The sleeves of the jacket were made long, so as to cover
our hands. Our sea boots and breeches we knew to be impervious to
hornet stings, and, thus equipped, we hoped to succeed in carrying away
the treasure which the Lamakera fishermen had abandoned.
We took the smallest of our ship's boats, in which we rowed ashore,
and, leaving the crew at the entrance to the caves, we three, as
silently as possible, propelled the boat along the stream into the
interior. As we progressed we met with evidences of our former visit.
Lumps of stalactites lay where they had fallen when shaken from the
vaulted roof by the discharge of our firearms. The body of the lad
Bruno was also to be seen, half submerged, in the water of the stream.
Close to the body was the heap of gold dust, and this we began to load
into our boat, making as little noise as possible lest we should
disturb the hornets from their nests.
We worked rapidly, and in less than an hour we had filled the boat with
as much as she could carry of the heavy sand, nearly all of which was
gold dust, when a humming warned us of the approach of the hornets. We
had brought with us but a single torch, so as to avoid the light which
we knew would attract the swarm of venomous insects, as also the bats
and flying creatures which had made their home in these wonderful
caverns; but the solitary gleam, in so much darkness, seemed to burn
with the brightness of a conflagration.
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