But there is an end to all things, and at last the long wished for breeze sprang up. The sails filled once more, the ship sped on and hope revived.
A welcome sound at noon the next day brought everyone on deck.
“Land, ho!” called the forward watch.
“Where away!” shouted the mate who was on duty.
“Off the starboard bow!”
The captain had just finished his task of determining their location, and had recognized the fact that the island they sought might be near at hand.
The hours went by more swiftly now, all watching interestedly the new field of their endeavor, the Treasure Isle. Would they find fortune and a successful ending to their venture? Oddly enough the thought uppermost in the minds ofall was the possible abundant supply, not of treasure, but of fresh water and something good to eat.
The land which they were rapidly approaching appeared to be of considerable extent. Headlands, it was seen, rose somewhat abruptly from the sea. At their base they could see a line of white caused by the incessant action of the waves as they broke upon the shore.
“It doesn’t seem as if there was any place to make a landing,” said the professor, looking at the long line of breakers and the spray that was flung in the air.
“Can’t tell until you are close in,” replied the captain. “We’ll run along the shore a ways.”
Continuing thus till within half a mile of the coast, the yacht was brought about, and with sails close hauled, followed its contour for quite some time without success.
“Looks like a bit of smooth water over there,” said the captain, indicating a place in the near distance. “Bring her up to the wind,” he ordered. “We will take a look into it.”
The yacht had now been brought about and with sheets eased off she was drifting slowly on the tide.
“Who will compose the first landing party?” asked the captain.
“Jim, Juarez and myself,” answered the professor. “The steward and one of the crew to row.”
The boat was launched and equipped. One empty water cask and a bucket was carried along. Was the island inhabited? From the ship’s deck no sign of life was discernible to the naked eye or indeed by careful search with the spy glass. The party went, however, fully armed and prepared for any emergency.
There was, they found, a recession in the shore several hundred feet in width through which the waves extended their course, later to break in foam on submerged rocks a hundred yards beyond.
The boat shot rapidly forward, and readily passed through the opening between the cliffs. On each side, the rocks, jagged and rough, rose threateningly, but a further recess to the right afforded shelter, and the water became comparatively smooth. Passing through the channel and rounding the obstructing rocks they found another passage of similar extent which led further inland and brought them into a littlecrescent shaped bay of something like a half mile in length by a quarter of a mile in width. At several points were observed small strips of sandy beach, and strange wading birds of the stork species were seen, but not a suggestion or sign of a habitation.
“Crescent Bay!” cried Jim, noting the shape. “Isn’t it fine here!”
“It’s fine!” exclaimed the professor. “Who would think of such a place as this hidden away in the fastness of these hills. It’s like some of the secret haunts of the buccaneers.”
“It would be a nice bit of seamanship to bring a craft through that channel, though,” said Juarez.
“But I believe it could be done,” said Jim.
The scenery grew wilder and more beautiful with every stroke of the oars. From caverns of leafy shade came the gleam and flicker of many colored plumage.
Few readers but are familiar with the glowing color in which voyagers have painted the beautiful islands of the South Pacific. Nature has lavished upon them her rarest gifts; deep shadowy groves, valleys musical with murmuring streams, lofty mountains rising into the sapphire heavenout of a girdle of eternal foliage; wonderous visions of color in shrub and flower, the golden-yellow of the low-growing chinquapins, and the blood red osiers; a bright fresh air, redolent of fragrance, and a sea dimpling in cloudless sunshine.
But this fairy region, where Shakespeare might have fitly placed his Oberon and Titania, was inhabited by a race unworthy of its charms; a race enervated and corrupted, and abandoned to all those vices which usually accompany or originate in a degrading and sanguinary idolatry.
The Tahitians were not cannibals, but they sacrificed human victims in frightful numbers on the shrines of their hideous divinities.
Intoxication and theft were their predominant vices; continual wars decimated the population so that in some cases great islands were left absolutely without an inhabitant; infanticide was a universally prevalent custom, and that fully two-thirds of the young were cruelly murdered is a fact vouched for by the missionary Williams, one of the most intelligent, persevering, and successful of the pioneers of the true religion in Polynesia. This beautiful Tahitian group of islands was, therefore, a sink of vice and crime.
“I see a cascade or waterfall on the hillside yonder,” cried Juarez.
“Then we will make a landing somewhere along the beach in that direction,” ordered the professor.
Slowly they approached the shore, and landing carefully reconnoitered, but nothing was observed to warrant their caution.
A spring, pouring forth a constant stream of limpid, cool water, was readily located, and here each found satisfying refreshment. About them everywhere were luxuriant growths, and tropical fruits of many varieties were within reach of the extended hand.
Water was conveyed to the boat, and the cask filled to transport a supply to the ship. A quantity of yams were gathered for the party on board while they themselves ate of the fruit to their heart’s content. As they walked inland theycame upon charming glens and defiles well up the mountain side, and still above them rose great castleated turrets, all draped in mosses and flowering shrubs forming the abode of many a bird of prey that on their approach rose screaming to the sky.
“But this is a vast space that we have got to examine,” said Jim, speaking in a low voice to the professor. “I wonder where,” quoting from the chart, “we are to find the cave opening—the opening high up and hard to reach, with a blue rock somewhere about?”
“We shall go about it systematically, as soon as we find travel safe. If there are inhabitants we must conduct our exploitations in groups. If otherwise we can spread out and cover the ground much more rapidly.”
