Kitabı oku: «Motor Boat Boys Among the Florida Keys; Or, The Struggle for the Leadership», sayfa 4

CHAPTER VII.
THE LOST CHUM

Uneasiness increased as the shadows of night began to fall around them; and the motor boat boys cast many anxious glances toward the gloomy patches of mangroves along the shore, as well as the denser sawgrass, dwarf palmetto and trees that covered the mainland.

“I don’t like this at all,” Jack finally declared. “We’ve shouted enough for any one with ears, within half a mile, to have heard us.”

“And never had a peep from Josh, that’s a fact,” declared Nick, whose cheeks had lost some of their customary color, in the face of this mystery; for he was very fond of the absent chum.

“Whatever could have happened to the lad?” asked Jimmy.

“It seems hard to believe that he could have lost himself, and wandered so far away that he couldn’t fire his gun, or hear us yell,” Herb observed, frowning.

George plucked at the sleeve of Jack, as he remarked in a low, nervous tone:

“Now, you don’t believe they could have had anything to do with our chum’s disappearance, do you?”

“What in the wide world are you speaking about?” demanded the other, startled for the moment by the grave way in which George said this.

“Why, you know, that queer lot in the boat that was a ringer for the Tramp,” was what George added, quickly.

“Oh! come now, what put that silly notion in your head?” asked Jack; though at the same time he could not but weigh the startling proposition advanced by George in his mind, and find himself impressed more or less by its possibility.

“I suppose,” George went on, “because, for the life of me, I just can’t imagine any other reason why the fellow wouldn’t do something to let us know he was alive. If he discovered that he was lost, I’m dead sure Josh would have sense enough to holler, and fire his gun several times in succession.”

“And we never heard the first sign,” declared Herb.

“Well, I’ve just stood it as long as I mean to,” declared Jack.

“Yes; let’s get busy and do something,” George burst out with, for he was ever an impetuous fellow, eager to be accomplishing things, and getting to his intended goal by a short-cut, if possible.

“Jack, say what, and we’ll stand by you,” Herb spoke up, with a look of grim determination on his face.

“Them’s my sentiments!” affirmed Jimmy.

“Say the word, and we’ll all back you up, Commodore!” Nick put in, puffing his cheeks out, and looking very fierce – for him.

“Well, there’s an old saying, you remember,” Jack remarked, “to the effect that if the mountain won’t come to you, the next best thing is to go to the mountain. And if Josh hangs fire about returning to camp, why, some of us have got to get a hustle on, and look him up. That’s plain enough, I hope.”

“It sure is; and we expect you to be the one to lead the rescue party, Jack,” George declared.

“All right; and as there’s no time to be lost, let’s get busy. Somebody has to stay here, and guard the camp; and I appoint Nick as the fellow to take that duty on his shoulders.”

When Jack made this declaration, Nick started, and seemed to shiver a little; but, realizing that all eyes were turned toward him, he braced up again.

“Oh! all right, Jack, just as you say,” he expressed himself.

“Understand,” Jack explained, seeing that the fat boy felt hurt; “it isn’t because there’s any doubt about your courage and all that; but none of us can say how far we may have to tramp, or what swamps we’ll have to wade through; and you admit, Nick, that you’re not fitted for campaigning in that line as well as some of the rest of us.”

“Sure, I know that,” said Nick, heaving a sigh.

“But,” continued Jack, as though he had had a second thought, “as three of us ought to be enough, I guess I’ll leave a second guard behind. Herb, would you mind staying, to keep Nick company? It’s just as much a post of honor as going with George, Jimmy and myself. And you’ll have to keep watch all the time.”

“Oh! I’m ready to do just what you say, Jack. I believe you know best; and while of course I’d rather be with the hunting party, count on me holding up the other end with Nick here,” Herb hastened to declare.

“Then that’s settled,” Jack went on, relieved to find that his plans were meeting with next to no opposition. “Of course you’ll have your gun, while each of us will go armed; for there’s no telling what we may meet up with. I’ll take the rifle, while George and Jimmy have the scatter-guns.”

“Yes, and if you find Josh, how will you let us know?” Herb asked.

“I’ll fire six shots at regular intervals of about two seconds apart. Be sure to count them carefully if you hear any firing, because in case we meet up with a prowling panther, or anything like that, the shooting would be more rapid.”

