Kitabı oku: «The Radio Boys Under the Sea: or, The Hunt for Sunken Treasure», sayfa 8
CHAPTER XX
THE EARTHQUAKE
For a moment they lay stunned by the force with which they had been flung from their feet. Then slowly, one after another they got to their feet, staring stupidly about them.
What had happened? Had a meteor struck the island? Was this the beginning of wholesale destruction? Then came the answer to their confused minds. An earthquake!
The earth was still shaking and quivering beneath them. At any moment might come another quake that would destroy the island and them with it. A deadly nausea was creeping over them. They felt shaken, sick.
Phil was the first to get to his feet. The earth slithered and slid under him and he reeled like a drunken man. There came a second shock, less severe than the first but sufficient to throw him from his balance again.
As Phil struck the ground for the second time, he became suddenly mad clean through. A sort of rage possessed him and he rose to his feet again, shaking his fist at the elements as if they were some tangible enemy that he must conquer. Afterward he could laugh at his fury but it was not funny at the time.
He looked about him and saw the damage wrought by the earthquake. The tremendous roar that had greeted the first shock had been caused by the wholesale uprooting of trees. Great fissures had opened in the earth and into these some of the fallen trees had precipitated themselves.
The ground beneath his feet was quiet now and, bringing his eyes back from the ruin about him he saw that the other boys had risen and were standing shakily beside him.
“Gee, what happened?” said Tom, gingerly feeling of a bump on the back of his head. “I thought it was the end of the world that time for sure.”
“That’s what it was, pretty near, for us,” said Phil, quietly. “Look!” and he pointed toward the mountain lifting its threatening bulk against the sky. A thin, curling line of smoke was hovering above it, a line that thickened even while they looked.
There was a gasp of dismay from the boys as they realized what that sinister film meant. To their suddenly cleared minds it could mean only one thing. The mountain was on the verge of eruption!
“Looks as if they’d got us comin’ or goin’” said Steve, trying to speak lightly, without in the least disguising his true state of mind. “If the earth doesn’t open and swallow us up, the volcano will erupt and bury us. Fine prospect, I should call it!”
It took them a long time to get back to the cave, retarded as they were by the piled-up trunks of uprooted trees and the yawning fissures in the earth.
And all the way they kept a wary eye on that film of smoke above the mountain that grew in volume with every minute. There was no doubt about it, the volcano was getting ready for action.
When they came near the cave they saw that Benton and Bimbo were looking for them anxiously, and when they appeared Jack looked as though a thousand ton weight had fallen from his shoulders and the faithful Bimbo almost wept in his joy.
“I sho did think yo’ was a goner that time, Marse Phil,” he kept repeating over and over, pawing over Phil as though he could not satisfy himself that his young master was really alive and unhurt. “Dat earthquake done make so much noise, I done thought you’d gone clean to de bottom of it.”
“What – the earthquake?” asked Phil, with a shaky laugh. “Never as bad as that, Bimbo. Trust this old penny to turn up every time.”
Then they talked things over and decided that the only wise thing to do was to recover the chests from the pirate ship as soon as possible and desert their perilous position on the island.
“That’s all very well,” said Steve at the end of their “pow-wow.” “But how are we going to do anything, I’d like to know, as long as this storm keeps up.”
“It can’t keep up forever,” said Phil, beginning to recover his cheerful outlook, “and if we’re not wrecked by earthquake or buried by lava for a week, we ought to be able to get off with the treasure and our lives as well. And then for the good old U. S. A. where they don’t have earthquakes.”
The boys brightened at this but still were inclined to be gloomy.
“Get away,” repeated Dick. “What will we get away in, I’d like to know?”
“We’ve got our radio outfit,” said Phil a bit uneasily, for he was thinking again of that curling film of smoke against the sky. “If worst comes to worst we can always radio for help. And,” he added confidently, “the worst isn’t going to come.”
And how could he know what was in store for them?
Just before they turned in that night there came another quake, slight, but just enough to revive the seasick feeling of the afternoon.
Poor Bimbo’s panic and dread of the island were steadily growing worse and in the darkness the boys could hear him muttering words that sounded as if he were praying.