On the return trip toward the boat, a strong odor of sulphur attracted their attention, and a mineral spring was located. Here for the first time they found indications that others had visited the spot, but how recently could not be determined.
“Seemingly,” suggested the professor, “this is a remedial water, the virtues of which may beknown to the occupants of the other islands hereabouts.”
Farther on, near the shore, Jim came upon a rude shack, or shelter, built of boughs, and the roof thatched with leaves resembling palms, and further on at the shore Juarez dropped upon his knees examining a mark upon the sand.
“A foot print,” he said, “but not very recently made.”
The return to the ship was without incident, and by the following day all except the captain and Tom, the latter was not feeling well, made trips to the shore. Jo and Juarez made a long detour inland and on their return reported many interesting sights, but no sign did they find of inhabitants. They had climbed to a high altitude, reaching the uppermost point by a circuitous route, but descending again by a rugged route much shorter but very difficult to negotiate.
“Phew!” exclaimed Tom, on coming on deck the following morning as the sun like a ball of fire was showing in the eastern horizon. “It is going to be a corker to-day, all right. Why, even the ocean is sizzling.”
“Feel all right to-day?” asked Jo.
“Yes, or I would if it was only cool.”
The yacht was still lying to, about a half mile off shore. The sails hung loosely with not enough air to stir them.
“It’s a nice morning for a row,” suggested Jo. “The water is as smooth as oil. You are the only one who has not been ashore. Want to go?”
“No rowing for me,” groaned Tom. “I’m not a phoenix. I’m going to sit in the shade and fish.”
“Fish!” cried Jo. “What do you expect to catch here?”
“I don’t know,” replied Tom. “Maybe I might catch a boiled cod or something like that.”
“Don’t you want to go on shore, then?” asked Jo.
“Not bad enough to row there,” answered Tom. “Glad to go if you will do the rowing.”
“We will have to take the long boat. The steward went ashore in the yawl early this morning.”
“Early!” cried Tom. “What do you call this? I guess it was late last night.”
“Well, he’s gone, anyhow. We want to get off pretty soon if we are going before the sun gets hot.”
“Before!” cried Tom. “Say, if you wanted todo that you ought to have gotten away last week.”
“Say, fellows,” cried Juarez at this moment, “what do you think that means?”
The party were soon gathered on the after deck and were looking with interest at the land.
“What is that?” asked Tom in turn.
“That smoke over there.”
“Smoke! Where?”
“See the top of that hill,” Juarez indicated with his outstretched arm. There was an elevation which must have been miles inland, and from which a thin column of smoke was rising into the still air.
“It is a signal of some kind,” said Jim. “I didn’t notice it before.”
“It has just started,” replied Juarez. “It wasn’t there a moment ago. I wonder what it means, and who is making it?”
“It is a common signal among uncivilized people,” replied Jim. “Savages the world over use smoke for signaling. They use it especially as a warning against the approach of an enemy or of strangers.”
“Well, what do you find of interest?” asked Berwick, joining them, the captain following a moment later.
“We were just looking at that column of smoke over there,” replied Tom. “Do you think it is a signal of some kind?”
“What is that?” asked the captain.
“That column of smoke on the hill over there,” repeated Tom.
“Eh, what! Start my plates!” exclaimed the captain. “We will have to look into that a little later.”
“See how straight it goes up,” commented Jim. “There doesn’t seem to be a bit of air stirring.”
“Not a bit, anywhere,” assented Berwick. “Not enough for steerage way.”
“I’m thinking we’ll have all the wind we want and some to spare afore ye know it,” said the captain. “There’s a hurricane abrewing or I miss my guess.”
“What? On this clear day?” asked the professor. “I don’t see how you can tell unless you feel it in your bones.”
“No, but the barometer indicates something unusual. It is falling very rapidly.” Then scanning the horizon in all directions, he added, “I wonder which way it is coming. That barometer is going down too fast for comfort.” Saying this, he called all hands and set about preparationsfor a storm, concerning the coming of which there was not the slightest apparent and visible indication.
“There it comes, now,” cried the captain as a puff of wind from out of the east filled the double reefed sails, and a little later a mist blotted out the sun. “It is coming out of the east.”
“Is there any danger?” asked the professor?
“Well,” replied the captain, slowly, “lying off the lea shore, in a hurricane isn’t exactly the place I should pick out for safety.”
“Can’t you beat to windward?” suggested the professor.
“That’s what we can try,” returned the captain. “Hard down with the helm! Pull in the sheets!” A heavier blast struck the sails now, and heeled the yacht well over. “Steady as you are!”
Under the impulse of the wind, the yacht sprang forward with sails close hauled, beating up into it.
“It’s no use,” admitted the captain, as the strength of the wind increased. “We haven’t gained an inch. Something must be done quickly.”
“What?” asked the professor.
“How is that channel into the harbor which you told me about?” asked the captain, turning to Jim. “Do you think we can get through it?”
“If the day were fair, and the engine was working it might be done,” replied Jim. “But under sail in this wind it will be a hazard, sir.”
“You are not thinking of attempting that passage in a storm, are you?” asked the professor, in evident alarm.
“I don’t think there is much choice in the matter,” confessed the captain. “We may go to pieces if we try it, and we are pretty certain to go to pieces if we don’t.”
