Adventures of a medical student ... With a memoir of the life of the author

Front matter

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A I) V E N T U E E S

Chapter III. The Treasure

My fellow-student and I were both dressers in the same ward at Guy’s ; we also lodged together. One evening I said to him, —

44 Well, I think that old fellow who lies in No. 7 (alluding to the number of his bed) is one of the most singular characters that ever came under my hands : what a wiry fellow he must have been once on a day ; a regular Jack Sheppard ; small, slight, and sinewy, and as active as a cat ! What a curious square red night-cowl is that he sports ! A rum sort of fellow, certainly. He has taken a great fancy to me ; he says I am not so proud as the other students, and seems inclined to he communicative. It seems he has been in both the services, and you can’t mention a place or thing hut he is sure to have something to say about it. I was much amused by an account he gave me the other day of touching for water at some wild place on the coast of Africa, and finding his way into a lod^e of black freemasons, not one of whom had ever seen a white face before, except in a vision of Old Nick or Mumbo Jumbo.”

44 Why bless you, man, that is but a joke to what I have heard ! He makes a regular confidant of me. It was only yesterday, when I had done dressing his limb, he began a long rigmarole, and as we had had no lecture from Addison, I pulled out my note-hook, and filled up the space with a report of the story.”

44 Let ’s have it.”

44 Stop a moment. Oh, here it is. Now, as I read, fancy you hear him talking.”

A MEDICAL STUDENT.

1 then went on.

It was the time of the first American war. I was a small shaver then, you may believe ; I played the

triangle in the band of the regiment. My father

was a lance-corporal in that corps, and a decent married man ; very different in that particular from what his son turned out to be. Well, one autumn evening we were lying encamped on Hounslow-heath, along with a Scotch regiment, Lord Reay’s Fencibles, I think ; I remember it well, though everything thereabout is changed now. Very different times were those from the present. Highway robberies were as common about the heath as blackberries, and a murder or two occasionally lent an agreeable variety to the course of events. Now, while we lay on the heath, it came into the bandmaster’s head that I would make an excellent drum -boy ; and consequently I, with two other small chaps like myself, were put under the care of a drummer, and sent out of hearing of the camp to acquire the noble science of which I believe he was an eminent master. Nothing pleased me better than this ; we used to go on the long sunny days, rattling away like blazes, and inarch up and down the country foraging upon the natives in the way of everything eatable, and entertaining them with a flourishing tattoo by way of reckoning.

One day we rambled far across the heath till we came to a place where there were a number of scattered clumps of trees ; but they have all been removed and the ground enclosed thirty years ago. However, at the time I speak of, there they were, and a most lonely place it was : not a human face had we seen in an hour’s wandering ; and the song of the lark, or the cawing of the rooks, was the only sound that interrupted the sweet music we were every now and then knocking out of the drum. Oh ! so well as I mind every mark of that spot, and the long, dreamy, warm day, and the bramble-berries, and the birds (one of us had a long pistol, and we had plenty of cartridges, which we had picked up when dropped by the men during inspection), and the lonely road that wound along at a little distance, without a living creature upon its surface : but everything is altered now. Well, we had roved about among these clumps of trees for a long while, and at last we came to where three or four magnificent beeches stood, nearly in a straight line, and as we began to feel a little hungry, it was thought that some beech-mast would be acceptable.

We stood at the foot of one of the trees — it was even and unbroken for a good way up, and then suddenly forked away into two sets of branches. Well, I made no more ado, but up into the tree I scrambled, while the others stood looking at me, till, as I was clambering into the fork of the- branches, the mark I presented was too strong a temptation for the self-denial of the drummer — a wild scoundrel — he was afterwards flogged and sent to Jamaica for stealing a cat-o’ -nine- tails to whip a grocer with in Canterbury ; so he lets fly a big pebble, and hits me just right here. Now, though there was not much danger of broken bones in the blow, yet the pain and the loud laugh the young vagabonds set up enraged me so much that I immediately looked about for something with which to send back my love to them.

