Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch by H. Rider Haggard (fantasy books to read txt) 📕

Brant’s hoard. Also dead Hans there let me know that perhaps it might come this way, for in such matters he thought that I could be trusted,” and she smiled grimly. “And now what would you do?”

“Fulfil our orders,” said Foy. “Hide it if we can; if not, destroy it.”

“Better the first than the last,” interrupted Martin. “Hide the treasure, say I, and destroy the Spaniards, if Mother Martha here can think of a plan.”

“We might sink the ship,” suggested Foy.

“And leave her mast for a beacon,” added Martin sarcastically.

“Or put the stuff into the boat and sink that.”

“And never find it again in this great sea,” objected Martin.

All this while Martha steered the boat as calmly as though it were daylight. They had left the open water, and were passing slowly in and out among islets, yet she never seemed to be doubtful or to hesitate. At length they felt the Swallow behind them take the mud gently, whereon Martha led the way aboard of her and threw out the anchor, saying that here was her berth for the night.

“Now,” she said, “bring up this gold and lay it in the boat, for if you would save it there is much to do before dawn.”

So Foy and Martin went down while Martha, hanging over the hatchway, held the lighted lamp above them, since they dared not take it near the powder. Moving the bags of salt, soon they came to the five barrels of treasure marked B, and, strong though they were, it was no easy task for the pair of them by the help of a pulley to sling them over the ship’s side into the boat. At last it was done, and the place of the barrels having been filled with salt bags, they took two iron spades which were provided for such a task as this, and started, Martha steering as before. For an hour or more they rowed in and out among endless islands, at the dim shores of which Martha stared as they passed, till at length she motioned to them to ship their oars, and they touched ground.

Leaping from the boat she made it fast and vanished among the reeds to reconnoitre. Presently she returned again, saying that this was the place. Then began the heavy labour of rolling the casks of treasure for thirty yards or more along otter paths that pierced the dense growth of reeds.

Now, having first carefully cut out reed sods in a place chosen by Martha, Foy and Martin set to their task of digging a great hole by the light of the stars. Hard indeed they toiled at it, yet had it not been for the softness of the marshy soil, they could not have got done while the night lasted, for the grave that would contain those barrels must be both wide and deep. After three feet of earth had been removed, they came to the level of the lake, and for the rest of the time worked in water, throwing up shovelfuls of mud. Still at last it was done, and the five barrels standing side by side in the water were covered up with soil and roughly planted over with the reed turf.

“Let us be going,” said Martha. “There is no time to lose.” So they straightened their backs and wiped the sweat from their brows.

“There is earth lying about, which may tell its story,” said Martin.

“Yes,” she replied, “if any see it within the next ten days, after which in this damp place the mosses will have hidden it.”

“Well, we have done our best,” said Foy, as he washed his mud-stained boots in the water, “and now the stuff must take its chance.”

Then once more they entered the boat and rowed away somewhat wearily, Martha steering them.

On they went and on, till Foy, tired out, nearly fell asleep at his oar. Suddenly Martha tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and there, not two hundred yards away, its tapering mast showing dimly against the sky, was the vessel that had pursued them from The Hague, a single lantern burning on its stern. Martha looked and grunted; then she leant forward and whispered to them imperiously.

“It is madness,” gasped Martin.

“Do as I bid you,” she hissed, and they let the boat drift with the wind till it came to a little island within thirty yards of the anchored vessel, an island with a willow tree growing upon its shore. “Hold to the twigs of the tree,” she muttered, “and wait till I come again.” Not knowing what else to do, they obeyed.

Then Martha rose and they saw that she had slipped off her garment of skins, and stood before them, a gaunt white figure armed with a gleaming knife. Next she put the knife to her mouth, and, nipping it between her teeth, slid into the water silently as a diving bird. A minute passed, not more, and they saw that something was climbing up the cable of the ship.

“What is she going to do?” whispered Foy.

“God in Heaven knows,” answered Martin, “but if she does not come back good-bye to Heer Brant’s treasure, for she alone can find it again.”

They waited, holding their breaths, till presently a curious choking sound floated to them, and the lantern on the ship vanished. Two minutes later a hand with a knife in it appeared over the gunwale of the boat, followed by a grey head. Martin put out his great arm and lifted, and, lo! the white form slid down between them like a big salmon turned out of a net.

“Put about and row,” it gasped, and they obeyed while the Mare clothed herself again in her skin garment.

“What have you done?” asked Foy.

“Something,” she replied with a fierce chuckle. “I have stabbed the watchman—he thought I was a ghost, and was too frightened to call out. I have cut the cable, and I think that I have fired the ship. Ah! look! but row—row round the corner of the island.”

They gave way, and as they turned the bank of reeds glanced behind them, to see a tall tongue of fire shooting up the cordage of the ship, and to hear a babel of frightened and angry voices.