“Poor Bimbo,” thought Phil as he yielded to the drowsiness that was stealing over him. “He sure is having a rotten time. We’ll have to see that he gets a – good part – of the – treasure – ” And the next he knew he was opening his eyes to see the sun blazing merrily outside the cave. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
It didn’t take him long to get the fellows awake and stirring. It seemed as if the sunshine had some magic in it. Gone were the gloomy forebodings of the night before and as they got into their clothes sniffing hungrily at the breakfast Bimbo was getting for them they sang and bandied jokes as if they hadn’t a care in the world.
And, except for that patch of smoke that made a dark smudge against the brightness of the sky, they hadn’t. How many fellows, they asked themselves joyfully, would give their eyes to be in their shoes now. A treasure of untold riches waiting for them at the bottom of the sea and to-day —to-day– they would claim it. Lucky? Well, they’d tell the world!
And yet as, ready for the great adventure, they stepped outside the cave and their eyes fell on that heavy, lowering cloud of smoke hanging low above the mountain, they felt again uneasy and apprehensive.
It would be just as well to hurry the thing through. Bimbo was right. The island was a rather unhealthy place to linger in.
And so they worked feverishly, anxious to salvage the treasure without further delay. Everything went well with them, seemed to conspire to help them.
Once more Phil was lowered to the ocean bed but this time he carried a strong cable, the other end of which was held tightly by the boys some hundred and fifty feet above him.
This time there was no stumbling hesitation in his progress. He had been there before. He knew the way!
Straight for the hold he made, careful to keep both the line and cable free of the wreckage. It can’t be said that, as he passed through the cabin where he had first stumbled over the skeleton of the long dead pirate, he did not experience an uncanny thrill. He did but, as he told himself with an uneasy laugh, he was getting used to it by this time. Pretty soon he would be able to walk through a whole sea of dead men without turning a hair!
Just the same, the chest to which he fastened the cable was not the one against which leaned the second pirate’s skeleton. Phil had a weird feeling that to disturb it would be to invite disaster upon himself.
Of course when all the other chests had been hauled to the surface, he would be forced to disturb that awful, reclining figure. But, not yet!
He gave the signal agreed upon that all was in readiness and slowly the heavy chest left its fellows and moved along the littered floor. Phil went with it, sometimes before it, sometimes behind, moving objects out of its way pushing, hauling.
Then came the moment when he stood upon the scarred and mutilated deck of the schooner and watched the chest rise above his head, higher, higher, till he could no longer follow its ascent.
A wild thrill shot through him. By that one act they had conquered the deep. At last the treasure was within their grasp!
CHAPTER XXI
FROM THE OCEAN BED
Three boxes they retrieved from the sunken vessel that day, and since it was getting dark when the last of these was hauled to the surface, they decided to postpone any further operations till the next day.
The boys were curiously silent as they tugged and hauled the chests to the cave where they might examine their contents. Suppose the mysterious boxes did not contain treasure after all? They were almost afraid to open them.
Phil it was who began to pry off the lid of the first box. His body ached with fatigue from his adventures under the sea but he never even thought of it. His whole mind was concentrated on the business of getting that lid off.
The boys stood around him holding their breath, their eyes fairly burning with excited expectation of what they hoped to see.
Then with a grinding noise the ancient lock gave way and the cover slipped off. The boys gave a wild cry and sank to their knees beside the open chest. They couldn’t speak. They could hardly think. They knelt there, bathing their hands in a wealth of golden coins and sparkling gems, a treasure that had defied the years under the sea, the old pirate’s treasure come to life and glittering as brightly as it had on that day so long ago when the ship had sunk with the loss of all her crew.
If the boys had seemed crazy when Phil had emptied the little black bag of coins and gems before them, bringing them the first word of the treasure, they were ten times worse now.
They laughed, they danced, they shouted to one another. Steve scandalized Bimbo by seizing the black boy about the waist and whirling him madly about the cave, ending up in a gyrating mass of arms and legs as they slipped and landed on the floor together.
Even Jack Benton acted for a little while as though he had “gone loco.” It was a long time before they could pull themselves together enough to open the other two chests.
When they finally came around to it, Dick grabbed the chisel – with which they had pried off the cover of the first chest – from Phil’s hand, going to work on the second chest himself.
