The Storyteller.

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 71, 19 December 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Storyteller.

~A SHIP~OF 'W. ——♦—

CHAPTER IX Wiikn Mr. Nott had satisfied himself of Penshaw's departure, he coolly bolted the door at the head of the companion way, thus cutting oft' any communication with the lower deck. Taking a long rifle from the rack above his berth, he carefully examined the hammer and cap, and then cautiously let himself down Ihrougb the fo'rehatch to the deck below? After a deliberate survey of the still intact fastenings of the batch over the forehold, he proceeded quietly to enloos.e them again with the aid of the tools that still lay there. When the hatch was onco more free he lifted it, and withdrawing a few feet from the opening, sat himself down, rifle in hand. A profound silence reigned throughout the lower deck. "Ye kin rize up out o' that," said Nott gently. There was a stealthy rustle below that Bcemcd to approach the hatch, and then with a sudden bound the Lascar leaped on the deck. Put at the same instant Nott covered him with his rifle. A. slight shade of disappointment an:l surprise had crossed the old man's face, and clouded his small round eyes at the apparition of the Lascar, but his hand was none the less firm upon the trigger as the frightened prisoner sank on his knees, with his hands clasped in the attitude of supplication for mercy. " Ff you're thinkin' o' skippin' afore I've done with yer," said Nott with laboured gentleness, " T oughter warn ye that it's my stile to drop Injins at two hundred yards, and this deck ain't anywhere more'n liftv. It's an uncomfortable style, a nasly style—but it's my style. I thought I'd tell yer, so yer could take it easy where you air. Where's Ferrers 1 " Even in the man's insane terror, his utter bewilderment at the question was evident. " Ferrers 1" Ingasped ; " don't know him, I swear to God, boss." " P'r'aps." said Nott, with infinite cunninc, "yer don't know the man ez kem'into the loft from the alley last night—p'r'aps yer didn't see an airy Frenchman with a dyed moustache, eh ? I thought that would fetch ye!" he continued, as the nam started at the evidene that his vision of last night was a living man, " P'r'aps you and him didn't break into this ship last night, jist to run off with my darter Posey? P'r'aps yer don't know ez Ferrers wants to marry her, and hez been hangin, round yer ever since he left —eh ! " Scarcely believing the evidence of his senses that the old man whose treasure he had been trying to steal was utterly ignorant of his real offence, and yet uncertain of the penalty of the other crime of which he was accused, the Lascar writhed his body and stammered vaguely '• Mercy ! Mercy ! " "Well," said Nott, cautiously, "ez I reckon the hide of a dead Chinee nigger ain't any more yallyble than that of a dead Injin, I don't care ef I 1.-t up on yer—seein' the cussedness ain't yours. But ef I let yer off this once, you must take a message to Ferrers from me." " Let me off this time, boss, and I swear to God I will," said the Lascar eagerly. " Ye kin say to Ferrers —let me see—" deliberated Nott, leaning on his rifle with cautious reflection. " Ye kin say to Ferrers like this —3ez j ou, ' Ferrers' srz you, ' the old mar sez that afore you went awayycu sez to him. sez you, " I take my honour with me," sez you'— have you got that?" interrupted Nott suddenly. " Yes boss." " ' I take my honour with me,' srz you," repeated Nott slowly. " ' Now,' sez you—' the old man sez, Brz he—tell Ferrers, sez he, that his honour bavin' run away agin, he sends it uack to him, and ef he ever ketches it around after this, he'll shoot it on sight.' Hev yer got that ? " " Yes,' stammered the bewildered captive. " Then git ! " The Lascar sprang folds feet with the agility of a panther, leaped through the hatch above him, ami disappeared over the bow of the ship with an unhesitating directness that showed that every avenue of escapn had been already comteiuplated by him. Slipping lightly from the cutwater to the ground, he continued his flight, only stopping at the private oflice of Mr. Sleight. When Mr Penshaw and Ilosey Nott arrived on board the Pontiac that evening, they were astonished to find the passage before the cabin complete])' occupied with trunks and boxes, and tho bulk of their household goods apparently in the process of removal. Mr Nott, who was superintending the woik of two Chinamen, betrayed not only no surprise at the appearance of the young people, but not tin; remotest recognition of their own bewilderment at his occupation. " Kalkil itin'," he remarked casually to his daughter, "you'd rather look after your lixin'.s, Ilosey, I've left 'em ti'l the last. P'raps yer and Mr Penshaw wouldn't mind sittin' down on that locker until I've strapped this yer box." " But what does it all mean. father.'" said liosey, taking the old