The yacht was now rolling and pitching on the heavy seas, and the blasts of wind were becoming stronger and more angry, whistling through the rigging with the shrill sound of a gigantic fife.
“Shall we take in another reef?” shouted the mate.
“No. Put two men at the wheel and tell them to work lively! Jim, a few words with you.”
A brief conference followed, then taking his station amidship, with Jim well forward, the captain shouted his orders to the sailors and helmsmen. Jim signaled by means of a pocket handkerchiefin his hand, facing first the course of the channel, and at intervals looking toward the captain. Every motion was correctly interpreted by the commander.
“The helm to the port side! Port your helm! Jam it down hard! Haul in the main sheet; haul close! Quick now! In with the lugger and jib!” The captain was hurling his orders so quickly that his words tripped over one another.
The men sprang to obey the commands. The yacht meanwhile entered the channel between the cliffs and was driving headlong for the rocks ahead which presaged a certain end to its career. But just as the fatal crash seemed imminent and unavoidable, the bow swung around, and with the end of the boom buried in the foam of the breaking waves the Storm King glided into the deeper waters that opened to the right.
“My goodness!” cried Tom, drawing a long breath, “but that was a close shave. I thought we were gone for sure. I don’t mind things that happen on land, but that’s the worst experience I’ve been through yet.”
“Oh, cheer up,” cried Jo. “There is plenty more to come.”
“It’s a good thing we had a good captain,” said Jim. “That was a nice bit of work.”
“Worthy of one of the oldtime pirates,” added the reassured professor. “I’ll have to bring that in.”
The captain awarded full credit to Jim’s skill as a pilot. It was another instance where close observation had brought worth while results.
While they were talking, the yacht had run into the inner harbor, and here even with the fierce wind playing havoc in the tree tops and out at sea, the high hills afforded good and safe shelter.
The barometer rose shortly and climbed up as rapidly as it had earlier fallen. In a brief time the skies had cleared and the wind settled to a steady breeze.
“It seems to me,” said the professor, looking about him, “that it was a difficult thing to get in here, but to get out is going to be a more difficult one.”
“It will be all right,” replied the captain, “if Berwick will fix up that old tea kettle of his and give us some steam.” Then addressing the engineer, “Can’t you do this while we are in here?”
“Maybe I can,” replied the engineer, “if there is no more of the devil’s handiwork. There would not be much the matter with the machinery, if there was not somebody undoing things.”
“The sailors will have few duties, now, and we will have a double watch set over the engine room,” said the captain.
The distance to shore was now so short that getting back and forth was a simple task, and as security was so seemingly assured, permission was given for any outside of those on duty, to land and rove about at will.
“As we have found the island, let’s find the cave,” suggested Jo, as they were preparing for a trip ashore.
“Then we can go home,” added Tom, who, however ready to venture forth, was even more disposed toward the home journey. Whatever desire he may have had toward early home going in this instance was destined by events he could not forecast, to be blotted out.
“There is that column of smoke again,” announced Jo, as he grasped the oars. His brothers and Juarez were with him in the boat.
The others once more observed the curious signal, if such it were, but gave no special heed other than to note its distance. On land, however, they bent their footsteps in the direction of the phenomenon although they could no longer see it for a guide.
They found themselves trailing off on a route they had not before taken, and had gone perhaps half the distance which they had estimated asrequired, when they came upon a curious clearing in the woods. It was about forty yards in diameter, and surrounded by a complete circle of trees, their boughs interlacing about seventy feet above to form a lovely green canopy. So regular were the trees that it seemed as if they had been planted by human hands hundreds of years before.
At first they did not notice, because of the somewhat dim light, that on the far side of the amphitheatre there rose sheer a wall of rock well covered with vines, and then all of one accord and simultaneously exclaimed.
“There’s a cave!”
“Hurrah, we’ve found it,” added Tom.
“Don’t go so fast,” admonished Jim. “There may be more than one cave on the island.”
“But the opening is high up,” demurred Tom, “and it looks as if it might be hard to get into. How shall we do it?”
All thought of the column of smoke was blotted from their minds as they surveyed the task before them, so suggestive of sought-for achievement. The opening to the cave was fully forty feet above the level on which they stood. No safe foothold could be discovered on close examination ofthe face of the rock which rose sheer to the top, perhaps a hundred feet.
“I’ll warrant there is some other entrance,” suggested Jim. “Seems to me this place we are in was one time a sort of temple or auditorium, and that opening up there in the rock may have been the pulpit.”
“It’s sure no easy job to get up there from this level,” admitted Jo. “Suppose we deploy around and hunt for the side door.”
This they did, that is, Jim went one way, while Jo and Tom sought for an opening in the opposite direction, but without success.
Juarez had meantime studied the face of the vine clad rock below the mouth of the cave, and when his companions returned he undertook the ascent or climb. Mounting first on Jim’s stalwart shoulders he found crevasses into which he dug his toes, and with his great knife scooped out fragments at irregular distances, thus by degrees mounting to the cave’s mouth.
Once a secure footing gained, he let down his lariat, and one after the other, the boys climbed up, and all stood looking out upon the auditorium below. Surely a more beautiful green bower of exaggerated proportions could not be imagined.
But it was not scenery that had induced them to seek the cave, and at once their thoughts turned to the business at hand.
The floor of the cave was dry, and the place showed no signs of recent occupancy. It extended into the rock beyond the limit of vision.
