For Treasure Bound | Page 5

room, where my sister (advertised by Bob, who had made the best
of his way home on foot) had a cheerful fire blazing in the grate, hot
water in abundance, and everything else ready that her womanly
sympathy could suggest.
CHAPTER TWO.
THE SECRET.
The doctor remained with the sick man more than half an hour; and
when I heard his footstep descending the staircase I went out and met
him.
"The poor fellow is sinking rapidly," said he, in reply to my inquiries;
"he has received severe internal injuries, and is bleeding to death
inwardly. I can do nothing, absolutely nothing for him. Keep him quiet,
and humour him as much as you can; excitement of any kind will only
hasten his dissolution." I cheerfully promised to do all I could for the
dying man; and the doctor took his leave, promising to call again the
last thing in the evening.
As soon as the doctor was out of the house I went upstairs and into the
sick-room, where I found the patient in bed, and Bob, with his boots off,
gliding as quietly about the room as a trained hospital nurse, doing all
he could to contribute to the comfort of his charge.
The opening of the door attracted the sick man's attention, and he
feebly turned his head in my direction. As soon as he recognised me, he
beckoned me to approach; and I drew a chair to the side of the bed,
asking him how he felt.
"Like one whose moments are numbered," replied he in perfectly pure
English, but with a sonorous ring in the articulation of the words, which
betrayed the fact that he was not speaking in his mother tongue.
"Senor," he continued, "I am dying; the doctor has candidly told me so,
though I needed no such assurance from him. The dreadful pangs
which shoot through my tortured frame are such as no man could long
endure and live. I am a true Catholic, senor, and I would fain see a

priest, or some good man of my own creed, that I may confess, and
clear my guilty soul from the stains which a life of sinful indulgence
and contempt of Heaven's laws has polluted it with. I know there are
many of my faith in England; it may be that there are some in this place.
Know you of any such?"
I replied that there certainly was a Catholic church in the town, but it
was situated at some distance from the house in which he now lay;
consequently it would perhaps be an hour before the priest could be
found and brought to him; "but," added I, "I will send for him forthwith,
and until he arrive I will sit here and keep you company."
So saying, I called Bob on one side, and directed him to proceed, as
quickly as possible, into town, and bring the Reverend Father without a
moment's delay to the house.
As soon as Bob had departed, I resumed my seat by the bedside.
Extending his burning hand towards me, he clasped mine, and
endeavoured to raise it to his lips. "Senor," said he, "since it is the will
of God that I am to die, I can but bow to that will in submission; but I
would I could have been spared for a few years to testify my gratitude
to you for your brave and noble efforts in behalf of my crew and
myself--my poor people, my poor people," he sobbed--"all, all lost!"
He was silent for nearly five minutes; and I took advantage of the
opportunity to explain to him that what I had done was no more than
any other Englishman would do if he had the power, under similar
circumstances; that such conduct was thought nothing of among our
nation; being regarded as simply a duty which each man owed to every
other, in like circumstances of distress with his own.
"I know--I know," replied he, "the English are as generous as they are
brave; but still I would I had it in my power to express my thanks
otherwise than in words. But I am alone in the world which I am so
soon to leave. Not one have I of my own name or blood to whom I can
bequeath my debt of gratitude; and when my ship went to pieces to-day
(she was my own property, senor), I became a beggar. I have not so
much property left as will pay the expenses of my burial; and here I lie,

indebted to a stranger, and that stranger a foreigner, for the shelter
which covers my dying head, as I soon shall be for the coffin and the
grave which await my lifeless clay."
I was beginning to say something,