When Jack mentioned that one word “panther,” it might have been observed that Nick’s mouth opened, as if sudden dismay had seized hold upon him. However, once more he summoned his nerve to the fore, and shut his teeth hard together. It was Herb, fortunately, who advanced the proposition that must have been buzzing in the brain of the more timid Nick.

“After you’ve gone, Jack, perhaps it would be just as well for Nick and myself to go aboard the boats, and hold the fort there. We’ll make sure to keep the fire burning all the while, so you’ll have a signal on the shore, to tell where we are. Is that right, fellows?” he remarked.

“Best thing you could do; and I was just going to say something like that,” was the way Jack put it.

George had made haste to secure the guns, and each of the three now held a weapon in his hands. They looked very warlike and grim, as the camp-fire shone on the polished steel; and Nick could, after all, be pardoned for showing signs of excitement as they prepared to start off. For Nick was in the main a peaceable lad, who liked not strife under any conditions.

“Perhaps we’d better give one more halloo before we go?” suggested George; for the idea of tramping into that mysterious wilderness, with its swamps and unknown perils, was not to be treated lightly as a picnic, by any means.

So they all raised their voices, and sent out a series of whoops that might have made any Indian warrior envious.

“Listen!” cried Jack, after this had gone on for a full minute.

The last echo had died away, and complete silence followed.

“Never a thing!” exclaimed George.

“Oh! hark! what is that?” cried Nick, eagerly.

“Only an owl far away, answering us,” Jack declared, promptly.

“Must think we’re trying to give him the laugh,” Herb remarked; although he was feeling in anything but a joking mood, with the strange disappearance of Josh weighing on his mind so heavily.

“Come on, boys,” Jack called out. “I’ve got the lantern lighted, and we’ll try our luck following his trail as long as we are able to see it. Oh! and Herb, if you and Nick want, you might as well eat something while we’re gone.”

“Nixy for me,” Herb made answer. “My appetite seems to have gone up the flue. But we could be cooking something, in case you found Josh, and all came in hungry.”

“Sure, that’s right,” Nick hastened to add. “It’ll give us something to keep our minds busy, and that means a whole lot. Good-bye, boys; and the best of luck!”

“We sure hope you find our chum, safe and sound,” Herb added, feelingly.

“One thing more,” Jack went on to say; “If Josh should happen in while we’re gone, you’ll want to let us know.”

“That’s right; I hadn’t thought of that,” said Herb.

“Then listen. Fire both barrels of your gun, about two seconds apart. Then repeat the volley twice more, making six shots in all. We’ll understand what you want to tell us, and that we’re needed here. That’s all. Come on, George and Jimmy.”

Nick watched them pass away, and the face of the fat boy told that his soul was troubled. Yet it was not so much of himself he thought, but the strange mystery hovering over this vanishing of Josh.

Jack knew where the long-legged would-be hunter had last been seen, and accordingly he made direct for that spot.

Evidently he had no especial trouble in discovering the tracks left by the heels of Josh’s shoes, for those left behind saw the trio move directly away. Soon the flitting glimmer of the moving lantern vanished entirely among the thickets covering the land in places.

Josh had headed down the shore when he went forth to try and add to the camp larder by knocking down a bunch of the tasty little snipe and other shore birds, flocks of which were seen whenever the tide changed, and the mud flats became partly bare.

That meant he had gone west, for the boys had fallen into the habit of saying “down” as long as they were headed south; and until they turned up the coast it would continue that way.

Jack led with his lantern, and carrying the rifle in his other hand. For some little time the three boys kept on this way. When the tracks became harder to see, Jack used his judgment, and managed to pick up the trail again every time.

All the while George and Jimmy were casting uneasy looks ahead. The moon being past its prime, would not rise for some time; and as a consequence all was pitch darkness around them. It was easy to imagine all sorts of perils lurking in that gloom beyond. Every simple little sound, such as a stray ’coon scampering away at the coming of the swinging light, caused them a new quiver.

George could not get that strange motor boat out of his mind. He believed that it had left Miami ahead of them, for it was gone on the morning after their arrival. And the chances were that it had come down here ahead of them.

Having more or less of a vivid imagination, George was picturing all sorts of strange things as happening. He even looked back along the career of their chum, Josh, trying to figure out some romantic reason for these people on the strange craft to want to kidnap the long-legged youth.

