Van Powell

“ Almost nothing was said as Jim prepared supper, for which the chums were waiting as eagerly as their weary bodies allowed. A low-voiced conference was held between the white men, but it was not until the meal was ended, Cliff lifting his cup with cramped arm and hand, Tom feeling his feet prickle as circulation fed the life fluid to them, Nicky feeling as though he had been trussed up for years, that Senor Ortiga delivered the result of the conference. ”

“ Before they could get there and intervene, Nicky had been flung to willing hands, had been thrust back into the cabin, an engineer was rocking the flywheel of El Libertad, her motor took hold with a roar and a tremble of the hull, Don Ortiga and his brother had thrown themselves onto the bow deck, clinging to the rail, and then scrambling down out of range, and, backing down stream, El Libertad was beyond the leap of Brownie which fell short and sent him plunging down onto the coral bottom. ”

“ I thought you were fond of mystery and adventure!”
“Whether I am or not, I’m getting it!” Nicky admitted. “But this was more than I bargained for.”
“Same here,” exclaimed Tom.
“I see,” Cliff grinned at them. “You two are—sort of—arm-chair adventurers. You like to have the thrills without the hardships. Just look at us!” he declared. “We couldn’t be deeper in adventure if we tried to dig our way in! Right in the midst of treasure-land! Stranded and deserted on the edge of an awful swamp—isn’t the Big Cypress Swamp north of us? Surely it is! Without food! ”

“ Mr. Gray, the scholar and writer, had entrusted Cliff to his care on an adventure that promised to be merely a cruise; Nicky Lane, and Tom, had come under his protection without permission from their relatives; and not one of them was with him, nor was their whereabouts known to him.
No wonder the young archaeologist, himself not too far from boyhood to recall what dangers its headstrong impulses lead to, dreaded many dire things. ”

“ But by noon, with the jib and mainsail spread to the steady breeze, they shifted the tiller and brought the Treasure Belle around again on a course that would enable them to round the Western nose of Cuba and then sail Northeast to the coral islets which clustered in a long fringe along the Florida Gulf coast, at its lower portion.
“Without a map we will have to take some chances,” Mr. Neale told Nicky, Tom and Cliff. “But we can come pretty close to a guess at the point where we must anchor.” ”

“ Hi-jackers are pirates if ever anybody was. The rum-runners bring contraband, and illegal liquor, into the States against the law. But the hi-jackers are men who hold up their boats and trucks and steal from them.”
“I hadn’t heard about them,” said Nicky.
“Well,” said Cliff under his breath as their boat scudded over the waters of the Sound toward a small island near the upper end, “well, it would be bad enough to be caught by people who break the law; but the ones who prey on them are about the roughest and toughest people in the world. They are modern pirates and no mistake!” ”

“ It was perfectly natural for them to want all the treasure for themselves. We felt the same way!”
“So we did,” replied Mr. Coleson. “After we roped them up for a whole day I can’t say that I blame them. Very well. Here is Jim. Let us clear away the roots and see what we have.”
Under the changed attitude of the white men, Nicky, Tom and Cliff fell to with a will. The axe helped, the spades were very useful; eager hands made the work seem a delight. After all, there would be probably be plenty of gold—or whatever it might be—for each to have a good share. ”

“ When the infuriated members of the hi-jacker band finally raced up the deck toward their tender, they found the dipped end of a rope as a memento.
The Mystery Boys, well away and out of sight around the island, were rowing the captured tender with all their strength.
“We can’t——claim salvage!” panted Nicky. “But we are out of the grip of those men—and we have a boat—we’re free men again!”
“And there’s a light—a boat or something, up the coast,” cried Tom. “Nicky, pull hard on your port oar—you too, Cliff.” ”

“ Nicky was up and out of the room like a flash. Cliff, losing no time, raced in the other direction. They went scuttling around the house, from front and back, meeting under the dining room window.
“Nobody here—not a sign!” called Cliff reassuringly.
“Nobody in sight,” Nicky agreed. “Tom, who was it—what did the face look like?”
“I don’t know,” quavered Tom. “It looked like—it was white—it was like a—ghost!”
“Pull yourself together,” said Mr. Gray quietly. “There aren’t any ghosts. Your imagination is keyed up. ”

