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The Treasure Train

A >> Arthur B. Reeve >> The Treasure Train




"But you succeeded finally?"

"Yes, only day before yesterday we located her. We marked the spot
with a buoy and were getting ready for real work. It was just
after that that Bertram was taken ill and died so suddenly. We've
left Dominick, Kinsale, Gage, and the rest on the trawler there,
while I came here with Traynor's body. God! but it was awful to
have to send the news back to New York. I don't know what to think
or what to do."

"How did he die?" asked Kennedy, endeavoring to gain the
confidence of young Everson. "Do you recall any of his symptoms?"

"It came on him so suddenly," he replied, "that we hadn't much
time to think. As nearly as we could make out, it began with a
faintness and difficulty in breathing. We asked him how he felt--
but it seemed as if he was deaf. I thought it might be the
'bends'--you know, caisson disease--and we started to put him in
the medical lock which we had for the divers, but before we could
get it ready he was unconscious. It was all so sudden that it
stunned us. I can't make it out at all."

Neither Asta nor Norma seemed able to tell anything. In fact, the
blow had been so swift and unexpected, so incomprehensible, that
it had left them thoroughly alarmed.

The body of Traynor had already been brought ashore and placed in
a local undertaking shop. With Everson, Kennedy and I hastened to
visit it.

Traynor had been an athlete and powerfully built, which made his
sudden death seem all the more strange. Without a word, Craig set
to work immediately examining his body, while we stood aside,
watching him in anxious silence. Kennedy consumed the greater part
of the morning in his careful investigation, and after some time
Everson began to get restless, wondering how his wife and sister-
in-law were getting on in his absence. To keep him company I
returned to the hotel with him, leaving Kennedy to pursue his work
alone.

There was nothing much that either of us could say or do, but I
thought I observed, on closer acquaintance with Norma, that she
had something weighing on her mind. Was it a suspicion of which
she had not told us? Evidently she was not prepared to say
anything yet, but I determined, rather than try to quiz her, to
tell Kennedy, in the hope that she might confide in him what she
would not breathe to any one else.

It was perhaps an hour or more later that we returned to Craig. He
was still at work, though from his manner it was evident that his
investigations had begun to show something, however slight.

"Have you found anything?" asked Everson, eagerly.

"I think I have," returned Craig, measuring his words carefully.
"Of course you know the dangers of diving and the view now
accepted regarding the rapid effervescence of the gases which are
absorbed in the body fluids during exposure to pressure. I think
you know that experiment has proved that when the pressure is
suddenly relieved the gas is liberated in bubbles within the body.
That is what seems to do the harm. His symptoms, as you described
them, seemed to indicate that. It is like charged water in a
bottle. Take out the cork and the gas inside which has been under
pressure bubbles up. In the human body, air and particularly the
nitrogen in the air, literally form death bubbles."

Everson said nothing as he regarded Kennedy's face searchingly,
and Craig went on: "Set free in the spinal cord, for instance,
such bubbles may cause partial paralysis, or in the heart may lead
to stoppage of the circulation. In this case I am quite sure that
what I have found indicates air in the arteries, the heart, and
the blood vessels of the brain. It must have been a case of air
embolism, insufflation."

Though Everson seemed all along to have suspected something of the
sort, Kennedy's judgment left him quite as much at a loss for an
explanation. Kennedy seemed to understand, as he went on:

"I have tried to consider all the ways such a thing could have
happened," he considered. "It is possible that air might have been
introduced into the veins by a hypodermic needle or other
instrument. But I find no puncture of the skin or other evidence
that would support that theory. I have looked for a lesion of the
lungs, but find none. Then how could it have occurred? Had he done
any real deep diving?"

Everson shook his head slowly. "No," he replied. "As I said, it
wouldn't have been so incomprehensible if he had. Besides, if we
had been diving, we should have been on the lookout. No, Bertram
had only tested the apparatus once, after we located the wreck. He
didn't much more than go under the surface--nothing like the
practice dives we all made up in Long Island Sound before we came
down here. He was only testing the pumps and other things to see
whether they had stood the voyage. Why, it was nothing at all! I
don't see how it could have given any one the 'bends'--much less a
fellow like Traynor. Why, I think he could have stood more than
Kinsale with a little practice. Kennedy, I can't get it out of my
mind that there's something about this that isn't RIGHT."