Jim had thoughtfully gathered and sent up a bundle of fagots, some dry slow burning sticks, one of which was now lighted. The blaze cast a fitful glare upon walls that shown in places with metallic gleams.
While Jim and Juarez busied themselves near the entrance with the digging into and examination of some mounds of earth which excited their curiosity, Jo and Tom with the burning fagot penetrated deeper into the tunnel, for such it seemed to be. It presented at the start nothing out of the ordinary. It was simply as Jo put it, an enlarged burrow of irregular width and height, varying in width from six to eight feet and in height the same. The sides were of earth with here and there a stone. Whether of natural formation or an artificial construction the boys could not determine.
“Doesn’t seem to be anything worth seeing inhere,” said Tom, who was in the lead and carrying the torch. “We might as well go back.”
“Oh, go on a little further,” urged Jo. “Perhaps we shall find something.”
“I’ll bet, if we do, it’s something we don’t want,” objected Tom.
“Well, we needn’t take it if we don’t want it,” retorted Jo. “Let me go ahead.”
As Jo spoke, pressing forward they came to a sudden enlargement along the way, the walls receding on either side. Jo raised his torch for a better view when a grinning skull flashed out of the darkness, nodding and bobbing at them, while a rattling and whirring noise resounded through the cavern.
With a cry of astonishment, Jo let fall the torch which was quenched as it fell upon the floor, and at the same time something big and indescribable struck him full in the face.
So confused were they by the suddenness and unexpectedness of the attack, and encompassed as they were by the absolute blackness, the first thought of the boys was to run to the entrance of the cave, and this they set about to do with the greatest possible promptness.
But both boys as they started were grappledby unseen antagonists with whom they were locked in a deadly embrace, struggling and straining as they wrestled in the darkness, until Tom almost at the point of exhaustion was roused to a frenzy by the rattling of bones and the feel of a skeleton hand on his arm. With a sudden, not to be denied effort, he threw off his adversary and rushed wildly through the cave, followed by Jo, who had bested his opponent.
In the meantime, Jim and Juarez were still poking in the little mounds near the cave’s mouth and wholly unconscious of the trying experience of the two explorers. The commotion and sound of rapidly moving feet aroused them, and almost immediately Jo and Tom appeared upon the scene. Somewhat breathlessly, both speaking at once, they tried to describe their uncanny experiences.
“Hold on a minute,” said Jim. “Let’s get the straight of this. We were just about to follow you in, for we found nothing in the little mounds. Let’s know what to expect.”
“I will have to go back anyway,” said Jo. “I dropped my gun.”
“Sure. We’ll go with you,” replied Jim. “Now what was it grabbed you?”
“It?” replied Tom. “I should say there were three or four of them.”
“What were they like?” broke in Juarez. “Spirits?”
“Well, I don’t know just what a spirit is like,” replied Tom. “But it was a pretty solid kind of thing that he had hold of me.”
“Me, too,” added Jo. “And it snorted and puffed like a grampus.”
“Well, I suppose we are lucky to get off as easy as we did,” said Tom, “though I should like to know what they were. I thought the whole lot of skeletons were coming after us, but I don’t believe they could do any puffing or snorting. It’s time we were getting along.”
“We will be ready for them this time, whatever they are,” determined Jim, who had been lighting torches so that each could be supplied with one.
“Come on then,” said Jo. “We must keep together and be on the lookout.”
Arming themselves each with a heavy fagot which made a serviceable club, the four bent their footsteps in the direction of the chamber of weird experiences.
The silence in the cave was profound, the occupants,if any, not betraying their presence by the least sound. Cautiously the boys advanced, pausing now and then as they approached the place where the surprise had occurred, to listen and gaze as far as they could into the heavy darkness; but all was silence.
“I think they have gone,” said Jo at length, in a voice in which there was a tremor of excitement.
“No, there they are,” replied Tom in a whisper.
“Where?” asked Jim.
“There!” responded Tom, indicating several suspended skeletons of full length which were held against the walls, and which the light now revealed.
“Oh,” said Jo, “it wasn’t them.”
“Well, one of them was,” returned Tom, “for I felt his hand on me.”
“Must have been this one, then,” said Jim, kicking a group of bones with his foot. “Here is one of them lying on the floor. You must have knocked him out, Tom.”
“Here, Jo, is your gun all right,” interposed Juarez.
The place in which the boys stood was a circular room about thirty feet in diameter, with a height of some twenty feet. There was but one entrance, that by which they had come, but high up on the wall were several small openings or tunnel-like passages. Around the wall of the chamber was a row of skeletons, standing stiffly upright. There was a great roughly hewed stone god or idol on the farther side, while here and there close around it on the surface of the natural stone floor were marks where fires had been built. At either side were pyramidial walls of human skulls, all perfect, though those that formed the bottom rows were black with age.
As the light from the torches flashed into the space several large bats that were in the openings began to fly wildly about.
“I wonder where they have gone?” said Tom, gazing blankly around. “There was certainlysomething that had hold of me, but there isn’t anything here now.”
“What was it like?” asked Jim, suddenly.
“How should I know,” returned Tom. “I couldn’t see it in the dark.”
“But you could feel it, couldn’t you?” persisted Jim.
“Why,” returned Tom, “I don’t know, just like any person I should say.”
“And you, Jo,” went on Jim. “What was yours like?”