Despite his best efforts, however, this was pretty much a failure. There never was a fellow with more of an ordinary every-day past than the said Josh. George had known him since they were kids together, first starting in to school. His father was one of the substantial men of the town; and, so far as George knew, there had never been even the faintest rumor of anything singular attaching to the Purdue family.

So George, baffled in this respect, had to give it up, and confess himself altogether at sea. But if Josh had simply gone and lost himself, then why had he not answered their shouts?

They had now been following the trail of the missing chum quite some time, and found themselves at a considerable distance from camp. Every now and then, apparently, Josh had made his way to the shore, to find out whether there were any flocks of birds in sight; but as he still kept moving on, he evidently met with disappointment.

That he continued to wander on was evidence of a determination to find some sort of game. Josh was not much of a hunter, and he did hate to be unmercifully guyed by Jimmy and Nick, whenever he came back empty handed.

“It can’t be long now, before we make some sort of discovery,” George finally remarked.

“I agree with you,” Jack said, over his shoulder.

“How far are we from camp now, Jack?” continued the skipper of the Wireless.

“Perhaps a mile, more or less,” answered the pilot of the expedition.

“But not so far as to be beyond the sound of the yell we put up, eh?” continued George.

“Unless Josh suddenly became stone deaf, he must have heard us,” replied the other.

“See here; you’ve got something on your mind; why not share it with us, Jack? You’re bothered about something, too. If it don’t take in those queer acting fellows on the power boat, what does ail you?” and George caught hold of his chum as the other arose from examining the trail once more.

“Oh! I don’t know as there could be anything in it,” Jack admitted, slowly, as if loth to air his secret fears.

“But tell us what you do think, even if it does seem impossible, Jack.”

“Only this, that if our chum chanced to slip into some muck bed, he might have been sucked down in the slimy stuff before he could even shout for help,” was the gruesome remark to which Jack gave utterance.

CHAPTER VIII.
TRACKED TO THE BAYOU

“Oh! I hope it won’t turn out as bad as that, Jack!” gasped George.

“The poor spalpeen!” whimpered Jimmy, apparently shocked by what their leader had just remarked.

“Now,” Jack hastened to say, “don’t make up your minds, boys, that Josh has run against that sort of a hard deal, just because it flashed into my mind. You wanted to know why I was in such a sweat, and I told you. But, honest Injun, after I’ve spoken my mind, I just can’t bring myself to believe it. We’ll find our chum, sooner or later. Perhaps, after all, it’ll turn out that he had a bad tumble, and hurt himself so he wasn’t able to let us know.”

“Well, as long as we’re able to follow his trail, we hadn’t ought to give up in despair,” George asserted, very sensibly.

“Sure, we’ve shown in the past that we’re not built that way,” Jimmy thought fit to remark, firmly.

“Then let’s be going on,” Jack wound up the conference by saying.

For the fifth time the trail approached the water again. Josh evidently hated to give up the idea that had been in his mind when he left camp. If there were any of those dainty little shore birds to be had, he wanted to get a crack at the same; though by this time he must have become aware of the fact that he was wandering much farther away than he had intended doing in the start.

This time there happened to be quite a deep-seated cove, with a point of land running out that would completely shut out all sight of the spot where the three motor boats were anchored, with the camp-fire ashore.

Jack noted this fact; somehow it was impressed on his mind, though he could not have exactly explained why this should be so, had he been asked.

The tracks grew fainter, so that it was only by pushing the glowing and useful lantern down close to the sand that Jack was able to follow the line by which Josh had pushed his way along.

“Here is where he dropped on his knees, the better to crawl forward,” whispered the guide; and both George and Jimmy could make out the deeper impressions that undoubtedly must have been made by a pair of knees pressing down.

There was a screen of saw palmetto in front of them, hiding the water. Perhaps Josh had discovered a flock of the coveted birds on a bar, and was making his way to a point he had in mind, where he might suddenly rise, and fire. But something must have prevented his carrying out this plan, then, for certainly the sound of a heavy shotgun charge could have been heard at the camp, had he pulled trigger. “Wait here for me, and keep quiet,” whispered Jack, as, leaving the lantern on the ground, he started away.

His two companions were rendered almost speechless by his strange action. They could only stare at each other, and nod their heads, as though striving in this way to communicate their fears.

