CHAPTER VII.THE DISASTER.
Ned not only told the story of his being marooned, but gave a detailed account of his life from his first recollections to the present day, and when this rather long narrative was ended, Roy began according to agreement.
“Vance’s father and mine live at Tampa, in Florida, during the winter, but they haven’t come down yet. We were allowed to start ahead of the two families because just at this time it is a question to be decided whether we attend school any longer or call our education finished and go into some kind of business.
“The Zoe hails from Key West, but she has been chartered by Vance’s father for the season, and we had permission to cruise in her as far as Savannah, with her regular crew, of course, at which port we were to meet our parents and carry them around to Tampa.
“We had on board day before yesterday a sailing master, an engineer and his assistant. Vance andI acted as stewards. I don’t know where we were when the storm came up, but had heard the master say he should run close up the chain of keys. Of course you know the hurricane began in the night, and since Vance and I were both below, we had no idea of the nearest land.
“I was awakened by the pitching and tossing of the yacht, and as it made me feel rather sick I thought it would be wisest to remain where I was instead of venturing on deck, where there was little chance of seeing anything.
“It was nearly daylight when Vance realized that something unusual was going on, and then he felt so nearly the same as I that it was a case of both remaining where we were until I thought I heard a scream from the deck. Twice it appeared as if some one was calling me by name from a distance, although Vance declared I must be mistaken, and then I managed to get on deck to investigate.
“Even then it seemed as if the little craft was under water more than half the time, and while I stood in the companion-way wondering whether it was safe to attempt to go forward, a wave broke over the stern and literally drowned Vance out of his berth. He yelled for me not to make a fool of myself by keeping the door open at risk of swamping the steamer, but to come back, and just at that instantI saw the engineer in the pilot-house waving his hand for me to join him.
“From the expression of his face, and the fact that he was at the wheel instead of where he belonged, I knew there was something wrong; but since it would have been worse than useless to have gone across the deck just then, and I’m inclined to believe the best sailor in the world couldn’t have done it, I ran below, through the passage into the engine-room, and from there to the pilot-house.
“You can fancy how startled I was at seeing no one attending to the machinery. Both Vance and I had been taking lessons in running the craft, and the engineer continually impressed on our mind the necessity of always keeping a strict watch on the engine. After learning that this portion of the yacht was ‘going it alone,’ I got to the wheel as soon as possible, and there found no one but the engineer.
“Without waiting for me to ask any questions he said that the master and his own assistant had been washed overboard and drowned half an hour ago. It seems the engineer had sent the young fellow to the wheel-house to carry some coffee which had been prepared on the boiler during the night, and the poor man slipped just as he opened the door leading from the deck to the wheel. A big wavecarried him over the side, but he clung to the rail, and the sailing master ran out to help him.
“Just at that moment another wave swept the yacht fore and aft, carrying both the unfortunate men with it, and the engineer saw the whole thing without being able to aid them in the slightest. The steamer, with no one at the helm, began to yaw, and would have been swamped then and there if he hadn’t run to the helm. From that moment until I appeared at the companion-way he had been shouting for us. The engine and the fires needed attention, but he couldn’t go below until some one relieved him from the steering.
“I knew a little about such things, and since we were running on a course which it had been the sailing master’s intention to hold until noon, there was nothing to do but keep her by the compass. The engineer went below, and after what seemed like a very long time, Vance, worried because I had not come back, went into the engine-room. Ten minutes later he was with me, looking about as pale as any fellow you ever saw.”
“I couldn’t have been much whiter than you was,” Vance retorted.
“I’m willing to admit that,” Roy replied, “for I was as frightened as I well could be, and the thought that two out of our crew of three weredead didn’t tend to make the situation seem any more cheerful.”
“Could you have run the yacht to Savannah if she hadn’t got wrecked?” Ned asked.
“We might, but only by pure chance, and then it would have been necessary to heave to at night. The engineer confessed that he couldn’t do it, so you can see that even then matters appeared to be about as bad as possible, though we soon had good proof they were not. For two hours more we staggered along as best we could, and it seemed to me that the yacht was completely under water half the time. Then the engineer came to tell us that Vance must come into the engine-room with him. Something had gone wrong and he needed assistance.
“Vance went, and when they arrived there the engineer discovered that several of his tools were in the forepeak. He started after them. I saw him come on deck and tried to make him go back. At that moment the engine stopped suddenly; the yacht seemed to be filled with steam, and when it was possible to see anything more the engineer had disappeared, probably washed overboard as the others had been.
