True Treasure: Real - Life History Mystery (13 page)

Mary placed her hand on his arm as he got up to leave the bed, “You do not have to leave while I dress. I may need your help with the buttons or the hooks.”

She smiled.

“You do realize you may never leave this room again then? I am much better at unbuttoning than buttoning.”

“Well then, you will need the practice.” She ran her hand along his arm.

He leaned over and kissed her slowly. “Let me get our breakfast. I’d given my cabin boy the order to not disturb us this morning.”

“How thoughtful.”

“You mean foresighted
,” he said as he eyed her.

“Ah, so it was for your own selfish purposes.”

“Absolutely,” he said as he kissed her again, forgetting all about breakfast.

***

The sailor on the crow’s nest spotted a skiff out past the coast and signaled down to those on deck. The night watch on the deck took a look through his spyglass, then went to notify the officer on command who said, “Keep an eye on them.”

The skiff sailed by the opening to the cove, never slowing on its way to another coast or island.

“Should we tell the captain?”

“Not yet. Just put it in the watch report.” He then thought for a few seconds before speaking, “Double up the men on the watches. Be alert and keep the men moving the treasure. Quiet and speed are greatly to be desired.”

***

Later that morning after Mary dressed with very little help and much hindrance by Bennett, she sat and sketched her bouquet.

“I wish you could see yourself as I do,” Bennett said, “and sketch that.”

“I can, in the looking-glass.”

Bennett laughed. “You will not do yourself justice. If you could catch the light upon your hair, and your radiance...”

“I thought
you thought
I was an exemplary artiste.”

“You are.”

“I will sketch myself for you,” Mary said.

Bennett smiled. “Thank you. I will carry it on every voyage.”

Mary sighed—“Perhaps you can be assigned another survey and I can join you.”

“Perhaps.”

“Perhaps? You are a surveyor, what would prevent you from another assignment akin to this?”

“Nothing would prevent
me
, but if you are with child—”

“Is that your plan?”

Bennett shrugged. “It is inevitable.” Bennett smiled. “I cannot see how it can be prevented from nature taking its course.” Bennett took a sip of his coffee. “A ship is hardly the place for a woman, and especially one in a delicate condition, or one with a babe. We will take you home and set up a proper household.”

Mary sighed. “I would like this survey to last forever. Is that so wrong?” Mary put down her paints and went up to Bennett. She circled her arms around him from behind as he sat at his desk. “I don’t
want
to think of children or being away from you. I want to draw and paint, and—love you. Why not? That is
my
plan, and the rest can wait.”

“If you can halt time, you have more power than the moon on the tides.”

“I am going to work on stopping time, between everything else I plan on doing. I have so much I want to do!”

***

Later that morning, Bennett left to get the night report.

“There was a skiff just before dawn. They did not stop, but rounded the island outside the cove. I and the men on watch do not believe they saw us, sir.” The officer assigned to the watch reported.

Bennett nodded. “How is the movement of the treasure progressing?”

“The men are diligent. The hole is almost large enough to hold the treasure. The carpenters have devised a way to chip off large pieces of the lava rock, it is slow going to keep the pieces large enough to appear to be natural rock. Another three days and we should be back to our work.”

“The surveyors?”

“We have the surveyors filling in the details on their maps and soundings, and doing proper measurements of the heights of the mountains. We can use those measurements to more accurately portray the size of the others once we get back to our mission. The botanist is busy cataloging the flora and the fauna for his records.”

“I would like to bring Mrs. Graham to the beach for a picnic lunch.”

“A picnic lunch, sir?”

Bennett looked at the officer without answering.

The officer quickly added, “Yes sir. We will see to it, sir.”

“Thank you. That will be all.”

