This, absurd as it was, when added to the real uncertainty and natural anxiety I felt contributed not a little to my discomfort. I could not help anticipating a possible disappointment. But then reason told me plainly that the probabilities were all the other way. Still, there was the ever recurring thought, “What if there should prove to be no treasure?”
The next day Mr. Millward and I began the pumping business in earnest. Of course I was able to keep much longer at it than he, and his share amounted to little more than to spell me occasionally for a short time. Since that leg-aching and back-breaking experience, kept up for four days, I never can see a horse in a treadmill without a gush of sympathy. On the fourth day the water was so low that the shark was almost aground, and I put two loads of buckshot into the living grave of Captain Senlis, whereupon it succumbed, and left the galleon unguarded.
By night of this fourth day the basin was pumped out sufficiently, and the galleon lay almost completely exposed, the water inside of her still leaking out slowly. Completely exhausted we went to bed early and left her to drain as she might. Human nature could endure no more. I was so exhausted that I went supperless to bed, and consequently woke early in the morning hungry as a hunter. While the others still slept I raked the embers together, built up the fire and put the coffee on to boil. I then roused my companions, and we were soon at breakfast discussing the probabilities of finding anything in the old hulk. At last the day had come around for which we had toiled and waited so long.
It would be impossible to convey to another an adequate idea of the feelings I experienced when I clambered for the first time upon the deck of the old galleon. Alice and her father stood on the rocks as I advanced along the shell-incrusted structure, axe in hand, to the raised cabin or poop. I struck the cemented door with the axe several blows, until it broke and fell in with a crash. Then there came up a damp sea-smell from a dark, cavernous interior, into which here and there penetrated a narrow beam of light from small crevices and openings above. I was about to break in the window containing the iridescent pane of milky glass, when Alice called to me to spare it, if possible, for its exceeding beauty. So I dashed my axe through all the other incrusted openings, and let in a flood of light and fresh air to the long sunken apartment. Mr. Millward cautioned me to beware of foul air and gases; but the caution was needless, the air was pure and sweet and impregnated only with an odor such as a receding tide leaves behind. Testing it cautiously at first, I soon felt that it was safe, and entered the cabin, the floor of which was flush with the deck on which I stood.