Ten minutes later they were on board the Swallow, and from her deck watching the fierce flare of the burning Spanish vessel nearly a mile away. Here they ate and drank, for they needed food badly.

“What shall we do now?” asked Foy when they had finished.

“Nothing at present,” answered Martha, “but give me pen and paper.”

They found them, and having shrouded the little window of the cabin, she sat at the table and very slowly but with much skill drew a plan, or rather a picture, of this portion of the Haarlem Mere. In that plan were marked many islands according to their natural shapes, twenty of them perhaps, and upon one of these she set a cross.

“Take it and hide it,” said Martha, when it was finished, “so that if I die you may know where to dig for Brant’s gold. With this in your hand you cannot fail to find it, for I draw well. Remember that it lies thirty paces due south of the only spot where it is easy to land upon that island.”

“What shall I do with this picture which is worth so much?” said Foy helplessly, “for in truth I fear to keep the thing.”

“Give it to me, master,” said Martin; “the secret of the treasure may as well lie with the legacy that is charged on it.” Then once more he unscrewed the handle of the sword Silence, and having folded up the paper and wrapped it round with a piece of linen, he thrust it away into the hollow hilt.

“Now that sword is worth more than some people might think,” Martin said as he restored it to the scabbard, “but I hope that those who come to seek its secret may have to travel up its blade. Well, when shall we be moving?”

“Listen,” said Martha. “Would you two men dare a great deed upon those Spaniards? Their ship is burnt, but there are a score or over of them, and they have two large boats. Now at the dawn they will see the mast of this vessel and attack it in the boats thinking to find the treasure. Well, if as they win aboard we can manage to fire the matches——”

“There may be fewer Spaniards left to plague us,” suggested Foy.

“And believing it to be blown up no one will trouble about that money further,” added Martin. “Oh! the plan is good, but dangerous. Come, let us talk it over.”

The dawn broke in a flood of yellow light on the surface of the Haarlem Mere. Presently from the direction of the Spanish vessel, which was still burning sullenly, came a sound of beating oars. Now the three watchers in the Swallow saw two boatloads of armed men, one of them with a small sail set, swooping down towards them. When they were within a hundred yards Martha muttered, “It is time,” and Foy ran hither and thither with a candle firing the slow-matches; also to make sure he cast the candle among a few handfuls of oil-soaked shreds of canvas that lay ready at the bottom of the hatchway. Then with the others, without the Spaniards being able to see them, he slipped over the side of the little vessel into the shallow water that was clothed with tall reeds, and waded through it to the island.

Once on firm land, they ran a hundred yards or so till they reached a clump of swamp willows, and took shelter behind them. Indeed, Foy did more, for he climbed the trunk of one of the willows high enough to see over the reeds to the ship Swallow and the lake beyond. By this time the Spaniards were alongside the Swallow, for he could hear their captain hailing him who leant over the taffrail, and commanding all on board to surrender under pain of being put to death. But from the man in the stern came no answer, which was scarcely strange, seeing that it was the dead pilot, Hans, to whom they talked in the misty dawn, whose body Martin had lashed thus to deceive them. So they fired at the pilot, who took no notice, and then began to clamber on board the ship. Presently all the men were out of the first boat—that with the sail set on it—except two, the steersman and the captain, whom, from his dress and demeanour, Foy took to be the one-eyed Spaniard, Ramiro, although of this he was too far off to make sure. It was certain, however, that this man did not mean to board the Swallow, for of a sudden he put his boat about, and the wind catching the sail soon drew him clear of her.

“That fellow is cunning,” said Foy to Martin and Martha below, “and I was a fool to light the tarred canvas, for he has seen the smoke drawing up the hatchway.”

“And having had enough fire for one night, thinks that he will leave his mates to quench it,” added Martin.

“The second boat is coming alongside,” went on Foy, “and surely the mine should spring.”

“Scarcely time yet,” answered Martin, “the matches were set for six minutes.”

Then followed a silence in which the three of them watched and listened with beating hearts. In it they heard a voice call out that the steersman was dead, and the answering voice of the officer in the boat, whom Foy had been right in supposing to be Ramiro, warning them to beware of treachery. Now suddenly arose a shout of “A mine! a mine!” for they had found one of the lighted fuses.

“They are running for their boat,” said Foy, “and the captain is sailing farther off. Heavens! how they scream.”

As the words passed his lips a tongue of flame shot to the very skies. The island seemed to rock, a fierce rush of air struck Foy and shook him from the tree. Then came a dreadful, thunderous sound, and lo! the sky was darkened with fragments of wreck, limbs of men, a grey cloud of salt and torn shreds of sail and cargo, which fell here, there, and everywhere about and beyond them.

In five seconds it was over, and the three of them, shaken but unhurt, were clinging to each other on the ground. Then as the dark pall of smoke drifted southward Foy scrambled up his tree again. But now there was little to be seen, for the Swallow had vanished utterly, and for many yards round where she lay the wreckage-strewn water was black as ink with the stirred mud.