Craig regarded Everson gravely. "Frankly," he confessed, "I must
say that I don't understand it myself--at this distance."

"Would you come out to the Key with me?" hastened Everson, as
though grasping at a possible solution.

"I should be delighted to help you in any manner that I can,"
returned Craig, heartily.

Everson could not find words to express his gratitude as we
hurried back to the hotel. In the excitement, I had completely
forgotten the despatch from the Star, but now I suddenly realized
that here, ready to hand, was the only way of getting out to the
Key of Gold and securing the story.

Asta Everson and Norma, especially, were overjoyed at the news
that Kennedy had consented to accompany them back to the wreck.
Evidently they had great faith in him, from what they had heard at
home.

Accordingly, Everson lost no time in preparing to return to the
yacht. Nothing more now could be done for poor Traynor, and delay
might mean much in clearing up the mystery, if mystery it should
prove. We were well on our way toward the landing place before I
realized that we were going over much the same route that Kennedy
and I had taken the day before to reach the home of Guiteras.

I was just about to say something about it to Kennedy, and of the
impression that Norma had made on me, when suddenly a figure
darted from around a corner and confronted us. We stopped in
surprise. It was no other than Dolores herself--not the quiet,
subdued Dolores we had seen the day before, but an almost wild,
passionate creature. What it was that had transformed her I could
not imagine. It was not ourselves that she seemed to seek, nor yet
the Eversons. She did not pause until she had come close to Norma
herself.

For a moment the two women, so different in type, faced each
other, Dolores fiery with the ardent beauty of her race, Norma
pulsating with life and vigor, yet always mistress of herself.

"I warn you!" cried Dolores, unable to restrain herself. "You
thought the other was yours--and he was not. Do not seek revenge.
He is mine--MINE, I tell you. Win your own back again. I was only
making sport of him. But mine--beware!"

For a moment Norma gazed at her, then, without a word, turned
aside and walked on. Another instant and Dolores was gone as
suddenly as she had appeared. Asta looked inquiringly, but Norma
made no attempt at explanation. What did it mean? Had it anything
to do with the dispute in the hotel which Kenmore had witnessed?

At the landing we parted for a time with Everson, to return to our
hotel and get what little we needed, including Kennedy's traveling
laboratory, while Everson prepared quarters for our reception on
the yacht.

"What do you make of that Dolores incident?" I hastened to ask the
moment we were alone.

"I don't know," he replied, "except that I feel it has an
important bearing on the case. There is something that Norma
hasn't told us, I fear."

While we waited for a wagon to transfer our goods to the dock,
Kennedy took a moment to call up Kenmore on the News. As he turned
to me from the telephone, I saw that what he had learned had not
helped him much in his idea of the case.

"It was the Interocean Company which had insured the Antilles,"
was all he said.

Instantly I thought of Kinsale and his former connection. Was he
secretly working with them still? Was there a plot to frustrate
Everson's plans? At least the best thing to do was to get out to
the wreck and answer our many questions at first hand.

The Belle Aventure was a trim yacht of perhaps seventy feet, low,
slim, and graceful, driven by a powerful gas-engine and capable of
going almost anywhere. An hour later we were aboard and settled in
a handsomely appointed room, where Craig lost no time in
establishing his temporary traveling crime clinic.

It was quite late before we were able to start, for Everson had a
number of commissions to attend to on this his first visit to port
since he had set out so blithely. Finally, however, we had taken
aboard all that he needed and we slipped out quietly past the
castle on the point guarding the entrance to the harbor. All night
we plowed ahead over the brilliant, starry, tropical sea, making
splendid time, for the yacht was one of the fastest that had ever
been turned out by the builders.

Now and then I could see that Kennedy was furtively watching
Norma, in the hope that she might betray whatever secret it was
she was guarding so jealously. Though she betrayed nothing, I felt
sure that it had to do with some member of the expedition and that
it was a more than ordinarily complicated affair of the heart. The
ladies had retired, leaving us with Everson in the easy wicker
chairs on the after-deck.