“Why, like anybody, I suppose,” was the somewhat indefinite description.
“Now, what is the matter?” demanded Tom, as Jim dropped to the floor in a paroxysm of laughter.
“Oh, ho, ho. It’s too funny for anything,” returned Jim in intervals of his merriment.
“What is?” demanded Tom.
“The whole business,” returned Jim as he struggled to regain control of his feelings.
“Let us in on the funny part,” said Tom, a little sourly.
“Well, you see, when you dropped the torch—”
“You mean that’s the time we didn’t see,” put in Tom.
“One of those big bats flopped into your face—.”
“Well?”
“Then you two started to run, and, of course, you ran into each other and thought something had gotten hold of you. Oh, ho, ho!” and once more Jim was doubled up in his paroxysms of merriment.
“I guess you are right, Jim,” said Jo, somewhat sheepishly, but joining in the laugh. “I think the joke is on us.”
“What is this place anyhow?” asked Tom, seeking to change the embarrassing subject. “Was it an underground prison?”
“I think it was a burial place of some tribe,” replied Jim, when he was able to control his laughter. “You see the skeletons are all standing up in like positions as if they were placed there after death.”
“What are the bats doing in here?”
“They must come in through these passages above. Some holes probably let out onto the side of the hill, and the bats go in and out through them at night.”
“I think,” said Tom, as they made their wayback to the entrance, “that taking all together, that was the worst scare I ever had.”
“Shake on that, Tom,” said Jo.
A further search through the cave was fruitless of results, so far as looked for treasure was concerned, and their original plan of investigating the smoke signal was taken up.
A walk of another mile brought them to the spot they sought. They had thus far encountered no one, or any indication of the presence of inhabitants on the island. They gained finally the summit of the hill from which the column of smoke was ascending. They found that this had been made by building a fire in a small chimney of stones and covering it with wet leaves. There was an opening below which gave just sufficient draft to keep the fire smouldering.
But little could be seen of the land from the top of the hill on account of the thick woods, but by climbing one of the taller trees, which they did in turn while the others kept guard, they were enabled to make out that they were on an island of many miles extent, and that another island lay some five or six miles to the southwest. Most unexpected of all their discoveries, they saw in the distance far out upon the ocean a steamerwhich was apparently approaching the island. The distance was too great to determine with any definiteness anything about her character or probable intentions, and further information on that point would have to be sought at a later time.
“I can’t understand that smoke business,” said Tom, once more examining the chimney-like arrangement curiously. “It was certainly made by someone, yet there doesn’t seem to be anyone about.”
“They may be on the other side of the island,” suggested Jim, “or they may have come from the other island and gone back again.”
“But why should they have come over here and made the fire?” persisted Tom.
“You will have to ask them,” laughed Jim. “I am sure I don’t know, or why they should have lighted it at all. But some of us had better return to the ship or I am afraid that the professor will be getting anxious.”
Arriving at the landing place, Tom elected to go on board. He felt that he had had enough of excitement and adventure for one day. Jim accompanied him, while Jo and Juarez, the spirit of investigation awakened, promptly set out onan exploring expedition returning however without incident at nightfall.
“Well,” began the professor that evening when they had gathered on the deck awaiting the supper call, “what did you find out about the island to-day?”
“Not much of importance,” replied Jim, “except that it is of very considerable extent, very rugged and mountainous.”
“But Jo had an awful scare,” broke in Tom.
“You mean you did,” protested Jo.
“How was that?” asked the professor.
“Why, we found a cave with the entrance way up in the air. We thought at once that it was the one we were looking for, but it did not turn out to be,” explained Tom. “And then we found a lot of skeletons in there, and they got after us.”
“The skeletons did?”
“Well, something did,” replied Tom with a grin. “Then Jo and I beat a hasty retreat.”
“Each got hold of the other in the dark,” explained Jim, laughing, “but I guess they had a jolly time of it till they broke away and ran. It sure was funny.”
“Are you certain there wasn’t anything unnatural in there?”
“We couldn’t find anything alive except some bats, when we went back,” replied Tom, “although we hunted all over.”
“What kind of a place is it?”
“The cave?”
“No, the island.”
“It seems to be an uninhabited island as far as we could see,” answered Jim.
“Didn’t you discover any signs of people at all?”
“Yes,” replied Jim. “The same sign we saw from this deck. The smoke signal.”
“That cave will bear further investigation. It is certainly very curious,” mused the professor.
“What is?” queried Tom.
“About that smoke on the mountain.”
“What do you think of it?” asked Jim.
“It is a signal of some kind, but if the island is uninhabited, who could have made it?”
“Why couldn’t the ones who made it come from some other island?” asked Jim.
“And gone back again,” suggested Jo.
“Perhaps so,” replied the professor, “but that doesn’t make it any clearer.”
“You never can see through smoke very well,” suggested Jo.
“True,” laughed the professor, “but still somehow I don’t like it.”
“Then we saw a ship in the distance, apparently headed for this island, but far off the southern shore.”
“Six o’clock,” broke in Tom, as four bells were struck. “I think I will accept the invitation to dine.”
“A good plan,” commended the professor, “and Monday we must get an early start and learn, if we can about that ship you saw, and begin a more thorough exploration.”
“I think so, too,” replied Tom.
“What?” asked Jim.
“Take more ‘rations’ with us,” replied Tom.