“You’re getting stingy,” he said, in reply to Phil’s look of surprise. “You opened the first chest. Now it’s my turn.”
“Why care who opens it,” retorted Phil, “as long as it gets opened. Only, hurry up, you old snail, or I may be tempted to give you some help, anyway.”
As a matter of fact it did take some time to get the cover off for Dick was so excited his hands trembled and he seemed to lack his usual amount of strength.
However, although the impatient boys offered insistently to help him, he kept them off, offering to “lay them out” with the chisel if they got too “fresh.”
At last the cover gave and they found themselves staring fascinated into a chest whose contents seemed at first glance to fully equal in value the contents of the first one.
Without stopping for a closer look, they opened the third box, Steve officiating this time and Tom grumbling because there wasn’t a fourth chest – to which Phil replied that if Tom would wait till the next day he would try to oblige him – and this one also, was heaped to the brim with shining gold pieces, interspersed with jewels of rare beauty and value.
The boys, feeling as though they were living through an amazing dream, took out handful after handful of the gold pieces and here and there a precious jewel, examining them closely beneath the light of their electric torches.
Like the samples which Phil had first brought to them, they found that the coins were of English and French and Spanish origin, all very old and bearing dates that thrilled the boys with the romance of those old days.
“Say, what would you give to have been able to live in those times,” said Tom softly, his eyes gleaming as he turned a gold piece over and over in his fingers.
“I’d just as soon be living now,” retorted Steve with a grin. “I bet the old pirates never had a more adventurous day than we have just lived through.”
“You bet,” murmured Dick. “Just wait till we tell the folks. They didn’t want us to come on this trip but I reckon when we show them a few of these little goldpieces, they’ll be sort of glad we came.”
“We ought to be able to rescue the rest of the treasure to-morrow,” said Phil. “And then – ”
“Home to God’s country,” finished Jack Benton.
Bimbo, over in his corner, shook his head and was heard to mutter something like, “Ah says Amen to dat, boss, Ah sho’ does.”
“Bimbo, you old gloom hound,” Phil called out with a laugh, “You don’t mean to say you still think this island is unlucky – after to-day’s run of luck?”
“Well,” returned Bimbo, placing his head on one side reflectively. “Ah don’ know as Ah’d go as far as dat, Marse Phil, but Ah sure will think hit’s luckier when we don’ got d’ocean between hit an’ us. Yassir, Marse Phil, Ah could jes’ love dis here islan’ – at a distance.”
They laughed and Steve poked the black boy in the ribs but just the same, his persistent dislike of the island made them uneasy even in this moment of triumph.
In the excitement of the day they had forgotten the ominous cloud of smoke hanging low above the mountain and Bimbo’s words recalled it to them.
Perhaps, after all, an eruption from that volcanic giant might defeat them just when victory seemed most certain. If only they had not lost their ship on their ill-fated approach to the island. In that, they might escape at a moment’s notice but now, even with the aid of radio their escape might be delayed just too long – .
With an effort they put aside the unwelcome thought, abandoning themselves once more to joy in the finding of the treasure. There was some talk of what they should do with the wealth now that they had it.
Phil wanted to bury it but the boys laughed at the idea.
Were they not the only inhabitants of the island? What need then for such extreme caution?
Phil, remembering the shot he thought he had heard, recalling the figure that had slunk like a shadow from the cave, could not help feeling that there might be need of caution but he said nothing. Only half convinced himself that what he had seen had not been a shadow and that what he had heard had been a shot, how could he hope to convince his comrades that danger lurked upon the island? He was more than half inclined to laugh at the idea himself.
At last they were able to tear themselves away from the treasure long enough to snatch a few hours of sleep. They must be up and doing bright and early if they hoped to recover the rest of the treasure that day. Then they would radio some passing ship, stow themselves and the treasure aboard and sail for home. Was it any wonder their dreams were pleasant?
Phil woke suddenly from a dream in which he was displaying his part of the treasure to his excited and admiring parents, woke suddenly and completely, with every sense on the alert.
As on that other night, he had a distinct sensation that some one was near him, had passed stealthily close to him. Holding his breath he lay motionless, straining his eyes to pierce the gloom of the place.
