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Title: The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island

Author: Cyril Burleigh

Release Date: February 2, 2005 [EBook #14879]

Language: English

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THE HILLTOP BOYS
ON LOST ISLAND

BY
CYRIL BURLEIGH

AUTHOR OF "THE HILLTOP BOYS" AND OTHER STORIES

THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING CO.

CLEVELAND
MADE IN U.S.A.


1917

PRESS OF

THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.
CLEVELAND

[Illustration: _He plunged the blade into the creature's vitals_.]

CONTENTS

      CHAPTER                        PAGE

    I THE FLOATING ACADEMY             13
   II JACK'S DARING RESCUE             22
  III THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS           29
   IV CAUGHT ON LOST ISLAND            37
    V EXPLORING THE ISLAND             45
   VI A WALK UNDER WATER               54
  VII A REMARKABLE FIND                63
 VIII DISCUSSING THE FIND              70
   IX THE LAST VISIT TO THE WRECK      81
    X A THRILLING ENCOUNTER            89
   XI THE VOICES IN THE WOODS          98
  XII ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS         107
 XIII A STRANGE LIGHT AT SEA          118
  XIV THE MAN WITH THE WHITE MUSTACHE 125
   XV JESSE W. IS SENT FOR HELP       132
  XVI BEN'S STRANGE STORY             140
 XVII DISCOVERIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS 148
XVIII IN THE LAIR OF THE FOX          160
  XIX THE WAY OUT FOUND               170




THE HILLTOP BOYS ON LOST ISLAND




CHAPTER I

THE FLOATING ACADEMY


"Well, if this is a life on the ocean wave or anything like it, I am
satisfied to remain on shore."

"I knew that the Hudson river could cut up pretty lively at times, but the
frolics of the Hudson are not a patch on this."

"They said we would not be seasick, but if I am not I don't know what you
call it. I don't want it any worse, at any rate."

"They said it wouldn't hurt any if you were sick, but I wonder if they
ever tried it themselves?"

"No, they are like the old bachelors who write about how to bring up
children. They never had any, so they don't know anything about them."

"Well, if we get much more of this I shall get out and walk."

"And I'll go with you, my boy."

There were three boys on the deck of a large steam yacht, now about two
days out from New York, bound to the West Indies on a voyage combining
pleasure and education.

The boys belonged to the Hilltop Academy, situated in the Highlands of the
Hudson, and their names were Billy Manners, Harry Dickson, and Arthur
Warren, all being close chums, and ready to share any adventure except
that of being seasick.

They were none of them sick, but they were all afraid they would be, hence
their remarks upon the subject.

There were close upon a hundred of the Hilltop Boys, and they were now on
a tour of the islands of the Spanish Main, having been invited by the
father of one of them, a man largely interested in the shipping business,
who had put at their service a commodious steam yacht large enough to hold
them all.

Besides the boys there were Dr. Theophilus Wise, the principal, and a
number of his instructors, the negro coachman at the Academy, who was now
serving in the capacity of cook and general handy man to the doctor and
the boys, and the captain and crew, a considerable party all told.

The sky was bright, there was none too much motion, and there was really
no reason why a lot of healthy boys should be seasick, and perhaps they
only feared they would be, and were just a little uncomfortable.

They were to spend the Easter vacation and a few weeks longer among the
islands, continuing their studies as usual, and getting a knowledge of
geography and of many other things, which they could not get by merely
studying books, Dr. Wise having practical ideas on these points, and
having now a chance to carry them out through the generosity of Mr. Smith,
the shipping merchant, who had furnished the yacht.

His son, Jesse W., one of the youngest boys at the Academy, had been found
and brought home when lost on the mountains by one of the Hilltop boys by
the name of Jack Sheldon, a general favorite at the Academy, and it was in
recognition of this act that he had decided to give the boys this glorious
vacation.

As the three boys were complaining about the rough seas, and the chance of
becoming seasick, they were joined by two others, one of whom said in a
breezy voice and with a lively air:

"Well, boys, how are you enjoying yourselves? Glorious weather, isn't it?
Fine breeze, just the thing to send us along, although we do not need it,
going under steam."

"I'm glad you like it, Jack!" said Harry with a wry face, "but I can't say
that I do. You may be used to the water, but I am not."

"I have never been at sea before," laughed Jack, "so I cannot be any more
used to it than you are. Perhaps you have been eating too much, that might
make you sick. You don't look it, at any rate."

"I don't know how I look," muttered Billy Manners, stopping suddenly in
his walking, "but I know how I feel," and he made a dash for the cabin,
and was gone for some time, the others continuing their walk on deck.

In a few minutes a smiling negro in a white jacket and cap came out of the
cabin carrying a tray containing cups of beef tea, which he offered to the
boys, saying with a grin:

"Dis ain't like de beef soup yo' get at de 'cademy, sah, but mebby yo'
would like a bite or two dis mon'in' to sha'pen yo' appetite fo' dinnah?"

"No, thanks, Bucephalus," said one of the boys, Dick Percival by name, who
was walking arm in arm with Jack. "I don't need anything to sharpen my
appetite, which is always good on sea or land."

"The idea of offering a fellow anything to eat when he feels as I do,"
growled Harry. "Take it away, Buck, or I'll throw you overboard."

The high sounding name of the negro was often contracted to Buck by the
Hilltop boys, as in the present instance, but he was used to both, and
answered as readily to one as to the other, now saying with a broad grin:

"Dat am a mistake, Mistah Harry. De worser yo' feel, de mo' yo' should put
in yo' stomach, dat is to say when yo' get good nourishmental food like
dis yer. Of co'se dey is detrimental substances which----"

"That sort of talk will make me sick if nothing else will," said Harry,
hurrying away, while Jack and Dick sat down, and gazed out upon the
horizon, while sipping their bouillon and nibbling at their biscuits.

"We will be in summer seas, as the advertisements call them, before long,"
said Jack. "The air is pleasant enough as it is. Down here in the summer
it is pretty hot I take it, but in April it will be all right."

"Think of us cruising around the Spanish main where the old buccaneers
used to roam," laughed Dick. "Perhaps we will dig up a pot of gold buried
on one of the islands by some of them."

"If Captain Kidd had buried all the gold that folks said he did," replied
Jack, "he would have been kept busy till now. If people would work instead
of trying to find gold that was never buried, they would accomplish
something. The only treasure you dig out of the earth is the good crop you
get by working at your corn and potatoes."

"That's true philosophy, Jack. I have never had to dig anything for
myself, having rich folks who always looked after me. Perhaps it would
have been better for me if I had had to do more for myself."

"Well, you are not a spoiled child, Dick," said Jack, "as some sons of
rich parents are. You are not idle nor vicious, and you know the value of
money. You will do for yourself when you leave school. You are going
through a training now, that will do you good later."

"Yes, I suppose so, but your having to do for yourself has made you a
stronger, more self-reliant fellow than I will ever be."

"Oh, I don't know," returned Jack, half laughing, half seriously. "I am
not patting myself on the back, Dick."

"No, you never would."

The two boys were great friends, and were the leading spirits in the
Academy, having a great many friends, and being looked up to by the
greater part of the boys, and especially by the younger ones, who took
them as models.

Dick was somewhat older than Jack, and was farther along in his classes,
having had more advantages, but Jack was studious and ambitious, and bade
fair to catch up with his older companion and schoolmate before many
months had passed, having already in the few months he had been at the
Academy greatly shortened the lead which Percival had in the beginning.

Two days later the yacht was in much pleasanter waters, and the air was
quite warm and balmy, the boys going around in lighter clothing than
before, wearing mostly white flannel or duck, canvas shoes and caps, and
no waistcoats, some wearing only white trousers and shirts, and belts
around their waists, so as to get the most comfort they could.

They were among the islands now, and expected to make a landing in a day
or so, when they were farther down the Spanish main than they were at that
time, the islands in the lower latitudes being more interesting in the
doctor's opinion than the larger and better known ones.

It was a pleasant afternoon; none of the boys felt any touches of
seasickness now, and many of them were walking up and down the deck, some
taking their comfort under awnings spread aft near the cabin companion,
and some being on the bridge watching the steersman or looking out to sea
in search of sails or noting the flight of the gulls and other seabirds or
studying the movements of the dolphins playing around the bow, there being
many of these lively creatures about.

Dick and Jack were on the bridge whence they could obtain a full view of
the deck and look all about them, ahead and astern, and on all sides, Jack
greatly enjoying gazing out upon the wide expanse and searching the
horizon for sails or a hazy view of some distant island.

Below, on the quarter deck, which was guarded by a low rail only, was
young Jesse W. Smith, who took great pride in his full name and always
insisted upon being called by it, for whom primarily this expedition had
been gotten up, strutting up and down in sailor's trousers and shirt,
seeming to feel as if he were the commander of the entire southern fleet.

"There's young Jesse, enjoying himself and seeming ready to say with the
fellow in the poem that he is monarch of all he sees," laughed Dick.

"That was supposed to be Alexander Selkirk, the original Robinson Crusoe,
Dick," said Jack. "The line is 'I am monarch of all I survey.' You must
have recited it more than once in your younger days. That is not
altogether a safe place for young Jesse W., though. That rail is not very
high, and if we should happen to give a roll----"

"You don't think there is any danger, Jack! Hadn't you better warn him!"

"No, but I will go down and----" and Jack started to go to the main deck
and speak quietly to the boy. But before he had hardly said the words
there was a sudden startled cry and Jack, looking down quickly, saw that
the very thing he had feared had taken place.

How it came about no one knew, but all of a sudden there was a loud cry of
"man overboard!" and Jack saw the boy just going down in the water.

He was on the lower deck in a moment, and in another had thrown aside his
coat and kicked off his shoes, running to the rail as he did so.

The cook had just been killing chickens on the forward deck, and was going
aft with two or three fowls in one hand, a knife in the other.

As Jack reached the rail he saw something out on the water, just where the
boy had gone down that made him turn icy cold in a moment.

Snatching the knife from the cook's hand, he sprang to the rail and leaped
overboard, taking neither rope nor life preserver with him.

"By George! that's just what Jack feared, and there he is going to the
rescue before any one has shouted, almost!" exclaimed Percival, as he
hurried below.

"H'm! pretty clever of Sheldon," sneered a stout, unprepossessing boy, who
seemed to be always scowling. "Knocks the kid overboard, and then goes to
his rescue to make himself solid with the father. Very clever stroke,
that, and just like him!"

"If you say anything like that of Jack Sheldon, Pete Herring," stormed
Dick, who had heard the ill-natured remark, "I'll knock you overboard!"

Herring, who was by no means a favorite in the Academy, quite the reverse,
in fact, had not supposed that Percival had heard his uncalled for and
utterly false assertion, and now hurried away with a snarl, evidently
fearing that Dick would carry out his threat.

The captain, as soon as possible, gave orders to stop the engines, and to
hold the yacht near to the place where the boys had gone down, being ready
to turn and go to their assistance when they should appear again.

All was excitement on board, for, until now, nothing had happened out of
the ordinary, and no one thought of being seasick or of complaining of the
monotony of the voyage.

Jack came to the surface, looked around him, saw young Jesse W. just
coming up and shouting for help while he swam, and then, not far behind,
what had caused him to take the knife with him, the sharp dorsal fin of a
good-sized shark moving rapidly through the water.




CHAPTER II

JACK'S DARING RESCUE


Straight toward the swimming boy swam Jack, rapidly estimating the
distance between them and the distance to be covered by the shark, the
presence of which was not yet known by the younger boy.

He could swim, but he was more or less encumbered by his clothes, wide
bottomed trousers and full shirt, and could not make as good progress as
Jack in any event.

Then, as he was only a little fellow, and probably not accustomed to
swimming very far out of his depth, Jack looked for his strength giving
out at any moment.

"Keep up, J.W., you are doing fine!" he shouted, swimming straight on with
a long, even stroke, which carried him rapidly toward the struggling boy.

Then some one on the yacht, with more anxiety than good judgment, shouted
out so that all could hear him:

"Look out for the shark, look out!"

The instant that the younger boy heard this, he turned his head and cast a
frightened look behind him, seeing the sharp fin just beginning to turn
over in the water.

"Don't look, Jesse W., don't look, swim straight ahead!" cried Jack, who
had come up with the boy.

Then he dove deep down so as to come up under the shark before he could
turn and rush at the boy so near him.

Down went Jack, and presently began to rise, seeing the white belly of the
man eater just above him.

With a fierce upward thrust of his right arm, which held the knife he had
taken from the cook, he plunged the blade into the creature's vitals,
drawing it downward and toward him, and turning his hand as he drew, thus
making a jagged cut, and fairly laying open the shark's belly.

Young Smith, encouraged by Jack's shout, had darted ahead with his little
remaining strength, not again looking back, and knowing too well what was
about to happen when Jack dove.

As the shark, mortally wounded, floated away, to be eaten by others of his
kind, Jesse W. suddenly became faint and felt himself giving out.

Jack arose in a moment, however, and called out cheerily:

"Hold on a moment, young fellow, and I'll be there. You mustn't give out
yet, because they haven't put about to take us aboard."

The younger boy held out till Jack reached him, but seemed about to go
under again when Jack said quickly:

"Here, get on my back and you won't have to swim. I'll tow you all right,
and you can get rested."

"Did you kill him, Jack?" gasped the younger boy, as he obeyed the older
one's instructions.

"Yes, yes, but never mind about that. Don't look behind you, just look
straight ahead. I don't know that there's anything there anyhow, but it is
always a good plan to look the way you're going to avoid accidents."

"You're a funny fellow, Jack," said the other. "You don't want me to see
the sharks and be frightened."

"That's all right, old man, but there are no sharks at present, and if any
come they will be too busy taking bites out of the other to bother me for
a time. H'm! they are putting about. That's all right."

"You can carry me and swim yourself all right, Jack?" asked Jesse W.
"Maybe I can swim a bit myself now."

"Never you mind about that," said Jack. "You just stay on my back till I
tell you to get off," and the boy swam with a good, steady stroke toward
the approaching yacht, keeping a lookout for sharks, as he knew they would
be sure to appear soon, seeming to scent blood for miles.

Without letting the younger boy know that he was on the lookout he kept a
strict watch on all sides for more of the rapacious creatures, and at
length discovered two making for him in different directions, one of them
suddenly appearing between him and the yacht, which was rapidly
approaching.

"That fellow will be frightened off or perhaps go under the vessel," he
thought, "but the other one is coming on pretty fast. I hope he won't get
to the yacht before me."

The people on the yacht saw the shark between them and Jack, and Dick
Percival seized a gun from the captain, aimed at the creature and fired,
doing no great damage, but causing the voracious monster to rush off to
one side, and out of his direct course.

Sharks have other fish to guide them, and without these they are helpless,
which was the case with this one, who, in his sudden change of course, got
away from his pilots, and had to be hunted up by them before he could get
his bearings on the boys in the water.

This created a diversion in Jack's favor, and he swam on sturdily,
splashing and kicking, and making a great disturbance to frighten away the
second shark, which was coming alarmingly close to him.

The yacht was coming on, however, and now they bore down toward him,
slackening speed a bit, one of the sailors throwing the boy a line.

Jack caught it with one hand, as it settled over his head, and said to the
boy on his back:

"Hang on, young fellow, and they'll haul us both up together. You are no
sort of weight, but just hang on."

Jesse W. did as he was told, and both boys were hauled on board the yacht,
Dick, Harry, Arthur, Billy Manners and half a dozen others pulling in
heartily on the line.

They were drawn on board just in time, for the baffled shark made one
terrific jump out of water as they reached the deck, the gangway having
been opened, and banged his nose against the plankshire, falling back into
the sea with a great splash.

Bucephalus was at the gangway, an axe in his hand, and as the shark gave
his jump he aimed a swinging blow at the monster, but failed to hit him.

"Go back dere, yo' sassy feller," he sputtered. "Ah jus' like to get one
good crack at yo' an' Ah rip yo' side open. Don' yo' perambulate dis yer
way again if yo' know what am salubrious fo' yo', yo'heah?"

Bucephalus was fond of using big words, but did not always use them in the
most appropriate manner, so that the boys were always kept guessing as to
what he was next going to say when excited.

The boys nearest the rail seized Jack and young Smith as they came on
deck, and bore them in triumph to the cabin.

"Bully for Jack Sheldon!" shouted Harry, and fifty boys gave him the
heartiest kind of a cheer.

"That's some nerve he showed," declared Arthur Warren, "but then, he
always did have nerve, Jack did. If he didn't he wouldn't have done the
things he has."

"H'm! anybody could do that," said Herring with a snarl. "The yacht was
close to him all the time. You fellows are all the time cracking up Jack
Sheldon, but I don't see that he is any great shakes."

"No, you wouldn't," said Billy Manners, with an emphasis on the pronoun,
"but decent fellows can see it. Would you have gone over after young
Smith?"

"There wasn't any need to do it," growled Herring. "If I'd seen him first
I'd have done it."

"You saw it as soon as any one except Jack himself, and you were nearer
the deck," said Percival, who came up in time to hear what Herring had
said. "I heard you say that Jack pushed the boy overboard so as to get the
name of rescuing him. You know that this is a lie, because Jack was on the
bridge at that time, and could not have done it. Jack and I both saw young
Jesse W. go overboard. Jack feared he might, and had started to go to the
deck when the thing happened."

