keeping the gold watch just now, but if we find out the name of the s.h.i.+p when we get back to England, I should wish to send it to the widow of the captain, and the money too, if it belonged to him.”

”There is no chance whatever of that, lad. No captain would be fool enough to bring out a lot of gold like that on his own account. It was certainly s.h.i.+p's money that he would hold for making advances to the crew; as for the purchase of stores, he would pay for them by bills on the owner. But still, you are no doubt right about the watch, and the poor fellow's widow would, doubtless, be glad to have it; as to the gold, I will take charge of it for the present. We will talk the matter over again later on; there is no occasion to come to any decision about it. At present it is entirely yours. I don't think that you have any right to give up a sum of money like this without, at any rate, very careful consideration. It is a sum that, divided up into shares, would give but a very small amount to each on board, while it might be of the most material service to you some day or other. But please oblige me by saying nothing whatever about it at present. Whatever decision is arrived at in matters of this sort, somebody is sure to feel aggrieved, and it is astonis.h.i.+ng what little things upset a crew, especially on a voyage of this kind, where there is no such controlling influence over the men's minds as that exercised by touching at ports where there are authorities to whom, in case of necessity, the captain can appeal.”

”Very well, sir, I will, of course, do as you wish. Shall I say anything about the watch?”

”Yes; there is no objection to your doing that, especially as that must be mentioned in any inquiries we may make as to any s.h.i.+p being missing, and there is no need for any secrecy about it. I shall also mention the money to the officers; they will appreciate the offer that you have made, and agree with me, I am sure, that it will be better that nothing should be said to the crew.”

That evening the first mate said to Stephen: ”The captain has been telling us about that bag of money you got hold of, Steve, and we all think that your offer to treat it as if it were prize-money is a very kind one, but we agree with him that it would be a mistake. In the first place, the money wouldn't go far. In any matter of that sort the s.h.i.+p, that is to say the owners, take a large share to begin with, the officers take some shares, and the men's shares would not come to a pound a head. A pound a head would only suffice for them to have a drunken spree on sh.o.r.e, but they are just as well without that, and, as the captain says, it is astonis.h.i.+ng what little things upset sailors' minds. They might take it into their head that as you got two hundred pounds in that hut there might be a lot more, and they would be wanting to land and to turn the village upside down, and there would be bloodshed and all sorts of trouble. The old saying, 'Least said, soonest mended', comes in here strongly. We have, so far, got on very well with the natives this voyage, and I hope that we shall continue to do so to the end. I quite allow that we should all of us be glad to give a sharp lesson to that village ash.o.r.e. They have been plundering, and I have no doubt murdering, the crew of some s.h.i.+p. Still, we have no evidence of that, and we can't attack the village on mere supposition. They have been friendly enough with us, partly because we have been here before, and the captain gets on well with them, but more because they are perfectly well aware that we are always on guard, and that there is no chance whatever of their catching us asleep. In nine cases out of ten it is the carelessness and over-confidence of sailors that tempt the natives to take advantage of it; they would never have shown you these things if they had had any idea of attacking us.”

Next morning the operation of filling up the water-tanks was completed, and at noon the orders were given to weigh anchor. Steve saw how rightly the captain had foreseen what was likely to happen, for no sooner was the order given than two of the men came aft as a deputation from the crew.