“Wake up, boy,” cried Jo, giving him a shove and toppling him over on deck. “You think so much about rations that you are getting irrational.”
“That gives me an idea,” began Juarez, when Jo and Tom had been separated and quiet restored.
“An idea of war?” asked Berwick.
“No,” laughed Juarez. “But would it not be a good thing to go on shore and camp there until we had made a complete exploration of the place?”
“Just the thing!” cried Jo and Tom.
“I am afraid it is hardly wise,” demurred the professor.
“Ugh!” sniffed Tom. “I guess we can take care of ourselves.”
“Besides, there isn’t anyone on the island,” added Jo.
“Better not act on that assumption,” advised the professor.
“I don’t know but what it would be a good plan,” said Jim. “We would be able to get over it more quickly if we didn’t have come back to the boat every night.”
“There is something in that,” admitted the professor, “though as far as I can see this doesn’t look like the portion of the island shown on the chart.”
“No,” admitted Jim, “but this may be the opposite end of the island.”
“That is true, too. Suppose we go down into the cabin and have another look at it?”
“Do you think it will be safe?” asked Berwick.
“Safe? Why not?”
“You know what happened to the other one,” laughed the engineer.
“It probably slipped off the string,” replied theprofessor, “and dropped down into the bilge. Anyway we appoint you watchman to see if anyone is spying about.”
“All right,” agreed Berwick, “but I’ve got a kind of feeling that that little devil of a Mexican ain’t far away.”
“Booh!” broke in Tom. “Didn’t we see him go up into the air with the lugger?”
“Maybe we did,” admitted Berwick gloomily, “but I don’t believe fire would ever hurt him.”
“I don’t believe he is fire proof,” declared Tom. “And even if he is that isn’t any reason why we shouldn’t have a look at the map.”
It was some time after supper before the matter was again alluded to, then they all went below to further study the chart.
Taking the precious paper from his pocket and spreading it out on the table, Jim and the professor analyzed carefully the various marks and drawings.
“We have got pretty well fixed in mind now the shape and landmarks of the island,” said Jim, when they had studied the document carefully. He then folded up the chart, putting it back in his pocket. “We should keep our eyes open when we are on shore. There are two or three landmarksthat ought to help us find the cave without much difficulty if this is the place.”
“There cannot be many caves,” concluded the professor, “with entrances high above the ground as this one is described to be.”
The following morning, the day being Sunday, was spent quietly on shipboard. It had been the custom of the professor since the commencement of the voyage to have such observances of the day as seemed fitting. There was a service which he himself conducted at eleven o’clock. Thereafter, all who wished were this day allowed to go on shore.
Of the Frontier Boys, Jim and Juarez early in the afternoon availed themselves of the privilege. Juarez was the only one, however, to wander away from the landing beach. Jim spent some time readjusting and oiling his own and his brother’s guns, which he had brought with him. Jo and Tom had said that they, with Berwick, would join him later in the afternoon.
Juarez had intended on going a short distance, but the bright sunlight, the charm of the hills, the luxuriant foliage, the unusual and brilliant wild flowers, all these attractions, coupled with his own exuberant spirits lured him on.
He reached by a roundabout route the top of the mountainous elevation which, in company with his comrade, he had explored the day before.
Willing to rest now in the shade of some bushes he lolled upon the ground, and lulled by the whispering melodies of the trees was about to drop off to sleep.
Suddenly his attention was attracted to some motion in the underbrush at a point a third of the way down the mountain. He watched intently and knew that some person, two, probably, were ascending the slope. In his efforts to secure a better viewpoint, he stretched far forward, too far, it turned out, and catching wildlyand ineffectively for a support, greatly to his astonishment, he slipped and fell to a ledge below. The distance was not great, but his head in the descent came in contact with a projecting rock, and although he landed upon a growth of thickly foliaged bushes, he was rendered unconscious by the blow he had sustained.
He was aroused some time later by voices near at hand, one of which he immediately recognized. It was the steward of the Storm King who was speaking.
“I sent you the chart in the keg, but I have learned that the young fellow Jim had a copy of it, which he carries always in a water proof paper in his pocket.”
The listener did not move. He was as securely hidden as if by a prearranged plan. He had not been observed, and while he did not see the speakers he knew that those to whom the steward was talking must be of the rival ship’s crew, probably it was the leader himself who was present here, and possibly the mate, for he could tell from the voices there were two of the desperadoes.
“Why have you not secured the copy and destroyed it?” came the inquiry.
“I cannot do it. The fellow suspected me. Besides he is a terror, and I dare not.”
“Dare not! What would your life be worth if I told the authorities at home what I know about you?”
There was something said by the other man which Juarez could not hear, but he caught the word captain.
“Dash it, man!” said the one addressed. “I believe you are right!”
Then it was the steward who spoke. “I only know,” he said, “that I got the chart out of the secret hiding place into which it was put. I cannot say if it is the original, the right chart.”
“Then it is the papers which that fellow you speak of has now that we must have. There is something wrong about the chart we have been working with. We were evidently on the wrong island entirely. Things did not figure out right.”
“It’s about the original chart that I came to tell you to-day,” responded the steward. “Jim is at this moment alone in the little shack on Crescent Bay.”
“Well,” said the captain, “why don’t you get it?”
“It cannot be gotten unless you kill the fellow.”
“Well,” drawled the captain, “and why not? You have done—.”