“Of course it was useless to stand at the wheel while there was no steerage-way on, and Vance andI had begun to discuss whether it would be possible for us to hoist one of the sails in order to keep her before the wind, when the final disaster came.
“I can’t describe how it happened, but in an instant she was on her beam-ends, and every movable thing, including both the boats, was washed away. I didn’t feel so very bad when the tenders went, because they would have been of no service to us in that sea, even if we could have gotten them free from the davits, which I doubt.
“From that hour until you saw us we could do no more than cling to the rail waiting for the last moment to come, and many times did it seem certain the wreck was going to the bottom. I gave up all hope when the engineer was washed overboard, and never saw a ray of promise again, even when you shouted for us to jump.”
“Well,” Ned said reflectively after a brief pause, “now we’re here, what’s the chance of ever gettin’ away? The yacht might be floated, but the question is whether you could run her.”
“I don’t know but that the machinery is injured so badly we couldn’t even turn the screw. Don’t you suppose some kind of a craft will come along this way pretty soon?”
“I’m afraid not,” Ned replied. “You see, Captain Bragg most likely set me ashore in a placewhere there wasn’t much chance anything like that would happen, otherwise I might have told my story before he had an opportunity to collect the insurance.”
“That’s true,” Vance replied sleepily. “I’ll venture to say, though, that we shall come out all right in a few days, even if it is necessary to take to a raft. So let’s go to sleep now. I feel as if I hadn’t closed my eyes for a week.”
Roy was quite willing to act upon this suggestion, and in a very short time the two were sleeping soundly; but Ned could not compose himself for slumber so readily.
The question of the treasure troubled him considerably.
If he should reveal the secret the boys would most likely claim their share, and although he now had very much more than he had ever expected to own, it was hard to part with a single piece.
In case he did not tell them, how could he take it away?
If any craft came along and they had an opportunity of leaving the key, he could not carry the treasure with him unknown to his companions, and would also be debarred from searching for more.
“I shall have to let them into the snap,” he said, with a sigh. “It’s too bad, but I don’t see how itcan be helped. In the morning I’ll show what I found, an’ we’ll begin work on the wreck.”
With this resolve his mind was freed from the greater portion of the trouble which had weighed heavily upon it, and he fell asleep.
When the boys awakened on the following morning the scene which met their gaze was really a cheerful one, save for the disabled steamer lying half-submerged on the shore.
She alone told of disaster.
The waves were shimmering like gold in the rays of the sun; the foliage was of the densest green, with the white tent at the edge of the grove like a jewel on a piece of rare enameling, and as a background the yellow sands, which sparkled like silver.
Ned stood at the door of the tent drinking it all in until Vance, awakening, cried:
“What is the matter? Do you see a craft?”
“There’s nothin’ in sight. I was lookin’ around and thinkin’ that, accordin’ to the way things appear this mornin’, it isn’t such a terrible thing to be either marooned or shipwrecked.”
“Not after a fellow has gotten safely ashore; but as for going through the experience, I’ve had enough in mine. I don’t believe I shall ever again feel perfectly safe on the water, no matter how big a craft I’m in.”
The hum of conversation awakened Roy, and he heard the last remark.
“Nonsense!” he cried with a hearty laugh. “If we get off this island safely, it won’t be a week before you’ll be trying your luck in the first boat that comes at hand.”
“Wait and see.”
“That’s what I shall have to do. I reckon I’m booked for the most of the cooking, as I did on the Zoe, and I happen to fancy some fried fish. If you two fellows will get the stove on shore, I’ll try my luck with one of Ned’s lines.”
Ned was eager to see what Roy could do in the culinary department when he had every convenience. He had proved himself such a success as a cook on the evening previous with nearly everything lacking that the breakfast should be a marvel, and he started on without waiting to hear what Vance had to say on the subject.
Lying on her beam-ends as the little steamer was, the task of getting the stove ashore was not a difficult one.
The kitchen was on the port side, and she had been flung upon the starboard rail, consequently they would not be impeded by the water. It was only necessary to pull the small range up, and then let it slide down the almost perpendicular deck.
Roy had not brought his labors as a fisherman to a close when the stove was in position near one end of the tent, and Ned began making a swinging-cap to the pipe in order that it might not be necessary to move the entire apparatus whenever the wind shifted.
Vance brought another supply of provisions on shore, and marked out a site for the cook-tent, saying as he did so:
“The sooner we get a second camp up, the sooner we can begin to bring the stuff ashore from the steamer. I figure that we’ve got enough canvas to make another tent as big as the first, and it will give us ample room for all our supplies.”
