CHAPTER XVILEFT HOLDING THE BAG
“There she is!” exclaimed Ballyhoo, just as soon as they began to pass out from behind the island, and pointing as he spoke.
It was theDauntlesswithout any question, and the steam yacht was also heading directly toward the Key behind which all those recent operations had been taking place. No doubt there must have been quite a flutter of excitement aboard the other craft when the submarine was thus discovered coming into view. When they also caught the sunshine glinting from the wicked-looking rapid-fire gun that Captain Shooks had had brought up from below, and placed forward on the deck, possibly they would be apt to think twice before deciding to make any attack upon the rival treasure hunting craft.
The skipper appeared to be heartily pleased when he announced that he could recognize Captain Badger standing there near the wheelhouse of the steam yacht, and staring through his glasses at them.
“I’d give half a year’s wages,” he affirmed, “just to hear the hot stuff he’ll get rid of when he realizes the little trick we’ve played on him. The man who gets the better of the sly old fox has to rise pretty early in the morning. I’ve owed him a grudge of long years’ standing, and now we’re even again.”
“Do you suppose he’ll keep on after us, or start for the island?” asked Jack.
“Oh! he must be wondering why he didn’t get any report from that gang of spies he left on Coco Key,” explained the captain, grinning amiably, “and so the first thing he’ll be apt to do will be to take a run in there.”
“Then what will happen, sir?” continued Jack.
“Why, when he hears from those late prisoners of ours what took place, and how they’ve been kept aboard our craft while we worked all night long raising some of those grand gold bricks they saw us handling, I reckon nothing will do Badger but that his divers must go down and take a look around. That business will delay him a day or two, during which time we can be making a port, and laying aboard another supply of the stuff necessary for our work.”
“I wonder if that’s the last we’ll be apt to see of theDauntless?” remarked Ballyhoo Jones, as they looked back over the foamy wake of the submarine, and saw the other craft still heading for the island.
Oscar shook his head in the negative.
“I could wish it might be,” he went on to say,the skipper’s having ducked down to see about something in connection with the engines that did not exactly please him; “but Captain Shooks seemed to figure that we’ll be troubled off and on during our entire cruise by those fellows.”
“Then one thing is plain,” asserted Jack; “they’ve managed to get hold of a duplicate of our itinerary in some way, and know the different places we mean to visit, even if ignorant of the clues we have by which we hope to run onto the wrecks. On this account they are helpless beyond a certain point, and can only expect to catch us at work, and run us off, so as to seize the prize themselves.”
“Well, here’s hoping they’ll have a warm session doing that same,” jeered Ballyhoo. “And if ever it comes to a scrap, believe me, that little beaut of a quick-firer over yonder is ready to give a good account of itself. Captain Shooks has been through the mill too often to knuckle down to such a pirate as thatBadger,” and as he pronounced the name he snapped his fingers blithely, as though holding the notorious adventurer in contempt.
Shortly afterwards they saw the steam yacht turn the end of the island, when, for the first time, those aboard doubtless discovered that suggestive float, with their trio of men upon the same. The boys pictured the scene that would follow, and how, inspired by the fairy tales these worthies could spin, of the wonderful ingots they had seen hauled to the surface from the wreck, Badgerwould hasten to send his divers down, in the hopes of having frightened the others away before the mine was wholly exhausted.
“Won’t he be a furious man, though,” Ballyhoo laughingly said, as they talked this over, “when he realizes that we only left him, as our skipper remarked, an empty bag to hold?”
“It’s beginning to kick up considerable out here, for one thing,” announced Jack, as the squat undersea boat began to pitch more or less, and the waves could be seen running higher and higher.
“Yes, and once again you can notice clouds gathering over there,” Oscar added, as he swept his hand around to indicate the direction. “We may run into another storm before the day is much older.”
“Huh! what does that matter to us?” Ballyhoo chuckled, “when we can drop out of all the rush, and lie at the bottom as snug as you please, waiting for the waves to quiet down, and the winds to cease? I tell you these tubs may not be very comfortable in a whole lot of ways; but when it comes to dodging trouble in the shape of storms they’ve got a hunch on everything going, believe me.”
Lest the enemy might think to keep a lookout so as to report their course, skipper was taking a false tack. Later on this could be easily remedied, and the lost time made up.