man by the lappuls of his peajacket, and slightly emphasising her question. " What in the name of goodness are you dding V " .Breakin' camp, Hosey dear, breakin' camp, jist ez we titer," replied Nott with cheerful philosopliy. " Kinder like olc times, ain't it? Lord, Ilosey," he continued, stopping and following up the reminiscence, with the end of the rope in his hand as it' it were a clue, " don't ye mind tint day we started outer Livermore Pass, and seed the hull o' the Californy coast, stretcliin' yonder —eh ? Tint don't he skeeral, Ilosey dear," he added quickly, as if in recognition of the alarm expressed in her face. " I ain't turning ye outer house and home ; I've jist hired that 'ore Madrono Cottage from the Peters ontil we kin look around.'' "But you're not leaving the ship, father," continued Ilosey, impetuously. " You haven't sold it to that man .Sleight?" Mr Nott rose and carefully closed the cabin door. Then drawing a large wallet from his pocket, he said, ''lt's sing'lar ye should hev got the r.ame right the first pop, ain't it Posey ? but it's Sleight, sure enough, all the time. This yer cheque," he added, producing a paper from the depths of the wallet, " ibis yer cheque for 2-">,000 dollars is wot lie paid for it only two hours ago." " But," said Penshaw, springing to his feet furiously, "you're duped, swindled —betrayed !" "Young man," said Nott, throwing a certain dignity into his habitual gesture of placing his hands on Renshawjs shoulders, " I bought this yer ship five years ago jist ez she stood for 8,000 dollars. Kalkilatiu' wot she cost me in repairs and taxes, and wot she brought me in since then accordin' to my figgerin', T don't call a clear profit of 10,000 dollars much of a swindle." "Tell him all," said Posey, quickly, more alarmed at Penshaw's despairing face than at the news itself. " Tell him everything Dick —Mr Penshaw ; it may not be too late." In a voice half choked with passionate indignation Penshaw hurriedly repeated the story of the hidden treasure, and the plot to rescue it, prompted frequently by Posey's tenacious memory and assisted by Posey's cleft and tactful explanations. Put to their surprise the imperturbable countenance of Abner Nott never altered : a slight moisture of kindly paternal tolerance of their extravagance glistened in his little eyes, but nothing more. " Ef then! was part o' this ship, a plank or a bolt ez. I don't know, ez I hevn't touched witli my own hand, and looked into with my own eyes, thai" might be suthin' in that story. I don't let on to be a sailor like you, but ez 1 know the slrp ez a boy knows Ins first boss, as a woman knows her first, babby, I reckon thar ain't no treasure yer, onless it was brought into the Pontine last night by them chaps." " But are you mad ! Sleight would not pay three times the value of the ship to day if he were not positive ! And that positive knowledge was gained last, night by the villain who broke into the Pontaic—no doubt the Lascar." "Surely," said Nott, meditatively. " The Lascar ! There's suthin' in that. That Lascar I fastened down in the hold last night unbeknownst to you, Mr lienshaw, and let him out again this morning ekally unbeknownst." "And you let him carry his information to Sleight -without a word ! " said lienshaw, with a sickoning sense of Nott's utter fatuity. " I sent him back .villi a message; to the man he keni from," said Nott, winking both eyes at lienshaw significantly, and making signs behind his daughter's back. Posey, conscious of her lovers irritation, and more, eager to soothe his impatience than from any faitli in her suggestion, interfered. "Why not examine t'ue place when.' he was concealed ? he may have left some traces of his search." The two men looked at each other. " Seein' ez I've turned the Pontine over to Sleight jist ez it stands, I don't know ez it's V.actly on the square," said Nott doubtfully. '• You've a right to know at least what you deliver to him," interrupted Penshaw brusquely : " Bring a lantern." Followed by Posey, lienshaw and Nott hurriedly sought the lower deck and the open hatch of the forehold. The two men leaped down first with the lantern, and then assisted Ilosey to descend, lienshaw took a step forward and uttered a. cry. The rays of the lantern fell on the ship's side. Tin: Lascar hail, during his forced soclusiun, put hack the boxes of treasure and replaced (lie planking, yet not so carefully but that the quick eye of lienshaw had discovered it. The next moment he had stripped away the planking again, and the hurriedly-restored box which thcLascar had found fell to the deck, scattering part of its ringing contents. Ilosey turned pale ; Penshaw's eyes flashed fire : only Abner Nott remained quiet and impassive. " And now are you satisfied you have been duped ?" said lienshaw passionately. To their surpricc Mr. Nott stooped down and picking up one of the coins handed it gravely to Penshaw,

