CHAPTER XIEQUAL TO THE EMERGENCY
“Whee! then there’s a nigger in the woodpile, I should say!” burst out the impulsive Ballyhoo. “That smart old Badger has been too tricky for our skipper. Why, if those fellows have been on the island all the while, of course it’s dollars to doughnuts they’ve watched everything we’ve done, and know that we’re working on that old hulk of a wreck!”
“No doubt about it,” said Oscar promptly, shutting his jaws together in the way his chums knew meant business.
“What ought we to do about it, Oscar?” continued Ballyhoo.
“First of all we must get across to our boat in as big a hurry as we can,” came the answer. “Captain Shooks ought to know what’s in the wind, so he can act.”
“What d’ye suppose he can do about it?” continued the Jones boy.
They had already turned, and were making offhastily; and their last glimpse of the retreating boat showed them the two men handling the oars just as carefully as before.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” snapped Oscar. “But don’t talk any more than you can help, Ballyhoo; we’ll need all our wind for running.”
They had one advantage, since in returning they followed the tracks they had made in coming. Thus they could avoid certain obstructions that had delayed them more or less on the former occasion.
Arriving at the other end of the island they found Jack sitting there, still busily engaged with his camera. He had evidently taken what pictures he wanted, and was amusing himself while waiting for the return of his chums.
Upon seeing the pair come rushing out of the palmetto scrub he scrambled to his feet, looking more or less alarmed.
“What is it—a bear, or a wildcat?” he demanded, starting to place his precious camera and tripod in the boat, so as to be ready for a hasty departure.
“Get away from here in a hurry, Jack!” gasped Ballyhoo; “we’ve seen something that threatens all sorts of tough things, and Captain Shooks ought to know about the same.”
The boat was launched without loss of time, Ballyhoo even wading in the wash of the sea up to his knees, in order to shove off, for that was the kind of a fellow the Jones boy was.
Then the paddles fairly flew, and they sped outtoward the spot where the float and the squatty submarine lay. How fortunate, Oscar told himself as he worked his paddle, that the undersea boat chanced to be on the surface just then. Had it been otherwise the delay consequent upon getting their message to the skipper might have made all the difference imaginable with regard to results.
Captain Shooks was on the float talking with the diver, who had apparently just before come to the surface. Oscar noticed that the bronzed face of the skipper appeared to be wreathed in a broad smile, as though he had received some happy news in the report of the diver.
As the three boys hastened to climb aboard the float, he called out to them:
“Well, we’ve struck oil, lads! What d’ye think of that for a starter, now?”
He was holding something out toward them, and the boys could see first of all that it required an effort for him to do so, as though the brick-like object might be quite heavy. They stared hard at it. So far as a first look went there did not seem to be anything very remarkable about the thing. It had a peculiar, greenish look, as though the action of the sea water had covered it with a slime in all the long years that it had lodged there far down in the depths.
“What is it?” asked Ballyhoo eagerly, yet evidently puzzled to guess the truth.
“Bullion!” said Captain Shooks with a queer chuckle, “some of the bully stuff that we organizedthis expedition to find. And Hicks here says there’s more down in the bowels of the old Spanish galleon where he got this, much more!”
“Oh! what d’ye think of that, now?” cried Ballyhoo, reaching out his hands for the weighty object, and showing by his actions as soon as he received it that he had all he could do to hold the same, it was so heavy.
Jack, like the investigating fellow that he had always proved in the past quickly snatched out his knife, opened the big blade, and commenced scratching the back of the dull-looking brick. Immediately they caught a bright sheen wherever the edge of the blade pursued its activities.
“You’re right, Captain, it’s gold!” gasped Ballyhoo, grinning as though he had seen one of his most wonderful dreams come true.
They all stared at the bullion. Perhaps through Oscar’s imaginative mind there may have flashed a strange picture just then. Remembering all he had ever read concerning the doings of those old-time worthies who defied the perils of the sea in those early days, he saw this same precious metal handled by men in odd, picturesque dress, carrying long swords, and wearing hats adorned with waving feathers—those reckless conquistadores, in fact, who raided both Mexico and Peru under such leaders as Cortez and Pizarro.
Possibly for a brief space the scroll of time seemed to unroll before the boy’s vision, and he peopled that float with those ancient worthies, all carrying just such weighty bricks of gold, seizedfrom the stores of the poor natives, and meant to be carried across the sea to Spain.
