The Coming Wave; Or, The Hidden Treasure of High Rock by Oliver Optic (books to improve english txt) 📖

any better than I do, I am willing to let you take my place," said the skipper, with a smile.

"O, no! don't let him! I should certainly be afraid then," cried Belle.[Pg 245]

"I don't pretend to know anything about a boat; and I don't think you do," blubbered Charley, angrily.

"I think I can get along with her," added Leopold, pleasantly. "This is a quiet time compared with what I have seen out here in this boat."

Mr. Raymond continued to growl, and the girls continued to scream and "squeal" with delight when the sloop heeled over, and when the spray drenched their water-proofs. The Rosabel was at least five miles from the land, still making things very lively on board, when a large schooner was seen dead ahead.

"I've had enough of this thing," said Charley, clinging to the washboard behind him. "If you don't turn round, or lower one of the sails, I shall call for help from that vessel."

"What a simpleton you are!" exclaimed Belle; and her remarks were often much stronger than Rosabel could approve.

Leopold quietly put the helm up, and let off the sheets, so that the boat did not go within half a mile of the schooner. Half an hour later he put her about, and, with the wind on the[Pg 246] quarter, stood in towards High Rock. Being almost before the wind, the Rosabel jumped, leaped, and "yawed" about more than ever; but she took in no more spray over her bow. She seemed to fly on her course, and Charley Redmond expected every moment to feel her go over. He held on with desperation, unnoticed now by the girls. In another half hour the sloop passed into the calmer waters, sheltered by the high cliffs. Charley began to be brave again.

"You feel better—do you, Mr. Redmond?" said the laughing Belle.

"I feel well enough."

"You were afraid."

"Afraid—I? Not a bit of it; at least not for myself," replied the young gentleman. "The boatman don't understand his business. That's the whole of this thing."

"My father says he knows all about a boat; and he would trust him farther than he would most men," added Rosabel. "Didn't he take the Orion into the river in the fog?"

"He didn't manage the yacht: Captain Bounce was on board. I have been in boats before, and[Pg 247] I think I can tell when a boatman knows his biz," replied Charley, confidently. "I wasn't at all concerned about myself; but I was afraid he would drown you girls. You were placed in my care—"

"Were we? Indeed! Didn't we invite you to come?" demanded Belle.

"If you did, of course it was my duty, as a gentleman, to look out for you. No; I wasn't a bit concerned about myself; but I was afraid for you."

"It was very kind of you to be afraid for us," sneered his fair tormentor. "It was very unselfish in you. I think I see you now, reckless of yourself, but trembling for our safety! I hope you will tell Leopold how to manage a boat!"

"I shall be glad to learn," laughed the skipper.

Leopold ran the sloop alongside a rock, which at this time of tide served as a wharf, and landed his party. Rosabel led the way to the Hole in the Wall, and they soon disappeared in the deep ravine. The skipper would have been very glad to go with them, but he was not invited[Pg 248] to do so; and without this formality he was unwilling to do that which might possibly be deemed an intrusion. Rosabel wondered that he did not come with them, and would have been glad of his company; but as she did not feel herself above the boatman, it did not occur to her to ask him.

"That fellow was scared—wasn't he, Le?" said Stumpy, when they were alone.

"Of course he was. He is a regular spooney," replied the skipper. "If the girls hadn't been with us, I would have put him through a course of sprouts."

"He thinks he is a bigger man than the president of the United States. You won't catch him in the Rosabel again."

"I don't want to catch him there."

"How long are they going to stay up there, Le?" asked Stumpy.

"They won't come down for a couple of hours yet."

"Then I can dig a bucket of clams while we are waiting," added Stumpy, as he took the shovel and a pail from the cuddy.

Leopold fastened the painter to the rocks,[Pg 249] and followed his friend. The bucket was soon filled with clams, the largest and finest to be found on the coast, for they were seldom dug on this beach. In returning to the boat, they passed quite near Coffin Rock, and of course Leopold could not help thinking of the hidden treasure in the sand. Stumpy, with the bucket of clams in his hand, led the way to the spot, not exactly with the approbation of his companion, who was afraid that the waters had not yet smoothed over the beach so as to conceal his recent operations.

"Come, Stumpy, ain't you going down to the boat?" asked Leopold, as he began to move in a different direction from that of his friend.

"No hurry—is there? I want to go to the spring, and clean up a little," replied the clam-digger.

"Can't you do it down by the boat?" suggested the money-digger, who did not feel inclined to answer the questions which the disturbed state of the beach under Coffin Rock would put into the mouth of Stumpy.

"I never wash in salt water when I can get fresh. Besides I want a drink."[Pg 250]

Without intending to be obstinate, Stumpy silently insisted upon having his own way, by directing his steps towards the springs, which flowed from the rocks not twenty feet from the hidden treasure. The pure water dropped from an overhanging cliff, in a kind of alcove in the precipice. It was clear and cold, and on a warm day it was emphatically a luxury. If the weather was not warm on the present occasion, Stumpy was, for he had been digging deep into the sand and mud of the beach. The water dropping from the spring had formed a deep pool under the cliff, which overflowed, and was discharged by a stream flowing down the sands into the ocean. In this stream Stumpy washed his face and hands, and then his feet, covered with the black mud which he had thrown up from under the sand at low tide.