“And we can’t get them on shore any too soon, according to my way of thinking,” Roy added as he finished cleaning the fish. “No one knows when another storm may spring up, and I don’t believe the poor old Zoe would stand a second such beating as she got yesterday. It may be we haven’t many days left in which to strip her.”
“We’ll begin as soon as breakfast is over. It won’t take more than two hours to put up the other tent, and by nightfall there should be enough here to last us a good many months, if we don’t get too extravagant and serve bacon with our fish,” he added laughingly as he saw what Roy was preparing to do.
“If you knew very much about cooking you wouldn’t grumble at anything like this. All first-class cooks, including myself, serve bacon with fish.”
“Not when they are cast away with no chance of replenishing their stores.”
“I can’t say as to that until after making inquiries, but I’ll let you know at the first convenient opportunity. Breakfast is ready, if the boarders will please arrange themselves on the ground in proper attitudes.”
“I’ll start the thing,” Ned said as he seated himself near the stove, “an’ after we’ve eaten our full I’ll show you fellows something that’ll make your eyes stick out more’n they ever did before.”
“Something connected with the island?” Vance asked.
“Yes.”
“Then tell us now, or I shall spoil my breakfast trying to guess what it is.”
“It would spoil your breakfast for a certainty if I should even hint at it, and this grub is too good to be wasted.”
Neither Roy nor Vance fancied for a moment that their companion could have any very important secret, but they bantered him to reveal it until the last fish and slice of bacon had disappeared, when he said with an air of seriousness which surprised them:
“Put the dishes away while I go aboard the steamer for a shovel, an’ when I come back you’ll get the biggest kind of a surprise.”
The boys understood from the tone in which Ned had spoken that he was not trying to make sport of them, and both watched him earnestly as he returned with the necessary tools for unearthing his treasure.
“Now keep your eyes peeled,” he said as he began the work, “an’ tell me what you see.”
Exclamations of surprise burst from the lips of the boys when the piles of silver were exposed to view, and Ned turned the pieces over much like a miser counting his hoard.
“Is this all yours?” Vance cried as soon as he had recovered from his surprise sufficiently to be able to speak.
“I reckon it is, seein’s how I’m the first one to find it.”
“Find it?” the boys cried in concert.
“That’s what I said. It was in a box, but I didn’t have anything to open the cover with, so had to burn it off, an’ after that there was nothin’ left in which to put the money.”
“How many dollars’ worth are there?”
“I haven’t had time to count them. I didn’t find the beauties until the night of the storm.”
“And was it on this island you discovered them?”
“Of course. You don’t fancy Captain Bragg would send that much ashore with me, do you?”
“Where did it come from?” Roy cried, pale with excitement.
“I’ll show you, an’ it seems as if we ought to be able to get more, for I didn’t hunt very much.”
Ned led the way through the grove, his companions urging him to greater speed, so eager were they to see the exact spot from which the treasure had been taken.
“There it is,” he finally said as he pointed to the blackened timbers which could be seen above the sand.
“A pirate vessel!” Vance exclaimed.
“I don’t think so,” Ned replied decidedly, although his ideas as to what a piratical craft might be like were very hazy. “It don’t seem as if they’d keep money boxed up the same as that was which I found. I was after the timbers to build a hut of, an’ dug the sand away with sticks, so you can fancy I didn’t have a chance to search over very much space.”
The storm had obliterated all signs of his labor, but he remembered exactly which of the ancient timbers he had counted on first taking away, andwas thus able to point out the exact spot where the treasure had reposed so long.
“Let’s overhaul the whole place, and see what we can find,” Vance cried excitedly, and would have started at full speed after a shovel but for Roy, who caught him by the arm as he said impressively:
“Wait a minute. There is plenty of time, and we’d better talk this matter over. No one can say how long we may be obliged to stay here, and perhaps the hour will come when food seems more valuable than gold. If there is other treasure in this place it will stay, and that is what can’t be said for the yacht.”
“You think we’d better get the grub ashore before foolin’ ’round here?” Ned asked.
“Yes, most decidedly. When we have taken from the yacht all which may be useful, we shall still have plenty of time to dig over this sand. Or, even if it happens that we are rescued very soon, our fathers will be willing to come here after hearing Ned’s story.”
“Very well, let’s get to work at once, for I’m eager to see how many more of those dollars can be found,” Vance said with a laugh. “I don’t suppose they’ll do us any good while we’re prisoned here, but it must be mighty pleasant work digging them out.”