Standing then right in the division of the tree, my eye was caught by a hollow in the wood just in the fork where the two branches parted at my feet. It had apparently been produced by the weather, or by some disease in the timber, and was filled up with leaves, bits of bark, chips of wood, and several good heavy pebbles, which last were my immediate object. These I speedily sent buzzing about the ears of my friends below, who forthwith beat a hasty retreat. Yet I still continued to empty the hole, wfith a vague feeling of curiosity as to its depth, till, as I was taking out a copious handful of leaves and dust, something glittering attracted my eye. It was the clasp of a large, dark morocco pocket-book, the sides bulging out as if it were well filled, and the leather much frayed, appa-.

A MEDICAL STUDENT.

rently from constant use. My curiosity and wonder were now stimulated to a most intense degree. I turned the pocket-book over, and beneath it found a glittering heap that made my heart jump with astonishment, delight, and a feeling of fear.

There lay a long purse of brown-netted stuff, secured by two massive rings of what I now know to have been tortoiseshell. One end of it was actually crammed with yellow guineas, shining brightly through the distended network ; the other contained a few pieces of silver. Beside it lay a lady’s bag-purse of green velvet, with little green tassels at the corners, and a heavy gold clasp. It also was well filled. Beside these lay a dark morocco spectacle-case, and beneath it I found two gold watches. One was a gentleman’s, massive and plain, with a heavy chain, the links thick, clear, and unornamented, with a seal and key attached, larger, and very richly chased. The other was a lady’s, a small and very beautiful French one, profusely set with glittering stones.

A pair of gold shoebuckles next caught my eye, then a pair of shirt-sleeve buttons — an old-fashioned thing to see nowadays ; then a broad cameo brooch, two gorgeous bracelets, and a most magnificent pair of pearl earrings, the checks broken and bloody , as if they had been torn violently from the ears they had ornamented. A silver thimble and a small plain gold snuff-box I passed over hurriedly, while my attention was riveted by the dazzling brilliancy of a diamond ring. From what I have since seen, I know that ring must have been of immense value : why, the stone actually lit up the bottom of the hole where it was laid ! I have never, in all my adventures since, seen anything offering the most distant approach to it. Beside it lay a plain wedding-ring, which, being smaller, I slipped upon my finger, and there it remained.

Well, for hours I continued there, sitting in the tree, absorbed in the contemplation of my new-found treasure, handling the costly ornaments, and turning them over and over in a perfect dream of wonder and delight, till at length the darkening twilight warned me it was time to return to the camp.

The moment the thought struck me a feeling of apprehension took complete possession of my mind. What was I to do ? How find my way home ? I had never been so far away before — my companions had gone long before sunset, and no living thing had since come near me : it was now getting rapidly dark, and my ideas of north, south, east, and west were utterly confounded. My fears deepened into absolute terror. What if the owners of this treasure should come prowling about in the night and find me ! But this was not all ; frightful stories, which I had heard from the boys in the Scotch regiment, crowded into my mind all about fairies, witches, and ghost-guarded treasures, till I was actually shuddering with horror. Hastily snatching some green leaves, I crammed them into the hole over the glittering store, and sliding down the tree, took to my heels and ran as if for dear life.

I continued running over the heath for more than an hour, till seeing a light, and hearing a dog bark far away to one side, I made in that direction, and leaping ditches and fences, came pretty near to the house where the light shone. 1 was afraid, however, to venture near, so I laid me down beside a haycock to sleep. I was so haunted, however, by my fearful thoughts, that not one wink could I get. Now I thought of my treasure, filling my brain with wild conjectures as to how it came there, and thinking over the Scotch boys’ stories of lures laid to ensnare souls into the power of evil spirits, and such like ; then I trembled at the thought of my father’s rage at me for being away all night, and anon the vision of my fond mother rose before my mind, and I could see her agony, when, after waiting hour after hour for her only child, her dear spoilt boy, she heard the night-guard turn out, and there was no son to come jumping to her through the canvas door of the tent. I pictured her running about from place to place, through the camp, but I could bear it no longer, and I cried bitterly and long.

A MEDICAL STUDENT.