An hour afterwards the little Key was almost out of sight, even with the glass, for with the rising of the clouds, and the freshening breeze, therehad come a slight mist in the air that rendered seeing difficult.
“Good-bye to Coco Key, then,” Ballyhoo had said, waving his hand toward the distant northwest where the island lay. “And I warrant you those chaps are the busy lot right now, sending a diver down, and holding their breath until he comes up again to report nothing doing. But say, it’s getting beyond a joke out here. You’ve got to hold tight unless you want to be tossed overboard. I move we go below, boys, and settle down; any old time now the skipper will be giving orders to close the hatch, because we’re meaning to dip under.”
It happened that they received notice to leave the “hurricane deck” before Ballyhoo’s advice could be acted on. And the last glimpse they had of the ocean things were certainly looking pretty stormy.
Then followed the customary sounds that told they were taking on water ballast, and sinking fast. After that the rocking, sickening motion gradually ceased until they were moving on an even keel, with everything steady around them.
As usual the boys, not being able to move around much, sought their bunks, to lie there and doze, or else converse on the many subjects that were of interest to them. Oscar wandered off at one time, there being something he wished to see in connection with the working of the submarine at such a time as this.
Jack, upon finding that nothing could be discoveredthrough an observation bull’s-eye, when he opened the stout shutter, save a surging mass of green water rushing past, realized that picture taking would not pay him just then. Besides, he began to fear that he would make too great inroads on his stock of reserve films unless he exercised considerable caution, so he determined to bide his time, as there were undoubtedly wonderful things yet in store for him.
Hours crept by.
The tired divers no doubt welcomed this opportunity to recuperate after their recent strenuous employment. Captain Shooks, too, must have spent much of this time in his bunk, for the boys saw nothing of him; though he may have been up in the conning tower several times for aught they knew, advising the man at the wheel, or taking an observation by means of the periscope as to the condition of the weather above.
When the three chums were beginning to feel dreadfully tired of being shut in such cramped quarters, and with poor air to breathe at that, Ballyhoo made the pleasing discovery that the electric pumps were busy again.
“We’re going to the surface, boys!” he told the others gleefully. “Oh! how I’m longing for a lungful of that salty air. I never knew how glorious pure air could be until I first spent three hours cooped up in an undersea boat. Why, right now I can taste oil and gas to beat the band. This sort of travel may be novel enough, but it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, by a jugfull.”
Presently they knew they were drawing near the surface on account of the renewal of that pitching motion. Captain Shooks, however, must have figured that it would be perfectly safe for them to emerge, for the pumps continued to work, and in the end through the bull’s-eyes they could catch occasional glimpses of daylight, though, as a rule, surging water blinded their view.
When this had continued for perhaps an hour they felt a sudden relief, showing that the hatch above the conning tower must have been opened to allow fresh air to circulate through the boat. The ventilators, too, were in use again, and conditions seemed vastly improved.
Being allowed to climb aloft later on, the boys saw nothing around them in any direction but a tumbling sea, with foam-crested billows. It was surely an inspiring sight, especially when seen from the deck of a low craft like a submarine, that lay on the heaving waters like a duck.
Jack, unable to resist the temptation to immortalize that picture, managed to get his camera on deck, and, with the help of both his comrades, work off part of a film that would give them great delight in some of the days to come, when they were once more safely back in quiet, sedate little old Melancton.
The wind was dying down, however, and by evening they expected there would be a quiet sea, with simply long rollers running, over which they could make rapid progress.
Nothing happened of any moment during thenext night, though they continued on their set course, heading for a certain port where Captain Shooks had often touched, and hence felt sure he could obtain all the supplies required.
It was somewhere about the middle of the second day when they sighted land, and the boys were told they would soon have an opportunity to stretch their legs ashore for a few hours; possibly they would remain in port until the following morning, since there was no great need of haste.
This news pleased them all very much. It was, indeed, hard to be contented and happy when compelled to occupy such cramped quarters. Ballyhoo wondered what the crew of a raiding submarine must feel like when kept aboard for weeks at a time. He concluded that this one experience was going to do him for the rest of his life; if fortune was kind enough to allow him to see his native town again he meant to take a solemn vow to confine the balance of his roving to dry land. Whether this resolution on the part of Ballyhoo would hold good only the uncertain future could prove, for he chanced to be one of those boys who often change their minds.