"I can't seem to get out of my mind, Everson, that meeting with
the Spanish girl on the street," suddenly remarked Kennedy, in the
hope of getting something by surprise. "You see, I had already
heard of a little unpleasantness in a hotel cafe, before the
expedition started. Somehow I feel that there must be some
connection."

For a moment Everson regarded Kennedy under the soft rays of the
electric light under the awning as it swayed in the gentle air,
then looked out over the easy swell of the summer sea.

"I don't understand it myself," he remarked, at length, lowering
his voice. "When we came down here Dominick knew that girl,
Dolores, and of course Kinsale met her right away, too. I thought
Gage was head over ears in love with Norma--and I guess he is.
Only that night in the cafe I just didn't like the way he proposed
a toast to Dolores. He must have met her that day. Maybe he was a
bit excited. What she said to-day might mean that it was her
fault. I don't know. But since we've been out to the Key I fancy
Norma has been pretty interested in Dominick. And Kinsale doesn't
hesitate to show that he likes her. It all sets Donald crazy. It's
so mixed up. I can't make anything of it. And Norma--well, even
Asta can't get anything out of her. I wish to Heaven you could
straighten the thing out."

We talked for some time, without getting much more light than
Everson had been able at first to shed on the affair, and finally
we retired, having concluded that only time and events would
enable us to get at the truth.

It was early in the morning that I was wakened by a change in the
motion of the boat. There was very little vibration from the
engine, but this motion was different. I looked out of the port-
hole which had been very cleverly made to resemble a window and
found that we had dropped anchor.

The Key of Gold was a beautiful green island, set, like a
sparkling gem, in a sea of deepest turquoise. Slender pines with a
tuft of green at the top rose gracefully from the wealth of
foliage below and contrasted with the immaculate white of the
sandy beach that glistened in the morning sun. Romance seemed to
breathe from the very atmosphere of the place.

We found that the others on the yacht were astir, too, and,
dressing hastily, we went out on deck. Across the dancing waves,
which seemed to throw a mocking challenge to the treasure-seekers
to find what they covered, we could see the trawler. Already a
small power-boat had put out from her and was plowing along toward
us.

It was as the boat came alongside us that we met Gage for the
first time. He was a tall, clean-cut fellow, but even at a glance
I recognized that his was an unusual type. I fancied that both
proctors and professors had worried over him when he was in
college.

Particularly I tried to discover how he acted when he met Norma.
It was easy to see that he was very eager to greet her, but I
fancied that there was some restraint on her part. Perhaps she
felt that we were watching and was on her guard.

Dominick greeted Everson warmly. He was a man of about thirty-five
and impressed one as having seen a great deal of the world. His
position as purser had brought him into intimate contact with many
people, and he seemed to have absorbed much from them. I could
imagine that, like many people who had knocked about a great deal,
he might prove a very fascinating person to know.

Kinsale, on the other hand, was a rather silent fellow and
therefore baffling. In his own profession of deep-sea diving he
was an expert, but beyond that I do not think he had much except
an ambition to get ahead, which might be praiseworthy or not,
according as he pursued it.

I fancied that next to Everson himself, Norma placed more
confidence in Dominick than in any of the others, which seemed to
be quite natural, though it noticeably piqued Gage. On the part of
all three, Gage, Dominick, and Kinsale, it was apparent that they
were overjoyed at the return of Norma, which also was quite
natural, for even a treasure-hunt has hours of tedium and there
could be nothing tedious when she was about. Asta was undoubtedly
the more fascinating, but she was wrapped up in Everson. It was
not long before Kennedy and I also fell under the spell of Norma's
presence and personality.

We hurried through breakfast and lost no time in accepting
Everson's invitation to join him, with the rest, in the little
power-boat on a visit to the trawler.

It was Dominick who took upon himself the task of explaining to us
the mysteries of treasure-hunting as we saw them. "You see," he
remarked, pointing out to us what looked almost like a strangely
developed suit of armor, "we have the most recent deep-sea diving-
outfit which will enable us to go from two hundred to three
hundred feet down--farther, and establish a record if we had to do
it. It won't be necessary, though. The Antilles lies in about two
hundred and fifty feet of water, we have found. This armor has to
be strong, for, with the air pressure inside, it must resist a
pressure of nearly half a pound per square inch for each foot we
go--to be exact, something like a hundred and five pounds per
square inch at the depth of the wreck. Perhaps if Traynor had been
diving we might have thought that that was the trouble."

