The Treasure in the Forest by H. G. Wells (Summary and Analysis)- NEB Grade 12- English

About Author

 H. G. Wells, full Herbert George Wells, (1866-1946) was an English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian, best known for such science fiction novels. His first novel, The Time Machine (1895) was immediately successful, and so he added a series of science fiction novels that revealed him as a writer of marked originality and immense richness of ideas. His science fiction novels include The Wonderful Visit (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The Food of the Gods (1904). He also wrote many short stories, which were collected in The Stolen Bacillus (1895), The Plattner Story (1897), and Tales of Space and Time (1899). This story is taken from the collection The Country of the Blind and other Short Stories.

Characters

Evans

Hooker

Chinese man (Chang-hi)

Points from the text

The canoe was now approaching the land. The forest here came close to the beach. Far beyond, dim and almost cloudlike in texture, rose the mountains, like suddenly frozen waves.

The man with the carved paddle stopped. "It should be somewhere here," he said.

The other man had been in the forepart of the canoe, closely scrutinizing the land. Both men spoke in low tones, and their lips were hard and dry.

The paper had the appearance of a rough map." Here," said Evans, "is the reef, and here is the gap." He ran his thumb-nail over the chart.

"It's queer," said Evans, after a pause, "what these little marks down here are for. It looks like the plan of a house or something; but what all these little dashes, pointing this way and that, may mean I can't get a notion. And what's the writing?"

"Chinese," said the man with the map.

Then Chang-hi, only a year since wandering ashore, had happened upon the ingots hidden for two hundred years, had deserted his junk, and reburied them with infinite toil, single-handed but very safe.

He advanced suddenly with hasty steps, until the body that belonged to the limp hand and arm had become visible. His grip tightened on the implement he carried. The thing was the figure of a Chinaman lying on his face. The abandon of the pose was unmistakable.

The two men drew closer together, and stood staring silently at this ominous dead body. It lay in a clear space among the trees. Nearby was a spade after the Chinese pattern, and further off lay a scattered heap of stones, close to a freshly dug hole.

"Somebody has been here before," said Hooker, clearing his throat.

Evans hurried to the hole. Already half exposed by the ill-fated wretch beside them lay a number of dull yellow bars. He bent down in the hole, and, clearing off the soil with his bare hands, hastily pulled one of the heavy masses out. As he did so a little thorn pricked his hand. He pulled the delicate spike out with his fingers and lifted the ingot.

He took his jacket off and spread it on the ground, and flung two or three ingots into it. Presently he found that another little thorn had punctured his skin.

"This is as much as we can carry," said he. Then suddenly, with a queer rush of irritation,

"What are you staring at?"

They let the coat down, Evans' face was white, and little drops of sweat stood out upon his forehead. "It's stuffy, somehow, in this forest."

Evans stumbled, and then with a sudden curse flung the coat from him. He stood for a moment staring at Hooker, and then with a groan clutched at his own throat. "Don't come near me," he said, and went and leaned against a tree. Then in a steadier voice, "I'll be better in a minute."

"Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" said Evans in a stifled voice. "Put the gold back on the coat."

"Can't I do anything for you?" said Hooker.

"Put the gold back on the coat."

As Hooker handled the ingots he felt a little prick on the ball of his thumb. He looked at his hand and saw a slender thorn, perhaps two inches in length. Evans gave an inarticulate cry and rolled over.

But Evans was silent and motionless, save for a horrible spasmodic twitching of his limbs. A profound silence brooded over the forest. Then Hooker began to suck furiously at the little pink spot on the ball of his thumb-sucking for dear life. Presently he felt a strange aching pain in his arms and shoulders, and his fingers seemed difficult to bend. Then he knew that sucking was no good.

About Story

‘The Treasure in the Forest’ is a threatening adventure story in which two men search for Spanish treasure, letting greed get the better of their awareness. As the story moves ahead to show how power and greed corrupt human beings.

'The Treasure in the Forest' is the tale of two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker, who have murdered a Chinese man, named Chang-hi, to steal his map, which locates a buried stash of gold ingots. Chang-hi had by chance discovered the treasure left behind by a shipwrecked Spanish galleon, and had decided to rebury it elsewhere, at a location revealed by his map. One aspect of the map puzzles Evans and Hooker though; part of it is covered by little dashes pointing in every direction.

When Evans and Hooker arrive at the location of the hoard, the first thing they find is the dead body of another Chinese man. Nearby, they can see some half-exposed yellow bars of gold in the hole he had been digging. They thought he must be the associate of Chang-hi, who claimed all the treasure by himself.

Evans starts to pick up the gold ingots to take them back to the canoe, but he feels a thorn prick. The two men try to pack as much gold as possible to bring by the canoe. Even they put gold in Evan's jacket. The unfortunate started to appear as Evans felt ache on his arm after they sailed for about a hundred yards. It leads him full of sweat and begins to tremble. Hooker tries to reassemble the ingots on the jacket and he feels the same thorn prick. Hooker never really thought about Chang-hi, but he thought what the map had said, "my secret is well guarded".  

The story ends with a bad consequence that both men were dying. Hooker lies dying alongside his friend's dying body. 

Analysis

Over greed can cause a fatal death

If you do harm to others, the same will repeat to you

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