Herring did not care to get into a quarrel with Percival, who was much
stronger and better built than himself, and he, therefore, went away
muttering something which the boys could not make out.

"He is always saying something nasty against Jack," declared Arthur. "He
hates Jack because Jack is smarter, and a general favorite. I wish he had
stayed on shore, but as Mr. Smith invited the whole Academy he could not
very well be left behind."

"He ought to be marooned on some solitary, uninhabited island, and left
there to hate himself," chuckled Billy Manners.

"They don't do those things nowadays, Billy," said Percival. "You have
been reading the lives of the pirates, and are full of that sort of
romantic stuff."

"Maybe I am," chuckled Billy good naturedly, "but here come Jack and young
Jesse W., looking as fine as fiddles, and not a bit worse for their baths.
Whoop it up for them, boys!"

Every boy in sight responded to the summons, and gave both boys the
heartiest cheers, both Jack and his young companion being favorites.




CHAPTER III

THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS


Neither Jack nor young Smith felt any the worse for his tumble into the
warm waters of the Caribbean, and after they had changed their clothes
they went on deck to assure their schoolmates that they were all right,
and suffering no inconvenience from their trip overboard.

"Jack is a great sport," declared Jesse W., "but somebody called out
'shark!' a little too quick, for I nearly went to pieces. It may Have been
kind in him, but it was injudicious, to say the least."

The boys smiled at the young fellow's wisdom, and Billy Manners replied:

"Well, it wasn't me, J.W., although I know I do a good many fool things.
You can't lay that at my door, however."

"Oh, you are a facetious fellow, and keep us amused, but you do think of
things," replied the younger boy. "The person who shouted 'shark,' is one
of the sort who yell 'fire' at the first sign of smoke, and raise a panic
in a crowded hall. They should be suppressed."

"Very true, J.W., you have the right of it," said Billy, smiling. "You get
the right idea under your bonnet now and then."

Young Smith had always been fond of Jack, but he was more so now and stuck
close to the older boy on all occasions, saying the next day to Jack as
they were walking on deck:

"Do you know, Jack, you have done a lot for me, and it is time I did
something for you. I am going to speak to my father about you. It is a bit
of a job for you to get your schooling and your living and everything,
isn't it?"

"Well, it is not so easy, Jesse W., and I do have a tussle now and then,"
returned Jack, smiling at the other boy's earnestness. "Still, one has to
work for what he gets in this world."

"Unless he steals it, and there is no satisfaction in that," said the
smaller boy wisely. "And later he has to work--in jail. What I wanted to
say was that now you have done this last thing for me, saving my life,
that's what it was, I think my father would like to do something for you,
help you through your schooling or something like that. Of course you
would not want him to give you money, for he does not put a commercial
value on my life, but he could help you to get ahead and so help yourself,
couldn't he now, Jack?"

"I suppose he could," Jack laughed, "and you are a thoughtful young
fellow, J.W., but never mind about that. One of the sailors, Bucephalus,
any one, in fact, could have done what I did. In fact, it is all in the
day's work at sea, and nothing is thought of it."

"No, but no one else did it, Jack. Any one might, but no one did. Only
you. Any one else could have done it, but they did not all the same.
That's nonsense about your pitching me overboard. I heard some of them
talking of it. Why, you were not there. I was on the quarter deck, where I
had no business to be, I suppose, with just a little bit of a low rail,
and when the vessel took a sudden roll I went overboard."

"Jack saw you up there," said Percival, who was walking with the others,
"and spoke about warning you that it was dangerous. In fact, he was on the
way to tell you when you got ahead of him and rolled overboard."

"Jack is all the time thinking of some one," said young Smith. "That's
what makes him different from the other Hilltop boys."

"Oh, then you don't think I think of others, eh? That's one on me."

"Oh, you haven't had to, Dick, you have always had some one to think for
you," said Jesse W. wisely, and both Dick and Jack laughed.

"That young fellow will be doing something for you, Jack," said Percival a
few minutes later when the two happened to be alone. "He is thinking of it
now, and later you will hear from it."

"I suppose he will," said Jack thoughtfully, "and I don't know how I can
stop him. I could not help doing what I did, but you would have done the
same if you had seen the danger before I did."

"But I did not," returned Dick, "and that is just young Smith's line of
argument. It is nothing that you could have done something if you don't do
it. Well, you deserve all that can be done for you, and that is all there
is about it, old chap."

Two days later in the middle of the afternoon, the day having been warm
with very little air stirring so that the boys were glad to seek the
shelter of the awnings spread across the decks, the breeze suddenly fell
away and the air became fairly stifling.

The captain looked anxious, and ordered the awnings taken down, and told
the boys that they had better go below.

Dr. Wise and the professors got the boys below, and none too soon, for all
of a sudden a funnel-shaped cloud appeared on the horizon, spread with
startling rapidity until it covered the entire heavens, and then from it
shot out a fierce flash of lightning, while the wind which had died out
now blew from an unexpected quarter with the greatest fury.

Being under their own steam they, of course, had no use for sails, which
would have been blown away.

For all that the waves dashed them ahead with great rapidity and the
propellers were now high out of water and now buried deep in the sea, the
yacht being almost unmanageable.

The wind was behind them, and there was no chance of going about in such a
blow and with such great waves dashing against them, so in pitch darkness
they sped on, no one knew where.

The electric lights in the cabin and the saloons were turned on so that
the boys were not in darkness, and some of the officers moved about among
them telling them that this was simply a squall, and would soon blow
itself out, and that there was nothing to be feared.

The howling of the gale, the creaking and straining of the shrouds, the
thumping and pounding and groaning of the machinery, and the tramping of
men overhead made a combination of sounds that might well terrify anyone,
and the older boys tried to reassure the younger ones that it would be
over in a short time, and that they would soon be sailing on smooth seas
again, and be laughing at their former terrors, but it took a great deal
of faith to make all this believed, and some of those who urged it had
very little confidence in its truth.

Herring, Merritt, and others of the same class were really terrified, and
took on dreadfully, predicting all sorts of dreadful things, and declared
that they were fools to have taken this voyage, and that they would never
undertake another.

Jack Sheldon, Dick Percival, Harry Dickson, and even mercurial Billy
Manners were quite different, however, and young Jesse W. Smith acted like
a man, and although he was frightened, as any one might be, and no shame
to him, did not give way to his fright, but said very wisely that he
guessed the storm had been gotten up for their especial benefit so that
they might know what sort of things they could do in these latitudes.

How long they were rushing before wind and sea they did not know, for it
seemed ages, where they were going they could not guess either as they had
come from an unexpected quarter, and so suddenly that they had not noticed
its direction, and were not where they could look at the compass.

All was bright and cheerful in the cabins, but through the portholes they
could see that all was dark outside with an occasional vivid flash of
lightning, these coming less and less frequent at length till they ceased,
and then the skies began to brighten.

Suddenly, however, before it was yet bright enough outside to make out any
objects, there was a sudden rush forward as if they had been struck by a
great wave, then a sudden upheaving as if they were mounting to the sky,
then another long rush forward, and then a shock as if they had struck
something, and for a few moments the lights went out.

When they flared up again the vessel seemed to be at anchor, and the boys
said to each other:

"What is the matter, have we struck on a rock, are we sinking, what is the
matter anyhow?"

There was no confusion on deck, as there would have been if what the boys
feared had really happened, and presently one of the officers came below
and said reassuringly:

"Well, we are all right as far as I can see, but where we are is another
story. In some landlocked bay, apparently, but where it is or how we
reached it I can't tell."

"We were struck by a cyclone, weren't we, Officer?" asked young Smith,
with a wise air.

"That's just what it was, and when those things strike you they strike
hard. Lucky for us that we happened to be going ahead of it, for if we had
been head on to it we might not have survived."

"But there is no danger, we have not struck a rock or anything, we have no
holes in our hull?"

"None that we can see. We are beached somewhere, and we may slide into
deeper water, but as far as we can tell now we are safe enough. Where we
are, however, will have to be determined when the sun comes out."

The boys were reassured by this news, and after a time some of them went
out on deck, the yacht being now almost motionless, the waves just lapping
their sides, and running lazily up a beach, which they could now just make
out at a little distance.

It grew lighter and lighter quite rapidly, and at length the sun appeared,
and they found themselves in a landlocked bay with a white beach in front
of them, beyond that a thick grove of palms of various kinds, green hills
on all sides and in the distance, straight ahead, a hill of considerable
size crowned with a thick growth of trees.

As the sun grew brighter the scene increased in attractiveness, and the
greater part of the boys were charmed by it, making many exclamations of
delight, as they turned from one object to another.

"It's a fine place wherever it is," said Jack. "I suppose they will locate
it to-morrow, and perhaps some one will come out to the yacht, and tell us
where we are."

"I don't see any sign of dwellings," murmured Percival. "Perhaps there are
no people on it. Not all of these little islands are inhabited, and I
suppose it is an island?"

"Probably, for I do not think we are near the South American coast. Some
one will know after a bit, doubtless. At any rate, we are safe and that is
a good deal."

One of the officers came along where the two boys were standing, and Jack
asked him if he knew where they were.

"No, I don't," was the answer. "We have not been able to get an
observation yet, and we started off at such a gait that it was impossible
to tell where we were going or at what rate. We will probably locate
ourselves in the morning, but there is no danger so you can make your
minds easy on that point, young gentlemen."

"There is a good deal in that, sir," said both boys.




CHAPTER IV

CAUGHT ON LOST ISLAND


The sun set gloriously, and after a short twilight common to those
latitudes the full moon arose over the hills, and all the stars came out
little by little till the heavens were full of them.

The moon dimmed their brightness somewhat, but they were still very
brilliant, and the night was a glorious one, the air warm and balmy, the
breeze just enough to temper the heat of the air, and all around them sea
and shore bathed in moonlight.

After dinner, which was served in the saloon as usual, the boys went out
on deck for the most part, and enjoyed the beautiful evening, being
dispersed in little groups here and there, some seated and some walking
the decks.

"We are safe enough, anyhow," observed Jack to Percival and a few of the
boys who were seated on deck with him, "and I suppose we will not leave
here till the morning at any rate."

"We are sheltered in this bay, and even if there should be a storm outside
we will not feel it," returned Percival. "I hardly think there is one, and
it seems strange that we should have caught that cyclone at this time of
the year. Isn't it unusual?"

"You can't call anything unusual in the tropics," laughed Jack. "I believe
you are liable to catch anything at any time here from yellow fever to a
tornado. They seem to have them always on hand."

"Well, we are safe now, at any rate, and I am glad for that much. We will
make the best of this fine night, and take other things as they come."

It was late when the last of the boys went to bed, for they all wanted to
make the most of the fine night, but they were all up early the next
morning, anxious to learn where they were, and if they would stay at the
island or put to sea again.

Jack was the first of the boys on deck, and when he reached there he saw
Dr. Wise talking to the captain and the first officer, there being a
grizzled old seaman conversing with Bucephalus at a short distance.

The doctor and the officers seemed to be carrying on a very earnest
conversation, and Jack heard a little of it as he came forward, and then
suddenly stopped, fearing that he might be intruding.

"We are on the bottom, sir, and I don't know how long we may be there,"
said Captain Storms. "The next high tide may raise us, and it may not. It
is my opinion that we have been on the bottom ever since we came into the
bay, and how we are going to lighten her I don't know."

"But there are no holes, we have opened no seams, we have not taken in any
water?" asked the doctor, looking fixedly at the captain through his big
black-rimmed spectacles.

"No, there are no open seams and no water. The bottom is sandy, too, I
think, and not the sharp coral rock you find in these parts that will cut
a hole in anything that touches it. No, it is simply a case of too little
water to float us, but that, as I may say, may be remedied. Time will
tell."

"Then you do not think there is any cause for alarm, sir?"

"Not any great amount, no, sir. The moon is not quite full, although it
looked so last night, and when it fills we may get higher water. We can
tell to-night. Meanwhile, there are the boats, and your young gentlemen
may go on shore and explore the island. I don't think there are any people
on it, as it seems very small. Many of the islands hereabouts have no one
on them."

"You don't know which one it is as yet?"

"No, I don't."

The doctor walked forward, and looked over the rail, and Jack went up to
Bucephalus, and the old sailor and said:

"You don't know where we are, either of you, I suppose?"

"Ah haven't de remotest ideah, sah," replied the negro, "an' far as Ah can
make o't dis gentleman am in de same predicament. He says we am in de
tropics at a island ob not werry big size an' importance, but Ah was aware
of dese fac's mahself befo' Ah interrogated him, sah, so dat Ah am no
furder dan Ah was befo', sah."

"This here is an island in the Spanish Main, the place where the old
pirates and buccaneers used to roam," said the old sailor whose name Jack
learned later was Ben Bowline, "and that's all I know about it. You didn't
come lookin' fur Cap'n Kidd's treasure, did you?"

"No, we did not, and I don't believe we would find it if we had. Men are
foolish that go looking for such things. I don't believe that Captain Kidd
buried the hundredth part of the gold that he is reputed to have buried. I
have other things to do besides looking for buried gold."

"You're about right," said Ben, "but there's plenty who do look for it,
and spend their lives at it and don't get nothing. This here is one of
them islands, and I thought mebby you boys had come a-lookin' for
something like that. Boys haven't anymore sense."

"Thank you, but you'll find that the Hilltop boys have a good deal more
sense than that."

After breakfast two of the yacht's boats were lowered, and some of the
boys went ashore to explore the island and amuse themselves in various
ways while the captain sent a party to find the outlet of the bay, and see
what their chances for leaving the island might be.

Jack, Percival, Harry, Arthur and young Smith went on one boat, and were
the first to land, walking up the beach and into the woods as the other
boat came ashore.

Picking a path as they went on Jack and his companions pushed into the
deep everglade, the lush undergrowth sometimes quite impeding their
progress, and making their advance very slow.

"If we were going to be here any time," said Percival, "we should have to
make a path so that we could get about with greater rapidity. If we had
thought to bring an axe it would have been better."

After a time their progress was more rapid, as the undergrowth was less
rank, and they went on with more comfort.

Many varieties of cactus, prickly pears, plums and plants with the most
gorgeous flowers lined their path, and gave constant delight to young
Smith and some of the others, but Jack and Percival were more intent on
seeing where they would come out than in looking at plants and flowers,
and they gave the latter little attention.

"There is certainly no one on the island," said Jack at length when they
came out upon an upland glade more open to the sky than the parts already
traversed, "or we should have seen them by this time. I think we have been
going in the same general direction, Dick, so suppose we push on in the
same line, and see where we come out."

"All right, but there are hills, which we may have to climb if we keep
straight on. There they are ahead of us."

"Yes, I see them, but they do not seem to be very high nor far away. If
they want us back at the yacht they will probably blow the bugle."

They pushed on across the open space, and then through a wood where it was
not so easy to advance and at length, without noticing it, began to
descend, the way being good at times and at others very difficult so that
they were frequently obliged to halt and get breath.

"I shouldn't wonder if we were the pioneers of this island," said Harry,
"for no one seems to have been through here before. How do you stand it,
young Smith, all right?"

"Well, it is not so easy as walking along Broadway in New York," rejoined
Jesse W., "but I can manage it, I guess."

"It strikes me that we are going down instead of up," observed Arthur,
"and we thought we would have to climb the hills we saw."

"You often have to go up and down two or three times in climbing a
mountain," said Jack. "It looks all up from a distance, but there are
often intervening valleys, which have to be crossed, and then you go up
again."

"This must be a pretty deep one, then," said Harry, "for we are going down
at a pretty steep incline now."

They pushed on, passing through many great masses of rock, and still going
down at a decided angle until at length they came out upon a bare, rocky
shore with huge masses of rock to the right and left, and beyond a line of
reefs over which the surf was dashing, all being white both beyond and
inside the reefs.

"We are on the other side of the island!" exclaimed Jack, "and we have not
climbed our hills at all or else they were so slight that we did not
notice them."

"I would not like to be in a vessel driven on this side of the island,"
said Percival. "See how the surf dashes over those reefs. You would go to
pieces in a short time."

"That may be the reason why there are no people on it," said Jack. "It is
not very big, I take it, and is probably difficult of access. We seem to
have come to it without knowing it, and if we had I don't believe we would
have gone near it."

They stood watching the surf, and taking in various parts of the shore,
seeing a great mass of rocks higher than those at hand, to the east of the
larger mass close in to land, and at length Jack suggested that they
return to the other side.

"We ought to be able to follow the path we made coming across," he said,
"and in any event, we know the general direction, and if we do go astray a
bit it won't matter."

They set out upon their return, and came out not far from where they had
started, finding Billy Manners and three or four of the boys on shore
waiting for them.

"We thought you might be along soon," said Billy. "Would you believe it,
they don't know what this island is after all, don't know the name of it,
I mean."

"How is that?" asked Harry. "Isn't it charted?"

"Yes, it is charted all right, but there is no name given to it. The
captain says it is a sort of lost island, and they never thought enough of
it to give it a name or if it had one they didn't think it was good enough
to put on the chart."

