Сердца трёх / Hearts of three

“Of course it’s good,” was Francis’ warm response. “If it drops, I’ll buy. I tell you, Regan, it’s immense. I have a kind of interest, I’m doing nicely, and I don’t want Tampico Petroleum to go up.”

“Don’t you worry about that, my boy. You go fishing and forget it.” Regan paused, with finely simulated sudden recollection, and picked up Alvarez Torres’ card with the note. “Look, who’s just been here – Senor Alvarez Torres.”

Regan retained the card a moment. “Why go fishing? After all, it’s only recreation. Here’s a full-size man’s recreation. It’s about old Morgan’s treasure. Look, your father always was always proud of that old family pirate.”

“I was told about his treasure. Look, here is the map.”

Francis looked up questioningly from the reading of the card.

“Senor Torres,” Regan explained. “Gave me the map. Here is the treasure buried. Of course, I don’t believe a word of it. But… You know, Sir Henry died practically a poor man, and they never did find any of his buried treasure. Oh, I wish I were younger!… Anyway, good fishing,” Regan girded edly.

“I’d like to meet this Alvarez Torres,” the young man responded. “Do you know where I can find him?”

The next morning the meeting took place in Regan’s office. Modern maps and ancient charts were studies, as well as old documents, and at the end of half an hour Francis announced that his next fishing would be on the Bull Island,[16 - Bull Island – Остров Быка] where – as Torres averred – the treasure lay.

“I’ll catch tonight’s train for New Orleans,” Francis announced. “And then I’ll go to Colon![17 - Colon – Колон]”

“But don’t charter a schooner[18 - charter a schooner – фрахтовать шхуну] at Colon,” Torres advised. “It’s better in Belen.[19 - Belen – Белен]”

“I always wanted to see that country down there!” Francis said. “And you, Senor Torres?”

“I shall join you later, Mr. Morgan.” Alvarez Torres said. “I have some little business here.”

“And, before you start,” Regan noticed, “it might be well to arrange with Senor Torres some division of the treasure… if you ever find it.”

“What would you say?” Francis asked.

“Equal division, fifty-fifty,” Regan answered, he was talking of something he was certain did not exist.

“Fine!” Francis cried. “And I’ve got to rush to pack and break engagements and catch the train. Good-bye, Regan. Good-bye, Senor Torres, until we meet somewhere around Bocas del Toro, or in on the Bull!”

And Senor Alvarez Torres remained with Regan some time longer, receiving explicit instructions.

“In short,” Regan concluded, “I don’t almost care if he never comes back if you can keep him down there for the good of his health that long and longer.”

Chapter II

So Francis Morgan, three weeks after he had said good-bye to Regan, found himself on board his schooner, the Angelique.[20 - the Angelique – «Анжелика» (название шхуны)] The water was glassy. Francis, through his glass, saw a white hacienda, and, on the beach, a white-clad woman’s form. He asked the captain to order a small skiff over the side.[21 - to order a small skiff over the side – спустить за борт маленький ялик]

“Who lives around here?” he asked.

“The Enrico Solano[22 - Enrico Solano – Энрико Солано] family, sir,” was the answer. “They own the entire general landscape from the sea to the Cordilleras[23 - Cordilleras – Кордильеры] and half of the Chiriqui Lagoon[24 - Chiriqui Lagoon – лагуна Чирикви] as well. They are prideful and fiery as cayenne pepper.[25 - fiery as cayenne pepper – вспыльчивы, как порох]”

Straight to the white beach of coral sand Francis rowed, not looking over his shoulder to see if the woman remained or had vanished. When the skiff grounded, he stepped out, and with one sturdy arm lifted its nose up the sand to fasten it by its own weight. Then he turned around. The beach to the jungle was bare. He went forward confidently.

Suddenly, the woman sprang out of the green wall of jungle and with both hands seized his arm. She muttered tensely:

“Quick! Follow me!”

A moment he resisted. She shook him.

“Do as I do.”

He smiled and obeyed. Abruptly she stopped and sat down, her hand directed him to sit beside her. “Thank God!”

“My dear lady…” Francis began.

But an abrupt gesture checked him. He heard the movement of men several yards away.

She slipped away down the runway. Francis followed her, through the jungle to the beach. She stopped.

“You fool!” she cried, lifting her finger to his toothbrush moustache. “As if that could disguise you!”

“But my dear lady…” he began to protest.

“I won’t talk with you,” she answered. “Go back to your schooner, and go away… Forever. If you ever come back I shall shoot you.” She showed him a revolver.

“So I’d better go, then,” he uttered, as he turned to the skiff. She had followed him. The strange young woman, dropped to her side, was crying. Francis was about to turn to the boat, when she stopped him.

“At least you…” she began, then faltered and swallowed, “you might kiss me good-bye.[26 - kiss me good-bye – поцеловать меня на прощание]”

She advanced impulsively. Francis hesitated a puzzled moment, then gathered her in to receive an astounding passionate kiss on his lips. She lifted her tear-wet face and kissed him again and again.

Then she menacingly directed him with the revolver to get into the boat.

From the edge of the jungle he saw three men, armed with rifles, run toward her where she had sunk down in the sand. They caught sight of Francis, who had begun rowing. The next moment, one of the tree men on the beach, a bearded elderly man, was directing the girl’s binoculars on him. And the moment after, dropping the glasses, he was taking aim with his rifle.[27 - he was taking aim with his rifle – он целился из ружья]

The bullet spat on the water within a yard of the skiff’s side, and Francis saw the girl spring to her feet, knock up the rifle with her arm, and spoil the second shot. She was threatening the men with the revolver.

“Cayenne pepper, those damned, horrible, crazy Solanos,” the captain said.

“Yes, you’re right,” Francis agreed.

The Angelique made the outer rim of Chiriqui Lagoon and the Bull. After breakfast Francis landed to reconnoiter on the Bull.[28 - to reconnoiter on the Bull – исследовать остров Быка]

And Francis very immediately found that he had traversed not merely thirty degrees of latitude from New York but thirty hundred years, or centuries. Nearly naked, armed with cruelly heavy hacking blades of machetes,[29 - machetes – мачете, большой широкий нож] the Indians told him that the Bull belonged to them. But there lives a madly impossible Gringo.[30 - Gringo – гринго (иностранец, англоговорящий выходец с другой страны, слово используется для обозначения жителей Америки и Европы)]

Francis decided to meet the mysterious Gringo. He came down to the beach. On the shore, across the narrow channel, he saw a barefooted young man in the canvas trousers, who stepped from behind a palm, automatic pistol in hand, and shouted:

“Get out!”

“I beg you pardon?” Francis grinned, half-humorously, half-seriously.

“Nobody invited you,” the stranger retorted. “You’re intruding. Get off my island. I’ll give you half a minute.”

Francis’ arrival behind the trunk was simultaneous with the arrival of a bullet that thudded into the other side of it.

“Now, just for that![31 - Now, just for that! – Ах так!]” he called out, as he centered a bullet into the trunk of the other man’s palm.