Disclaimer: see chapter 1
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We were all on deck to watch as Jack Sparrow manoeuvred his vessel through the narrow channel between rocks that led to the island. He did it with ease, barely looking to either side, calling the odd order to Mil to tighten one rope or another. Once through, he brought the Anamaria to a halt, under the shadow of the island's cliffs.
"Muerte," he said.
"Fantastic!" said Jerry.
Sparrow shot him a deeply expressive look, and went about making the boat tidy.
It took some time to load up the two small boats with our equipment. One was a motor launch, brought from our old yacht; the other was a little rowing boat, which Simon regarded with mild disdain.
"I've got a motor for it," said Sparrow, in response. "But it ain't that far to pull."
Simon went off to help Jerry with the launch.
Toni and I went with Sparrow in his rowing boat, perched on top of boxes whilst the pirate manned the oars. Mil was driving the motor launch, Jerry and Simon, and was going to return to the Anamaria once he had dropped them and the kit off.
We all fell silent as Jack Sparrow pulled us into the cave. I had a torch out, and was shining it ahead of us into the darkness. There was no sound save for the rhythmic splash of the oars and occasional drips from the rocky roof.
Unloading the two boats and carrying the equipment to the cave took nearly as long as loading them. Eventually we waved goodbye to Mil and set off with the last of the stuff to begin the investigation.
Bypassing our boxes and other things piled at the cave entrance, Jack Sparrow stepped into the cavern with a wondering look in his eyes. He looked first at the chest of gold, piled high on its mound of treasure; and then at the other valuables littered around the place.
"Beautiful," he murmured.
"Let's get to work," Jerry said, to us, but I crossed to Sparrow.
"Well?" I asked, softly.
He turned to me, and I saw his eyes shining. "Bloody amazing, love." He grinned, and crossed to the chest, nimbly stepping from stone to stone across the lagoon. I followed him.
"You opened it," he said to me, a touch of accusation in his voice.
"To see what was inside," I said.
Sparrow trailed a hand across the surface of the coins. "Aye. I don't blame you. But you didn't take any of them?"
"No," I said, glad we hadn't.
"Good lass." He looked around at the others. "What's happened to this archaeology business, then?"
We set to, unpacking the equipment and beginning on our allotted areas.
Jack Sparrow wandered around whilst we worked, fiddling with bits of treasure and watching us. But he said nothing, until he had been regarding Toni bent over the single complete skeleton for about ten minutes.
Eventually, she looked up and round. "I can feel you watching me," she said, a little accusatory.
"Sorry."
"So, is this your friend?" Toni asked, sitting back on her heels and wiping a strand of dark hair from her eyes.
"Friend? No. Mutinous, murdering, treacherous bastard, yes. Barbossa." Jack Sparrow looked down at the skeleton with some disdain.
"Show us how he died?" Toni asked, standing up.
He regarded her for a moment, and then briskly nodded. "All right. Turn around, love. You be Barbossa. Stand there."
The rest of us stopped what we were doing to watch. Simon was just crossing to the stone chest, on his way to take Jerry a handheld computer, and Sparrow briskly ordered him to stop.
"You, Mr Murphy, can play the role of the blushing heroine. The lovely Elizabeth Swann. Daughter of the Gov'nor of Jamaica. Stand right there, and look worried." He fluttered long dark eyelashes at Simon, who grimaced but did as he was told.
Sparrow turned his attention to Jerry. "Jerry, mate, you get to be the hero. William Turner, blacksmith and all-round nice guy. There's a knife in that-there chest. Pick it up."
Jerry did so, holding the slender bone weapon carefully in his gloved hands.
Looking around, Sparrow nodded, satisfied. He took a step back.
"Now," he said, "Barbossa was there. He took out his pistol and pointed it at 'Lizabeth."
Toni tentatively held out her arm, fingers pointed, at Simon, and Sparrow nodded.
"Just like that. But, I drew mine and shot Barbossa before he could shoot the lass."
"And then Barbossa fell down, there?" Toni asked, stepping away from the skeleton.
Sparrow's eyes flicked to me, watching from a distance. "Yeah," he said, attention returning to Toni. "He fell."
"So what did Turner do?" Jerry said, bone knife in hand.
"Nothing," said Sparrow glibly. "Great bloke, young Will, but lacking in brain. Terribly dull. Now, don't let me stop you working." He waved a hand at the skeleton of Barbossa and stepped back, throwing me another look as he did so.
We worked hard for the rest of the day, pausing for sandwiches in the early afternoon. Jack Sparrow faded into the background, as much as someone as flamboyant as he could do, and did not disturb us. By the evening we had collected samples of bone and treasure from all corners of the cave, storing them in individual plastic bags in a box to take back to the ship.
It was dusk as we returned to the Anamaria, and I caught Sparrow glancing up at the cloudy sky with what looked like relief. We all went to bed early, exhausted from the thrill of the arrival on the island and the concentration of the first day's work.
For the rest of that week the Anamaria lay at anchor off the Isla de Muerte. Each morning we were ferried to the cave, and spent the day in the semi-darkness digging through mounds of gold and jewels and tarnished silver. The piles had yielded a satisfying number of contemporary artefacts as well as pieces of jewellery; there were coins from all major trading nations of the late seventeenth century; buckles and baubles, plates and pictures.
Sparrow stayed with us for the second day, but after that said he'd got bored and needed to be out in the open. I think we were all quite glad. Although he mostly sat and watched us silently, he was nevertheless an intruding presence into our team. We had done a lot of digs and dives together, the four of us, and we had our own way of working.
That treasure was, without a doubt, one of the most valuable finds in the Caribbean ever. Gold is remarkably resilient, but it does suffer some damage immersed in water for centuries. The drier conditions of the cave were much kinder, and most of the pieces were in excellent condition. We tried to do some rough estimates of the monetary value, but kept reaching silly numbers and having to stop. Instead, we concentrated on the archaeological value, which was certainly important.
Eventually we had enough data to go back to Kingston and begin to really get to grips with it, and on the seventh day we packed up our stuff and prepared to leave. Mil and Sparrow brought the boats to fetch us, and we loaded them up. Before pushing off and heading back to the Anamaria, we returned to the cave for a last time to check we had not lost anything. It was dark, and we needed torches to really see where we were going.
"I guess we should close the chest," said Jerry, looking up at it.
Simon nodded, and picked his way towards the chest. Once there, he paused, and looked down at it.
"Seems a shame to leave it all here," he said, gazing down at the gold. The light of his torch was pointed at the coins, and it reflected up.
I felt Jack Sparrow shift next to me, and glancing at him I saw him watching Simon intently.
"What do you think?" Simon asked, lifting his eyes to us.
"I think we should leave it where it is," I said, remembering the skeleton Sparrow. "Come on, Simon."
"Becks, don't be such an old woman," Simon said.
I was about to run up there and physically drag Simon away, and preferably hit him hard in the process, but Sparrow moved before me.
"Leave the gold be, mate," he said, in the voice I now recognised as his persuasive one. "C'mon. Time to go."
"Will you stop lecturing?" said Simon, his voice rising.
That, I thought, was a little unfair as we'd barely seen Sparrow all week.
"Leave it be!" Sparrow repeated, beginning to cross to the chest. "Believe me, mate, you don't want to mess with that."
Simon let one hand rest on the gold. "I'm not your mate, Sparrow. Why?"
Sparrow was up there now, by the chest, and he raised a hand, gesticulating to try and push his point over. "It's bad luck. Really bad luck. Don't take that gold, Murphy."
"Stop me," said Simon, and he closed his hand around a gold coin and took it out of the chest.