Page 50 of The Trick of the Treasure
“There were the Lloyds’ own trunks and mine,” Tybalt said, puzzled. “Why is that important?”
“Were any of them close to the treasure chest?” Solomon asked without answering the captain’s question.
“Mine wasn’t. I kept it well out of the way of the Lloyds’ baggage, which was piled up just at the gangway. Squibbs and Johnny took that first, didn’t they? Then came back for thetreasure chest, which was when the Lloyds themselves finally disembarked.”
“What aboutyourkit?” Solomon asked Jackson. “And your shipmates’?”
Jackson regarded him with derision. “In seamen’s kit bags? Couldn’t have crammed a lot of treasure in there however hard I tried.”
“I’m not accusing you,” Solomon said mildly. “Just trying to find a way for the impossible to become possible. Was all this baggage under your eye the whole time? You didn’t go off below for any purpose?”
“Too keen to get going,” Jackson said. “And no, I didn’t see nobody tamper with ’em neither.”
Solomon cocked an eyebrow at Tybalt, who shook his head.
“From the way Squibbs and Johnny carried the treasure chest,” Solomon said, “would you guess it to have been as heavy as before?”
“Oh yes,” Jackson replied. “Squibbs said it were like carrying a box of bricks.”
Perhaps it was.
“Squibbs does like to exaggerate,” Tybalt put in dryly.
“Going back a few weeks, to the island where you found the treasure,” Solomon said, “did the entire crew accompany the Lloyds ashore, or did some of you wait on the ship?”
“Samuels and I remained on board,” Tybalt said. “The rest went off with Mr. Lloyd.”
“Why Samuels?” Constance asked.
Tybalt shrugged. “He’s older. And we needed some repairs to the ship.”
“Didn’t you mind being excluded from the treasure hunt?”
Tybalt smiled. “Not really. I didn’t honestly think they’d find it. Between ourselves, I thought Mr. Lloyd was pinning too much on the ravings of a dying man.”
“Did you know this Silas Cauley who gave him the map and the story?” Solomon asked.
“I did.” Tybalt hesitated. “Look, he was a good man in his day. Bit of a rogue, I suspect, long before I came across him. He was still fit enough in his body, but he was forgetting things, often at just the wrong time. I couldn’t send him up the rigging in case he forgot where he was and fell. If I gave him an order, he forgot it before he got to where he was going. He was a liability because his mind was going. He talked a lot of nonsense. In fact, if I’d known when we set off that Mr. Lloyd’s information came from Cauley, I’d have advised against the whole expedition.”
Solomon held his gaze. “Did the crew get paid?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
Again, the wry, flickering smile. “Mostly. But yes, I have a vested interest in your finding Mr. Lloyd’s treasure.”
*
“As far asI can see, the only time the chests could have been switched was about ten minutes between Lloyd coming on deck and Squibbs and Johnny bringing up the baggage.”
Constance spoke in frustrated tones as she walked beside Solomon toward the alehouse that was the address Samuels the carpenter had given to Captain Tybalt. Tybalt himself had pleaded an appointment with family, and given that the man was only a few days returned from a long voyage, that was not an unreasonable excuse.
“Which on the face of it,” Solomon agreed, “would point to either the captain, or one of the Lloyds themselves. There’s no quick or easy way from that part of the ship to the crew’s quarters.”
“And yet the ship’s carpenter is the best candidate for making a replica of the chest. Plus, he was there, helping Lloyd secure the chest with ropes. I just don’t see how he can have done it and got the original chest off the ship. All the crew but Jackson, Squibbs, and Johnny had gone by the time the Lloyds disembarked. Surely one of them trundling the treasure chest—or even a large trunk—would have been noticed. The sailors only carry meager kit on board, and that seems to be in soft bags or rolls.”
“I can’t imagine any of the Lloyds having any knowledge whatever of woodwork,” Solomon said. “Which leaves Captain Tybalt. The crew would be too used to his comings and goings all over the ship to pay much attention to him unless he’s issuing orders. A mere ten minutes below could have passed Jackson by. And Tybaltwasquartered in the right area of the ship and was the last to disembark. He could have taken the chest.”