At length the morning broke, and I was overjoyed to recognise the farm-house. I knew it by three tall poplars before the door. I had been there often. I went to it ; they were stirring, and knew me immediately. I warmed myself, for I was stiff and cold; they then gave me breakfast,, and away I scampered home.

On my arrival, my mother covered me with endearments, and my father, taking a leather-strap from among his accoutrements, proceeded to divest me of my jacket. I resisted stoutly, with the help of my poor mother, when, in the struggle, what should catch my father’s eye but the rich and massive ring upon my finger ! This obtained me a hearing, which I was not slow to take advantage of, while my father listened to my story with astonishment and delight, and the result was, that, as soon as he could get away, he took his bayonet, and out we sallied to make sure of the treasure.

We wandered about all day, but notwithstanding my father’s coaxing and threats, questions and suggestions, I could not for the life of me find out the way to that particular part of the heath ; so that at night we returned as we went, my father insinuating doubts of the truth of my story, and hinting that an application of the strap would probably materially change the nature of the incidents. Next day, however, we were more successful. We found our way to a spot where I was at once enabled to recognise the various clumps of trees dispersed about, and the road winding its lonely length across the heath : this day, however, it was not so absolutely deserted as it had been on my former visit ; a gang of gipsies were plodding their way slowly upon it, and while we stood, a horseman, came in sight and galloped rapidly along.

The unfeigned delight visible in my countenance, at once convinced my father that there was truth in my account, and he desired me immediately to point out the particular tree. Now this was just the thing I was endeavouring to remember.

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44 Come along, father,” said I, 44 1 think I have it — these are beech-trees, arn’t they ?”

44 Yes, boy — double quick !”

But as we went on we found the trees round about to be all beeches together ; our mortification may be guessed — my father swore.

44 There is a forked tree,” said he.

44 Yes, but that is a triple forked one.”

44 Well, then, there is another.”

44 Yes, but you see there is an old, thick, gnarled one beside it ; now the trees round the right one were all tall and straight, and smooth in the bark ; and if that old one had been there, Joey Duckleg would have hid behind it when I threw the stones down.”

We walked on again with heavy hearts, till once more my father stopped me.

44 Yes, father, but there were no brambles round the foot of it, I remember that perfectly, nothing but bare sod.”

Again we moved about among the trees, I crying with vexation and disappointment, and my father muttering to himself — when I thought I had caught it. I stopped, looked round. Here were a number of tall, straight beeches, without even an old thick one among them, or brambles about their stems, and, bless me ! one with a double fork — is it possible ? No, there is a difference, and yet how like ! I looked around once more.

44 It is very like the place !” I was afraid to say it was it.

44 It is — it is — it must be !” cried my father, a wild hope illuminating his eyes. 44 Up, boy — mount, sir — olimb, up you go !”

Up I did go — my father watched me ; at length I turned and looked down — blank enough.

44 Is it there ?” cried my father.

44 No, there is no hole here, father,” sai^ I, 44 the bark is quite sound.”

44 Come down,” and he shot a volley of oaths at me. 44 Come down,” he shrieked — 44 down, I say.”

A MEDICAL STUDENT.

I was in mortal fear.

“ Yes, father, if you won’t larrup me.”

tie turned about, and walked swiftly and in silence towards the camp, I following at a few yards’ distance, very miserable.

Next day we remained in the camp, but that night my father dreamt he was to be hanged on a beechtree, so that the day after we went forth again with renewed hope. I am sure that day I climbed fifty forked trees, and others of all sorts, but with the same success. Day after day we tried it, but with every trial our hope diminished.

Well, about ten days after my adventure, two fellows, the worst characters in the regiment — fellows whose backs the doctor used to show as remarkable proofs of his healing powers — suddenly bought themselves out. Fellows they were who had never been worth a farthing, yet there were their discharges purchased by themselves ! However, they were both hanged within three months for an extensive robbery of cattle in North Wales, and my father was firmly persuaded, not only that they had taken away his treasure, but also that they had put it where it was.

Shortly after this, our regiment was sent to America, where my father was taken prisoner, and sure enough was hung by the Yankees on a beech- tree, so that his dream proved to be prophetic after all.

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