"Lost Island is a good enough name for us," observed Jack. "Suppose we
call it that while we are here. That will not be long, I suppose."

"H'm! I don't know about that," Billy returned. "They have the yacht
afloat all right. They started the engines, and backed her off a sand bank
or whatever it was we were on, and are now in fairly deep water, but as to
leaving the island that is another matter."

"How is it?" asked all the boys in a breath.

"Because there is a line of reefs stretching right across the mouth of the
bay, and there seems to be no way of getting beyond them. There seem to be
openings here and there, but they are so narrow that the captain does not
think it wise to try to go through them."

"Then we are lost on Lost Island, and are lost ourselves," said Jack.




CHAPTER V

EXPLORING THE ISLAND


The boys returned to the yacht in time for dinner, and here their
situation was talked over by the doctor and the captain, the former
assuring the boys that there was no great danger, for the yacht was
equipped with a wireless service, and the captain could easily make his
predicament known, and vessels would doubtless be sent to his relief.

"We may pursue our studies as usual," the doctor continued, whereupon
there were wry looks upon the faces of many of the boys, "and as soon as
we get away from here we will pursue our voyage. It is simply an incident,
not an accident in our plans as arranged."

After dinner Jack got one of the yacht's boats, and took Dick and young
Smith with him to the mouth of the bay to get a view of the reefs.

For some little distance they could not see the opening of the bay on
account of its windings, the hills preventing them from getting a view of
the sea, but at length in rounding a wooded point they came in sight of
it.

There were reefs in front of them, at some little distance, and points of
rocks on both sides, the outer bay being of considerable size, but
generally exposed to the weather, which they were not in the inner bay.

They pushed on for some little distance, but not too near the reefs, where
they would be exposed to the force of the surf that dashed over the latter
and Jack presently pointed out a strange looking object on his right and
at some little distance.

"I should say that that was a flagstaff sticking out of the rocks," he
said, "if it were not the most unlikely thing in the world that there
should be one there. If any one wanted to plant a flag-pole they would go
up higher on the rocks, I should think."

"See if you can get a little nearer to it, Jack," said Dick. "It looks too
big for a flagstaff, but it might be the stump of a mast."

"Which is much more likely," replied Jack. "A vessel might have gone
ashore there, and show the stump of a mast above water. It is a wonder to
me that we were not in the same predicament."

"The only way that I account for it is that we were hit by a tidal wave or
the end of one, and carried right over the reefs without scratching, and
then the force of the water carried us to the inner bay where it left us
stranded for a time."

"That sounds reasonable, and in the absence of any other explanation may
as well be received as the right one. I think you are correct about its
being the stump of a mast, Dick."

Jack rowed as close to the point of rocks as he dared, not caring to be
dashed upon them, the landing being bad, and the boys got a better view of
the object that Jack had noticed.

It was out in the water, and projected about five feet, and, being broken
off apparently about half way to the crosstrees, should be at least that
distance under water.

"I should say there was five or six feet of water there," said Jack, "and
you can see from the marks on it that this broken end is still below high
water mark. I don't see any sign of a bowsprit but maybe that was broken
off when she struck."

"And we can't tell whether this is the fore, main or mizzen," observed
Dick; "or whether she had more than two masts. There must be some of her
hull left, but it is all under water and maybe deeper than you think."

"Yes," said Jack musingly, "and I am very glad that we are above it and
safe, even if we are on a lost island. The tide is coming in steadily now,
and there will be more surf, so I think it just as well not to be too near
the reefs."

"We might get ashore at some other point farther back, and examine this
part of the coast," suggested Percival.

"That woody point which we rounded and so came in sight of the outer bay
might be a good place," added young Smith, who seemed a boy of ideas,
although he was a little fellow and younger than the others. "We could go
ashore there, I think, Jack."

"Yes, so we might," said Jack, as he began to row back. "There is time
now, I think. We have not got to go right back."

He pulled on till he reached the point of woods and then looked for a good
place to land, finally finding one where there was a narrow white beach
and a bank which sloped gradually up to a distance of twenty feet to a
ledge whence there was another rise of about twenty feet to another grassy
bank.

"This seems to be a good place," he said, as he pulled in to the little
beach. "Here is an old stump to which we can tie the boat so that it may
not drift away from us when the tide comes in if it reaches this point."

Making the boat fast with plenty of slack to the rope in case the tide
should rise high, he got out and then he and Percival ascended the first
slope, helping Jesse W. between them.

There was room enough for all of them on the bank, but it did not appear
to extend very far, and after taking a rest of a few minutes they set out
to ascend to the next landing place where they again rested.

Here there was more room than before, but it was farther to the next
stopping place, and there was still more room when that would be reached.

From this point they could see much of the inner bay, and make out the
yacht at anchor, but could not see much beyond that, and Jack suggested
that they go to a still higher point, and get another observation.

There were trees, big and little, and rough rocks here and there, which
would aid them in making the ascent, and they kept on till they reached
another good stopping place of greater extent whence they could see much
more than before.

Jack and Dick helped young Jesse W. up the bank, as, otherwise, it would
have been hard for the little fellow, who was under the average size for
boys of his age, and he felt quite proud of being with the older boys, and
said as he looked around on the water and the island and the yacht lying
at anchor:

"When I tell the other fellows that I came up here they won't believe me.
I tell you, it is something to have two such big fellows to look after a
little shrimp like me."

"Never mind, J.W., you will grow if you will only wait," laughed Jack. "We
were all little fellows once."

"What sort of place is this, anyhow?" asked the smaller boy, looking about
him. "There are woods and rocks, and down there I can see that stump of a
mast. I wonder if we could see more of her by----"

He was walking on, looking at the mast sticking out of water more than at
the ground at his feet when suddenly Jack noticed that he was right on the
edge of a hole just discernible in the tall grass.

He darted forward, and caught the boy's arm just as he was about to step
into this hole without seeing it, and pulled him back.

"Look out, Jesse W., or you'll go in!" he cried. "You don't know how deep
that place is nor where it will land you."

"H'm! I never noticed it. It does seem deep, doesn't it? I wonder how far
down it goes, and what's at the end? Water, do you suppose?"

"I don't know, I'm sure," said Jack, "but you might have had a bad fall,
my boy. You don't want to go star-gazing like that in strange places. You
never know what may be in the way. Always look where you are going."

"Yes, that's good advice, but I wonder if there is anything down there
anyhow? Do you suppose we could get down?"

"Possibly," returned Jack thoughtfully, "but I imagine it is a pretty good
job to get down there and a bigger one to get back, and nothing down there
anyhow."

"You can't tell without going down," said the younger boy wisely, as he
knelt on the edge of the hole, and looked down. "Have you got a pocket
light with you? We might tell something with that."

Jack parted the tall grass, and just then the sun shone out brightly, as
the breeze blew aside the branches, and a broad track of sunlight was let
into the hole.

"It does not go straight down," said Dick, who was now at Jack's side. "In
fact, I don't think it is as steep as the path we came up. We might go
down and investigate."

"Yes, but what would there be there when we got down?" asked the other
half impatiently. "We ran the risk of breaking a leg or an arm just for
the sake of exploring a hole in the ground, and get nothing out of it. If
there was anything there, now----"

"Yon don't know till you look, as Jesse W. just remarked, and there might
be something there after all. Some of Captain Kidd's treasure, for
instance."

"Nonsense! You are full of Captain Kidd's treasure, and so are half the
boys. You won't find anything down there, and you will have your trouble
for your pains."

"I'm going to look just for the fun of it, anyhow," said Dick, "although
it would be very convenient to have a light as J.W. suggests. Another time
we can bring one."

The sun shone more strongly into the hole, and Dick began to descend,
using a stout stick, which he had broken from a tree near at hand, to
assist him in going down.

The smaller boy looked rather wistfully into the hole as Dick went down,
and Jack, breaking another stout stick, asked:

"Do you want to go down there, young fellow, and follow Dick Percival on a
fool's errand?"

"It might not be that," said the other, "and I would like to go."

"All right, then, come along. Here is a staff for you. I can do without
one, I think. Keep close to me. Can you walk upright, Dick?"

"Yes, generally," came back the answer in a muffled voice. "My! but the
place is filled with echoes, Jack. It goes down quite a distance I should
say. The light is a big help. Funny, but there seems to be a light down
here, although where it comes from I can't say."

The boys kept going down and at length Jack said, pausing and trying to
pierce the darkness, the light that Percival had spoken of not being
visible at that moment:

"I think we would better get a light, Dick. We don't know where we are
going, and it is dark. It is never safe to go anywhere in the dark unless
one is familiar with his surroundings."

"That's true enough, Jack. Have you any matches? The next time we come
this way, if we do, we had better take a flashlight along."

"I have matches," said Jack, and in a moment a tiny blaze shot up,
increasing till it enabled them to see to some extent where they were.

They were still descending, but in a short time were on more level ground
or rock, whatever it was, proceeding till the match went out, and a few
steps farther when Dick suddenly brought up against something and
exclaimed in surprise:

"Hello! we cannot go any farther, Jack. Strike another match, and let us
see where we are."

Jack lighted two or three matches at once, and held them just above his
head so as to obtain a good view of his surroundings.

"Hello! what is this?" exclaimed Percival. "A cave, or what?"

Just before them was a jagged opening into some region beyond, but whether
it was a cave or not puzzled them.

Jack went closer, and held his light in the jagged opening.

"It's a hole in the side of a vessel, Dick!" he cried in amazement.




CHAPTER VI

A WALK UNDER WATER


"That's what it is, Jack," said Dick, after the first sensation of
astonishment had passed. "It is more in the bow than on the side, however.
You can see how she narrows a little farther on. This hole is pretty well
forward. I tell you what! This is the vessel we saw under water, or the
one that stump of a mast belongs to, at any rate."

"I believe it is, Dick. Probably she drove in here, had a hole smashed in
her bow, and then sank. The earth has settled in between the masses of
rock above and around her, and hidden her, but there is still the fissure
down which we have just come."

"This is as good as finding Captain Kidd's treasure, isn't it?" exclaimed
young Smith. "We never expected to find anything. Shall we go in and see
what more there is, Jack?"

"We may find ourselves in the water before we know it," murmured Jack.
"No, I think we would better stay where we are. It is the safest plan by
long odds. It looks like taking too many chances to go into a place like
that. Better wait till another time."

"Give me a match or two, Jack," said Percival. "I'll promise not to take
too great a risk."

Jack handed him the matches, and he struck them, and advanced a step or
two into the opening.

"It is plenty wide enough," Percival said. "Yes, these are ship's timbers,
all right. She must have struck hard to make such a gash. We are on a
level with the lower deck. I can't see much cargo around, but there is a
way aft. This must be a sort of steerage, and the lower hold where the
cargo is stored is below us. I believe we could walk right ahead to the
after bulkhead, and if there happens to be a door in it, as is often the
case, straight into the after cabin."

"If there were anything to make a torch of, Dick, I'd go with you," said
Jack, "for I am as much interested as you are in this strange find, but we
don't know what we might stumble against or into what hole we might fall.
Wait, Dick. We shall not probably leave the island for some time, and
there will be opportunities to find out more about it."

"Yes, I suppose so, but I would like to find them out now. However, you
have the right of it, and it is just as well to be cautious."

"Besides, I have only a few more matches left, and we must get back to
where we started. If you and I were alone----"

"Yes, quite right," and Dick came out, as his matches were extinguished,
and they started back.

A match or two gave them all the light they wanted till they began to
ascend, the way up being more difficult than coming down, and both older
boys being obliged to assist the younger one.

However, they reached the top at last, the light seeming to be almost
dazzling after they had been used to the darkness for even the short time
they were down in the strange place.

"I never knew the sun to be so bright," said Jesse W. "It's like what men
say coming up out of a deep well is."

"We'll go there again," said Percival. "I want to know more about the
place. Better not say anything to the other fellows. We'll have them
swarming over the place if we do, and then there is more or less danger in
going down there."

"I believe you want to keep the discovery all to yourself in case we did
find treasure there," said Jack. "Probably there is nothing more than a
lot of spoiled beef and some old clothes."

"Oh, after we have seen all there is to be seen I don't care, but I do
want to have it to ourselves until we have had a chance to see all there
is to be seen. Think of going into a vessel through a hole in the side.
Very few people can say they have done that."

"There'll be no getting the vessel out of that now," said young Smith. "I
wonder how old it is!"

"It cannot be so very old," replied Jack. "If she were, the moss and slime
on that stump of a mast would be thicker, and there would not be so much
of the stump. Probably she is filled with water in any event."

"There was none in the part we saw."

"No, as that was above water, but the lower part undoubtedly is. I do not
believe we could go all the way through as Dick suggests."

They went back to the place where they had left the boat, made their way
down and rowed back to the yacht, where they went on board, and saw some
of the boys, telling them of visiting the reefs, but saying nothing of the
strange discovery of the vessel among the rocks.

There was a very high tide that night, but Captain Storms decided that it
would be very unwise to try to pass beyond the reefs, none of the openings
being wide enough and the surf very heavy.

"There is no use, young gentlemen," he said to Jack and Dick and a few
others. "We will have to stay here for a time until I can get in
connection with the outside world. Then, perhaps, some one may know about
this place, and a way out of it. One vessel has gone down here, and I
don't care to be the next, and leave my mainmast sticking up out of the
water to show folks the way to destruction."

"We saw that stump ourselves," said Jack. "Was that wreck long ago, do you
think?"

"Not so many years, twenty, perhaps, or maybe less. The rocks would hold
her tight, but I don't believe there's much left of her. Nothing worth
taking away, I guess."

Jack gave Dick a peculiar look, and neither of the boys told what they had
seen.

The boys had lessons and a lecture that afternoon, and again the next
morning and in the afternoon were free to go about as they pleased,
explore the island or go out on the water with some of the sailors.

"I want to take another look at that old vessel," said Percival to Jack
after dinner. "I have borrowed a stout rope and an axe, and I have my
pocket light with me. Will you go along, Jack? I suppose we should take
J.W. with us, but he is a little fellow, and there might be danger."

"If we find anything whatever we can take him another time," said Jack. "I
don't want anything to happen to the young fellow. Some of the boys may be
saying that I took him to a dangerous place just to have the name of
rescuing him again."

"You don't mind what such fellows as Herring and some of the rest say, I
hope?" sputtered Percival.

"Not altogether, but it is annoying all the same."

"What those fellows need is a good thrashing."

"Well, I don't like this constant wrangling, and I keep away from them as
much as possible and don't give any cause for talk."

"Which is the cheapest kind of goods dealt in. Never mind them, but come
along and make another investigation of the wreck. I believe we may find
something in it."

"Spoiled beef and rotten clothes," laughed Jack. "However, I will go with
you, Dick."

They took the boat and rowed to the woody point where they made fast, and
climbed to the top as before, having much less trouble on account of not
having the younger boy to assist.

They made their rope fast to a tree near the edge of the hole among the
rocks, and by its help descended to the bottom, then lighting their way to
the hole in the side of the vessel.

With the axe Percival cut away the jagged edges of the timbers at the
opening, and then he and Jack pushed forward, using the axe now and again
as rubbish of various kinds came in their way.

They could see boxes and bales and casks on either side as they went on,
there being a passage-way between the tiers of the cargo, and here and
there a post or stanchion had half fallen and impeded their progress,
obliging them to cut it.

As Percival had predicted, there was a door at the end of the bulkhead,
dividing the hold from the cabin, but this was fast.

"It is not very thick," said Percival. "I believe I can break it in with a
blow of the axe."

"Wait a moment, Dick," said Jack cautiously. "Listen! It strikes me I hear
the sound of water. We don't want to let a flood in on us. It is likely
that the after hold and cabin are full of water, and we don't want to be
swamped."

Percival put his ear to the door, and then flashed his light through the
keyhole.

"There's nothing there, Jack," he said. "If there were water it would come
through here. We have gone so far, and I'd like to go the rest of the way
and get to the cabin. I believe we can. There is probably a passage on one
side of the companion leading to the after cabin."

"Yes, and the companion is open, and the place full of water."

"There is none here, at any rate, and it will be time enough to look for
trouble when it comes," returned Percival impatiently. "Stand aside, old
man, and throw the light on the door so that I can give a good blow."

Jack did as requested, and Percival raised the axe and dealt the door a
sturdy blow, which took it off its hinges and sent it crashing into a
narrow passage beyond.

"There is no water there!" he exclaimed in triumph. "Come on, Jack."

The two boys went into the passage, stepping over the fallen door, Jack
showing the way with the pocket electric light, which was great use to
them in the strange place.

The passage was narrow, not wide enough for the two boys to walk side by
side, and was about two fathoms in length, leading to another door which
was fast like the first.

In many vessels there is a passage like this leading from the after cabin
to the steerage, where the entire hold is not open from the hatches to the
keel, as in big ships, which the captain may use in reaching certain
portions of the cargo with less trouble than in the case of its being
stored in a solid bulk.

"Here is another door, Jack," said Percival. "I don't see any sign of a
companionway from the deck."

"No," said Jack, putting his ear to the door and listening intently. "I
can hear the swash of water just the same, Dick. We had better be a bit
careful."