“Don’t! Don’t! I had been drinking then,” was the plaintive protest.
“So you want to turn the pleasant task over to me, eh? Well, I guess between the two of us we can manage one young cub, eh mate Marion?”
There was no reply, but doubtless the mate acquiesced by a motion of the head.
“I warn you, Captain Beauchamp, that although he is young, Jim Darlington is a difficult one to handle,” cautioned the steward.
“Jim Darlington!” gasped the captain. It was his turn to be surprised. “I thought he was dead.”
“On the contrary, he is very much alive, as are the other Frontier Boys.”
“Well, I’ll be blessed,” said the captain, “the old innkeeper and the Senor’s man told me all the party had gone up with the old hulk.”
Amid frequent expressions of astonishment the steward told the story, as he had learned it, of the affair at San Matteo Bay, ending with the rescue of the entire party.
“Poor Reynolds,” laughed Captain Beauchamp. “He must have had a jolly meeting with theSenor. I wrote to Reynolds that everybody had been blown sky high, and that the slate was clean.”
The mate, whose voice was a low grumble, made some remark which Juarez could not hear.
“Yes, about that Jim,” the captain was saying. “What we want to do is to surprise him, take him unawares.”
Again the murmur of the mate’s voice, but he spoke too low for his words to be heard.
“It’s near dusk,” resumed the captain. “In half an hour it will be pitch dark. We’ll jog along towards the bay and take some observations.”
The listener heard no more.
Some bird flitted into a branch close beside Juarez and uttered a gentle chirp. He knew that he was alone. He knew, too, that a serious task was cut out for him. To descend the mountain by the route he had come and reach the shack or shelter at the landing place would necessitate his passing the villainous pair he had overheard. This they would likely prevent. The feat was well nigh impossible.
It seemed right good fortune that he had overheard their plans, but how could he circumventthem? He had it. A sudden inspiration burned into his soul. He must descend by the precipitous route on the side toward the sea down which he and Jo had traveled the day before. They had made the descent for pleasure, then, helping each other, and in broad daylight. Could he do the trick alone and in the dark?
He tried to scramble to his feet. The effort sent a paralyzing pain through his head and neck, and he relaxed again with a stifled moan. After a moment he tried again, more slowly now, and in spite of the terrible pain, soon staggered to his feet.
He looked about. Directly above him was an overhanging boulder. It was upon its jagged edge he had struck when falling. Below was the stone turreted, bushy mountain side. Supporting himself with his hands he crept around the base of the boulder and soon got a broader outlook. His gun, as too great a handicap to carry on his trip, he discarded, carefully secreting it.
A considerable interval must have elapsed since he received that paralyzing abrasure from the rock against which he had struck, for the sun was gone and a melancholy gloom was settling over the wild landscape. Assuredly he must be moving.Those unscrupulous cutthroats would stop at nothing. And was not Jim, his dearest and most admired friend, in danger? It was an agonizing thought that gripped his mind.
He sprang forward with a spasmodic intake of the breath, and sped like a wild faun along the rugged hillside. He did not know that his face and head were caked with clotted blood. He even forgot the throbbing pain. He would climb down the cliffs by the difficult and undetermined route he had traversed the day before.
Bursting through thickets and stumbling across darkening ravines he reached the point from which the perilous descent of the cliff side could be undertaken. Gloomy crags towered above him, and below, the almost unknown forbidding way, crowded with tragic uncertainties.
But not a moment could be spared. Without hesitation he plunged recklessly into the abyss and in a moment was hugging the cold rocks, clutching at supporting twigs and undergrowths, sliding, slipping, almost falling down a frightful precipice.
Once he lost his hold entirely and felt himself whirling through the darkness, but he writhed himself upright in his fall and brought up with asmash and a crash in the dense foliage of a quertel nut tree. He did not feel the torn skin on face and hands, nor know that a fresh torrent of blood burst from the abrasure on his head. He groped blindly for the splintered rocks at the trees’ base, felt their resisting force and lunged forward once more.
Soon he found himself on a sloping bench or shelf whose surface was on a level with the tops of some trees below, and he remembered the spot. Here Jo and he had enjoyed a grand view of the ocean, enveloped in mystery and obscurity. Owing to the absence of shrubbery it was lighter here, and out of pure necessity he was compelled to halt for breath. He leaned against the wall of rock for a moment before commencing the next stage of the journey.
He remembered that his former passage had led him for a hundred feet or more before bringing him to another drop. Straining his eyes along the stretch of shelf he suddenly beheld an object emerge from the darkness and grow larger as it approached. Then appeared another and another till he had counted six, all in regular Indian file and moving in absolute silence.
There was a moment of dreadful uncertainty.Clearly these were the natives of this or some nearby island, and the first that he or any of his party had seen. The only weapon that Juarez possessed was a hunting knife. He pressed himself against the rock and held his hand to throttle the beating of his heart. They approached. Now he heard the soft shuffle of their feet. Closer, and the first was nearly abreast of him. Closer still, and the man glided by not three yards away, as—happy relief—did his followers.
They passed, and still he moved not. The subdued twinkling of the falling gravel, the swish and rattle of the boughs and he was alone. Then his breath came back with a spurt, and he realized that he had been near to suffocation. It was not that he feared for himself. But that awful responsibility, the warning of Jim. He must do nothing, attempt nothing, that would involve the possibility of delay.