It was the first reference since we arrived to the tragedy. "He
had only had the suit on once," went on Dominick, confirming
Everson, "and that was merely to test the pumps and valves and
joints. Even Kinsale, here, hasn't been down. Still, we haven't
been idle. I have something to report. With our instruments we
have discovered that the ship has heeled over and that it will be
a bit harder job to get into my office and get out the safe than
we hoped--but feasible."

Kennedy showed more interest in the diving apparatus than he had
shown in anything else so far. The trawler was outfitted most
completely as a tender, having been anchored over the exact spot
at which the descents were to be made, held by four strong cables,
with everything in readiness for action.

I saw him cast a quick glance at the others. For the moment
Dominick, Gage, and Kinsale seemed to have forgotten us in their
interest explaining to Norma what had been accomplished in her
absence. He seized the occasion to make an even closer examination
of the complicated apparatus. So carefully had accident been
guarded against that even a device for the purification of the air
had been installed in the machine which forced the fresh air down
to the diver, compressed.

It was this apparatus which I saw Kennedy studying most,
especially one part where the air was passed through a small
chamber containing a chemical for the removal of carbon dioxide.
As he looked up, I saw a peculiar expression on his face. Quickly
he removed the chemical, leaving the tube through which the air
passed empty.

"I think the air will be pure enough without any such treatment,"
he remarked, glancing about to be sure no one had observed.

"How is that?" I inquired, eagerly.

"Well, you know air is a mechanical mixture of gases, mainly
oxygen and nitrogen. Here's something that gives it an excess of
nitrogen and a smaller percentage of oxygen. Nitrogen is the more
dangerous gas for one under compressed air. It is the more inert
nitrogen that refuses to get out of the blood after one has been
under pressure, that forms the bubbles of gas which cause all the
trouble, the 'bends,' compressed-air sickness, you know."

"Then that is how Traynor died?" I whispered, coming hastily to
the conclusion. "Some one placed the wrong salt in there--took out
oxygen, added nitrogen, instead of removing carbon dioxide?"

Norma had turned toward us. It was too early for Kennedy to accuse
anybody, whatever might be his suspicions. He could not yet come
from under cover. "I think so," was all he replied.

A moment later the group joined us. "No one has been down on the
wreck yet?" inquired Craig, at which Everson turned quickly to the
three companions he had left in charge, himself anxious to know.

"No," replied Kinsale before any one else could answer. "Mr.
Dominick thought we'd better wait until you came back."

"Then I should like to be the first," cut in Craig, to my utter
surprise. Remonstrance had no effect with him. Neither Norma nor
Asta could dissuade him. As for the rest of us, our objections
seemed rather to confirm him in his purpose.

Accordingly, in spite of the danger, which now no one no more than
he knew, all the preparations were made for the first dive. With
the aid of Kinsale, whom I watched closely, though no more so than
Craig, he donned the heavy suit of rubberized reinforced canvas,
had the leads placed on his feet and finally was fitted with the
metal head and the "bib"--the whole weighing hardly short of three
hundred pounds. It was with serious misgiving that I saw him go
over the side of the trawler and shoot down into the water with
its dark mystery and tragedy.

The moments that he was down seemed interminable. Suspiciously I
watched every move that the men made, fearful that they might do
something. I longed for the technical knowledge that would have
enabled me to handle the apparatus. I tried to quiet my fears by
reasoning that Craig must have had perfect confidence in the value
of his discovery if he were willing to risk his life on it, yet I
felt that at least a show of vigilance on my part might bluff any
one off from an attempt to tamper again with the air-supply. I
stuck about closely.

Yet, when there came a hasty signal on the indicator from below,
although I felt that he had been down for ages, I knew that it had
been only a very short time. Could it be a signal of trouble? Had
some one again tampered with the apparatus?

Would they never bring him up? It seemed as if they were working
fearfully slow. I remembered how quickly he had shot down. What
had seemed then only a matter of seconds and minutes now seemed
hours. It was only by sheer will power that I restrained myself as
I realized that going under the air pressure might be done safely
quite fast, that he must come out slowly, by stages, that over the
telephone that connected with his helmet he was directing the
decompression in accordance with the latest knowledge that medical
science had derived of how to avoid the dread caisson disease.