Then he came to himself with a shock. The presence of that modern miracle boat capable of descending to the bottom of the sea told him that he was living in the Twentieth Century, and not away back there in those primitive days.
Yes, and he also remembered something else—those three spies in the little motor launch, who had evidently been watching their operations until assured that they possessed accurate knowledge of the location of the lost galleon—they were even now on the way to carry the news to Captain Badger.
“But we have come to give you warning, Captain!” he hurriedly exclaimed, while, of course, Jack listened eagerly, being almost eaten up with curiosity to know what it really was had frightened his two chums.
“What’s that you say, lad?” cried the skipper, recovering the precious bullion.
“We made a discovery while ashore,” Oscar went on. “As we drew near the other end of the Key we heard the sound of oars, and then saw a boat that had just left land.”
“Then therewerepeople on the island after all,” snapped the captain, frowning, as though now it was too late, he regretted that he had not gone ashore in the first place, and closely examined every rod of ground before commencing operations; for, as Ballyhoo afterwards remarked, Captain Shooks was like most folks whose “hindsightwas a heap better than their foresight.”
“Yes, and they were no turtle hunters or spongers either,” blurted out Ballyhoo, desirous of having a hand in divulging the great news. “The boat was a small launch that could be rowed, and had one of those overboard motors at the stern. Yes, and when it swerved Oscar here, through our glasses, saw the name painted at the bow. It wasDauntless, Captain; what d’ye think of that, now?”
The gruff skipper said something pretty strong, but it seemed to express the state of his feelings to a fraction. From the way in which he glanced down at the relic just recovered from the wreck, it was plain to be seen he felt doubly furious to have such a thing as this happen just when they had commenced to strike “pay dirt.”
“They’ve been keeping tabs on us, then, the snakes!” he growled.
“All day long, I reckon,” admitted Oscar, “and finally, after making sure that we meant business, and had found a wreck of some kind, they’ve started off to tell that Badger man, so he can come bullying around here, and chase us away by a show of force.”
Ballyhoo looked disconsolate. Already in imagination he possibly saw the black steam yacht tied up to their float, with divers going down to loot the prize at the bottom of the sea, which had lain there hundreds of years, and might have continued to defy all the efforts of ambitious mankind to locate the same only for the enterprise of the“Argonaut Submarine Diving-Boat Company.”
“Which way were they heading?” demanded the skipper, grinding his teeth hard together, and looking as though he could “bite a ten-penny nail in two,” as Ballyhoo would have put it.
“Trying to keep the land between themselves and our float here,” explained Oscar, “but we guessed they meant to swing around some, and put for that other Key after they thought they were so far away we wouldn’t hear the putter of the motor when muffled.”
“And using only the oars, you say?” continued the other, eagerly.
“Yes, sir, not making any desperate hurry,” replied Oscar.
“That settles it,” ground out the skipper. “We’ve got to overtake that crowd unless we want to have all our plans knocked galley-west.”
Turning, he proceeded to give orders to the man who acted as his mate.
“Send Finnegan down right away, and rush things like hot cakes, d’ye hear? We’ve got to get our hands on all this stuff that’s lying around loose, and save our bacon. If it’s necessary, I’ll take my turn at the job; which wouldn’t be the first time I’d been down below.”
Then once more addressing the boys, he went on to say:
“Get aboard the boat, lads; and you men hoist the collapsible on deck. We may have need of the same to pick up some poor chaps swimming in the sea!”
Ballyhoo was thrilled by hearing the captain say this. He guessed that the energetic skipper meant to adopt stern means in order to block the game of the enemy.
They all hastened to comply with his wishes, for every minute was precious. If those spies had already started to make use of their little overboard motor they would be speeding along at the rate of at least eight miles an hour; but then the submarine was capable of doing twice that, so before a great while the fugitive craft could be overhauled.
Apparently, there promised to be some lively times ahead. From what Captain Shooks had said, Ballyhoo surmised it was his intention to actually run the launch down, after which they would, of course, do their best to pick up the survivors. These were drastic methods of meeting the schemes of Badger’s men, but the conditions required heroic measures.
Hardly had the boat been lifted aboard the submarine, and lines cast off than the engines started up, and they began to leave the float with its occupants behind.
“Now for some rattling pictures, Jack,” said Ballyhoo; “get ready to grab everything that goes on, because it’s going to be a thriller, unless I miss my guess.”