The wind was kicking up and Bennett looked to the sky. The winds had shifted and were now blowing in from the west. In his experience, this meant there was a large storm at sea. By evening if the winds kept picking up they might be grateful for the shelter of the cove. If this was a large storm, they may be sticking around for more than a few days. Out on the horizon the sky was still clear. If there was a storm, it was far enough out it wouldn’t hit until evening. Moving the treasure would have to halt if the waves kicked up. He wasn’t risking his men's lives, by capsizing, on the heavy boats laden with treasure.

Up at the work site, Bennett observed the carpenters sticking wedges between the basalt rock that would be used to cover the treasure. The rock itself would weigh tons. The carpenters had cut trees to roll the slab into place. The hole was now a good three fathoms deep, angled into and under the rock wall. Once concealed, it would appear to be part of the cliff wall. A crudely made ladder led into the pit. The men lowered empty buckets which were filled with dirt then pulled back up. The length was two fathoms by two.

“Good. The treasure is ready to be lowered in.”

Graham gave instructions to the pit crew, “Once the treasure is in, shovel a fathom of earth in, followed by the rock. Prop the false rock front with boulders rolled into place. Layer on the rest and plant some thickets.”

Pleased with the speed of the operation, he returned to the ship.

When he boarded, Randall stopped him. “Sir? We have had an incident. Mariner Faraday was caught with coin from the treasure in his pockets by Lieutenant Kerry.”

Bennett took a deep breath. “Assemble the crew first thing in the morning to witness the flogging. Give him forty lashes. Let the men know that this evening all will be searched. Stealing from the King is beneath a sailor’s duty. We will search the hold for any treasure that may have ‘fallen' out of the bags or trunks.”

Randall cleared his throat a slight smile upon his face.

“Yes? Is there something more?” Bennett asked.

Randall was smiling. Bennett feared the smile had nothing to do with the flogging of the sailor, but more about his wedding night. Before Randall could say anything Bennett interjected, “That will do.”

“Yes sir!” Randall walked off whistling a rather bawdy melody that Graham knew was aimed at him.

***

Bennett went to escort Mary for their picnic. He knocked and opened the door.

Mary was sitting at her easel. She motioned for Bennett to come over. “Do you like it?”

She had sketched out a rudimentary profile of her face with her wedding day bouquet. A slight smile on her face. “Do you like it? It’s not done of course. I had Charles hold the bouquet, so I could get the angle and the lighting right. I’ll add the details in later.”

“Thank you.” Bennett took hold of it, “I will treasure it.”

Mary smiled. “I want you to have something to remember me by. I will make a small one too, one you can carry with you. Perhaps in your timepiece.”

He took the portrait in his hands, and examined it. "You do have a gift.”

He placed it back on the easel then took her hand. “Would you join me on land for a picnic?”

“That would be lovely!”

“A scarf and hat might be needed as the wind is picking up.”

"I love days like today. Do you ride?”

“Yes. When the opportunity presents
,” Bennett said as he handed the picture back to Mary.

“I will miss my horses.”

“We do have horses in London. I am sure we can find a stable nearby,” Bennett answered as he lightly began to massage Mary’s shoulders.

“There is so much I do not know about you, Bennett.”

“And I, you.”

Mary took in her breath as Bennett’s kneading hands found a tight spot. “We have a lifetime to discover.” Mary rolled her head back in pleasure as Bennett’s massage loosened her tightened neck muscles.

Bennett continued, “Yes. With weather and pirates on the high seas, and the possibility of war, a lifetime can be rather short for a navy man.”

“We will have to trust God to be kind.”

***

The weather on the shore held, sheltered by the cove. Mary’s scarf kept her hair back. She took off her hat then left it in the bottom of the shore boat weighted down by a rope.

"Do you think we will ever come back to Costa after we go to England?”

“I do not know,” Bennett sighed, “I would like to promise we would; however, I must go where I am ordered. I will do what I can to make you happy.”

Mary smiled, “I am sorry, I know you will. When I think of not seeing my home or parents...”

“You can write and send your drawings. And didn’t you say your mother was planning a trip to London within a year or two? And do you not have an aunt, uncle, and cousins in Essex? You will have family.”

“Yes. I am so happy, but everything is so new. I feel I am someone else now and I am not sure where the ‘me’ I used to be went.”

Bennett brushed lightly at Mary’s cheek. “You have become a beautiful swan, and now you can fly.”

***

In the evening the winds picked up as did the waves. The masts were secured and the anchors let down. The men moved below deck except for the watch on the deck. The storm built and with it came intermittent bands of rains.

“It is a hurricane?” Mary asked as she pulled the sheets up in the bed.

“Yes.”

“What do we do?”

“Nothing, we wait it out.”

“The ship is strong. We have some shelter from the cove. The water is low enough to set the anchors and ride it out. If the waves get too high, we let loose the anchors and ride it out.”

The waves washed onto the deck and spilled down the stairway when the doors were opened for the change of watch. The cannons were pulled and the doors shut. The ship rocked and groaned buffeted by the winds pulling against its anchors which prevented the ship from blowing onto the shore. The rain bands would halt and pick back up following a rhythm spread out over the hours from the evening and into the morning. Morning was still as dark as night. No sun could peak through the constant cloud cover. Mary tried to see through the windows, but the coursing of the rain sideways, and the bobbing of the ship, just presented a wall of grey blue water and sky. Bennett spent his time in the ready room with his officers. Every quarter hour a cabin boy would report on the state of the ship. Mary would travel between their private room that held the bed and his desk, and the dining/ready room where the officers sat.

The men told stories and drank wine, passing the time in the best humor they could. Strong personalities and close quarters called for good humor and restraint.

“Please sit
,” Bennett would say, and so she would. But then the men would quiet, which she could not stand, so she would make an excuse to go back to their private room.

The rocking of the ship prevented her from having a steady hand to draw or paint. She wasn’t used to sitting with nothing to do. After a while of sitting alone in their room, Mary made her way back to the ready room. The joking and the tales told by her husband and the men as they waited out the storm were infinitely better than listening to the groaning protests of the ship she heard in the quiet of their cabin. Suddenly the ship pitched wildly to the starboard. Mary called out, startled by the sudden pitch.

A cabin boy burst in the outer door, “Sir, an anchor has torn loose!” Bennett rushed out the door after the other officers. Mary put on her coat and scarf and went to the bottom of the stairwell. Huge swells crashed over the rails. Mary held both arms out bracing herself against the walls in the narrow corridor to keep on her feet. The ship pitched wildly, no longer weighted down by the extra ballast of the treasure or the pull of the counter balance of the second anchor line. She saw the shore dangerously near. If the ship washed upon the shore, it could tip and break some of the masts, or worse.

The next swell came over the rail and before she could close the door, water ran down the slope of the deck and washed down the stairs like a waterfall. Her boots and the bottom of her dress were now soaked. She saw Bennett and the other officers relaying orders as a group of men strung and hung a new anchor on a chain over the giant pulley. The chain was huge. Rings as big around as her waist. How they could even manage it, she did not know. Another swell came over the railing sweeping the feet of some of the men out from under them. Mary bit her knuckle as the sailors were swept away crashing into the other side of the bridge, only stopped by the railing from washing over into the ocean beyond. The men got to their feet and walked quickly back to what they were doing before the wave had taken them. Another swell surged over, and this time all the men managed to hang on and hold their places. The water streamed back over the other rail and not toward her and the stairs. The men shouted some orders as others hung the heavy chain in place on the pulley rolling it up. Another wave broke over the rail, not as high as the ones before, and the men worked through it. This time a much smaller puddle of water came through the doorway, and down the steps. Another swell hit the ship. The anchor went down. The men labored hard at dragging it into place to brace the ship. Finally, the shore did not appear to be getting any closer. Mary went back to her room to change. Bennett knocked and opened the door a few minutes later.