"We would hear it here, anyhow, Jack. There is water outside, and I don't
suppose there is much depth here. You would be very likely to hear it the
same as you hear water dashing against the side of a vessel when you are
in the hold. It doesn't follow that the water is beyond there."

"No, I guess not. Well, give it a smash, and be ready to run in case there
is water there."

Percival took as much room as he could in the narrow passage, swung the
axe, and sent the door crashing into the space beyond.

Instead of a flood of water breaking in upon the boys, as Jack more than
half expected, there was considerably more light while the sound of water
was more distinguishable than before.

"Well! I declare!" exclaimed Percival, pressing forward.

The boys found themselves in the after cabin of a vessel, which was as dry
as if she had been in her dock, a soft light from overhead showing them
the details of the place perfectly, even without the light of the torch.

"We are under water, Jack!" cried Percival.

"So it seems."

"That light comes from the bull's-eye overhead. The water over it softens
the light. Otherwise, the sun would pour right into the place."

"That would be better than having the water pouring in on us, Dick. The
flashings of that skylight are tighter than most of them, however, or the
water would have gotten in here long before now."

"It is just possible that the glass has been covered with sand which has
been lately washed away. That would fill all the cracks around the
flashings and make them tight. Very likely the wave that sent us in here
has uncovered the skylight, and that is how it is light in here. It is
dry, too, Jack. Why, this is like being in one of the submarines we have
read of."

"Where you slide back a panel and look at the fishes in procession,
through a plate-glass port," laughed Jack. "That always seemed absurd to
me, but there are lots of things that Verne wrote about which have been
more than realized."

"I should say so! Why, his balloons and his submersibles would not be a
patch upon what are actually in use these days."

"Well, now that we know it is safe here, and the water is not going to
pour in upon us, let us have a look at the place," said Jack.




CHAPTER VII

A REMARKABLE FIND


The cabin where the boys now found themselves, so strangely lighted and so
marvelously discovered, was not of any great size and was evidently the
stateroom of the late commander of the vessel, which itself was not of any
great size so far as the boys could determine.

It was furnished with a standing bed fixed against the side, a table and
two chairs, all fixed to keep them from moving about when there was any
commotion outside.

The skylight was just above the table, which could be used in writing or
to have a meal served upon, there being evidences of its having been used
for both purposes at the time of the wreck, for there were papers and
writing materials scattered about, and a plate and a wine glass just under
it, having fallen off during the commotion of the wreck.

There were lockers along the floor under the bed, and along the sides of
the cabin, and in one corner a heavy chest such as seamen often use to
contain their valuables, this being brassbound and padlocked.

There was a small door forward and another aft, but the boys did not
attempt to see what was beyond either of them, being satisfied with what
they saw, and not knowing what dangers they might bring upon themselves by
doing so.

"It's a bit uncanny, Jack," murmured Percival, "having the water so near
to us and not knowing at what moment it may come in upon us. One of those
doors probably leads to the companionway going on deck, and the other to
the cockpit, but I don't think it would be wise to open either."

"No," said Jack, picking up a bit of writing from the floor.

"There may be, and probably is, another door beyond this after one leading
into the cockpit," pursued Percival, "but we don't know if we would let
the water in upon us, and it is just as well to leave it alone for the
present. The other doubtless leads to the companionway, and there may be
another one beyond at the top or perhaps at the bottom. I don't see how
the water has not made its way in here, but----"

"Both doors are of iron," said Jack. "Probably the skipper wanted privacy,
and--do you read Spanish, Dick! You know a number of modern languages,
more or less."

"No, not very well, but what made you ask me?" replied Percival in some
surprise. "What have you got there, Jack?"

"A letter addressed to some official in Mexico, but whether of the
provisional or rebel government I cannot make out."

"H'm! you are always picking up strange letters."

"Yes, it seems so. You are thinking of the one I found in the flying
machine. We never settled whether that was really genuine or not, Dick,
but this seems to be so. As far as I can make out it refers to a shipment
of some sort, arms or gold or--why, Dick, this wreck cannot be so old,
after all. The date of this is only that of last year and late at that."

"Then that knocks the Captain Kidd idea silly!"

"Never mind Captain Kidd. Let us see if we can open this chest. Do you
know, I am a bit nervous about staying down here too long. You said it was
uncanny, and so it is. I'll save these letters," picking up another from
the floor. "Suppose we try the chest, Dick."

"The only reason that the water did not come in through that hole forward
is that it was probably made by the rocks when she struck and this after
part is much lower. She was caught fast and could not fall back. Well,
what about the chest, can you open it?" for Jack was kneeling before it,
and trying the fastenings.

"I don't know. The lock is closed, but it is only an ordinary iron one,
and perhaps you might break it with the axe. There is no other lock that I
can see. Try breaking it open, Dick."

Percival struck the padlock a terrific blow with the axe, and broke it in
half, it being just a cast-iron affair and easily broken.

"It seems funny to put a lock like that upon a chest supposed to contain
something worth while," remarked Jack, as he removed the pieces of the
lock, pulled aside the hasp and opened the chest. "That is the way some
persons do, however."

Throwing back the lid of the chest he found a tray containing some papers,
a pair of pistols and a knife, a few odd trinkets of very little value,
some loose cigarettes, two or three dozen in number, a cheap photograph,
and a purse made of silver mesh containing a few gold coins.

"Whose picture is that, Dick?" he asked, handing the photograph to
Percival, who took it and examined it carefully.

"Why, that's Villa or some of those rebel Mexicans," Dick answered. "I
have seen it in the papers often. What's in the body of the chest?"

Jack removed the tray and set it on the floor, opening his eyes with
astonishment, and giving vent to a startled exclamation at the same time.

"Well, it is not Captain Kidd, Dick," he cried, "but it is money, just the
same, bags of it, and gold," untying the cord around one of the bags, and
showing it to be full of gold pieces.

"Not pieces of eight, Jack?" asked Percival with a broad grin.

"No, American twenties and tens, and a few English sovereigns," said Jack,
taking out a handful of the coins. "Why, there's more than a hundred
dollars right in my fist."

"And a lot of bags, too, Jack," and Percival bent over and looked into the
chest. "There must be thousands of dollars there, Jack."

"Yes, if they all contain gold. Take care of this one, Dick, while----"

At that moment there was a sudden heavy sound outside, and both boys
started up in surprise.

"What's that, Dick?"

"I don't know, but I don't like it."

"There is no water coming in?"

"Not that I can see."

The sound was repeated, louder than before, and Percival said nervously,
while his cheek was noticed to have perceptibly paled:

"Let us get out of here, Jack. I am frightened, I admit. If anything
should happen to you I would never forgive myself."

He closed the lid of the chest with his foot, caught Jack by the arm, and
said as he hurried away:

"I don't know what it is, but I am not taking any risks."

They hurried along the passage by which they had entered the cabin,
reached the hole in the bow by which they had entered and then, as
Percival turned on his flashlight, which he had extinguished after
entering the cabin aft, they hurried forward toward the hole in the rocks.

"There is no water here, Dick, at any rate," said Jack.

"No, there is not, but I can't think what made--hello!"

"What's the matter, Dick?"

"Where is the way up? I can't find it. The passage was not a wide one, was
it? We cannot have gone astray?"

"No, I don't see how we could," muttered Jack, as he looked around him,
the place being well lighted by Dick's flash. "Hello! I see what the
trouble is, and now I know what the noise was."

"Well?" asked Percival.

"Some of the rocks have fallen in, Dick. That was what made the noise.
Here is our rope. We are in the right place, therefore. The way up is
closed, however. Or, at any rate, it is closed here, but I don't
believe----"

"The rocks were not loose, were they, Jack?"

"I did not notice that they were, and there has been no rain to send them
down. They must have been loose, however. How else could they have tumbled
in?"

"I don't know, unless some one took a bar or a pole, and sent them down
that way."

"Nonsense, Dick! Who would do that?"

"I know plenty who would do it. Who pushed you into the ravine, back at
Hilltop at the risk of your life?"

"Yes, but there is no one around, and no one knew where we were going. You
don't suspect little Jesse W., do you?"

"No, indeed," said Percival, with a hearty laugh, "but some one has seen
us go down here, and they have thrown down the rocks to make it harder for
us to get out."

"It does not seem likely, Dick," said Jack in a doubting tone. "There was
no one about, and we are the only ones who know the place. We said nothing
about it, and young Smith will keep quiet. Come, that is hardly worth
thinking of. Let us see how we can get out. There must be some way."

Dick turned his light this way and that, and Jack lighted a match, saying
with a significant chuckle:

"That is all very well, but this is better for our purpose. Watch!"

The flame presently began to flicker, and indicated the presence of a
draught of air, Jack noticing the direction whence it came, said:

"Try this way, Dick. There is a draught which makes the flame flicker. Try
the axe on the rocks and see if you can loosen them, or, better yet, see
if there isn't a fissure somewhere."

"Yes, there is," said Percival, climbing a mass of rock somewhat to one
side of where the others had fallen. "Yes, I see it, Jack."

Between them, working with the axe and their hands, the boys opened up a
passage between the rocks wide enough for them to crawl through, and in a
few minutes were on the top of the wooded point only a few yards from
where they had entered the strange place.

"The boat's gone, Jack!" exclaimed Percival.




CHAPTER VIII

DISCUSSING THE FIND


The boys could see the water and the bank from where they stood, and Dick
had been the first to notice that the boat was not where they had left it
before going down into the buried wreck.

"I suppose it might have drifted away," said Jack. "The warp could have
become loosened."

"Yes, it could have done so," sputtered Percival, "but it did not do so
without help. The same fellows who tumbled the rocks into the hole took
away the boat. I have an idea who they were. I spoke pretty sharp to
Herring the other day, and he has probably been nursing his wrath ever
since."

"You are too suspicious, Dick, and--hello! did you bring that bag with
you?" for the first time noticing that Percival had the bag of coin which
he himself had handed to his friend.

"Yes, you told me to take care of it, and I did," and Percival put the bag
in the outside pocket of his jacket. "Well have to hail the yacht, old
chap. We can make our way in that direction along the top of the bank. It
is not such bad going, and then we have the axe if it is necessary to cut
our way through the undergrowth."

They set out along the top of the bank, keeping a lookout for the vessel,
now and then having to cut their way on account of the thickness of the
growth, which was often as high as their waists.

"The rocks could not have fallen in by themselves, and the boat gotten
adrift at the same time," muttered Percival as they went on. "Both of
these things were done by some one who wished to annoy us. Watch and see
how some of the fellows look when we get back."

"Very well, I will, but I don't see why any one should have done it,
perhaps both of these things were accidents."

"Either one of them might have been, but is it likely that both were, and
that they happened at the same time? Of course not. You will find that
Herring or Merritt, or perhaps both, have had a hand in it. They don't
like you, and do everything to hurt you, and they don't care any more for
me than they do for you. Bother this tangle! It keeps you busy every
moment. I believe things grow up here in a night. There will be bare rocks
one day and a regular forest on them the next. It beats all how things do
grow in these tropical islands!"

Keeping on, now in sight of the water, and then having to leave it on
account of the thickness of the jungle, they pushed on till they saw the
yacht lying at anchor.

Descending to the shore at the risk of a bad fall, they hailed the vessel,
and presently some one put out in a boat and came toward them.

Bucephalus and old Ben Bowline were in the boat, the old sailor hailing
them when he neared the shore.

"Well, mateys, did you think you'd walk out to the yacht?" he asked. "The
old man was afraid you'd fallen in, and been gobbled up by sharks. Some of
the boys found the boat adrift, and brought it in. Don't you know how to
tie up a boat yet? I'll show you some knots if you don't know them."

"We know all the knots you can show us, Ben, and perhaps a good many
more," grunted Percival. "The boat was tied all right, but----"

"Wha' was yo' goin' to say, sah?" asked Bucephalus.

"Some one untied it," said Percival. "Who brought it back, Buck?"

"Ah donno, sah, Ah didn' saw dem, othahwise Ah could identify de pussons.
Have yo' any ideah as to deir pussonality you'se'f, sah?"

"I have an idea, but ideas can't hang a man. Anyhow, I don't want it to
get abroad that Jack Sheldon and I do not know how to tie up a boat or tie
any ordinary kind of knot. The whole Academy would laugh at us if that
notion got around."

"Ah reckon de 'cademy knows all abo't yo' an' Mistah Jack a'ready an' wha'
yo' done befo' dis," said the negro with a broad grin. "Ah reckon, too,
dat de story was a fabrication puah an' simple. Fact am, if Ah done tol' a
story lak dat folks would call it a lie witho't mincin' wo'ds."

"That's about what it was," said Percival, as he and Jack got into the
boat, and Bucephalus and Ben Bowline started to row them to the yacht.

"I had a comical adventure with a boat myself once, mateys, if you care to
hear it," said old Ben as he bent leisurely upon his oar, "but maybe the
young gentleman won't believe it."

"Go ahead, Ben, let's have it," spoke up Jack. "Never mind whether we
believe it or not. It will amuse us at any rate."

"A sailor man is a mo' pribileged pusson dan one what resides on sho',
Ah've noticed," observed Bucephalus. "Folks lak to listen to dem an' dey
don' call it lyin', whereas an' on de oder han', ef Ah indulge in any
picturesque adaptations o' de trufe dey say Ah'm lyin' right away."

"Never mind that," chuckled Percival. "There is no hurry and Ben wants to
spin his yarn, so you might as well let him. Take it easy. There is no
hurry. Go ahead, Ben."

The old sailor was a good deal mollified by Dick's present attitude, and
taking an easy stroke with his oar, he began his more or less veracious
narrative.

"It was down on the coast o' South Ameriky that this here thing happened,
but I never had it put in the log 'cause the old man wasn't along an'
nothin' went into it that he didn't see hisself; but it's just as true,
I'm giving you my word----"

"As the one about the whale!" roared Dick. "Go on, Ben."

"We was sailin' along the coast o' South Ameriky," Ben went on, "when one
day as I was cleanin' out one o' the boats to have ready when we went
ashore, which we judged would be in a little while, there come up a sudden
squall an' I was chucked clean overboard, boat and all.

"Davits, falls, blocks and everything went, and me too, striking the water
kerplump. Then it got so dark that I couldn't see nothin', and where I was
I had no idee, no more'n nothin', 'cause I couldn't see a thing and there
was such a noise all around that I couldn't hear a thing. Then it come on
to rain for further orders and I was just drenched to the skin and had all
I could do to keep the boat bailed out.

"I couldn't see nor hear anything of the old hooker and I just drifted
without knowin' where I was goin' and not carin' much nuther, bein' wet to
the hide an' tired out with bailin' an' just ready to flop down an' quit.

"Well, I drifted an' drifted without knowin' where I was driftin', till
finally I seen a shore at some distance off an' took the oars an' pulled
for it, havin' somethin' to think of now.

"It was still a-rainin', but I didn't care for that now, but just pulled
for shore till it got dark again and stopped rainin', which was a comfort.
I pulled on till it was too dark to see anythin', and then I come to a
stake stickin' out of the water and hitched my boat to it and lay in the
bottom an' went right to sleep.

"As long as I was tethered to the stake or bush or whatever it was I
reckoned I was all right, an' so I slep' on without feelin' a bit alarmed,
knowin' that I wouldn't drift no more an' in the mornin' I could go on an'
reach the shore.

"When I woke up in the mornin' I was mightily astonished to find myself
lyin' on the ground at the foot of a big tree and to find the boat hangin'
to the topmost limb. Ye see, the rainwater had run off an' left the ground
bare again, and as the boat slipped down to the perpendickalar I was
dropped out an' went from branch to branch till----"

Percival let out a hearty laugh and fairly shook himself, saying at last
when he could find breath:

"Baron Munchausen with variations. I've heard that story before, Ben, but
the rain was snow and the twig was a church steeple. Still, it's a good
story and will bear a bit of a change."

"H'm! I knowed you'd say I was lyin'!" grunted Ben, pulling heartily on
his oar and cutting his story short.

Dick put the bag of gold and the letters Jack had picked up in his trunk
under his berth and locked it, saying nothing at that time to any one, but
resolving to go again with Jack, and bring away the chest if they could
manage it.

He meant to tell the doctor about their wonderful find when they had all
of it safely in their possession, and to have the letters translated so as
to learn definitely all about the wrecked vessel and its mission, but just
now he thought it wise to say nothing and Jack agreed with him.

Not all of the boys were on the yacht when the two young adventurers
returned, and nothing was said about their having to hail the yacht, but
as the others began to arrive, some time later, Percival watched them in
turn to see if he could distinguish guilty looks on the faces of any.

When Herring and Merritt came on board he suddenly stepped out from behind
a funnel, which had hidden him so that the two bullies did not see him
till just as he faced them.

Both of them showed surprise, and Percival said to himself:

"They are the ones, just as I supposed. When anything happens to me or
Jack and especially to Jack, look out for Pete Herring."

The two bullies passed him as quickly as they could, and had nothing to
say, being evidently much astonished at seeing him on the yacht, but
fearing to say anything lest they should betray themselves.

Passing Percival they came suddenly upon Jack, not having time to prepare
for a meeting with him, and both of them flushed crimson.