“ The lieutenant stepped across the rails, and made his way to the cabin. At the same instant the two men stood up, but before they could carry out their intention—which might have been to plunge over the side and take chances of swimming away and escaping in the dark—the young officer had his pistol trained, drawing it as he whirled.
“Throw up your hands!” he snapped, “and sit down again!”
“Sam,” called Mr. Neale, clambering into the cockpit of his old sloop, “where are you?”
“Ain’t no one there,” said one of the men. “Lieutenant, will you promise us a fair break if we tell you the truth?” ”

“ Nicky explained, “the chopped places are all on the outside part, nearest the gully—it isn’t really a boat channel, it’s only a gully.”
“Well, that doesn’t help us any,” Tom was still dejected and the more so because of his slightly injured foot. “I move we give up.”
But Nicky had climbed up onto the low, small islet, and, his body sprawled over the rooted, matted growth, was poking and probing.
“Yes,” he said, after a moment, “I guess we might as well. If there is any treasure, it’s too well hidden to discover. I say we might as well wade back to the boat and get some lunch.” ”

“ Don Ortiga sprang from his chair; his hands were clenched, his eyes sparkled with an angry light.
“He sent them here because he has a grudge for us ever since we bought a faster boat and a bigger one and took his trade away from him!” he cried in a fury, but remembering to keep his tones fairly low.
“Well,” began Tew, after a moment, “here’s how I tote it up! We can get more out of a chest of treasure than we can from a hold full of rum, and with no fightin’. These lads must know where the gold is—we don’t! So we can use them! ”

“ Sculling carefully, and keeping a sharp lookout, the trio in the light-draught dory progressed steadily as the sun rose higher. It was still very early.
“I doubt if the hi-jackers are awake yet,” said Brownie. “They probably feel that they are well hid.”
“What’s that—ahead?” queried Nicky, standing, carefully balanced, in the stern. He sat down and helped Mr. Neale to steady their craft while Brownie rose at the bow and spied over the grass at one side.
“I swan!” exclaimed Brownie under his breath, turning to his companions. “It’s—a boat.” ”

“ Not only was the ground trampled, but on one mangrove root that bent upward and curved into a sort of prong, they discovered a strip of cloth that looked like part of a bed sheet.
But there was no sign of the chests of treasure!
“It’s a queer thing!” Nicky declared. His chums agreed.
“Say!” exclaimed Tom suddenly, pointing toward the sloop, “what’s Sam doing? Look—he’s hoisting the mainsail!”
Sam was doing exactly that.
“Ahoy—Sam!” hailed Nicky through cupped hands.
Sam did not answer.
“Sam! Sam!” shouted all three. They saw the colored man turn and look toward them. ”

“ The slow, idle evening gave them plenty of time to recount their feelings and to argue to and fro about ghosts, spooks, ha’nts, and buccaneers’ apparitions in particular. Sam, refusing to come forth even to cook supper, took no part. He crouched in a corner, muttering some charm or spell of protection taught him by Ma’am Sib, no doubt, till Cliff called, “Oh, Sam—shut up!”
“All that talks doesn’t scare me,” Nicky declared, “nor Sam, either, even with his witch-charms. ”

“ Green turtle, cooked by broiling beside a good beach fire, as the Indians did it—a tasty meat, and equally good when made into a sort of stew of the whole creature’s flesh, was eked out by a four pound crawfish caught by Nicky from a veritable crawling mass of these lobster-like shellfish in their bay. Corn-pone, or cornbread made the southern way and baked in ashes, a process learned by Tom during a summer camp, in the South, made a fine dinner that night and they ate the more lustily for the realization of their narrow escape earlier in the evening. “It doesn’t pay to leap before you look!” ”

“ Almost immediately, before the shots died down, in fact, they heard the roar of El Libertad’s motor, saw her swing to her anchor, and, as it lifted from the coral, turned in a wide sweep, while shots flashed their spurts of flame through the darkness from her stern.
Then she swung onto a Northerly course and disappeared swiftly beyond an island at the Northern side of the channel.
“They’ve shot those men who took our gold,” Nicky declared. “Sam, and Cliff, row there, quick! We ought to try to pick them up—maybe they’re badly hurt.” Sam and Tom dipped their oars with a will. ”