No sound save the regular breathing of his companions, the pounding of the sea on the sand – hark! What was that? He was not dreaming now. Someone, at the other end of the cave was moving cautiously, feeling his way. Once he stumbled and an involuntary oath escaped his lips to be immediately stifled.
The blood tingling in his veins, as quiet as a panther who is waiting to leap upon his prey, Phil lay upon his bed, every muscle tensed for the spring.
The figure of a man, crouching outlined itself against the gap that formed the door of the cave. Silently as a ghost Phil slipped from the bed, stood erect, his hands outstretched hungrily for the fellow’s throat.
CHAPTER XXII
QUELLING A MUTINY
In the act of springing forward Phil paused. All his life he was to be thankful for that pause. If he had yielded to the impulse to throttle the man then and there what fate might have overtaken him and his comrades, he shuddered to guess.
Suddenly Phil knew that the wisest thing would be to follow this midnight marauder, this spy who prowled at night. He would find out where he came from, the mystery of his presence here on the remote island. Then would be time enough to punish him.
With all his senses curiously alert Phil crept to the door as the man slipped into the shadows outside the cave. He tried to pierce the darkness but it was almost impossible. There was no moon and it would be necessary to follow closely upon the heels of the fellow if he were not to lose him altogether.
Of course, because of this, it was necessary to exercise double precaution. If the man should suspect he was being followed, should turn around, well, then it would mean a fight to the finish there in the darkness. Phil, fingering the revolver he always kept at his hand, was not afraid of the result but he was afraid that, in such case, the mystery of the man’s presence upon the island might remain unsolved.
He was thinking very clearly now, his mind curiously alert to the slightest detail. He had not imagined the shot, then, that was certain. Also he was convinced now that the first vision he had had of this man, slinking out of the cave had not been a dream.
Probably the fellow had been spying for a long time. The thought wasn’t a pleasant one. Spying – for what. Instantly the answer came to him. The treasure of course! Stupid of him not to have thought of it before.
His mind was racing excitedly. It was hard in his whirling thoughts for him to remember to walk silently, hard to keep track of that shadowy figure among the shadows.
The fellow was proceeding rapidly now without exercising the slightest caution. Apparently he was aware of no danger. Of course not, thought Phil, grimly. He naturally thought them all asleep, unaware of his prying. In the darkness he thanked his lucky star that he had been sleeping lightly.
In the darkness, Phil had scant idea of the direction they were taking, only that they seemed to be heading diagonally across the island and that their destination – or rather, the destination of the man he was following – seemed to be a long way off.
Naturally it must be, he thought grimly. He, in company with the rest of the fellows had never explored the island very thoroughly, owing to their absorption in treasure hunting. This fellow must be headed for the very outermost edge of the island, that they had never quite reached.
It seemed an endless journey to Phil. He was constantly afraid that some sound of his might cause the fellow to turn around and so put an end for the time being to the solution of the mystery. And with the thought he stepped still more carefully, moving swiftly to keep his quarry in sight. The progress was made still more difficult because of the fallen trunks of trees flung ruthlessly to the ground by the earthquake of the day before.
Phil was beginning to believe that this nightmare journey was to last forever when he noticed suddenly that the deep shadows of the night had lifted, become mingled with red. Then he grasped the fact that the vague light came from a fire, probably built far down in the ravine.
A moment more as he topped the rise of a small hill, he saw that this supposition was correct. From the shore they had been climbing steadily till now he was able to look straight down the steeply-sloping mountain side into a snug little gully or ravine some three hundred feet below.
In this ravine flickered and flared the fire which had lifted the night shadows. Phil saw that the man he followed was heading straight for it and he slackened his pace. He was no longer afraid he might lose his quarry in the dark. He could see quite clearly now, and he suddenly realized that his need for caution was doubled.
For, gathered around the fire, revealed by the dancing flames, Phil discovered other figures than the one he was following. From that distance he could not count them, but there seemed a startling number.
At that moment Phil came nearer to dismay than he had ever come before in his life. It was bad enough to know that there were other people on this island which they had thought deserted. But the fact that one of these intruders had been caught in the act of spying upon them, upon the treasure, seemed to point surely to the fact that they were there for one purpose and one purpose only. To steal the treasure!