"Oh, then it was you who found the boat afloat and brought it back?" Jack
said carelessly. "Very kind of you, I am sure."

"What boat, what are you talking about?" growled Herring, turning redder
than ever. "I don't know nothing about no boats."

"No, I suppose not," laughed Jack carelessly, and then going on to join
Percival, who said:

"Herring and Merritt are the fellows."

"Yes, so I supposed. They don't know anything about it. They never know
anything about things that happen to me, and generally you cannot prove it
on them."

"We can't now, but I am satisfied that they were in it just the same."

"Well, we got out of it all right, so there is no need of accusing them.
The next time we go there we will be on the watch."

"I suppose they saw the boat, and then came up to see what we were doing,
saw the rope and knew we were down in the hole, and closed it upon us."

"They might have drawn up the rope, but they don't think of everything,
fellows like that."

"No, they do not, and that's how you can catch them."

Later Dick and Jack saw the captain and Dr. Wise in the cabin, and told
about the wrecked schooner, as she probably was, and of the visit to the
cabin under water, and the finding of the gold.

Dick exhibited the bag Jack had given him, and showed the letters found on
the floor, the captain being able to read them.

"There were money and supplies shipped to the Mexican rebel leader," he
said, "and probably the vessel may have been chased, and put in among the
islands of the Caribbean to get away, and was wrecked here. There is quite
a lot of money in this bag, about a thousand dollars, and if there are
many of the bags and they are all as full as this, you will have a pretty
good sum to dispose of."

"The money belongs to Jack," said Percival. "He discovered the wreck and
it should be his. He needs the money, and I do not."

"You worked with me," put in Jack, "and if I have any of it you should
have a share. Does it belong to us, however?"

"Of course it does," said Captain Storms. "You found it and that's the law
of treasure trove. It isn't likely that the Mexican rebels or their agents
will put in a claim for it, and it is yours all right."

"But we have not got the rest of it," said Jack, "and the hold might be
flooded before we go there again. It is a wonder that the water has kept
out as long as it has."

"The iron doors have done a lot to keep it out; they are probably
watertight. That cabin you were in was like a strong room, and maybe the
skipper had it built that way a purpose. You don't know what sort of crew
you may get when you are on a lay of this sort, and I guess he wasn't
taking chances, having a lot of money on board."

"That may account for it, but it made me feel a little creepy being in
there, and knowing that the water was just above me, and perhaps on the
other side of those doors."

"I don't wonder. They say divers get afraid when they see all sorts of
fishes swimming around them under water. I'd like to go to the place with
you. I've had some queer adventures, but nothing so queer as that."

"I should be very glad to have you, sir, and if you want a share of the
money in the chest----"

"No, that's all right. It belongs to you and your friend and the little
fellow, too, I suppose."

"Why, of course, they must have their share of it."

"I don't think Jesse W. will take it, and, anyhow, he was not with us when
we went into the cabin, and I certainly don't want it," said Percival. "It
all belongs to you, Jack."

"Not if I don't want to take it," Jack replied with a laugh. "How are you
going to make me take it, Dick?"

"I'm sure I don't know, but it ought to be yours, just the same. I'd like
to get the rest of it, and suppose we go after it to-morrow?"

"That will be all right."

"And I'll go along to help you," said the captain. "There's no getting out
of here right away, and we may as well do something. I can't get any
answer to my wireless messages yet, and maybe folks think they're only a
joke, and don't pay any attention."

"You have tried to get New York?" asked Jack.

"Yes, and Havana and any place I can, but I can't do anything. I don't
know if I am tuned up with those fellows or whether they think it is only
a joke or what. I've tried American and International, wired S.O.S. and
all the different distress signals, but could not seem to make
connection."

"Why don't you try Mr. Smith in New York? He would be interested on
account of his boy. Try a plain commercial message. That ought to go. You
can at least try it."

"That is very sensible advice," said the doctor. "I suppose you have been
sending out distress signals, and the wireless people, if they have caught
you up simply regard it as a hoax."

"Well, I'll try again, and do as the young man suggests. In the meantime
I'd like to visit this wreck. I never was in a ship's cabin under water
when it was safe, and I'd like to try it."

"We will go to-morrow," said Jack.




CHAPTER IX

THE LAST VISIT TO THE WRECK


The next day, as agreed upon, they went to the old wreck on the rocks to
get more of the treasure in the hold, and to satisfy the captain's
curiosity about the place.

It had gotten around among the boys that Jack and Dick had found a sunken
treasure, and there were stories of fabulous wealth afloat in a short
time, all the boys, with a few exceptions, wishing to visit the place and
gaze upon the buried gold with their own eyes.

"We cannot have all those boys visiting the place and getting in our way,"
sputtered Percival when it was suggested by Harry that he and one or two
others go with the party.

"But we would not be in the way," said young Dickson, "and we might be of
assistance."

"How did you find it out anyhow?" asked Percival. "We did not say anything
about it."

"I don't know, but, at any rate, it is all around, and everybody knows
about it. I heard Herring talking about it. He seems to think it is a big
hoax, and that you did not find anything."

"Well, we did, all the same, but we don't want a lot of fellows with us,
and, besides, it is dangerous. Never mind, Hal. You are in with us on the
most of our adventures, but I don't think you had better go this time. We
have promised to take young Jesse W. with us, as he was there the first
time, but not the second, and he has never seen the cabin with its strange
lights, the swash of water outside, the chest of gold and all that."

"H'm! you make me want to go with you all the more," said Harry, half
laughing, half impatient. "You should not appeal to a boy's imagination
like that, Dick. I want to go with you now the worst way."

"Well, I suppose you do, but you'll have to be satisfied with what I tell
you about it. I'll write a composition about it, and you will think you
are reading Jules Verne and the Arabian Nights all over again."

"You be smothered!" sputtered Harry, half cross and half good natured. "As
if that would satisfy me."

"It will have to, Hal," laughed Percival. "Never mind, I'll give you a
ten-dollar gold piece to hang on your watch chain as a charm. You can say
it was one that Captain Kidd had."

"Yes, and they were not made at that time, two hundred years ago," said
Harry in disgust. "Well, never mind. Billy Manners and I will find a
buried treasure, and never let you have a smell of it"

"All right, Harry," and Dick went away to get Jack, young Smith and the
captain, and start on their visit to the point.

The captain had a rope and an axe, and Jack took his pocket flash along
with him, having found it very useful on the second visit to the submerged
vessel.

They climbed up the rocks, and found the place where they had gone down,
but now the opening was so small, more rocks having fallen in, apparently,
since their last visit, that they doubted if they could get down.

"I am afraid we shall have to give it up," said Jack in some
disappointment. "The last time Dick and I were here we had to squeeze
through to get out, but now it seems worse than before."

"Let me try, Jack," said young Smith eagerly. "I am only a little fellow,
and can get through where big fellows like you and Dick could not. Don't
you remember how you put me through the little window at the Academy, that
time of the rebellion in the school? Well, you can use me now in the same
way. I want to see that place down there. You know I did not see it the
last time, and I want to see it very much. Try, Jack. I am not so big, and
can squeeze through almost anywhere."

Jack found a place where it would be quite possible for Jesse W. to get
down, but not for himself or Percival, and, of course, out of the question
for the captain, who was nearly as big as both of the latter combined, and
he said:

"Here is a place, J.W., which, I think, will fit. It does seem too bad
that you should not see the place, having been with us on our first trip,
and we will give you a chance."

"I can bring away a bagful of the gold, anyhow, Jack, and perhaps go for
another one after that. I should like to see the place, anyhow."

"All right, you shall do so, old man, but don't load yourself down with
gold. That has drowned many a man before now. Get the rope, Dick. We will
lower him into the place. Take a light, Jesse W., for you will need it.
You know just how to find everything?"

"Yes, I go into the hole in the bow of the vessel which we saw, follow
along till I come to a door, and then go along a passage till I come to
another door and there I am, right in the cabin with a light overhead,
shining through the water."

"That's it. Don't stay too long, and don't load yourself down with bags of
gold. I'd rather not have it than have you take any risks."

"But you don't think there is any danger, Jack?" asked the younger boy, as
they prepared to lower him.

"No, if I did I would not let you go."

The boy got down safely enough, and called to Jack and Dick when he had
reached the bottom that he was all right, and then threw off the rope,
which had been put around him under his arms.

He called to them from time to time, his voice growing fainter every time
he called, and at last they could not hear him at all.

"I hope it is all right," murmured Jack when the boy had been gone a few
minutes. "I thought it would be when I let him go, but now----"

"It is all right," said the captain. "He is a plucky little fellow, and
there isn't anything that can happen to him. The rocks hold the vessel as
tight as a vise and there is no chance of her slipping back into the water
or anything of that sort."

"Well, I hope so, but somehow I begin to feel nervous, and wish that I had
not let him go down."

"Young Smith is all right, Jack," said Percival reassuringly. "He is not
afraid of anything, and really I don't believe there is anything to be
afraid of. There was not when we went down."

"No, but we are a couple of big boys, and he is only a midget. If anything
happened to him I should never forgive--listen, and see if you can hear
him coming."

"No, I cannot, but he has had hardly time to get there yet. Give him a
chance. He will want to see all there is, boy-like. Let him have a good
long look at the wonders of the place. He has never seen anything like it
before, and never will again."

Jack was very anxious in spite of Dick's cheering words, and the minutes
seemed like hours till at last, holding the rope in his hand he felt a tug
at, and then heard:

"Hello! Are you up there?"

"Yes!" shouted Jack. "Are you all right?"

"Sure I am. Wait till I get the rope under my arms. I've got a bag of the
stuff, as I said I would, but I don't think----"

"You don't think what?" asked Jack, thinking that he detected something in
the tone of the boy's voice that indicated danger of some sort.

"Nothing, wait till I get the rope fast."

"Very good. Take your time."

"All right," the boy called in a few moments. "I have got it. Haul away!"

They saw the light of the electric torch flashing upon them, as the boy
came nearer and nearer to them, and at last drew him out of the hole, Jack
noticing that he seemed quite pale, and then suddenly noticing that he was
wet up to his knees.

"Hello! what is this, Jesse W., how do you happen to be so wet?" he asked.
"There was no water in----"

"Yes, some," answered the boy quietly. "It had worked in under the door or
at the side somewhere. Maybe they had settled. Anyhow, I got the bag and
here it----" and then the boy sank limp and helpless into Jack's arms and
fainted away.

"By George! he was a plucky little fellow and no mistake!" exclaimed Jack.
"He said that he would get the bag and he did, and standing in water up to
his knees, and not knowing at what time he might have the whole Caribbean
sea tumbling in upon him. Get some water, Dick!"

The boy presently came around, however, and said faintly, but with a half
laugh:

"I told you I'd bring it, didn't I, Jack? Well, I did, and I hope it will
be enough to keep you at the Academy for the rest of the course. If it
isn't, my father----"

"You are a brave young fellow, Jesse W., but you don't go back for
another, I tell you that!"

"You bet he does not!" echoed Percival. "So the water had made its way in,
had it? That's the last we will see of the place, then."

"Yes, it had come in somewhere, at the bottom, I guess. Still, it was not
coming in all the time nor fast, and I wanted to see the place, and I had
promised to fetch a bag of gold to Jack and----"

"And you wanted to keep your word even if you were drowned," sputtered
Percival. "Much you could have kept it in that case. You are a young
brick, J.W., but don't you do anything like that again."

"Well, I won't, if you say so, Dick," answered the little fellow.

"That's a brave little chap," said the captain. "He said he'd do a thing,
and he did it. There's lots who wouldn't."

They returned to the boat, and the captain told Percival to row toward the
reefs and as close to the stump of a mast as it was safe to go, as he
wanted to observe the wreck again.

Nearing the wreck they noticed that the water was swirling and eddying
very violently at a point where they judged the cabin to be, and the
captain said, after looking at the boiling waters for a short time:

"The water is making its way in and will run forward as far as its level.
She'll break up with all that water in her, and I wouldn't be surprised to
see her go any time."

In fact as they lay there watching the boiling waters over the sunken
vessel, they saw them become more greatly agitated and Percival pulled
away to a safer distance as the agitation increased.

Then of a sudden the stump of a mast sank into the water, there was a
still greater agitation and a mass of broken timbers shot up into the air
and then fell back, and went floating away on the tide.

"That's about the last of her," said Captain Storms, "or, at any rate, you
won't go into the cabin again. You've made your last visit to the wreck,
and if any one ever gets that money he'll have to dive for it. You can be
thankful that you went there when you did."

"So I am," said Jack. "Come on, Dick, pull away from here."




CHAPTER X

A THRILLING ENCOUNTER


Returning to the yacht first for the captain to get aboard, Jack and
Percival then took the boat and went to the outer bay on a little
exploring trip of their own, the rest not caring to make any more
explorations at that time.

The boys guided the boat along shore not too near the rocks, both keeping
watch for any nook which might prove of interest or afford an opportunity
for an adventure of any sort.

There was a short, keen-bladed hatchet to cut their way through the
thicket if necessary when they went ashore, and Percival had a rifle with
which to shoot any game they might come across, both being placed on one
of the forward thwarts.

Jack was provided with his pocket flashlight in case they went into dark
places, and Dick had a revolver in his pocket, declaring that this might
be of as much use as the torch in case they came to close quarters with an
enemy, no matter of what sort.

As they were rowing at a lazy rate, keeping up a slow, even stroke, Jack,
who was keeping a lookout on the shore and steering at the same time,
suddenly said, looking toward a mass of rocks which they had just come
abreast:

"There looks to be a sort of cave in there, Dick. At any rate, there is a
hole which seems to run in to some little distance. Suppose we explore it
and see how far we can go."

"I'm in for anything that you are, Jack," replied Dick.

"All right, pull ahead, not too fast, and we'll have a look at the place."

"Pull ahead it is, Jack."

Jack was in the bow and he now steered the boat toward the opening in the
rocks, which was quite big enough for them to enter, and they went on at a
slow, steady gait, presently gliding into the water cave, for such it
seemed, with plenty of room above and on both sides.

Jack turned his head now and then to see how they were progressing and if
there were any obstructions in the way, and presently said:

"A little slower, Dick. It is getting darker in here now and I do not want
to run into anything."

"Slower it is, Jack. It would not be any fun to stave a hole in the bottom
of the boat. It doesn't belong to us."

"That would be reason enough for not daring, with some persons," said Jack
with a low laugh. "They will take care of their own things, but are
careless with those belonging to others."

"The woods are full of such, Jack."

Jack rowed with one hand, drawing in his other oar so that it might not
strike the rocks in case the passage narrowed, and then got out his pocket
flash and shot a strong ray ahead of him.

"Good gracious! what's that?" suddenly exclaimed Percival in accents of
terror. "Back water, Jack, for heaven's sake!"

"What is it, Dick?" asked Jack, turning his head and sending the light
directly in front of him. "I don't see anything."

"It's gone, Jack, or the light does not strike it now, but it was
something awful. It fairly gave me the creeps to look at it."

"But what was it, Dick?" and Jack slowly turned the light this way and
that so as to get a sight at the object which had so terrified Percival.

"I don't know. It had two awful eyes and a beak and a lot of legs, or
arms, or whatever they were, and a fat body which--there it is, Jack!"

Jack saw it and shuddered.

"It's a devil fish, an octopus, Dick," he muttered, turning the light now
full upon the grisly object squatting on a rock at the farther end of the
water cave and glaring balefully at the boys through his blood-red eyes,
like some demon of the deep, the very mention of which might send terror
to the bravest hearts.

"We'd better get out quick, Jack!" gasped Percival. "If that fellow----"

What he might have said was cut short by a sudden splash in the water
which caused the boat to rock violently and dashed the spray in their
faces.

Then there was a whip-like sound and Jack felt himself struck by something
which quickly wound itself about one arm and a part of his body and
swiftly pulled him out of the boat.

He dropped his flashlight, but as he left the boat his free arm swung out
and his hand touched something which he seized in an instant.

It was the short hatchet on the thwart and he had seized it by the helve,
well up toward the top.

With the swiftness of thought itself he realized what had happened.

The octopus had wound one of its tentacles about his arm and body and,
clinging to them with a tenacity which he could not overcome, had pulled
him out of the boat.

Percival gave a scream of fright as Jack went overboard, although he was
usually a very self-contained young fellow and not apt to give way to
hysterical outbreaks.

It was dark in the cave, but he quickly groped for the torch which Jack
had dropped, and cried out:

"Where are you, Jack? What has happened?"

Jack went under water and felt himself being drawn toward the end of the
water cave where he had seen the octopus squatting on the rock.

His thoughts flew like lightning and, being a resourceful boy, he
instantly decided what to do.

He had kept his breath from a natural instinct and now with his free arm
he dealt a swinging blow with the little axe in a direction which would
not cause him to injure himself but might strike the clinging tentacle.

His one hope was that another of the flying arms might not reach him and
secure his other arm, which fortunately was his right.

He suddenly felt a resistance and realized that he had struck something
and hoped that it might be the tentacle of the octopus.

In another moment he felt the pressure on his arm and body relax and then
realized that something had fallen from them.

He struck out vigorously with both arms, the pressure upon his lungs from
having held his breath so long beginning to be unbearable.