" Would ye mind licfiin' that 'ere coin in your hand—feci in' it, hitin' it, sernpin' it with a knife, and kinder seein' how it compares with other coins .'"' " What do you mean .'" said Ecus' aw. " 1 mean that that yer coin—(hat nil the coins in this yer box, that ail the coins in them other boxes—and tiier's forty on 'em—is all and every one oi 'em counterfeits !'' The piece dropped unconsciously from llctishaw's hand, and striking another that lay on the deck gave out a dull, suspicious ring, " They waz counterfeits got up by them Dutch supercargo sharp-', for dealin' with the Injins and cannibals and South Sea heathens ez bows down to wood and stone. It satisfied them ez well ez them buttons ye puts in missionary boxes, I reckon, and cepting ez freight, don't cost notnin'. I found 'cm tucked in the ribs o' the old Pontiac when I bought her, and I nailed 'em up in thai- l"st they should fall into dishonest hands, 1 t's a lucky thing, Mr. lienshaw, that they comes into the honest fingers of a square man like Sleight—ain't it?" He turned his small, guileless eyes upon lienshaw with such childlike simplicity that it cheeked the hysterical l-mgh that was rising to the young man's lips. " Put (lid any one know of this but yourself ? "I. reckon not, I once suspicioned that old Cap'en Bowers, who was always foolin' round the hold yer, must hev noticed the bulge in the casin', but when he took to nxin' questions I axed others—ye know my style, Posey? Come." He led the way grimly back to the cabin, the young people following ; but turning suddenly at the companion way he observed Penshaw's arm around the waist of his daughter. He said nothing until they had reached the cabin, when he closed the door softly, and looking at them both gently, said with infinite cunning—- " I'.f it, isn't too late, Posey, ye kin tell this young man ez how J forgive him for hcvin' diskivered The Treasure of the Pontiac." -r * * * It was nearly eighteen months afterwards that Mr. Nott one morning entered the room of his son-in-law at Madrono Cottage. Drawing him aside, he said with his old air of mystery, " Now ez Posey's ailin' and don'; seem to be so eager to diskiver what's become of Mr. Ferrers, 1 don't mind tellin' ye that over a year ago I heard he died suddenly in Sacramento. Thar was suthin' in (he paper about his bein' a lunatic and elaimin' to lie a relation (o somebody on the Pontiac, but likes cz not its only the way those newspaper fellows got hold of the story of his wantin' to marry Uo;e.y," Tin-; End.