CHAPTER XXIVIN THE JUNGLE
Five, ten, fifteen minutes went by slowly. The wind had fallen somewhat, so the progress of the vessel in the distance was slow.
“She’s coming this way, I’m sure of it!” declared Randy.
“Don’t be too certain. You may be disappointed,” answered Fred.
The youngest Rover boy had scarcely spoken when the bark seemed to veer off to the eastward.
“She’s going away!”
“Maybe she’s only tacking in the wind.”
With strained eyes the boys watched the vessel in the distance. Now she seemed to tack back, much to their delight.
“She’s coming in!”
“They must be seeing our signals!”
“Hurrah! I wonder what sort of a vessel she is?”
“Perhaps she’s another rum-runner,” came from Fred.
“Oh, Fred, don’t say that!” exclaimed Andy.
“Well, you can’t tell, Andy. We must be right in the path of that kind of a ship. So many of them run from the West Indies to the United States.”
“Look, look!” cried Jack, in sudden dismay. “She is turning away again.”
“That’s right. She is steering due east!” added Randy, with something like a groan.
Another five minutes passed, and then all of the boys, as well as the lanky sailor, came to the conclusion that the bark was moving eastward. Frantically the lads continued their signaling, and saw to it that the clouds of smoke from their fire continued. But if the signals were seen, no one paid any attention to them, and presently the bark, far to the eastward, was but a speck in the distance on the bosom of the rolling ocean.
“She’s gone! They didn’t even notice us!” exclaimed Fred, and his voice had something of tears in it.
All were downcast, and it was some time before they could get back to a more optimistic frame of mind.
“They should have seen the smoke, even if they couldn’t see us waving the sailcloth,” said Randy, bitterly.
“Well, if they saw the smoke, they might havethought it was from a fire built by some of the natives,” answered Jack. “If I was sailing among a great bunch of islands like the West Indies, I wouldn’t want to stop to investigate every pillar of smoke I saw.”
“If we only had a regular flag, then we could hoist it up in one of the trees. If we placed it upside down, that would be sure to attract attention sooner or later.”
“Yes; but we haven’t a flag, so we’ve got to do without it,” said Andy, who was now rubbing his hurt ankle in an endeavor to limber it up.
Another day passed, and by this time the boys felt a little more at home on the island. A few hours of fishing had sufficed to bring in a goodly mess, and while some of these were eaten, the others were placed in a pool where they might be drawn upon whenever necessary. The boys had also made a hunt for oysters, and while they had found a few of the bivalves, they were not of a particularly good variety, and no one cared for them except the old tar.
“Some day I’m goin’ to make myself a good, big stew of ’em,” said Ira Small. “I always did like a stew made of oysters caught on the spot.”
Now that he could rest whenever he desired, the lanky sailor recovered rapidly, so that in a couple of days he was able to hobble around withthe aid of a cane which Jack cut for him. A great friendship had sprung up between the young major and the old tar.
“I ain’t forgot how you saved me from goin’ down to Davy Jones’ Locker,” the old sailor said more than once. “An’ don’t you forgit what I said about that pirates’ gold. If I lay hands on it, you git your full share.”
After a quiet Sunday on the island Jack and Randy made their way on Monday morning to the little bay and there constructed a raft out of the wreckage that had drifted into the opening. Then, with their shoes slung around their necks and their socks in their pockets, they set off for the opposite shore of the bay, using two pieces of boards for sculls.
“We may find nothing over there to interest us,” said Jack. “Just the same, it won’t hurt to go over. Perhaps we can find some sort of a trail to the south side of the island.”
As the water was calm, it did not take the boys long to reach the other side of the little bay. Here they found a spot where landing was easy and tied up the raft so that it might not float away. Then, putting on their socks and shoes again, they continued their explorations.
They soon found that progress in this direction was almost as difficult as it had been in the vicinityof their first camp. The jungle was a mass of tangled undergrowth and heavy vines, with here and there some fair-sized palm trees. A little further on they came to a series of rocks which seemed to bar their further progress in that direction.
“We don’t seem to be getting anywhere, Jack,” remarked Randy, as he stopped to catch his breath and wipe the perspiration from his brow. “Gee! this doesn’t seem to be like December weather, does it?”
“Well, you must remember we’re pretty well south,” was the young major’s answer. “What do you think we’d better do—go back?”
“Let’s move along the base of the rocks. Maybe we’ll find some sort of an opening. I’d like very much to get to the south shore of the island, just to find out what is there.”