But there was no time for musing. The half of his dangerous descent was before him. He hurried forward again, almost running along the shelving bench although he knew that a perpendicular drop of many yards was but a few inches from his nimble feet. He knew where to make the next plunge downward for the shelf pinchedout, and there was no other way of advancing.
Down he went among insecure boulders, fragments of the upper cliff thrown off by some convulsion of nature, and again he had a dangerous fall. He struck upon his side and slid for a rod not unlike a log, bringing up with a serious injury against a boulder. Below were dwarf compametos trees, and beneath them he squirmed, the meager light shut out entirely by their dense foliage. Soon a bed of prickly leaves and ferns told him that he was over the worst of the road.
Still there was much treacherous footing ahead and he stumbled and tripped more than once. But now he was nearing the shack, and he must exercise all his caution taught by long experience with the Indians. Noiseless and as stealthy as a cat he squirmed through the tangled underbrush till he reached the sandy margin of Crescent Bay. Still keeping within the shadow of the forest growth, he advanced rapidly, fearing every moment that some overt act would advise him that he had not been swift enough.
Now he was within call of the shelter, and he gave a peculiar signal, a note of warning for Jim if he were awake. There was no response. None when the call was again repeated louder. Horrible thought! Was he too late?
Selecting a convenient resting place, Jim had sat down, and for the second time, taking up his rifle, went over it carefully, testing the lock and cleaning and oiling the various parts. He gave the same attention to the other guns. When this was done, he went over the ammunition to see that it was all in order.
Then, having no further task to engage his attention, a drowsy spell appealing, he lay down upon a moss covered bed of nature’s fashioning, and was soon fast asleep. When he awoke he knew that a considerable interval had elapsed, and that the day was waning.
He looked toward the ship, but all was quiet there.
“It is time that Juarez was getting back,” he thought. “I hope that he hasn’t got into any trouble. And the boys, too, were coming ashore. But I suppose,” he added whimsically, “they hadto wait till Berwick was satisfied that Manuel wasn’t anywhere around. I don’t see any signs of their coming,” again looking toward the yacht, “I think I will see if I can find Juarez.”
He had little difficulty in following Juarez’s trail as he had gone straight forward in the direction of the valley which skirted the peak or elevation for which he had started.
Although he was not apprehensive of an attack, Jim went forward cautiously, looking about him as he proceeded, with his gun ready for use in case of need. He had gone a little more than a quarter of the way to the cliff when the ground became rugged with large rocks and occasional deep crevices.
He became impressed at this point with the fancy that someone was about. He stood motionless, and himself hidden discovered that someone was in fact approaching. The man was moving slowly and seemingly without special caution. In the shadow of the underbrush Jim did not at first recognize that it was the steward whose movements he was observing. Then he knew that it was that individual.
Here was an opportunity perhaps to learn something of this suspected person, and intent onthis object Jim stealthily followed in the other’s footsteps. He was mystified by his actions, for the steward seemed to have no definite motive in view. He moved slowly about in an erratic course, first in one direction then another, without apparent reason.
The precautions Jim would ordinarily have taken to keep a lookout about him were omitted, and of a sudden he was himself set upon by two muscular individuals who seemed to spring from space, and taken so entirely unawares, before he recognized his danger, his arms were pinioned. Notwithstanding his strenuous struggles he was quickly bound and a helpless captive.
He had had no opportunity even to get a look at his captors before he was blindfolded.
“We want yer company for a period,” a soft well modulated voice, with a southern accent, was speaking. “Make no trouble, and I will know that you are a wise young man.”
“I do not know you. What do you want?”
“First and foremost the chart you have in your pocket. I will, since your hands are tied, with your kind permission, help myself to that now.”
Needless to say, the speaker sought out andtook possession of the desired document, carefully bestowing it in his own pocket.
“Now to introduce ourselves, for you doubtless observed that there are two of us. This is Mate Marion, and I am Captain Beauchamp, at your service.”
“By what right, captain, do you detain me, and take from me my possessions?”
“Oh, all is fair in love or war, is it not so?”
Ignoring the question and recognizing the probability that argument was useless, Jim contented himself with an inquiry:
“What do you propose doing with me?”
“I shall be most pleased to entertain you on board my ship.”
“For what purpose is my presence wanted there?”
“Just for the pleasure of your company. I hear that you are a fine young fellow, and I may have a proposition to make to you that will be worthy of your consideration. Just now the thing to do is to get back to the Marjorie. I will make this offer now. If you will go along with us without causing any trouble, you shall, as a reward, not be harmed.”
“But I am blindfolded.”
“That is a condition easily remedied,” saying which, the handkerchief was removed from the captive’s eyes.
Jim recognized the fact that he had been trapped, and was in the hands of a wily, adroit villain, but protest or a struggle for freedom would be unavailing under the existing circumstances, and he believed that his wisest plan was to make the best of his fate pending better opportunity to change the conditions of things.
Guided by the captain and mate a long march was undertaken, and at a late hour, with slight knowledge of the locality, Jim was put into a rowboat and conveyed on board a ship riding at anchor in an open bay.
He was soon to learn that he was a prisoner on board that vessel of questionable purpose, the Marjorie. So much information the captain himself conveyed to him when releasing the bonds that had held secure his arms. He was placed in a small compartment known as the ship brig, and a securely locked door barred his egress.