Then he felt his right arm seized, the suckers on the tentacle pressing
strong upon his muscles and seeming to draw the blood even under his
clothing, and he knew that the baleful creature had again gotten a hold
upon him.

He was able to clutch the hatchet in his left hand as the power gave out
in his right, and at that moment he arose to the surface and drew a
succession of deep breaths before another of those terrible arms seized
him by the leg and drew him again under water.

In another instant, as he struck wildly at the eldritch creature that held
him and felt the tension on his arm relax, everything became suddenly
black.

The octopus had resorted to one of its natural tricks and had ejected a
dense black fluid into the water which made it impossible for him to see
anything.

The creature was drawing him toward some hole in the cave, probably under
water, and he realized most poignantly that something must be done shortly
or he would be sacrificed to the pitiless water devil.

He felt himself rising and in a moment, when he most needed it, was able
to get his breath.

The devil fish, even with the loss of two of its arms, was still powerful
enough to make all his efforts futile, and he felt himself being drawn
into some recess beyond where he had first seen the octopus squatting on
the rock and glaring at them with its horrible eyes.

Percival, having found Jack's electric torch and searching the cave below
and above water for a sign of his friend, suddenly saw the devil fish rise
to the ledge where he had first seen it.

Jack was now caught in two of its remaining arms and was being drawn
toward some deep recess whence there would be no rescuing him.

Transferring the light to his left hand, Percival whipped out the revolver
from his hip pocket with his right and took rapid aim.

"I'm afraid it will be like trying to pierce an elephant's hide," he
muttered, "but I'm going to try it for all that."

Luckily he caught sight of the creature's eyes at the moment and took aim
straight for one of them.

Jack was being drawn toward the horrible beak and the sight nearly
unnerved Dick.

Fortunately he had aimed and pressed the trigger before he saw this
ghastly sight.

He fired three or four shots in quick succession and then heard the sound
of a plunge in the water.

Jamming his torch into the clutch of one of the tholepins, he seized the
rifle and shot a quick glance ahead of him.

Jack was not to be seen, but he did see the octopus writhing and waving
its frightful arms on the ledge.

"Where are you, Jack?" he shouted.

"All right!" cried Jack himself, rising just alongside the boat and
holding on to the gunwale with one hand.

"I'll finish that demon before he can do any more mischief!" hissed Dick.

It was Jack falling into the water that had caused the plunge he had heard
and not the return of the octopus to its element.

Now, taking quick but careful aim, Percival fired half a dozen shots from
the repeating rifle he had seized and with deadly effect.

The revolver shots had wounded the octopus, but not fatally, and he might
at any moment plunge into the water and seize Jack.

The heavier caliber weapon did the work.

As Jack climbed into the boat there was a great plunge into the water
which caused the light craft to rock again and the spray to fly.

"That settles him!" gasped Percival, and then he dropped his weapon and
drew Jack into the boat, where he promptly sank limp and helpless under
the thwarts, all his strength having seemingly left him.

"All right, Jack?" asked Percival.

"Yes, but get away," answered Jack feebly.

Percival was not slow to obey the injunction.

Seizing the oars, he quickly backed water and then turned the head of the
boat toward the entrance of the cave, whence he shortly saw the light
streaming in as he pulled a quick, powerful stroke.

"I'm glad that's over!" he said with a sigh of deep relief as he neared
the opening. "No more exploring queer places like this again!"

When he was outside the cave he rested on his oars and said:

"You are all right again, Jack?"

"Yes," said Jack, getting up and seating himself on a thwart, "but I don't
want another such an experience. I feel as if all the blood had been drawn
out of me by that horrible thing in there."

Out in the bright sunlight, away from the gruesome cave and its dreadful
tenant, Jack seemed to recover his spirits quickly, however, and he
presently took one of the oars and then another, and said:

"It's all right, Dick. We are away from the horrible thing and I thank
heaven I am still alive to tell of it. Let us go somewhere else."

"Right you are, I will," echoed Percival heartily. "If I had had any idea
that there was such a thing in that place you could not have hired me to
go into it or to have let you ventured there. I am glad enough that I was
around to be of assistance."

"So am I, Dick, but suppose we say no more about it. I hate to even think
of the horrible object and I only hope that I will not dream of it these
nights."

Then the boys rowed swiftly away from the place where they had had such a
thrilling encounter and never once looked back at it.




CHAPTER XI

THE VOICES IN THE WOODS


After the boys had gone some little distance from the water cave they
pulled at a more easy stroke and began to talk again, their thrilling
experience with the devil fish having made them silent for a time.

They did not allude to it again, but talked of other matters, Percival
saying as they neared a green, shady wood where the trees grew thick and
cast a deep shade on the white sands and showed a more than twilight
darkness in their farther recesses, everything being quiet and peaceful
within those heavy shadows:

"That's a place where everything seems to be asleep even at midday, Jack.
It looks like the cave of the seven sleepers that we used to read about in
mythology."

"It seems quiet enough for a fact," said Jack with a smile, "but it is hot
outside and the birds are probably all taking a rest. Probably just before
dawn or at sunset you would hear them making noise enough."

"It is a thick wood all right, just the place to get lost in. If the
African jungle is any worse than this I don't care to enter it."

"The trouble is you can't see far ahead and then there are briars and
brambles and a lot of spiky plants, prickly pears and Spanish bayonets and
cactus to run against and get scratched and cut with. Our own woods are
good enough for me, or bad enough, I might say."

"I wonder if we could find anything if we did go in there?" said Percival
musingly as they rowed along shore, fascinated by the bright glare of the
sands, the dense green of the woods and the dear blue of the skies. "We
might have a try at it, Jack."

"Yes, I suppose we might if we did not go too----" And then Jack suddenly
paused and a look of alarm came across his face.

A harsh voice from the wood suddenly interrupted him and he glanced here
and there to see whence it came.

The words he heard were in Spanish, as far as he could judge, but he could
see no one.

Other voices quickly joined the first and the boys rowed out somewhat from
shore and looked closely at the woods, expecting to see some one.

"There are people on the island after all, Jack."

"Yes, Spaniards, I think. Sailors, I guess. At any rate they are not using
the choicest language from what little I know of the language; Jack. I do
not see any one. Do you?"

There were loud and angry voices in the woods, but the boys could see no
one and went on slowly, farther out from shore so as to be out of danger
in case any one appeared.

"A lot of drunken sailors would not be good company," declared Jack. "I
would rather be alone."

"It can't be any one from the yacht, can it?"

"No, I don't think so. We have no Spaniards and Captain Storms brings his
men up better than that. Besides, if it were some of our men we would see
a boat, and there is nothing."

They still heard the voices at intervals as they rowed on and had no
desire to enter the woods as long as the men were there.

"That's a nuisance," said Percival with a half-growl as they rowed on. "I
would have liked to go ashore there, but of course if there are a lot of
swearing Spaniards hanging about it wouldn't do."

"I'd like to know what brought them here," remarked Jack. "We got in by
the sheerest good luck and it does not seem possible that another vessel
could have done the same. Those things don't happen twice."

"Well, they are here, at all events, and it stops our going ashore. I'd
like to know if they saw us in the boat?"

"I don't suppose so. They did not show themselves and they would not have
made so much noise if they had----"

Just then the voices were heard again and the boys stopped rowing.

"There they are again!" muttered Percival. "We may have trouble, Jack."

The voices were very loud and the language used was not of the choicest,
although, being in Spanish, it was not as offensive as it would have been
in English, the boys not understanding much of what was said.

"Are they quarreling, do you suppose?" asked Percival.

"No, I don't think so," and Jack suddenly laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" asked Percival, somewhat impatiently.

"Listen a minute, Dick," said Jack.

The voices had ceased, but presently they were heard again, closer than
before, and then a big, gorgeously feathered parrot flew out of a clump of
trees not ten feet from shore.

"There are your quarrelsome Spaniards, Dick," laughed Jack, as another
parrot joined the first.

"Well, I declare!" laughed Dick. "Are you sure, Jack?"

"Yes. The first time I heard them I was deceived, but just now I fancied
there was something queer about those voices and I decided that there were
parrots in the woods."

"Yes, but Jack, Spanish is not the natural language of parrots and they
must have heard it from men. That proves that there are men on the
island."

"Or that there have been, at any rate, but we don't know that there are
any here at present."

"Well, as long as we know that there is nothing more dangerous than a lot
of parrots, suppose we go ashore and look about a bit."

They found a good landing place where there was a shelving beach extending
for some distance in either direction, and a clump of trees close to the
water, where they tied the warp of the boat to keep it from floating away.

They saw more of the parrots, but not all of them imitated the human talk,
chattering and making harsh sounds after their own fashion and making the
glades bright with their gorgeous plumage.

Both boys laughed at the recollection of their first fright when they
heard the birds and thought that there were men on the island, and then,
taking their bearings, set out to explore the island for a short distance.

As Jack had a good idea of direction, they were not likely to get lost,
although in the jungle they were often in a twilight shade and could not
see the sun, which might have told them which way they were going.

"It gave me something of a start when I thought there were other people on
the island besides ourselves," remarked Percival as they went on through a
semi-darkness, the vegetation being thick above and around them so that
they could see nothing of the sky. "It's pretty dark here."

"Yes," agreed Jack, turning on his pocket flash. "Hello!"

"What's the matter?" asked Percival, Jack's tone being one of alarm.

A shot rang out, and then Jack jumped back, exclaiming:

"I guess I've settled him, Dick!"

"What have you settled, Jack?"

"That fellow there," and Jack turned the light upon something at his feet
and then pushed it aside.

"A snake!" exclaimed Percival. "You blew his head off. Is he very
dangerous, Jack?"

"Well, not now," said the other with a dry laugh.

"No, I should say not. Would he have been?"

"He belongs to the family of dangerous snakes, one of the most dangerous,
in fact. He is either a fer de lance or a first cousin to it, and either
is a sort of creature to keep away from. The bite is nearly always fatal,
as the virus acts so rapidly upon the system. It was lucky I turned on the
light when I did. These creatures inhabit the dark places and are always
ready for an unwary traveler."

"H'm! I think we had better keep in the light, Jack. We go into a dark
water cave and run across a devil fish. Then we go into the dark woods and
meet with this poison gentleman. Let's go back to the light!"

"I think we had better," returned Jack. "We are strangers here and the
residents seem to resent our coming. I am sure I'll be glad enough to
leave the place for good."

It did not seem to be such an easy matter, however, for difficulties beset
them on every side as soon as they started to leave the jungle, as though
there were some malign influence in those gloomy shades which was
endeavoring to hold them captive.

There were morasses which they had to avoid, there were bramble thickets
which barred their way, and Percival questioned whether Jack was going in
the right direction and asked him to try another.

"We are going toward the shore, Dick," said Jack, "and if we keep on you
will see that I am right."

"I don't doubt that we were going that way in the beginning, Jack, but we
were thrown out of our path by the brambles and again by the swamp, not to
mention the snake, and I don't believe we are going that way now. Don't
the trees give you any idea?"

"Yes, and I am sure we are going toward the water. If we had a bit of
daylight I could convince you, but it is as dark as a pocket here. I never
saw trees grow so thick."

Jack had his way, for Percival had confidence in him and at length the boy
paused and said:

"Listen, Dick! There are the parrots again. They won't talk if it is dark
and all we have to do is to follow the sound and we will shortly come out
into the light."

"I guess you're right," laughed the other. "I know we always used to cover
our bird with a dark cloth when it got to chattering too much, and it
stopped in an instant. But I don't hear them."

"Listen!" said Jack, pressing forward by the light of his pocket torch.

"I hear them now," said Percival. "They are using as bad language as ever.
Those are educated parrots, although their education has not been of the
best."

In a short time they heard the parrots much plainer than before and then
it grew lighter and still lighter till at length they were able to see the
sky overhead through the branches and finally the sun itself, by which
time they were right among the parrots, who were making a tremendous
chattering.

"Well, we are obliged to you at any rate, even if you are a noisy lot,"
laughed Percival. "You frightened us first and then you showed us the way
to the light. Still, are we in the right direction, Jack?"

"Certainly," and pushing on, Jack led the way into more open ground and in
a short time they came in sight of the inner bay where the vessel lay at
anchor.

"We are not so far out of our way, Dick," said Jack. "The boat lies just
on the other side of that clump of trees and we can reach it in a few
minutes."

He proved to be correct and, getting in, the boys rowed back to the yacht,
where they amused and interested a party of their companions by telling of
their adventures.

"Well, it is certainly not safe to go far away from the vessel," declared
Billy Manners, "and I think if I do I will be sure to take Jack along as a
guide."

"Not very complimentary to me," said Percival dryly.

"Oh, you want your own way too much."

"H'm! if I had had it we would have been lost yet, so I guess you are out
there, William."

"Well, that only proves what I said in the first place," said Billy with a
chuckle.




CHAPTER XII

ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS


One day not so long afterwards the boys returned to shore, but at a
different place than they had been before, and set out on a walk through
the woods toward the hill, which they had never managed to get to before,
although they had tried it more than once.

They took the axe along, not knowing but they might want it, and set out
in high spirits.

Hearing voices ahead of them they pushed on, and soon came across the old
sailor, Ben Bowline, and the acting head cook, Bucephalus, discussing some
knotty point.

"Ah tell yo' dis am not de way," said the negro in a very positive tone,
"an' any one what has any perspicuity in his haid will tell yo' so."

"I don't know what that 'ere is, and I don't believe I ever had any, but
it ain't the right road 'cordin' to the course," returned the sailor. "We
sot out nothe-nothe-east, and this here course is due nothe, which ain't
at all proper."

"Which way yo' wan' to go, Sailorman?" asked Buck.

"This here way, of course," said Ben, pointing.

"Huh! an' there ain't no path there, nothin' but briahs an' big rocks an'
swamp. How yo' goin' to get through there? This here way is the right way,
because it am plain to be seen that it am a thoroughfare, and has been
promenaded by pedestrians before now."

"I don't care what has happened to it, and it may be a good road all the
same, but it ain't the course we sot out on, and so it's the wrong one to
take, and I ain't going to take it."

At this point Jack, Dick and Jesse W. came along, being much amused at the
arguments offered by the disputants.

"How are you heading, Ben?" asked Jack in the soberest fashion.

"Nothe-nothe-east, sir," said the old seaman, saluting.

"Change your course to north."

"Aye-aye, sir, north it is," said Ben.

"And follow in our wake in case you are needed."

"Aye-aye, sir, follow in your wake it is, yes, sir."

"You could not have persuaded that grizzled old tar that there was any
course but the one he started on, no matter what the difficulties of his
course were, but give him a new one, and he will take it without the least
question. That's the sailor of it."

"And they would have stood there arguing till the cows came home," said
Dick. "You settled it in a moment."

"And if we need them they are there."

They kept on, now in the open and now in deep shade, having occasionally
to cut their way, pushing on toward the hill, which Jack had determined to
get to the top of, and now and then seeing it when they reached higher and
more open ground.

They reached the top at length, and had a fine view of the island and of
the sea, but could not see any other islands in the distance.

"We are on a lost island and no mistake," said Percival. "There is not
another one in sight. I wish I could make out a passage through the reefs,
but there does not seem to be any."

"We may find one unexpectedly," said Jack. "That often happens. You hunt
and hunt for a thing and don't find it, and then you give up hunting and
the first thing you know you find what you have been looking for without
looking for it."

"That sounds like a contradiction," laughed Percival, "but I know what you
mean."

Leaving the hill after getting a good view of the surrounding sea and the
island, the boys took a course which would lead them to the part of the
reefs, which they had not before visited.

They were pushing on leisurely when they suddenly stopped and listened,
having heard what seemed to be a cry for help.

"Somebody is in trouble," said Jack. "Where is it, straight ahead?"

"It sounds like it, and that sounds like the voice of Billy Manners."

"Maybe he is joking," said young Smith. "He always is."

Just now came a lusty cry for help in so serious and agonized a tone that
Jack said with a smile:

"Billy is not joking now, that is certain. He is in real trouble. Come on
and let us see what it is."

They pushed on rapidly, the call being presently repeated, and at the same
time they heard a bellowing sound, which they could not make out.

"Come on!" cried Percival. "Billy is in trouble, and that sounds like the
bellow of a wild beast."

"I should say it was a calf," remarked Jesse W., "if you were to ask me
about it, but what a calf is doing here----"

He hurried on to keep up with Jack and Dick, Buck and Ben following
quickly, having evidently heard the noises.

Coming in a short time into an open space the boys paused and then began
to laugh heartily, something they would certainly not have done if Billy
had been in danger.

There, in the crotch of a little tree about six feet from the ground, was
Billy Manners, while at the foot of the tree was a calf a few months' old
bellowing lustily and evidently calling for food.

"I told you it was a calf!" laughed young Smith.

"Help!" roared Billy, seeing the boys. "Here is a wild bull, and I am
treed. Shoot him, boys, drive him away, anything!"

Instead of doing anything the boys only stood there and laughed, and when
Bucephalus and Ben Bowline came up in great haste they did the same, all
joining in a full-voiced laughing chorus.

"Why don't you help a fellow?" wailed Billy. "There you all are, laughing
to beat the band, and I can't get down on account of this wild bull at the
foot of the tree."

