Surprise at sea
(wind N by E with moderate weather)
49 35 'S., 63 11 'W.
My Lord,
I have the honour to acquaint your Lordship that in...
and said, 'Listen, before I read it, tell me one thing, will you now? Suppose there were treasure aboard that packet, would it be safer with us or with Tom?'
'Oh, as for the treasure, I am afraid the Norfolk snapped that up directly. Two iron chests full of gold, God love us! You would hardly expect them to leave it lying about: I am sure I should not have done so, ha, ha, ha!'
'Let it be supposed that there are documents, valuable documents concealed in her fabric,' said Stephen patiently, still in the same low tone of voice, his chair pulled up to Jack's, 'would they be more liable to loss with him or with us?'
Jack cocked a considering eye at him and said, 'The privateers are the trouble. In that craft Tom can outsail most men-of-war except in very heavy weather, but he will have to run the gauntlet of the privateers from the West Indies on, both French and American. Some of them are very fast, and he will only have a few pop-guns and muskets and precious few men to handle them. He does not run a very grave risk, there being such a prodigious quantity of salt water, but even so I should say that your hypothetical papers would be safer with us.'
'Then before it grows dark would you have the kindness to go across into the packet with me, into the room where the chests were found itself?'
'Very well,' said Jack. 'I wish to see her in any case. Should we take a bag?'
'I believe not,' said Stephen, 'but an accurate yardstick might be wise.'
His mind was uneasy. Money always had an unhealthy effect on intelligence, often confusing the issue; and it could sometimes prove a very dangerous substance to handle. He did not like the way he had been told about the hiding-place in the Dana?a recollection of the letters in which Sir Joseph had told him of the murky, troubled atmosphere in London made him like it even less, and in these altered circumstances he was tempted to leave the whole thing alone. The instructions did not cover the present situation and whatever he did might turn out to be wrong. Yet if he did nothing and the packet were taken he would look an incompetent fool: or worse. But what if he found the cache empty? What if the rats had got at the papers? What if the captured Mr Cunningham was himself kin to the rats?
These thoughts ran through and through his head as he poked about under a long recess in the side of the cabin once inhabited by Mr Cunningham and his chests - the holes for the screws that had held them down were still to be seen - and it was not without a certain relief that he turned to Jack at last, saying, 'The mad brute- beasts have given me the wrong direction, so they have. There is nothing here. Perhaps it is just as well.'
'Should you like me to look at the paper?' asked Jack.
'By all means. But it is as plain as can be. 'Press the third bolt-head under the larboard shelf-piece three foot nine inches from the bulkhead.''
'Stephen,' said Jack, 'I believe that is the starboard shelfpiece you are looking at.'
'Oh your soul to the devil, Jack,' cried Stephen. 'This is my left hand, is it not?' - holding it up - 'And what is on the left or unlucky or indeed sinister side is the larboard.'
'You are forgetting that we have turned about,' said Jack. 'We are now facing aft, you know. The third bolthead, did you say?' He pressed, and instantly and with a surprisingly loud crash a metal box fell from the seam, striking the deck with one corner and bursting open. He bent to pick up scattered sheafs of bank-notes and other papers, putting his lantern down, and at the sight of the first he cried, 'God love us! What can -' But recollecting himself he gathered the bundles together in silence and handed them to Stephen, who gave them a cursory glance, shook his head with a worried, dissatisfied air, and put them back into their box. 'The best thing I can do is to seal this at once, and give it to you to keep in a safe place. Perhaps you had better carry it back to the Surprise yourself: I have slipped into the water from a boat before this.'
In the great cabin once more Stephen melted the wax, pressed his curiously engraved watch-key upon it, and handed the box over together with a small piece of paper, saying, 'This slip shows the proper recipient, if any accident should happen to me.'
'It is a damned heavy responsibility,' said Jack gravely, taking it.
'There are heavier by far, my dear,' said Stephen. 'I must be away for my rounds.'
'That reminds me,' said Jack. 'I se?hat the gunner's wife is on your sick-list. I hope she is better by now?'
'Better? She is not,' said Stephen emphatically.
'I am sorry for it,' said Jack. 'Would a visit be in order, or one of the chickens, or a bottle of port-wine? Or perhaps all three?'
'Listen,' said Stephen, 'I do not know that she will live.'
'Oh Lord,' cried Jack, 'I had no idea - I am extremely concerned - I hope there is something you can do for her?'
'As for that,' said Stephen, 'I set nearly all my trust in the resilience of youth. She is no more than nineteen, poor child, and at nineteen one can support hell and purgatory almost, and live. Tell me, Tom Pullings will not be leaving us at once?'
'No. He keeps company until the morning. I have a great deal of paper-work to do.'
'I must write at least one letter too,' said Stephen. 'And if I possibly can I will come and help you with the captured mail,' he added, knowing Jack's extreme reluctance to read other people's correspondence, even though it might contain priceless information. 'We shall have a busy night of it.'
A busy night and a sleepless one, but in the course of it they found one letter written by an officer named Caleb Gill which gave a clear statement of the Norfolk's intended movements as far as the Galapagos archipelago:
