By the time we felt that we might very well make a start for home, we found out that though Lilla’s advice had seemed so good, it would not do to act upon, and she laughingly owned that she was wrong.

For, feeling the necessity for obtaining a little spare cash in hand, my uncle undertook to dispose of half a dozen of the little bars of gold, and the adventures were such that he came back to me to say that we should have to be very careful.

“It would never do to attempt a passage in a Spanish vessel boldly, my boy.  The very sound of the word gold seems to fill the people full of suspicion, and the dealer I went to to-day has been questioning me in all sorts of ways.  He thinks, evidently, that I have discovered a rich gold mine somewhere, and is boiling with curiosity to know where.”

“And you did not tell him, Uncle,” I said laughing.

“No, my boy; but seriously, we must not make these people suspicious.  We have to pass through their custom-house places if we go in the regular way, and if we attempt that, depend upon it we shall be stopped, and have to give the fullest of explanations as to where the gold was obtained, before we are allowed to quit the country, even if we are then.”

“Depend upon it, Uncle, we should not be allowed to go then.  How vexatious!” I ejaculated.  “After all this trouble it will be hard if we are stopped now!  We will not be,” I cried, with a stamp of the foot.  “I have succeeded so far, and if I fail it shall not be for want of foresight.”

“What do you mean, Harry?” said my uncle, who seemed to be pleased with my energy and determination.

“I mean, Uncle, that if the treasure is lost it shall be through storm and shipwreck, not from the scheming of men.  If they know of our rich treasure they will plan to get it away from us.  Well, we must scheme harder to save it.

“Here, let’s take Tom into consultation,” I said after a pause, and Tom was called in.  “Here, Tom,” I said, “we’ve got all the gold packed, how are we to get it away?”

“How are you to get it away, Mas’r Harry?” he said, giving his head a rub, not that it itched, but so as to clear his thoughts, I suppose.

“Yes.  How are we to get it away?”

“Stick direction cards on, same as we did with the soap boxes at home, and shove it aboard ship.”

“To be stopped as something contraband.  No, Tom, that won’t do.  They would want to know what it was.”

“Serve them same as we did the Injins,” said Tom grinning:  “pretend as they are all forsles and stigmy tights, as you called ’em, Mas’r Harry.”

“That may do for Indians, but it will never do for people who are civilised.  No, Tom, if you cannot give better advice than that, it is of no use.”

“That’s the best I’ve got, Mas’r Harry,” said Tom.  “I never was a good one that way.  You tell me what to do and I’ll do it.  And as for sticking to you ­There, Mas’r Landell, sir, haven’t I stuck to Mas’r Harry through thick and thin?”

“Most faithfully, Tom.”

“Thanky, sir, thanky,” cried Tom.

“Yes, yes, Tom, we know all about that,” I said.  “No one doubts your fidelity, but it is not the question.  We want to know what to do about getting the treasure home safely.”

“Oh!  Ah!  Yes, I see,” said Tom, as if he had not understood before, and it made me so vexed, what with being hot and nervous and bothered, that I felt as if I should have liked to kick Master Tom.

“I have it,” I exclaimed suddenly, and I gave the table a thump.

“He’s got it,” cried Tom, rubbing his hands.  “Mas’r Harry’s got it, Mas’r Landell, sir.  He’s a wunner at hitting out things, he is.”

“What is your idea, Harry?”

“It is rather a risky one, sir,” I replied; “but it seems to me the only likely one.  We must put up with some inconvenience to get our treasure safe.  Once we are at a good British port, of course we need not mind, and can do as we please.”

“Well,” he said, “what do you propose doing?”

“Find out some small vessel going to Jamaica, and arrange with the captain to take us.  If we pay him pretty well he will ask no questions about what our luggage is.”

“And you might make him think it was forsles and them what-you-may-call-’em tights.  He wouldn’t be much cleverer than the Injins,” said Tom.

“We’ll see about that, Tom,” I said, and my uncle having approved of my plan, we began at once to see if we could not set it in force.

It sounded very easy, but when I had to put it in practice I found it extremely difficult, and to be hedged in with prickles of the sharpest kind.

We wanted to go to Jamaica, as being a suitable port for our purpose, and an easy one to obtain passage home in a mail steamer; but though I could find small vessels, schooners, and brigs going everywhere else, there did not seem to be one likely to sail for Kingston; and try how I would, it appeared as if the very fact of our wanting to go otherwise than by the regular mail route made our conduct suspicious.

In fact more than one of the skippers seemed to think so, and as a rule they declined to take us, saying that it would get them into trouble, while in one case, where the captain of a schooner eagerly agreed to take us, merely stipulating to be well paid, the vessel was such a cranky, ill-found affair that I shrank from trusting my aunt and Lilla in such a crazy hull.

“There’s a chap out in the river yonder going to sail for New York at the end of the week, Mas’r Harry,” said Tom one morning.  “I got into conversation with him last night when I was smoking my pipe, and in about half a minute he’d asked me what my name was, where I was born, how many teeth I’d got, why I came here, what I was going to do next; and when I told him I wanted to go back to England, he hit me over the back and says:  `Case o’ dollars, stranger.  I’ll take you.’  He’s coming to see you this morning.”

