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The Treasure Train

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




"Where's Mr. Kennedy?" he inquired, before I had a chance to put
my own question. "Some one has been in this wireless-room this
morning and must have been sending messages. Things aren't as I
left them. I think he ought to know."

Just then Everson himself came up from below, his face almost as
white as the paint on the sides of his yacht. Without a word, he
drew me aside, looking about fearfully as though he were afraid of
being overheard. "I've just discovered half a dozen sticks of
dynamite in the hold," he whispered, hoarsely, staring wide-eyed
at me. "There was a timing device, set for to-night. I've severed
it. Where's Kennedy?"

"Your wireless has been tampered with, too," I blurted out,
telling what I had just learned.

We looked at each other blankly. Clearly some one had plotted to
blow up the yacht and all of us on board. Without another word, I
took his arm and we walked toward our state-room, where Kennedy
was at work. As we entered the narrow passage to it I heard low
voices. Some one was there before us. Kennedy had shut the door
and was talking in the hall. As we turned the corner I saw that it
was Norma, whom I had forgotten in the surprise of the two
discoveries that had been so suddenly made.

As we approached she glanced significantly at Kennedy as if
appealing to him to tell something. Before he could speak, Everson
himself interrupted, telling of his discovery of the dynamite and
of what the wireless operator had found.

There was a low exclamation from Norma. "It's a plot to kidnap
me!" she cried, in a smothered voice. "Professor Kennedy--I told
you I thought so!"

Everson and I could only look our inquiries at the startling new
turn of events.

"Miss Sanford has just been to her state-room," hastily explained
Craig. "There she found that some one had carefully packed up a
number of her things and hidden them, as if waiting a chance to
get them off safely. I think her intuition is correct. There would
be no motive for robbery--here."

Vainly I tried to reason it out. As I thought, I recalled that
Gage had seemed insanely jealous of both Dominick and Kinsale,
whenever he saw either with Norma. Did Gage know more about these
mysterious happenings than appeared? Why had he so persistently
sought her? Had Norma instinctively fled from his attentions?

"Where are the others?" asked Craig, quickly. I turned to Everson.
I had not yet had time to find out.

"Gone back to the trawler," he replied.

"Signal them to come aboard here directly," ordered Craig.

It seemed an interminable time as the message was broken out in
flags to the trawler, which was not equipped with the wireless.
Even the hasty explanation which Kennedy had to give to Asta
Everson, as she came out of her cabin, wondering where Orrin had
gone, served only to increase the suspense. It was as though we
were living over a powder-magazine that threatened to explode at
any moment. What did the treachery of one member of the expedition
mean? Above all, who was it?

We had been so intent watching from the deck the all too slow
approach of the little power-boat from the trawler that we had
paid no attention to what was on our other quarter.

"A tug approaching, sir," reported the man on watch to Everson.
"Seems to be heading for us, sir."

We turned to look. Who was she, friend or foe? We knew not what to
expect. Everson, pale but with a firm grip on his nerves, did not
move from the deck as the power-boat came alongside, and Dominick,
Gage, and Kinsale swung themselves up the ladder to us.

"It's the tug of that pilot, Guiteras, sir," interposed the man
who had spoken before. Not a word was spoken, though I fancied
that a quiet smile flitted over Kennedy's face as we waited.

The tug ranged up alongside us. To my utter astonishment, I saw
Dolores, her black eyes eagerly scanning our faces. Was she
looking for Gage, I wondered? It was only a moment when the party
that had put out from the tug also came tumbling aboard.

"I got your message, Kennedy, and brought Guiteras. He wouldn't
join the expedition, but he thought more of his daughter than of
anything else."

It was Kenmore, who had at last achieved his wish to get on the
treasure-hunt story. Everson looked inquiringly at Craig.

"Message?" repeated Kennedy. "I sent no message."

It was Kenmore's turn to stare. Had some one hoaxed him into a
wild-goose chase, after all?

"Nothing? About Dolores being deserted, and--"

"He shall marry my daughter!" boomed a gruff voice as Guiteras
shouldered his way through the little group, his hand shooting
back to a pocket where bulged a huge Colt.

Like a flash Kennedy, who had been watching, caught his wrist.
"Just a second, Captain," he shouted, then turned to us, speaking
rapidly and excitedly. "This thing has all been carefully,
diabolically laid out. All who stood in the way of the whole of
the treasure were to be eliminated. One person has sought to get
it all--at any cost."

In Craig's own hand now gleamed a deadly automatic while with the
other he held Guiteras's wrist.

"But," he added, tensely, "an insane passion has wrecked the
desperate scheme. A woman has been playing a part--leading the man
on to his own destruction in order to save the man she really
loves."

I looked over at Norma. She was pale and agitated, then burning
and nervous by turns. It was only by a most heroic effort that she
seemed able to restrain herself, her eyes riveted on Kennedy's
face, weighing every word to see whether it balanced with a
feeling in her own heart.

"The Antilles," shot out Kennedy, suddenly, "was burned and sunk,
not by accident, but with a purpose. That purpose has run through
all the events I have seen--the use of Mr. Everson, his yacht, his
money, his influence. Come!" He strode down the passage to our
state-room, and we followed in awed silence.

"It is a vast, dastardly crime--to get the Mexican millions," he
went on, pausing, his hand on the knob of the door while we
crowded the narrow passage. "I have brought up from the wreck a
skull which I found near a safe, unlocked so that entrance would
be easy. The skull shows plainly that the man had been hit on the
head by some blunt instrument, crushing him. Had he discovered
something that it was inconvenient to know? You have heard the
stories of the ill-fated ship--"

Craig flung open the door suddenly. We saw a weird face--the head
apparently streaming blood from a ghastly wound. There was a
shrill cry beside me.

"It's his ghost--Captain Driggs! God save me--it's his ghost come
to haunt me and claim the treasure!"

I turned quickly. Dominick had broken down.

"You were--just leading him on--tell me--Norma." I turned again
quickly. It was Gage, who had taken Norma's hand, quivering with
excitement.

"You never cared for her?" she asked, with the anxiety that showed
how in her heart she loved him.

"Never. It was part of the plot. I sent the message to get her
here to show you. I didn't know you were playing a game--"

Suddenly the sharp crack of a pistol almost deafened us in the
close passageway. As the smoke cleared, I saw Dolores, her eyes
blazing with hatred, jealousy, revenge. In her hand was the pistol
she had wrenched from her father.

On the floor across the door-sill sprawled a figure. Dominick had
paid the price of his faithlessness to her also.

THE END

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