He got five hundred dollars for it and reckoned that he had crowned his luck.
Harman went below and examined the lease. It included all rights on the island above and underground, and all rights to sea approaches and reefs.
Gadgett had a government stamp for the new contract. He was a man who always foresaw, and in five minutes Harman and Blood found themselves in possession of Matao for a term of forty-four years, with an option of renewal for another twenty years on a year’s notice.
Then Harman, with this in his pocket, came on deck, followed by Blood, and as they stood saying good-bye to Gadgett the fellow in command began giving the order to handle the throat and peak halyards.
As they rowed off, the jib was being set, and when they reached the _Heart_, the sound of the windlass pawls reached them, and the rasp of the anchor chain being hove short.
“What is it?” said Blood, who knew Harman too well to doubt that they had got the weather gauge on Gadgett.
“Wait till they’ve cleared the lagoon--wait till they’ve cleared the lagoon!” said the other. “I’m afraid of thinkin’ of it lest that chap should smell the idea and come back and murder us. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord! Will they never get out?”
The anchor of the _Bertha Mason_ was now rising to the catheads; she was moving. As she passed the reef opening, she ran up her flag and dipped it, then the Pacific took her.
Down below, not a word would he say till he had poured out two whiskies, one for himself and one for Blood.
“It’s a guano island. Yesterday, when I went fishin’, I took notice of signs, then I prospected. All the top part is one solid block of guano--nuff to manure the continent of the States. That chap has been sittin’ five years on millions of dollars and playin’ with oyster shells. Oh, think of Rafferty--and the wheelbarrows! Think of his long, yellow face when he knows!”
“Sure--why, I’ve a workin’ knowledge of guano. Sure--o’ course I’m sure! Come ashore with me, and I’ll show you.”
They went ashore, and before sunset Harman had demonstrated that even on this side, where the deposit was thinnest, the store was vast.
“Think of the size of the place,” said he, “and remember from this to the other side it gets thicker. Fifty years won’t empty it.”