In two minutes Jack came back. He looked disappointed as he stooped to pick up the lantern again.

“Nothing doing, boys,” he said, quietly.

“They don’t seem to be, and that’s a fact,” mumbled Jimmy, much depressed.

“See here, what did you expect to find when you went on there?” demanded George, immediately suspicious. “Was it anything about that bally old boat, the one that’s been dogging us all the way down from Jacksonville? Tell me that, Jack, old top!”

“H’m! perhaps it may be the people aboard that same boat have come to the conclusion we’re doing the dogging. They run across us in all sorts of unexpected places. And if you stop to remember, George, it’s the other boat that has always slipped away secretly, not us!”

“You’re right, it was,” George flashed up; “but you didn’t answer my question, Jack.”

“Well, I did have your pet hobby in mind when I went on just now, to take a look at this fine little lagoon; because, with that point of land standing in a half-moon curve, it looks like a splendid harbor for small boats. And, to tell you the truth, I picked up the butt end of a cigarette just back there five feet, one that was thrown away recently, because no rain or dew had fallen on it!”

“Whew! now, that does look suspicious, I must say,” George exclaimed, in a low and cautious voice.

“But there isn’t a sign of any boat in the bayou, as far as I could see,” Jack went on. “Of course, it’s so dark now that I wasn’t able to take in the whole bay; but, anyhow, there isn’t a light visible.”

“And now, what nixt?” asked Jimmy, eager to get at the solution of this perplexing problem, which was thrilling their nerves more and more as they made progress.

For answer, Jack moved forward, this time using the friendly lantern as before. Brushing through the screen of saw palmettos, they could see the water lapping the shore of the lagoon, though there were still bushes and tall grass between.

“Hello!”

Uttering this exclamation half under his breath, the leader of the trio suddenly came to a halt. Jimmy half raised the gun he was carrying, as though under the impression that they were about to be confronted by something, either a human enemy or one in the way of a wild beast, that would bar their further progress.

Then he saw that Jack, instead of showing signs of preparing for battle, was on his knees, eagerly examining certain marks in the sand.

“What have you found?” asked George, in an awed tone.

“As near as I can make out, there are tracks that seem to tell of a scuffle!” was the ready reply, as Jack pointed here and there.

“By the great horn spoon, but I believe you’re right!” gasped George.

“It’s either that, now, or else the gossoon’s been and had a fit,” Jimmy declared, though he could not remember that Josh had ever been addicted to such things.

“No; there have been two men here,” said Jack.

“Glory be!” ejaculated the Irish lad.

“Tell us how you know that, Jack?” asked George, his face struggling between a grin and a look of alarm.

“Why, it’s as plain as print; and if you look here, you’ll see the marks of their shoes. Both seem much larger than Josh ever made, and yet they are different, for one had heels, and the other must have been wearing some sort of moccasin, perhaps the kind I’ve got, to be used aboard a small, varnished decked boat, so as to avoid scratching.”

“Didn’t I say so?” burst out George, unable to hold in any longer. “After this you won’t think I’m off my base when I mention my suspicions about fellows who run away in the night, peek through marine glasses at us every chance they get, and just act like a parcel of sneaks. Jack, that fly-up-the-creek power boat must have been in this bayou when our chum came crawling through these bushes, and took a look out.”

“That’s about what I’m thinking, now,” admitted the other.

“Some of the men happened to be ashore, and saw him spying on the boat? Is that in line with what you think, Jack?”

“It looks that way. Two unknown parties certainly dropped down on Josh while he was lying here. He put up as good a fight as he could, but they were too much for the poor fellow,” Jack went on, looking as though he might be reading all these things from the marks upon the sand.

“But you don’t say any signs of blood, do ye, Jack darlint?” asked Jimmy, with a plain vein of horror in his quavering voice.

“No, I’m glad to say I don’t,” replied the other. “So, on that account it would seem that the fellows haven’t actually hurt Josh, only made him a prisoner.”

Jimmy gave a bleat, not unlike the pitiful sound a distressed goat might emit.

“Och! thin the bally rascals have carried him away wid them, and we’ll niver set eyes on our chum agin. Whirra! whativer will Nick do about his rations, if the cook of the bunch be lost, strayed or stolen?” he whimpered.

