"Ah, I thought so!" he cried triumphantly. "Full to the blessed top with sovrins! Hundreds of'em — hundreds of pounds for you, mate! Let's have a look at this other one." He picked the smaller cash-box and with one wrench of the chisel ripped off its hasp. "This here feels light. Ain't much here, I'm afraid." The box proved to contain dozens of little sealed envelopes, each bearing a name. "Whatever's this here lot, then?" said the disappointed man. Might as well have a look inside while he was at it. He carelessly ripped open the first envelope and peered inside. What he saw made him exclaim hoarsely: "Cor! My godfathers! Diamond rings! Three of 'em. Worth fifty quid each, I lay! However did he come to have them?" Fumbling awkwardly in his frenzied haste, he ripped open all the envelopes, piling their contents on the desk as he did so. Every one contained jewellery of some value, though there were no more quite so well filled as the first. He sat down on a sodden chair, gazing almost fearfully at the richly-twinkling pile. "I can't make it out," the thought went whirling round his bewildered brain; "whatever is he doing with all this joolery in his safe?"
Had Jordan been a better reader than he was, the answer would have been easy enough to guess. Each packet bore the name of a passenger, and among the papers in the safe — which he had ignored — was a carefully-written list of items and depositors. Jewellery was the easiest form of wealth to carry, and for that reason all but the poorest had left with the Captain their life-savings in the form of new jewellery — mainly rings. Few indeed of the shrewd Scots passengers had kept their wealth about them in the jumbled, crowded emigrant holds, for it was well-known that many men left for Australia only a few hours ahead of the police. The chance of a new start attracted the worst, as well as the best, of the nation.
If Jordan was nearly illiterate, he was no fool, and already his canny brain was sizing up the perils which lay ahead. He was the possessor of a fortune of twelve or thirteen hundred pounds, but he had still to get it ashore undetected. He worked fast, shooting all the sovereigns in the cash-box into a canvas money-bag. To these he added another hundred pounds' worth of ship's gold, which Cameron would have carried for incidental expenses in ports of call. The real prize — the jewellery — he placed in a stout buff envelope which already contained some documents which he did not bother to examine. All the time his foxy wits were scheming: "Now then, Ernie, mate, you'll have to box clever, else you'll lose the blessed lot, and fetch up in chokey. Suppose the tug turns up first with the Customs chawies on board? I dursen't have anything on me, then. . . . They'll very soon find that safe. . . . Right, then! I say I don't know anything about it — they can't prove nothing if they don't find nothing on me. I'll shove this here envelope in the coat pocket of that little old moosh up there; the state he's in, he won't notice. Suppose he does, though? I know — seal it down — say they're ship's papers what can't be opened. He's green enough to swaller that. Pinch 'em back later when we're ashore. Right! Now suppose the smacks git here first? They ain't going to believe I've sat up there like an old rook and let a good wreck go. Anyhow, they'll find the safe, too. . . . Right! I'll have about a quarter of the gold stowed away where I can show it to 'em. Git the rest of it out of sight. I know, git a few bits o' tackle from the chart-room — that'd make it look better."
Soon, all his careful preparations were ready. The gold was divided into two very unequal batches, there was a sack of instruments, mostly damaged, from the chart-room, and the large, stout buff envelope was stowed carefully inside his watch-coat. There was still much profitable exploring to do in the officers' cabins and the emigrant holds, but it was now nearly dark and the tide had turned. The rest would have to wait till tomorrow, even if it meant sharing with a dozen others.
Carrying the richest of the loot — the gold and the "ship's papers", he made his way for'ard along the darkening deck. He could not hurry here, for his journey was beset with dangers. A sharp breeze still blustered out of the east, the deck was shattered in places, and the bulwarks were gone altogether. Entering the pitch-dark of the carpenter's shop, he groped round for the little barrel of copper nails which he remembered seeing under the bench. He staggered with it to the ship's side and shot overboard three-quarters of its contents. Back in the ship, he tipped the remnant of the nails into a bucket, placed the larger bag of gold in the empty barrel and covered it with the nails. "There y'are, mateys. Hang on there till I want you," he said, grinning.
He went warily up the foremast shrouds; if the brass-bounder was asleep there was no point in waking him up. Stealthily, holding his breath, Jordan hauled himself on to the platform and crawled over to peer closely into the face of the apprentice. He grunted softly: " 'Ere — you awake, cocky?" but there was no sign of a flutter in the closed lids, so Jordan eased himself gently into his place alongside Jim. Still the young man gave no sign of life — the strong liquor and his full stomach saw to that. Gently, inch by inch, the seaman eased the envelope into the roomy pocket of Jim's watch-coat, and carefully closed the flap over it. The cloth was so thick and heavy that even a wide-awake man would hardly notice the added bulk.
Less cautious now, Jordan swung himself into the shrouds again, and from there stepped neatly across to the foot-rope of the lower yard. He leant forward on his stomach over the massive pine spar and thrust the smaller bag of sovereigns firmly into the thick canvas folds of the furled foresail, addressing it as he did so: "And you stop there till I want to show you to some of me mates. Now then," he muttered, as he continued on his way down to the deck, "don't see why we shouldn't have a bit of a celebration." He returned along the main deck to the steward's pantry, where with a few tremendous blows of the crow-bar he opened the spirit cupboard and seized the two nearest bottles. When these were firmly rammed into his pockets he thought about food. It would be a long time before he could get any more; there was still plenty of biscuit aloft, but the officers no doubt had something better in their pantry than bully beef. He ransacked all the cupboards, finally giving a growl of triumph when he found a whole untouched ham. "Ah, thought so! Can't expect these beggars aft to stomach the muck we have to eat. You come along o' me."
It was as he stepped cheerfully out on to the dark, perilous main-deck that he heard it — the first deep groanings of tortured metal on the point of breaking. "Gawd!" he muttered to himself, "she's going to break in half. You best hurry up, Ernie boy!" But it was too late for hurrying: he was less than half-way along the deck when there came a long grinding, wrenching crash, as thousands of rivets lost their hold. A wide, jagged chasm opened across the deck in front of him, and while he was still staring at it in breathless horror, the stern half of Sardis, on which he stood, rolled heavily over to port, into the pit which tide and waves had been patiently digging ever since she had grounded. The broken planks, the loose hatch-covers, and the seaman with his leg of ham, were emptied deliberately into the dark water alongside, where the strong flood tide seized them and drew them forward along the ship's side. The man screamed and scrabbled for a hold on the smooth wet plates, but he had put to sleep the only creature who could have helped him, and the icy flow soon carried him into the darkness towards the south-east.