Leopold sat down on a bowlder, some distance from the cliff, to wait for his companion. Stumpy seemed to be determined to do just what his friend did not want him to do, for, as soon as he had washed his feet, he walked directly out of the alcove to the spot under Coffin Rock, taking the clams and shovel with him.[Pg 251]

"I say, Le, can't we get up a clam-bake for the girls?" said he, calling to the skipper in the distance.

"It won't pay," replied Leopold, walking to the place where Stumpy stood, exactly over the buried treasure.

"Why not? You said Miss Rosabel liked clams."

"It will take too long. We must get back to the hotel by dinner time."

"Just as you say; but if the girls like clams, it would be a treat to them; and this is just the place to do this thing."

"We haven't time to-day."

"All right," replied Stumpy, who seemed to be just then engaged in a survey of the locality. "What in the world were you doing here, Le?" he added. "This sand looks as though it had been all dug over."

No high tide had washed the beach since Leopold dug for the treasure, and even his shovel marks were plainly to be seen under the overhanging rock.

"I might as well tell him all about it," thought Leopold. "I can trust him till the[Pg 252] end of the world; and I should like to have some one to help me bear the burden of the secret."

"What were you digging for, Le?" repeated Stumpy, his curiosity considerably excited.

"Can you keep a secret, Stumpy?"

"Of course I can till the rocks crumble, and the earth sinks," replied he, warmly.

Leopold told him the whole story, from the first glimpse he had of Harvey Barth's diary, down to the finding of the bag of gold.

"I swow!" exclaimed Stumpy, drawing a long breath, when the narrative was finished. "Twelve hundred in gold!"

"I haven't counted it; but that's what the diary says," replied Leopold.

"You will be as rich as mud, Le. Gold! Then it's worth double that in paper."

"It don't belong to me," answered Leopold, decidedly.

"It belongs to you as much as it does to any one."

"But I intend to find the owner, or the heirs of the man who buried the gold."

"I wouldn't leave it here a day longer, if I[Pg 253] were you, Le," said Stumpy. "Somebody else will find it."

This suggestion was considered for some time, and Leopold finally concluded to dig up the treasure, and conceal it in some safer place. In a few moments more the shot bag was unearthed, and Stumpy held it in his hand.

"I swow! Solid gold!" exclaimed he.

"Halveses!" shouted Charley Redmond, suddenly stepping between the money-diggers.

[Pg 254]

CHAPTER XIV. THE FAIR THING.

Leopold immediately began to realize that he had no talent for concealment; that he was a sad bungler in the management of any business which was not open and above-board. This impertinent, disagreeable little coxcomb of a New Yorker, without a warning sound to announce his coming, had suddenly stepped between him and Stumpy, who held the hidden treasure in his hand. If there was any person in or about Rockhaven from whom he would have particularly desired to keep his secret, it was Mr. Charles Redmond, or any other person like him.

Both Leopold and Stumpy supposed the little New Yorker with the eye-glass was making himself as agreeable as he could to the young ladies on the cliffs above. It is true there was an[Pg 255] angle in the cliffs which concealed his approach from the eye, and the soft sand deadened the sound of footsteps to the ear; but both the money-digger and the clam-digger would have deemed it impossible for any one to come into their presence without being heard. But then both of them were absorbed in the unearthing of the treasure, and Leopold made so much noise with his shovel that the sound of Charley Redmond's approach, if there were any, could not be heard.

Leopold looked at Stumpy, and Stumpy looked at Leopold. The money-digger and the clam-digger realized that they were in a bad scrape. This little dandy in eye-glasses had certainly upset all Leopold's plans for the disposition of the gold.

"Halveses!" shouted Charley a second time, as he adjusted his eye-glasses, and fixed his gaze upon the wet shot-bag which contained the hidden treasure.

"I think not," added Leopold.

"No? When a fellow finds any money, the rule is to divy with all present," added Charley.[Pg 256]

"And for that reason you modestly ask for one half?"

"Well that's a conventional phrase, you see. Of course I meant shareses. I shall be quite satisfied with one-third; and that's the way to do the thing."

"Where did you come from? I thought you were on the cliff with the young ladies," asked Leopold.

"I was there; but it seems that I came down just in the nick of time," replied the little fop. "The fact is, I drank too much wine last night, and it makes me thirsty to-day. I was almost choked, and the ladies had seated themselves on a rock, to enjoy a view of the boundless ocean, you see; and it looked to me just as though they intended to stay there all day, you see. In the mean time I was suffering with thirst; but it wasn't polite, you see, for me to leave them. It isn't the way to do the thing, you see. I knew they wouldn't want me to leave them."

Leopold looked at Stumpy, and smiled significantly.