Once more they went on, advancing with care for fear of slipping and perhaps spraining an ankle. They had a hatchet with them, and often had to cut the brushwood and the vines, to make a passage for themselves.
“There is one thing we want to remember,” said Jack, suddenly. “And that is that we’ve got to get back. We don’t want to lose our way.”
“I guess not!” exclaimed his cousin. “Why,if we lost our way in this jungle we might never get out. We’d have to climb a tree or some of those rocks just to locate ourselves.”
Presently, in the midst of the jungle, they came to a small clearing. Here there was a rocky hollow, and they found a bubbling spring of pure, cool water.
“Say, this is worth while!” exclaimed Jack, after each of them had taken a drink. “I wish we had this spring near the camp,” he added as they sat down to rest and eat their lunch.
“Look on the ground, will you!” exclaimed Randy, suddenly. “Look at those footprints! What do you make of them, Jack?”
Both gazed at the soft ground in the vicinity of the spring, and there saw a number of footprints evidently made by some wild animals.
“What animals do you suppose they can be?” questioned Randy.
“I don’t know. In fact, I don’t know what sort of wild animals exist on these islands. They are certainly not the marks of horses or cows or sheep, or anything like that.”
“If there are any wild animals in this jungle, we’d better be on our guard.”
“I should say so! I wish we had brought one of the shotguns along.”
“So do I.”
They had with them two of the pistols, but they realized that these weapons might prove of small use against any large beasts.
They looked around the vicinity of the spring, but nothing in the way of an animal showed itself. Not even a bird was in sight, and all was as quiet as the grave.
What to do next, the two boys did not know. If there were wild animals on the island, that might change matters very much, so far as they were concerned. They would have to keep on guard continually, and might even have to take some means of protecting themselves against attack.
“Do you suppose those beasts might be from the wreck of theCoryanda?” said Randy suddenly.
“It’s possible. That wreck might have come close enough for some of the animals to jump overboard and swim ashore. Or, the vessel may have struck the island and then gone to pieces and drifted away before we had a chance to see what happened.”
The boys discussed the situation and came to the conclusion that the best thing they could do would be to return to the camp and inform the others of what they had discovered.
“If there are any wild animals loose here, everyone of our crowd ought to know it,” said Jack. “And the quicker we get the information to them the better.”
He and Randy turned back and made their way once more along the base of the rocks. It was now about two o’clock in the afternoon, and they hoped to return to camp well before dark, which, in that portion of the globe, came on suddenly.
The two cousins had passed along less than fifty yards when suddenly Jack held up his hand.
“Look, Randy! Look!” he whispered.
Randy did as directed, and there a short distance ahead saw on a flat rock the form of a big lion. The monarch of the jungle stood out boldly. He was looking off into the brushwood and acted as if he were watching something.
“It’s a lion!”
“Exactly! And as they don’t have lions down here in the West Indies, it must be one of those from theCoryanda.”
“That’s right. What shall we do—fire at him?”
“I don’t think it would do much good—at least not from such a distance. If we got closer we might be able to wound him, even if we didn’t kill him.”
“Yes, but I don’t want to get closer, with nothing but a pistol to shoot with.”
“Neither do I. But what are we going to do? He’s right in the way of our getting back to the raft.”
Suddenly the boys saw the lion straighten up and get ready as if to make a leap into the brushwood below. Then they were startled as they heard a rustling in the jungle, and the next moment a full-sized goat leaped into the clearing just ahead of them. The animal was evidently full of fear, and knew not which way to turn.
“A goat!”
“Yes, and it’s one of those that were on board the steam yacht! Don’t you remember her? The one with the black spots on her neck? The one Andy said he’d like to try to milk?”
The goat saw the boys and, as if asking protection, leaped toward them. Then from the lion on the rock came a roar, and the next instant the big beast hurled himself into the brushwood in the direction of the goat.
“Gee, the goat is coming this way!”
“Yes, and the lion is after her—or else he’s after us!”
The two boys held ready their pistols, and as they did so they retreated to the vicinity of the rocks. They were backing up to these when suddenly the goat leaped around, saw the lion, and immediately made another leap and startedto scramble up the rocks within several yards of where the boys were now crouching.
The lion came tearing forward, and then he too bounded up on the lower rocks.
But hardly had he touched these when the goat made a mighty leap and went up out of his reach.
“Gee, I’m glad the goat got away,” muttered Randy.
He had scarcely spoken when the lion, evidently much disappointed, turned around on the rocks and the next instant caught sight of the two lads. Up went his mane and he let out a savage roar, and then hurled himself in their direction.