"Wild bull nothing!" exclaimed Percival. "It is a three months' old calf,
and you're another, only you are a bit older than that. Can't you tell a
calf when you see one, or have you been brought up in the city where they
don't have them except in the way of veal cutlets?"

"That a calf?" asked Billy in disgust. "I thought it was a wild bull. He
makes noise enough."

"Probably calling for its mother," laughed young Smith. "I said it was a
calf right along."

"Shoo!" said Buck, advancing on the terrible wild bull, which had so
frightened Billy. "Get o't o' dat or Ah cut yo' up fo' de young ge'men's
dinnah. Shoo!"

The calf let out a tremendous bellow, and scampered off into the woods,
whereat the boys laughed harder than ever till the tears fairly ran down
their cheeks.

"That's a good one on Billy who is all the time getting off jokes on other
folks," said Percival. "That is too good to keep."

"Dick Percival," said Billy, laughing in spite of himself, "if you say a
word about it I'll cut you dead."

"I can't help it," chuckled Dick; "it's too good to keep, and I won't keep
it, no matter what are the consequences. Think of a boy who has spent the
biggest part of his life in the country not knowing the difference between
a little three months' old heifer calf and a wild bull. Billy, my boy, you
have neglected your opportunities."

Billy got down from the tree, and all hands laughed again, but Jack said
thoughtfully:

"That was not a wild calf, and the question naturally arises, what is a
domesticated calf doing on a supposedly uninhabited island? If there is a
calf there must be a cow and if a cow, then people who own and take care
of her. There must be people on the island after all, although we have
never seen them."

"We have not been all over the island," said Percival, "and it is likely
that in the very parts where we have not been we shall find the people who
own the calf."

"They are probably negroes or halfbreeds," added Jack, "and seldom visit
the shore. Suppose we keep on. We may find a village, or, at any rate, one
or two houses occupied by them. Come on, Billy, you are safer with us in
case we come across another wild bull."

"Get out!" said Billy, half laughing, half in disgust. "How much will you
take to keep quiet on that subject?"

"I could not think of making a bargain, Billy," chuckled Jack, "and then I
am afraid it would cost you too much. Remember, there are myself and Dick,
Jesse W. Smith, Bucephalus Johnson and Ben Bowline to be bought off, and
the prices might go up."

"All right," muttered Billy with a wry face, "but don't rub it in too
much, that's all."

"All right, I won't, but remember when you feel like playing jokes on the
boys that I may say something about it."

"All right, but I say, what about it, that calf is not wild?"

"Not a bit of it, she is just as tame as any barn-yard calf along the
Hudson valley. Calves are the same the world over."

"And Billy was one not to know it," said Percival with a grin. "Remember,
William, you have not bought me off yet. I have made no promises, and
neither has Jesse W. Smith."

"Oh, I don't care anything about it," said the smaller boy. "I won't say
anything about it no matter how much Billy jokes, I am interested in the
other matter. If there are tame calves here there must be more or less
civilized people living on the island."

"Well, we have made two or three very good discoveries on our island,"
observed Percival. "We have found treasure, and we have found calves, and
probably inhabitants."

"And the next thing is to find a way through the reefs," said Jack.

"If we found the others why should we not find that?" asked Percival. "We
did not expect to find anything, and we have found a lot."

"But we won't find our way home," said Billy, "if we don't start pretty
soon, for it will be dark in a little while."

"The funny fellow grows serious once in a while," chuckled Dick, "but I
think he is right for all that."

"I think we had better be going myself," said Jack. "Ben Bowline?"

"Sir to you, sir," said the seaman.

"Steer south, and go on a free wind at four miles."

"Aye-aye, sir!" said Ben, and they all set out for home, as they called
the yacht.

"Talkin' about calves," said Ben Bowline as they were walking on in a body
through the woods, "there was another adventure of mine which----"

"You're a liar!" suddenly interrupted a strident voice speaking in Spanish
and then some bad language in the same tongue followed.

"Mah goodness, dat am fightin' talk!" exclaimed Bucephalus. "Ah wouldn'
stan' dat, Sailorman."

"Jus' wait till I get my mudhooks onto him," growled Ben, "an' I'll let
Trim know whether I'll stan' it or not."

"There are people on the island besides ourselves," muttered young Smith,
getting close to Jack and Dick. "Maybe they own the calf."

"If you tell them anything about me," sputtered Billy, "I won't speak to
you again in a week."

Then there was more talk in Spanish and Bucephalus put his hands over his
ears and whistled.

"Mah wo'd! Ah done hear disreputable language in mah days, but nothin' to
compaiah with that!" he declared emphatically. "It ain't respectable. Ef
Ah meet de fellah wha' talk lak dat Ah's gwan to tell him wha' Ah done
thought ob him."

There was still more of the talk, and Ben Bowline doubled his fists and
said angrily:

"It's as bad to be told you're a liar in Spanish as it is in English or
French or Dutch or any other lingo, an' I'm not goin' to take it from
nobody. Just wait till I get hold----"

Dick and Jack were both laughing heartily now, much to young Smith's
amazement, Billy's surprise and the disgust of Ben Bowline, Bucephalus
looking on and wondering what had come over his "young gentlemen" as he
was accustomed to call them.

"What are you two fellows laughing at?" asked Billy.

"I don't see anything funny in it!" sputtered Ben.

"I think it's awful!" murmured Jesse W.

"Why, those are not men talking," laughed Dick.

"They aren't!" exclaimed Billy.

"Mebby dat am all imagination, sah!" added Bucephalus.

"What is it if it isn't men!" asked Ben.

"Parrots!" laughed Jack. "Don't you remember, you fellows, what we told
you happened to us the other day when we were ashore together, Dick and
I?"

"H'm! and I forgot all about it," chuckled Billy.

"Oh, that's different!" said J.W., greatly relieved.

"Parrots?" asked Ben. "Poll parrots? Well, I'll be keelhauled!"

"Mah we 'd! Ah knowed parrots could talk an' use de mos' obstreperous
vocabulary at dat," declared the negro cook, "but Ah done suspected dat
dey was men, fo' shuah Ah did."

The parrots, for such indeed they were, as all the party now realized,
continued to talk and scream and chatter, and in a short time the boys and
their companions caught sight of a number of them as they came out into a
more open bit of woods.

"We were a bit alarmed ourselves, as you may remember," said Jack, "when
we first heard them, and it was some little time before we realized that
they were not men."

"They have caught the talk of men who have been to the island," added
Percival, "and probably that of men who are here now. That calf is a tame
creature and is probably owned by some one now on the island. The parrots
may have heard them."

"If that is the sort of talk they heard, the birds were not in very good
company," remarked Billy, "and it is just as well that we did not meet
them this time. In fact, I hope we won't."

"Well, I'm glad it was only Poll parrots!" grunted Ben, "for I was ready
for a fight."

"I'm glad myself," echoed Jesse W., greatly relieved, "for I don't want to
get into a fight at all."

"That accounts for the milk in the cocoanut," laughed Billy. "I wondered
what you two fellows were laughing at. If it had been Dick alone I would
not have thought so much of it, but Jack has more sense."

"Thank you," said Dick dryly. "I know a tame calf from a wild bull,
however, if I haven't much sense."

"Come ahead, boys," said Jack. "We must get back to the yacht. If there
are other men on the island besides ourselves we do not want to meet them
just now. They are not a desirable lot, most likely."

The entire party then pushed on, and in a short time reached the shore,
got their boat and returned to the yacht.




CHAPTER XIII

A STRANGE LIGHT AT SEA


The captain and Dr. Wise were very much interested in the report that the
boys brought back from their walk through the woods, and to the top of the
hill in the interior of the island.

"If there are people here they know how to get out through the reefs,"
observed the principal, "for they must have come here once, and no doubt
are in communication with the people outside."

"They may have lived here all their lives," returned the captain. "I never
saw any one on these islands, natives, I mean, that knew very much. We
can't tell how long they have lived here, they and their ancestors, of
course, and these fellows probably don't know when they came, and don't
suppose there is any other place in the world."

"H'm! that does not speak for a very high state of intelligence," remarked
the doctor with a grunt.

"You won't find it in these natives nor even in the half breeds, sir," the
captain returned. "The rating is pretty low. It'll be interesting to see
these people, but I don't think that you will find them very intelligent.
You'd better not expect too much."

The next day there was nothing to be seen of the wreck, and when Jack and
Percival went to the wooded point to look for the place where they had
descended when they first found it, there was nothing but a great hole
into which the sea poured, and made a great disturbance at every tide.

"That's the last of that," said Jack. "No one would believe us if we told
them we had gone down there and found a vessel fast in the rocks."

"But we know we did, for we have the evidences of it, and you are at least
a couple of thousand dollars richer by it. That will help you a lot in
getting your education, my boy, and give your mother something as well."

"Yes, and she is the first one to be considered," said Jack.

There had been no answers as yet to the captain's wireless messages, and
that day he sent out another one, this time to the owners of the vessel in
New York, addressing Mr. Smith in particular, thereby hoping to receive
attention.

Meantime, the boys went on with recitations, wrote descriptions of the
different parts of the island they had seen, took excursions on the bay
and through the woods, and got up little entertainments to pass away the
evenings so that altogether they were kept quite busy, and, as a
consequence, were very well content with their situation, although it was
not just what they had expected when they left home.

The day after sending out the personal message to Mr. Smith the captain of
the yacht picked up a message which, although not addressed to him, was
the first he had been able to pick up, and was of some interest on that
account if on no other.

The message was to some government official in Florida, and related to a
certain smuggler who had been defrauding the government by sending
shipments of tobacco without paying the duty thereon.

"Are on track of Rollins and smuggler crew. Sighted them near Isle of
Pines. Will keep on watch there and in Caribbean."

Such was the message and the captain, although not especially interested
in Rollins, whoever he might be, was glad to get any information from the
outside world which seemed so far away, although almost at their very
doors.

He sent a wireless to the sender of the message, and asked if information
of their situation could be sent to the government, and help despatched to
them, hoping by this means to receive some recognition at last.

"If I get other folks' messages some one will probably get mine," said the
captain, "and by communicating with these people I may finally get
attention. Rollins? Don't remember to have heard of him. There's probably
a gang of them working between our border, Cuba and the South American
ports. Whistling cyclones! they might be working among some of these
little islands. A man who would defraud his government is no better than a
pirate and pirates used to hang around these waters a lot. It isn't such
an unlikely thing that these new pirates should do it now."

The next day quite unexpectedly the captain got a call and at once sent
for the doctor and said:

"I've had word at last. From our owners. From Mr. Smith himself. He has
just heard from us, and is going to send out a vessel to get us away from
here. It seems that one of our smaller vessels, a steamer, has been
captured by some smugglers working around Cuba, Porto Rico and the
neighborhood, who are using it in their trade. Some of the men got away,
and took the news to Havana. The name of the vessel is a good deal like
our own, and Smith thought that we had been taken at first, and began a
lot of investigating. Then he got our messages, which had been held up by
some one else, thinking they were fakes, or some boys' play. These young
wireless operators make a lot of trouble now and then."

"Well, as long as we know that help is being sent to us we can feel
relieved," said the doctor. "That is something, at any rate, but----"

"But you don't think that it will do any good, Doctor?"

"Well, if you cannot get out how is any one else going to get in?" the
doctor asked, as if merely seeking for information, and not being
especially interested in the matter.

"There's something in that, sir," replied Captain Storms musingly, "but
we'll see how it turns out when they get here. At any rate we are not
forgotten altogether, and that is something."

The boys were told about the message, and were greatly interested, Jesse
W. saying to Jack:

"Now I'll have a chance to speak to father about you, Jack, and to tell
him what you have done for me. He has always been interested in you, and
now he will be all the more so."

"Never mind doing too much for me, J.W., or you will spoil me altogether,"
laughed Jack, who, nevertheless, felt grateful to the younger boy for his
interest. "We Hilltop boys should help each other, and so I don't deserve
any extra credit for simply doing what is expected of me. It is only the
big brother idea which is gaining ground every day, and is a good thing
both for the little brothers and the big ones."

That night as Jack Sheldon lay asleep in his berth in the cabin set off
for the Hilltop boys, he was suddenly awakened by a bright light flashing
in his face, there being a porthole opposite.

"That's odd!" he murmured, as he sat up and looked around. "Where does
that light come from? Or did I only imagine it?"

At that moment the light flashed in his face again, and he got out of his
berth and went over to the porthole, looking out to see where the light
could have come from, there being only water on that side.

The yacht had changed her position, and was now in sight of the outer bay,
and having changed the direction of her head on account of the tide, the
boy could now look out upon the bay, which he had not been able to do at
the time he went to bed.

He saw the flash again, and in a moment realized that some one out there,
probably beyond the reefs, was using a regular code of signals, a thing he
had himself done with his pocket electric light.

Having had this experience he was familiar with the code, and at once
began to read the message sent by those outside, whoever they might be.

"That cannot be the steamer Mr. Smith has sent," he mused. "No, of course
not. 'Where are you? Am dodging government vessel.' Why, that must be one
of the smugglers that the captain told us about. But where is the man he
is signaling? I wish I could tell that."

The signals ceased, but presently the lights flashed again, and Jack read
the message:

"Why don't you answer? Am waiting."

"My word! I believe the fellow takes our lights for the smuggler's, and
thinks that he is in here. It would be just the place for him. By Jove! I
have a mind to answer him myself, and get him in here. Then we could get
out. Even if a smuggler takes us out that is better than waiting."

His pocket flash was in a convenient place, and he quickly got it out and
flashed out through the port:

"In the bay. Come inside."

After sending this message he waited a few minutes, and then saw the reply
being flashed to him:

"Cannot. Don't know the passage. Come out"

"H'm! that's too bad," muttered Jack. "I was in hope I could get him in
here. I'd like to know--I guess I'd better see the captain."

Partly dressing himself he hurried on deck, and looked for the light, but
could see nothing.

An anchor watch was kept, or supposed to be at least, but Jack saw the man
on deck fast asleep on a bench against the house on deck instead of
keeping a lookout as he was supposed to do.

He could not see any vessel's light out at sea, and saw no more flashes,
although he looked for them for several minutes.

"Well, I can't go to waking the captain in the middle of the night," he
said, "and it is likely this fellow has gone. It is simply another
disappointment. I think I'll go to bed."




CHAPTER XIV

THE MAN WITH THE WHITE MUSTACHE


In the morning Jack told the captain, Dr. Wise, and a few of his most
intimate friends among the boys under the promise of keeping it quiet, the
strange event of the previous night, asking the doctor if he had done
right in not calling the captain.

"If you had aroused me I would probably have been mad," chuckled the
captain, "and could not have done anything anyhow. It is clear that there
is a way in here, although we don't know it, and that this fellow you saw
signaling mistook our lights for those of one of his evil associates. I'd
like to watch him, but there is no use in crying over spilled milk, and
you did all right in not calling me."

"It is all very singular," said the doctor, knitting his brows. "Of course
we would like to get out of here, but as to seeking the assistance of a
smuggler----"

"I'd as soon go out under his escort as that of any one else," laughed
Storms, "although we might get in trouble afterward if a government vessel
happened to see us in company with smugglers. Well, I guess it won't be
long now before the relief steamer comes, but----"

"But they may not know the way in, and we are as badly off as before,"
finished the doctor. "I don't see that we have advanced any, except,
perhaps, to let people know where we are."

"And you think there is little satisfaction in that?" with a grin. "We
might be worse off, however, so I guess we had better wait and trust to
good luck. Clever game, that of Jack's, wasn't it, stealing the fellow's
despatches?"

"Why, yes, clever in a way," admitted the doctor, glaring at the captain
through his big black-rimmed glasses, "but does it not savor somewhat
of--h'm--of deception? Pretending to be one person when he was another,
and quite a different one, by the way?"

"But he did not pretend to be anybody. He simply flashed a message, and if
that fellow outside took him for another person it was not Mr. Sheldon's
fault. All is fair in love and war, you know."

"H'm! so I have heard, but as I have been in neither I cannot say whether
it is so or not. However, I am not accusing you, Sheldon, you understand?
I suppose, under the circumstances, that what you did was perfectly
justifiable. At any rate, we shall not have to wait for this person to
come and take us out. But where was the person to whom he was sending
signals? You did not see him, Captain?"

"No, indeed, and I wonder that my man on deck did not see them. Asleep,
I'll warrant. That means loss of shore liberty to him for some time. The
other fellow was not here, of course. How could he get in?"

"I believe there is a way, sir," spoke up Jack, "and that this place is
used as a retreat for smugglers. If not just here, then some part of the
island. How about the calf we saw? I thought at the time that there were
people here, but did not think of smugglers."

"Why, I guess you've been reading about Captain Kidd and Blackbeard and
those old pirates, and have got your head full of secret lairs and all
that sort of stuff."

"Oh, no," smiled Jack in reply, "but evil men hide in woods and mountains
and all sorts of odd places as much now as they did in the old days. There
is just as much of this in modern times as there was in the old, but it is
accompanied with greater danger."

"Yes, I reckon it is. At any rate, I'd like to get hold of these rascals.
There'll be a pretty big reward for them, I fancy."

