CHAPTER XVI
"Go Away!"
"Some one came into our cave last night and stole most of our supplies," said Frank.
"A man?"
"We didn't see him, but it could scarcely have been an animal of any kind, for he carried off a whole box of food."
"You don't say!" exclaimed Captain Royal.
"And we found a footprint too," added Joe.
Captain Royal shook his head in amazement.
"This is very strange. I had no idea there was any one else around this part of the coast. You can see for yourself that it is hard to get here, and if there were any one else around I would be sure to see him."
"And you've seen no one?"
"Not a living soul, besides yourselves. And he stole your supplies?"
"Nearly all of them. He left us some canned beans, a loaf of bread, some butter and some coffee; but that's about all."
"Canned beans! It's a long time since I've had any canned beans. Perhaps we could trade."
"That's not a bad idea," said Chet. "There are other things we need."
"I have some dried fish here," said the captain. "I have fish and a case of eggs and some other things. Go get those beans and we'll trade."
Chet hastened back to the other cave and returned in due time with the cans of beans, which the captain accepted with considerable delight. In exchange, the boys received some fish and two dozen eggs.
"I got the eggs off a boat yesterday," explained Captain Royal, "and I've been thinking ever since that it was foolish of me to buy a whole case, because they mightn't keep. I'd rather have canned beans any day."
When the exchange was effected, their host suddenly became silent and sat for a long time looking gloomily at the sand. The boys were wondering when the promised fish dinner was to put in its appearance. Apparently, Captain Royal had forgotten all about his invitation. Suddenly he looked up.
"Well," he demanded curtly, "what are you hanging around for, boys?"
They gazed at the man in surprise.
"Why—you asked us to stay," stammered Frank.
"Yes," returned the old man tartly, "but I didn't ask you to stay all day."
The boys were so astonished at this sudden change of front that for a moment they thought the captain was joking. But they soon learned that he was in earnest, for he got to his feet with a mutter.
"Must I order you out?"
"Why, what's the matter?" inquired Joe, "Have we offended you in any way?"
"Be off with you! Go away! Get out of here."
The boys got to their feet, vastly surprised.
"Go away!" repeated Captain Royal, advancing on them with a threatening gesture. "Clear out. I prefer to be alone."
"Why, certainly," said Frank. "We had no idea we were disturbing you, Captain."
"Don't argue. Get out. By jing, I've had enough people bothering me lately and I'm not going to stand for it any longer. I thought when I found this cave that people would leave me alone, and now I am annoyed by a pack of meddlesome boys. Go away!"
Without further ado, the lads retreated from the cave. Captain Royal stood in the entrance, shaking his fist at them angrily.
"Clear out of here!" he stormed. "Don't let me catch you around this cave again or it will be the worse for you."
Then he wheeled about abruptly and disappeared into the darkness of the cave.
The boys looked at one another in amazement.
"Can you beat that!" exclaimed Chet.
"What's wrong with the old coot, anyway?" demanded Biff. "Has he gone crazy?"
"I can't understand it," said Frank. "One minute he invites us to stay for dinner, and in the next breath he orders us away."
Joe tapped his head significantly.
"I think he's a little bit off his head."
"Perhaps it's the heat," volunteered Chet.
"He is certainly a queer old codger," Biff declared. "I don't know what to make of him."
The boys went back down the beach toward their own cave. Fortunately, before he started, Chet had had enough presence of mind to pick up the provisions they had obtained from the old man, so the boys were so much to the good, at any rate.
"He's crazy," insisted Joe. "Those stories he told us were the wildest yarns I ever heard in my life. I wonder if he thought we were simple enough to believe them."
"As if anybody didn't know that a rhinoceros couldn't swim the ocean!" scoffed Chet.
"And pineapples that grow on a tree!"
"I don't think he's ever been a sailor at all," Frank declared. "His naval terms were certainly mixed. He called his ship a destroyer and a warship and a schooner and didn't seem to notice the difference. And he said the quartermaster was in charge after he left the ship."
"And everybody knows they don't make people walk the plank nowadays."
"His stories were as full of holes as a sieve. But I don't know whether he told them just for the fun of stuffing us or just because he is clean crazy and doesn't know any better."
The boys discussed Captain Royal and his eccentric behavior all the way back to their cave, and agreed that if the old gentleman was not a lunatic he was at least slightly unbalanced.
"The very fact that he lives away off here all by himself proves it," insisted Joe. "No man in his right mind would live in a cave down in this lonely spot. I wonder if he was the man who came and stole our supplies last night."
Frank shook his head.
"I thought of that and I took a look around his cave, but there was no sign of any of our stuff. Besides, he seemed much surprised when we told him there was some one else hanging around."
"He might have been smart enough to act as though he were surprised. Perhaps he had our provisions hidden away."
"But why would he want to trade with us?"
"Because he's crazy."
The lads went back to their own cave and then went for a swim in the surf, forgetting Captain Royal in their enjoyment of the stimulating salt water. In spite of the generally rocky nature of the coast the beach in front of their cave was sandy and sloped gently into the water, providing an ideal bathing place.
When the swim was over they prepared lunch from what limited food they had on hand, and in the afternoon they went back down the shore again to resume their tour of exploration.
They did not see the captain again, although they passed his cave, keeping at a respectful distance so as not to incur his wrath. Farther down the shore they found a series of large caves, and some of these they explored. However, they found nothing of interest, although they spent the entire afternoon prowling about the caverns. At sundown they returned, footsore and weary, to their own headquarters.
After supper they sat about their campfire chatting, but Chet and Biff were so tired that their heads soon began to nod and they decided to retire for the night. Joe would have done likewise, but Frank asked him to sit up a while longer.
Biff and Chet were soon snoring, and not until then did Frank broach the subject on his mind.
"Did you notice an expression Captain Royal used several times when he was talking to us?" he asked his brother.
Joe reflected.
"I can't say that I noticed anything in particular," he confessed.
"Don't you remember that he said 'by jing' now and then?"
Joe looked up, startled.
"Now I remember! Yes, he did say that. And 'by jing' is the very expression—"
"The very expression Evangeline Todd said her missing brother used so often!"
"That's a fact!" exclaimed Joe. "And now that I come to think of it, I remember his shoelaces."
"They were untied."
"And Todham Todd had a habit of going about with his shoelaces untied too!"