I don't know when I have felt more relief than I did at seeing his
weird headgear appear at the surface. The danger from the "bends"
might not be entirely over yet, but at least it was Craig himself,
safe, at last.

As he came over the side of the trawler I ran to him. It was like
trying to greet a giant in that outlandish suit which was so
clumsy out of the water. Craig's back was turned to the others,
and when I realized the reason I stood aghast. He had brought up a
skull and had handed the gruesome thing to me with a motion of
secrecy. Meanwhile he hastened to get out of the cumbersome suit,
and, to my delight, showed no evidence yet of any bad effects.

That he should have made the descent and returned so successfully
I felt must be a surprise to some one. Who was it? I could not
help thinking of Kinsale again. Was he working for two masters?
Was he still employed by the insurance company? Was this a scheme
to capture all the rich salvage of the ship instead of that
percentage to which Everson had secured an agreement with the
underwriters?

Kennedy lost no time in getting back to the Belle Aventure with
the skull which I had concealed for him. It was a strange burden
and I was not loath to resign it to him. None of the others,
apparently, knew that he had brought up anything with him, and to
all questions he replied as though he had merely been testing out
the apparatus and, except in a most cursory way, had not made an
examination of the ship, although what he had observed confirmed
the investigations they had already made from the surface.

In our cabin, Kennedy set to work immediately after opening his
traveling laboratory and taking from it a small kit of tools and
some materials that looked almost like those for an actor's make-
up.

I saw that he wished to be left alone and retired as gracefully as
I could, determined to employ the time in watching the others. I
found Norma seated in one of the wicker chairs on the after-deck,
talking earnestly with Dominick, and, hesitating whether I should
interrupt them, I paused between the library and the sumptuously
fitted main saloon. I was glad that I did, for just that moment of
hesitation was enough for me to surprise a man peering out at them
through the curtains of a window, with every evidence of intense
dislike of the situation. Looking closer, I saw that it was Gage.
Had I expected anything of the sort I should have gone even more
cautiously. As it was, though I surprised him, he heard me in time
to conceal his real intentions by some trivial action.

It seemed as if our arrival had been succeeded by a growth of
suspicion among the members of the little party. Each, as far as I
could make out, was now on guard, and, remembering that Kennedy
had often said that that was a most fruitful time, since it was
just under such circumstances that even the cleverest could not
help incriminating himself, I hastened back to let Craig know how
matters were. He was at work now on a most grotesque labor, and,
as he placed on it the finishing touches, he talked abstractedly.

"What I am using, Walter," he explained, "might be called a new
art. Lately science has perfected the difficult process of
reconstructing the faces of human beings of whom only the skull or
a few bones, perhaps, are obtainable.

"To the unskilled observer a fleshless skull presents little human
likeness and certainly conveys no notion of the exact appearance
in life of the person to whom it belonged. But by an ingenious
system of building up muscles and skin upon the bones of the skull
this appearance can be reproduced with scientific accuracy.

"The method, I might say, has been worked out independently by
Professor von Froriep, in Germany, and by Dr. Henri Martin, in
France. Its essential principle consists in ascertaining from the
examination of many corpses the normal thickness of flesh that
overlies a certain bone in a certain type of face. From these
calculations the scientists by elaborate processes build up a face
on the skull."

I watched him, with an uncontrollable fascination. "For instance,"
he went on, "a certain type of bone always has nearly the same
thickness of muscle over it. A very fine needle with graduations
of hundredths of an inch is used in these measurements. As I have
done here, a great number of tiny plaster pyramids varying in
height according to the measurements obtained by these researches
are built up over the skull, representing the thickness of the
muscles. The next step will be to connect them together by a layer
of clay the surface of which is flush with the tips of the
pyramids. Then wax and grease paint and a little hair will
complete it. You see, it is really scientific restoration of the
face. I must finish it. Meanwhile, I wish you would watch Norma.
I'll join you in a short time."

Norma was not on deck when I returned, nor did I see any one else
for some time. I walked forward, and paused at the door to the
little wireless-room on the yacht, intending to ask the operator
if he had seen her.

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