“Nick be hanged!” said George, vehemently, though in a low tone; “never fear but he’ll get all he wants to eat. What we have to find out is where they’ve gone, and why they dared carry Josh Purdue away with them. And we’ll just do that same, if it takes the whole of the winter. You hear me speaking, don’t you? Oh! what did you do that for, Jack?”

This last sentence was caused by a sudden action on the part of Jack. He had raised the lantern, and with a quick, downward motion caused the light to go out – a trick readily learned by any one who will take the trouble to experiment. And thus they were left standing there in the dark.

“How under the sun did it happen that none of us saw it before?” Jack was softly saying, in a vexed tone, as though he had made a discovery that agitated him.

“Saw what?” asked George.

“Bend your head this way, and look yonder through the bushes,” Jack told him.

“Great governor!” whispered the Wireless skipper, hoarsely; “it is a light, as sure as shooting! And on the water, too, Jack. Say, that power boat must be over there, in another bayou just beyond. There’s a neck of land runs out, and it’s covered with trees and scrub. That’s why we didn’t glimpse that light before.”

“You’ve hit the nail on the head, George, for that’s just the way the land lies,” Jack went on, trying to control his voice, which would tremble a little despite his utmost endeavors. “But perhaps that light wasn’t shining a bit ago. There, look! it’s disappeared again.”

“That’s what it has,” Jimmy observed, having been an interested observer all the while; “just for all the worrld loike a windy had been opened, and shut again. I do be thinking mesilf that somebody was afther coming out of the cabin to take a look around, and lift the door open the while, that’s all. Now he’s gone in again, by the same token.”

“I hope, then, he didn’t just catch a glimpse of our light moving, before I doused the glim,” was the fervent wish expressed by Jack.

“I hardly think he did, Jack,” George said, nervously. “You see, it was standing on the ground up to the time you grabbed it up again. But what ought we do now?”

“Make our way around that tongue of land the best way we can, and see how things are there,” Jack replied, without the slightest hesitation.

“Why not follow the beach around?” George suggested.

“Now, that wouldn’t be a bad scheme. It’s so dark that if we kept low, they couldn’t see us moving. And, besides, it’ll save a lot of scrambling through that brush, without the help of the lantern. All right; come along then, boys. And let’s remember to keep as quiet as an owl in the daytime.”

Saying this in a whisper, Jack led the way, the others following along in Indian file at his heels. Whenever he halted for any reason, both George and Jimmy would also draw up instantly. And no doubt, on every occasion of this sort, their excited pulses would cause their hearts to beat like trip-hammers.

Just as they had guessed, there was a point of land running out all of seventy feet into the water, and hiding the next bayou. Sometimes these extend from the main Florida shore around Barnes Sound like the fingers of a human hand. Again they will be in the form of reefs, composed of small, sharp-edged ’coon oysters, that stick up out of the salt water at low tide, but are entirely submerged when the flood comes on.

Before reaching the extreme point, Jack concluded that it would be wise for them to pass over here, rather than risk discovery by going to the limit of the cape; where, with the white sand to serve as a background to their darker bodies, some one on the watch might discover their approach, and give warning.

“Jack, I see it!” whispered George, presently.

“The boat, you mean,” replied the other, in the same guarded tone. “Yes, I’ve caught her, too. But everything seems to be dark around.”

“I wonder now, have they deserted the ould craft,” suggested Jimmy.

“Not so loud, Jimmy; we’ve got to find that out for ourselves,” Jack went on.

“By going aboard, you mean, don’t you, Jack?” from eager George.

“There’s no other way; and if these people are holding our chum a prisoner, we’ve just got to let them know we object to such a high-handed business. Are you both willing to stand back of me, George, Jimmy?”

“Every time,” George replied; and Jack could easily imagine how his excitable chum must be nerved up to the highest tension.

“Ye c’n count on me, through thick and thin, sink or shwim, survive or perish,” Jimmy put in, as solemnly as though he might be holding up his hand, and subscribing to the oath before the court.

“Then come on, and we’ll take the bull by the horns,” said Jack, moving forward through the thin growth that marked the spit of land near its terminus.

“And don’t let’s forget, fellows, that we’re armed to the teeth,” whispered George, as he set out to trail close behind his leader.

In this manner, then, the three motor boat boys crawled across to the shore of the other little bayou, bent upon making a bold move looking to rescuing their comrade, if so be Josh were found to be a prisoner in the hands of the strangers.