Phil’s first feeling of astonishment and dismay was rapidly giving place to anger. The treasure was theirs, they, of their own effort had dragged it from the bottom of the sea. He’d like to see anybody take it away from them!
He clenched his hands and crept closer. The man who had unwittingly led him to this spot had disappeared among the trees and Phil followed cautiously, careful to keep within the shadows of the trees.
It would never do for him to be found out now. Not only would his own life be forfeited but probably those of his friends, also. And the treasure – at the thought he clenched his hands still tighter, gritted his teeth fiercely and crept closer, ever closer to that flickering fire.
He was near enough now to see the features of the men gathered about it. They were a villainous-looking crew if there ever was one, the scum of a West Indian port, half-breeds most of them, sullen-looking rascals who looked as though they would stop at no villainy.
There were a score of them, counting the rascal he had been trailing who now stepped within the circle of firelight. Phil gave a start that was almost audible as he saw the man’s face. It was Ramirez – Ramirez of the evil face and ready knife.
Quite suddenly the whole thing became clear to him. Ramirez, knowing of the secret contained in the pirate’s notes in the possession of Jack Benton, had either gotten wind of their mission in San Domingo, or had guessed at it. On the strength of his story it would be easy to get together a gang of cutthroats, a band of villainous adventurers and follow them to the island with the purpose of eventually getting possession of the treasure.
Something told Phil that these men would stop at nothing and his anger grew to a kind of fury. He had the mad impulse to charge the whole dastardly crew of them, to fling himself upon them single-handed.
If he had had only himself to consider, he might have done it too. But he thought of his comrades and the treasure and knew that he must move cautiously.
Ramirez, evidently the leader of the rascally crew was speaking, and Phil crept closer, careful to keep well without the circle of firelight. He strained his ears to hear the muttered words of the half-breed. He must learn their plans. Even from this distance he could see that Ramirez was excited, his deep-set eyes were glowing feverishly.
“All is well,” Phil heard him say to his sullen-eyed audience. “They have found the treasure. I have seen it with these own eyes, hidden in the cave where they leave it unguarded – the fools!”
At his words, the eyes of the motley crew glowed with the gleam of avarice and they waxed tremendously excited. They gestured wildly with their arms, each one gabbling in a different tongue.
Ramirez’s brow grew dark. He made an ominous movement with his hand toward the gun on his hip. The men regarded him with a sort of half-cowed fury. Most of them fell to conversing again in low, excited mutterings.
Only one among them seemed to have the courage – or the avarice – to defy his chief. This seemed, like most of them, to be a mixture of two nationalities, half-English, half-Spanish. He talked in broken English.
“I say to you,” he cried with a menacing gesture toward Ramirez who looked at him stolidly, “that we will not wait longer. Always you say ‘wait, wait.’ The treasure, the gold, is there, you tell us that. We go get it to-night, now. Is it not so?” He turned to the men about the fire, who, muttering ominously, had half risen to their feet.
Phil, forgetting his own danger, watched fascinated. Mutiny! If the men got their way, then indeed were he and his friends and the treasure doomed. He would not even have a chance to warn them.
Ramirez, who had been standing motionless, his black eyes fixed on the mutinous crew, reached suddenly for his revolver. Almost with the same motion came the report.
The man who had defied him, stood where he was for a moment, a foolish expression spreading over his villainous features, then, without a sound sank to the ground.
“Take him away,” commanded Ramirez, seating himself, with the utmost indifference to the fate of his victim, near the fire. “That, my comrades, will be the fate of each one of you who defy me, Ramirez. I say wait. Therefore we wait. And I tell you why.”
Then while two of the men removed the ghastly huddled heap from the grass, Ramirez proceeded to give his reason for delaying the attack. Phil listened eagerly. Half-sickened as he was by what he had seen, he knew he must keep his senses intensely alert.
“They have not recovered all of the treasure,” said Ramirez. “I hear them talk. They have three chests. There are more. When they have them all, then we shall take them from them. We shall be rich and they – they shall be dead.” His mouth stretched in an evil grin.
Phil waited for no more. Silently, as he had come, he slipped away into the darkness.