“ Tom, on his end of the cabin floor, made a similar effort. The engine roared as contact was made, and the Libertad, gathering headway, swung her nose and made straight for the cutter.
Lieutenant Sommerlee and his two men were firing, but while woodwork in the cabin window sashes flew in splinters, they had to fire carefully so as not to touch the two boys.
Tom and Nicky were struggling, each caught by the legs. They strove manfully against the heavy odds, but while the men dared not show their heads, or expose their bodies to the fire from the cutter, they could drag at the boys in safety. ”

“ All three chums realized that. If Nicky hesitated their captors would be certain that he was inventing a message. Then there was no telling what might happen to them! The men who had them as captives were hi-jackers, the lowest form of seafaring marauders. One of them had a name indicating descent from the old pirate stock. The truth—and the truth quickly—seemed to be the only course open to Nicky. ”

“ Nicky and Cliff echoed his wish, in low tones. But they had no time for speculation or planning. The ape-like man appeared in the forecastle companionway and beckoned abruptly.
They followed him along a narrow deck to the dark cabin and went in. After passing through heavy sacking, double-thick, which served to block the passage of the least rays of light to the outer world, they found themselves in a long, quite roomy cabin, with a small electric dome light giving enough light to show the heavy black curtains tightly fastened over the circular ports, or windows. ”

“ At about four-thirty, before dawn cut through the heavy tangle of trees, intertwined overhead, Brownie awoke his companions and they ate their hardtack, and picked the bones of a chicken from the cutter’s recent purchases, cooked the night before on the Senorita; this they washed down with cocoa from tin cups, cocoa hot out of a thermos bottle.
The hot liquid helped to drive away the night chill, and Nicky declared that he felt fit for anything.
“That’s good,” chuckled Brownie. “We’re going to have to stand in shallow water and walk in it, too. ”

“ Cliff, with Jim, Sam and the boatswain, Jack, busily getting the recovered arsenal into good shape again, saw the cutter disappear into the gloom.
The run up the channel into the Harney River was without event, and since Lieutenant Sommerlee had cruised in those waters, making a chart for the U. S. Geodetic Survey, he knew the safest way, and finally, with tense, thrilling nerves, Nicky dropped into the light dory with Mr. Neale and a sailor called Brownie because his last name was Brown and he was a short, fat, jolly little man. ”

“ It was another cabin boat, lying, apparently, at anchor.
154
Cautioning his chums not to hail until they knew whether it was a suitable craft for their rescue, they drew slowly closer.
From the vessel came a gruff hail.
“I’ve got you covered!” it cried. “Two of you put your hands up, and one pull your boat up alongside till we have a look!”
“Out of the frying pan—” breathed Cliff! He and Tom elevated their hands and Nicky, with reluctant strokes, drew close to the bow. Tom discerned a name in glimmering gold against white paint.
“Fellows,” he whimpered, “it’s that boat we saw in Jamaica!” ”

“ No delay daunted them; no shoal “made their pluck run aground,” as Nicky explained it. To the continual detouring was added the handicap of the difficulty they had in recognizing what would look like the Dipper constellation from above. “If we had an airplane, now,” Tom argued, “we could spy it in a second.”
“Right, again—pull slowly,” Cliff cut in; and so the morning wore on and they began to feel as though they had rowed half way around most of the archipelago.
But the longest way ’round is said to be the shortest way through, and the chums found it so. ”

“ Tew called, “if they get you you’ll tell where we are! That won’t do! Come—be sensible—we’ll get you one way or another. Come decent, and we won’t harm you—but come you will!”
“Is that so?” exclaimed Nicky defiantly. “Well we won’t! You’d better go away!”
Tew and the sailor held a short conference. At Tew’s gesture the sailor poised the oars, while Tew tugged at a weapon in his belt. Tom leaped up onto the cabin roof, to have a better place from which to pretend to cover the sailor, but an inspiration came to him and he acted upon that instead. ”

“ Cliff had readily forgiven him. Jim, thus made happy, was just as determined to help the side of right and justice as he had been, before, to earn his pay honestly, as he saw honesty and his duty to his employers.
“The cannon wouldn’t carry the slugs any distance,” said Sam.
“But they’d have to pass within three feet of us,” said Jim.
He pointed overside to the channel, where the deep water was at the side of the wrecked vessel. “This boat ran onto coral because her tiller rope broke, remember! There’s plenty of water, and they can pass us, but they’ll have to steer close.” ”