About an hour after I saw a tall, thin, yellow-looking man coming up to the house.  He had a narrow smooth face, and two very dark eyes that seemed to have been squeezed close up to his nose ­a sharp nose ­and a very projecting much-pointed chin.  His face was as devoid of hair as a baby’s, and taking him altogether, if Tom had not told me he was curious, I should have said at once that he was a man who loved to ask questions.

“Mornin’, stranger,” he said to both Tom and me, and then, with his queer-looking sharp little eyes searching me all over, he went on:  “I guess you’re the Englishman who wants to get home with all your tots.”

“I am,” I said.  “May I ask your name?”

“Perks,” he said sharply. “‘Badiah P. Perks, o’ New York.  What’s your’n?”

I told him.

“Hah, yes.  I could see you warn’t an A-murray-can.  I’ll take you if you’ll pay.”

“Oh, I’ll pay a reasonable fare for our party,” I replied.

“Party, eh?  How many?”

“My uncle, his wife and daughter, and us two,” I said.

“And that makes five, stranger.  Baggage?”

“Yes,” I said, “Let’s look.”

I hesitated for a moment, and then took him into the room where our neat little chests were packed, one on the top of the other, with a couple of blankets thrown over them.

“Hah!” said the skipper, trying one of the iron-bound cases.  “Precious heavy, mister.  What’s in ’em?”

“Curiosities,” I replied.

“Just so,” he said, winking one eye.  “I said they was to myself soon as I see the iron bands round ’em.  Wal, they’ll weigh up pretty smart.  You’ll have to pay for them.”

“Of course,” I said; “anything reasonable.”

“That’s square, mister,” he said, scanning the whole place eagerly.  “Now, what might bring you out here, eh?”

“I came to see my uncle,” I replied, annoyed at the fellow’s impertinence, but thinking it better to be civil.

“Did you, though, mister?  Find him?”

“Yes, I found him right enough.”

“Did you, though?  Old man all right?”

“Quite right.”

“Didn’t stop with him, though?”

“No, we are all going home together.”

“Wonder at it when you might stay in A-murray-kay.  I say, mister, you know, what’s in them chesties?”

He accompanied the question with a wink and a grin, and pointed over his shoulder towards the cases.

“I told you,” I replied, “curiosities.”

“Are they, though?  Wonder what the custom chaps would call ’em when they overhauled them, eh?”

I was silent, for it was evident that the fellow suspected me of a desire to evade the regular authorities of the port.

“Come, mister,” he said with a grin, evidently divining my thoughts, “out with it, come; you want them chesties smuggled off on the quiet, don’t you now?  Best take ’Badiah P. Perks into confidence, I guess; makes it smooth for all parties.”

“If you like to take our party and luggage to New York, Mr Perks,” I said quietly, “I am ready, as my uncle will be ready, to pay you well for the passage.  Is it agreed?”

“Luggage, of course, mister; but them there arn’t luggage.  Curiosities, didn’t you say?  What’s in ’em?”

“That is my affair, Mr Perks.”

“’Badiah P. Perks, please mister.  Now, then, is it square and confidence, and ‘Badiah P. Perks’ friends, or isn’t it?”

“I shall place every confidence in the captain of our vessel, Mr Perks.”

“’Badiah P. Perks, mister.”

“Mr Obadiah P. Perks,” I said.

“Drop that O, stranger.  Don’t belong.  ’Badiah P. Perks, mister.”

“Mr ’Badiah P. Perks,” I said.

“And my folks calls me Kyaptin,” said the skipper.  “Say, it’s wonderful how much ignorance there is ’mongst you Englishers.  Wal, I won’t say I’ll take you, stranger, till I’ve brought one o’ these here yellow nigger officers to look over them chesties, and see if there’s anything in ’em as is contraband.”

I could not help changing colour, and the fellow saw it.  He suspected my motives evidently, and with a smile he turned to go, reaching the door slowly and then pausing, as if he expected me to call him back, but as I did not he hesitated.

“Say, mister,” he said, “s’pose anny time’ll do for me to bring down the yaller nigger chap?”

I was so wroth with the scoundrel and his cool impudence that I took a defiant tone and said shortly: 

“Any time you like, Captain Perks.”

“’Badiah P. Perks, mister.  All right.  I won’t be long.”

“But mind this,” I said, “you are doing it for your own amusement, for I shall advise my uncle not to go by your vessel.”

“Riled, mister?  Jest a little bit, eh?  All right.  You’ll cool down by the time I’ve got the custom-house chap here, and then we can settle terms.”

He went off laughing, and for the moment I felt as if we were in his power.

“All my labour will have been thrown away, Tom,” I cried, “and we shall be called upon for explanations that I cannot give.”

I called my uncle into the consultation, and we agreed that the best line to take was the defiant one.

“We are under no engagement to this fellow, Harry,” said my uncle; “and we need not enter into one, as he would fleece you ­perhaps rob you.  For, once at sea on the vessel of such a man, he can play tyrant and do as he pleases.”

“You are right, uncle; we will not go.  But if he returns with one of the Spanish officials, what then?”

“Set him at defiance; and if you are driven to extremities, appeal to the British vice-consul for aid.”