The boys left the cabin and during the afternoon Jack, Dick and young
Smith set out for a stroll over the island, taking one of the paths
already made, so as not to subject the younger boy to too much trouble.

"I hardly think these smugglers are on the island," said Jack, as they
walked on, "or, at least, I don't think that they got in through the
reefs. They could have landed on the other side, although there are many
difficulties connected with it, not to say dangers. You remember the
rocks, Dick? And there is a good deal of surf there also. One would need
to be careful in making it. A vessel could lie to, of course, while boats
landed the men, and that has probably been done."

"Yes, I suppose so," said Percival carelessly, thinking of other things at
the moment, and not paying much attention.

The boys walked on without paying much attention to where they were going,
young Smith being greatly pleased at being with the older boys, but at
length Jack stopped, looked around him, and said with the least bit of
alarm in his tone:

"H'm! I believe we are where Billy was treed by the calf the other day or
pretty near it, at any rate. We thought there might be people in the
neighborhood, but we did not see them."

"I suppose it might be as well to go back," said Percival. "It would not
be pleasant to run across a lot of half-civilized natives to say nothing
of smugglers."

"No, it would not," and at that instant there was a rustling in the bushes
not far away, and two men stepped out, the singular appearance of one of
them causing Jack to turn suddenly pale.

This man was of good height and build and evidently quite strong, and was,
besides, a person of superior intellect if not of the best tendencies, as
his face indicated, but what attracted most attention was the fact that
while his mustache was snowy white his hair and eyebrows were quite dark,
this making him noticeable in a moment.

"You here, George----"

"Rollins," said the other, evidently thinking that Jack was about to
pronounce another name, which was the fact. "Yes, I am here. It is safer
than back in New York state or any of the states, in fact. May I ask what
you are doing in this part of the world! I am as much surprised to see you
here as you are to see me," and the man made a sudden quick signal with
his left hand.

Jack heard a rustle behind him, and turned quickly, but not soon enough to
escape the quick rush of three big, strong, bearded men who sprang upon
him and his companions and held them fast.

"What does this mean, George--Rollins?" asked Jack, hesitating at
pronouncing the name, "Who are these men!"

"Friends of mine," laughed the man with the white mustache. "Business
partners I might say."

"The majority of your business partners get in jail or are shot by the
police, Mr. Rollins," said Jack. "Are these the same sort? What business
are you in now?" and then a look of intelligence shot across the boy's
face, as he remembered that Rollins was the name of the smuggler he had
but recently heard mentioned.

The other saw this look, and said with an evil glance:

"I think you have heard the name before. What are you doing here? You are
in the government service, you and your boy friends? What is this uniform
you wear?"

"That of the students of the Hilltop Academy. You knew that I was one of
them, for on the occasion of our last meeting----"

"I say, Jack," said Percival suddenly, "this is the man who was concerned
in the robbery of the Riverton Bank, your----" and the boy suddenly
paused, a deep flush on his face.

"His father, you were going to say," laughed the other, an evil look
crossing his countenance. "Yes, you are quite right, I am----"

"You are not!" cried Jack hotly. "You married my mother a year or so after
my own father's death, and made her life miserable, but that does not make
you my father, and you well know that I have never admitted your claim. No
court would admit it. Courts? You take good care to keep away from all of
them, Mr. Rollins, as you choose to call yourself."

"Take them away," said the man with the white mustache. "Let no harm come
to them. I don't understand why they are on the island, but it would be
awkward if any of their friends should know of our presence here. Don't
let them get away, but don't hurt them."

The men were much stronger than the boys, and Jack saw the futility of a
struggle during which the younger boy might be hurt, and he, therefore,
submitted to being led away, hoping to escape at some later time.

The boys were led some little distance to a little opening where they saw
a number of small crudely built houses, several dark-skinned men, who were
neither Indians nor negroes, but perhaps a combination of both, and a
number of domesticated animals, calves, pigs, a sheep and several fowls.

There were people on the island, therefore, as they had supposed, and
these men visited the place on occasion as in the present instance.

There was a strongly built house somewhat larger than the rest on one side
of the little village, and here the three boys were taken and locked in a
small square room with one window, this being small and protected with an
iron bar, evidently to make it safer, Jack noticing several cases in one
corner opposite the window.

"Make yourselves comfortable, young gentlemen," laughed Rollins, as he
called himself. "You will be set free, but not at present," and with that
he went away, and the door was stoutly locked.




CHAPTER XV

JESSE W. IS SENT FOR HELP


All was quiet in a few minutes after the man with the white mustache had
left the boys in the room with the barred windows, and presently Percival
said, half apologetically, but with the greatest kindness:

"You know I did not mean to call that man any relation of yours, Jack, but
the sudden recollection of the last time you met him when I did not see
him at all made me blurt out suddenly. I did stop, though."

Jack had come unexpectedly upon his stepfather during his first term at
the Academy, several months previous, the man at that time being concerned
in the robbery of a bank near the Academy, but escaping capture and
suddenly disappearing, Jack had hoped, forever.

He felt nervous and discouraged now that the man had again come into his
life, and he sat in a corner of the room on a chest and thought deeply,
Percival presently saying to him in cheery tones:

"Brace up, Jack. It is not like you to give way to despondency. What are
we going to do? We can't stay here even if that fellow with the white
mustache has given orders that we are not to be harmed."

"I tell you what," whispered young Smith. "That window is small, but not
too small to put me through. You have done that before, you know. If you
can get that bar loose it will be easy enough to put me out, and then I
will go straight to the vessel and get the captain, old Ben Bowline, and a
lot of sailors to come and get you out."

"You know the way, do you, Jesse W., you won't get lost!" asked Percival,
catching at the idea. "You are a plucky little fellow, but I don't want
you to take any risks."

"They are nothing but what I can take easy enough," answered the other
quickly. "Don't you suppose I would do anything for Jack? And for you,
too. You have both done a lot for me, and this isn't much. You get me
through the window, and I'll do the rest."

Jack arose quietly, crossed the room, took hold of the iron bar put across
the window and tested it.

"I believe we could pull it loose, Dick," he said in a low tone, not
knowing if there were any one outside who might hear him. "It is only
driven into the frame, and I believe we could pull out frame and all."

"Let me look at it," said Percival, and, taking hold of the bar, he
suddenly swelled up his muscles, gave it a quick, sharp wrench, and had it
out with a part of the frame as well.

"H'h! great protection that was!" he laughed. "I suppose they thought the
window was too small for any one to get through, and it is for most folks,
but Jesse W. is only half size and we can put him through all right."

"And I'll put through the other part," said the younger boy. "I am glad I
can do something for you two, for you have both of you done a lot for me
at one time or another."

"But see here, J.W., do you understand that there is considerable danger
in getting away?" asked Jack in a serious tone. "These fellows may be
watching, and they would handle you roughly if they caught you. And then
it is dark going through the woods, for the moon does not rise till pretty
late, and you might fall down some----"

"And I might not!" interrupted the other in a decided tone. "I have a
pocket light with me. I always carry one now, whether I think I am going
to need it or not, and I can find my way easy enough. Besides, I have a
pocket compass as well, and I know which way the vessel lies, and I am
going to get you boys out of here and that's all there is to it!"

"All right!" and Jack smiled at the smaller boy's determination. "But I
wouldn't let you go if I didn't think you had the pluck to carry it out,
and that the only difficulties are at the outset. Listen at the door,
Dick, and I'll see how the land lies in this direction," and Jack pulled
the chest to the window and looked out.

He could not see very far, but he saw that there were no huts on that
side, and that it was not far to the woods, and calculated that the boy
could get to them without being observed.

"All right, J.W., the coast is clear," he said. "You are sure you know the
way and the general direction? What is it, in fact?"

"About south, and I will get in sight of the water as soon as I can. It
will not be dark for some little time yet, and I ought to get to the yacht
before sunset or a little after at any rate."

"Very good. Keep in the open as much as you can after you get away from
here, and don't run too fast."

"All right. Are you ready?" and the boy stood on the chest beside Jack,
looking up into the latter's face with such an air of determination that
he laughed and said:

"Yes, I'm ready, up with you!" and Jack lifted the little fellow to the
window level, and put him through, Percival saying in a low tone:

"It's all right. I don't hear a sound. I imagine they are all away
somewhere, for I can neither see nor hear anything."

"Out you go!" said Jack, dropping the boy to the ground, and looking out
to see that he was all right. "Now then, cut!"

He watched the boy till he disappeared in the woods, and then as he
neither saw any one nor heard anything of an alarming nature, he said in a
tone of great relief:

"He is all right, and I believe he will get there without trouble. I had
an idea he would, or I would not have let him go."

"There he is, only half a boy, you might say," said Percival, "but ready
to undertake anything for us, no matter how dangerous and there are those
big overgrown bullies, Herring and Merritt, who would go all to bits if
they had the half of this to do. I tell you, Jesse W. Smith is worth both
of them in a lump, and with considerable on his side of the ledger after
that, Jack."

"Yes, so he is," agreed Jack.

"And now we will simply have to wait, I suppose?"

"I don't see anything else. The window is too small for us and the door
seems to be very strong and heavy, and securely locked. No, I considered
these points before I let the boy go."

"But suppose our man with the white mustache should return and miss him?"
asked Percival.

"Well, we will put the bar back in its place, put the chest in the corner,
and place our coats in a neat pile over there where it is darkest. There
are things that we can put under them, and there is the boy fast asleep
after his tramp through the woods."

"A good idea, Jack! You are full of resources. Now I would never have
thought of a way out of the trouble, but only of the trouble itself."

They replaced the bar so that no one would know by a casual glance that it
had been tampered with, put the chest back where they had taken it from,
and, gathering up a few loose articles from the floor, made a bundle of
them and spread their coats over it.

"A mere reference to the boy being asleep will be enough," said Jack. "The
look of the thing is enough to carry out the idea, and they will accept it
without question."

"To be sure, and in the meantime the plucky young fellow is hustling to
get back to the vessel and bring us help."

Having settled all this the boys sat down and waited, now and then
conversing, and occasionally listening for any sound that would denote the
return of the so-called Rollins and the men with him.

It was getting on toward sunset when Jack heard Rollins and another man
talking outside, although he could not see them when he went to the little
window and looked out.

"You say there is a vessel in the bay?"

"Yes, inside the reefs."

"Government vessel?"

"No, private yacht, the one these boys belong on. It's a school on a
vacation or tour or something."

"Do they know the way through the reefs!"

"I guess not. They were washed in the other night when there was a cyclone
or tidal wave."

"They did not come here after us?"

"No, they didn't know anything about us. They have been here for some
time, a week I guess, and can't get out."

"H'm! let them stay here then!" growled the man with the white mustache.
"They can't bother us any. If they don't know the way out, which very few
do, they'll have to stay here for all I can see."

"But suppose we want to get in on that side ourselves?"

"They could not make us any trouble. We don't want to get in there at this
time, although it is a better hiding place than this."

"Then you're going to let them stay there?"

"Certainly. They can't do us any harm. After we get away with our cargo we
don't care what happens to them."

The men went away or stopped talking, at any rate, and Jack did not hear
any further conversation between them.

"They will probably let us out as soon as they are ready to go," he said
to Percival, "but we don't want to stay here till they get ready to let us
out, and then there is just a chance that they may forget us altogether.
It was just as well that we sent Jesse W. off on his errand."

"I think so myself, and I don't doubt that he will carry it out."

"If Rollins knows the way out through the reefs," said Jack presently, "we
might either force or persuade him to pilot us out. If we should capture
him we might force him to do it. Otherwise, I might persuade him to do it
on consideration of allowing him to escape after we were perfectly safe
outside. Very few know of the way out, and it is not likely that the
vessel which they are sending to our relief will have any good pilot for
these waters on board."

"You don't know positively that this man knows the passage!"

"No, I do not, but he does know some one who does, to judge by his talk,
and if he cannot be bargained with perhaps the other man can. I am averse
to having anything to do with the man, as you can readily understand, but
I do not want to see the whole Hilltop Academy kept prisoners here for an
indefinite time."

When it began to grow dark one of the men who had brought them to the
place came in with some food and a bottle of wine, and said, as he put it
on a chest:

"There's something for you to eat. Other boy asleep, h'm? Well, there is
all the more for you then."

Then the man went away, never noticing the little bit of deception which
the boys had practised, locking the door after him.

"The things to eat are all right," said Jack, after the man had gone, "but
we would better not touch the wine. I never do, anyhow. This is likely to
be drugged to make us sleep, so that we will give no trouble."

"I don't want it anyhow," said Dick.

The boys ate a supper, and then, as it grew dark, sat and waited for some
sign of their friends, and at last when it was quite dark hearing a
peculiar whistle somewhere outside.

"That's the Hilltop signal!" whispered Percival "Aid is at hand!"




CHAPTER XVI

BEN'S STRANGE STORY


Jack jumped upon the chest, which he quickly dragged to the little window,
and answered the signal, one generally used by the Hilltop boys when they
wished to communicate with each other at a distance.

In a moment it was answered, and then young Smith ran up under the window,
and said eagerly:

"You are all right, boys, you are there still, and safe!"

"Yes," answered Jack. "Who is there?"

"Some of the boys, Ben Bowline, the captain and Buck, all ready for a
fight if necessary."

"All right. I don't think you will need to make one."

Percival was at the door now, and in a moment he heard the outer one fall
in with a crash, and then came the rush of many feet.

There were shouts outside, but these were drowned by the yells of the
boys, and of the old sailor.

"Are yo' dere, sah?" the boys heard Bucephalus say in a few moments, just
outside the door.

"Yes, but we are locked in."

"Nevah min' dat, jus' lemme get mah head at it an' Ah'll break it down in
a hurry, sah."

"Here, stop that!" roared Ben Bowline. "You'll crack yer skull!"

"No, sah, Ah's used to dem things!" guffawed Bucephalus.

"Don't you know that his name means 'ox-headed,' Ben?" cried Percival with
a laugh. "Why, he could split a two-inch plank with that head of his. Let
him do it, but first wait till I get out of the way."

It was not necessary for Bucephalus to butt the door down, however, as one
of the men with Rollins had been captured, and was forced to open the door
with his key.

It was the same man who had brought them food and wine, and at the sight
of the boys, for lights had been brought, he exclaimed:

"Guess you boys didn't drink anything?"

"No, we did not," said Percival. "Won't you have it your self?"

"Huh! I think not. But where's the little fellow? The one that was asleep
when I come in."

"Here I am!" piped up Jesse W. himself, "and you'll find that I am pretty
wide awake."

The boys picked up their coats, and put them on, and the man muttered, his
eyes opening wider every moment:

"Huh! that was a neat trick! Then the boy was not there at all?"

"No, he was on his way for help," said Jack. "Never judge too much by
appearances. Still, I am glad you did this time."

The boys and their friends now left the house, the man being taken a short
distance to prevent his giving the alarm, although the natives had already
scattered in many directions at the coming of Ben, Buck and the boys.

"Young Smith got to us all right," said Harry to Jack and Dick, "and we
set out without delay. You must have had quite an adventure."

"So we did, and it might have been worse. Rollins is on this part of the
island, sir," to the captain. "He got in yesterday or to-day, I am not
sure which. I do not believe he has seen the man who was signaling to him
last night, and I do not think he knows anything about him. He does know
that government vessels are on the watch for him, however, and I think he
will shortly get away from here."

"I wish we could get word to them so as to stop him," growled the captain.
"These smugglers give honest traders a bad reputation, for folks think we
are all alike."

A considerable number of the Hilltop boys had come to the rescue of the
two boys, and these were now carried on the shoulders of the others, and a
triumphal march back to the vessel was begun, young Smith being taken up
as well as Jack and Dick, the boys saying that he had traveled enough for
one day and that he needed a rest.

Many of the boys had pocket lights with them, and others cut pine branches
and made torches of them so that there was light enough to show them the
way, and it was not necessary to wait for the moon to rise.

The boys sang and shouted, and made a lot of noise on the way back so that
if the smugglers or any of the natives had had any idea of attacking them
they would have been deterred by the very din.

They reached the shore at length, and were taken on board the yacht,
Bucephalus presently announcing that supper was ready, the boys having the
best of appetites for it, and making it a feast in honor of Jack, Dick and
young Jesse W., who was considered as much a hero as his older
schoolmates, and was certainly regarded so by them.

Not all the boys had gone over to the other side, some staying away on
account of the fatigue of the journey and others, noticeably Herring and
his cronies, because they were either not asked or would not have gone if
they had been.

It was a feast in honor of the three boys, nevertheless, and those who
were not ready to join in praise of the heroes were wise enough to keep
quiet and not to make any dissent.

After supper Jack and a few of the boys discussed the situation, and tried
to calculate how long it would take the vessel which Mr. Smith had sent
out to reach them.

"If we knew that, we would know how long we would have to wait," observed
Arthur. "Some vessels are faster than others."

"It would take at least three or four days," said Jack, "and if he has
sent a fast vessel and given directions to make all speed they might be
here in less time. Then they must pick up a pilot who would be likely to
know these seas, and who is used to making difficult passages. Any
ordinary pilot would not do. He should have a special one."

"And he cannot tell just what is required till he gets here, and, perhaps,
would have to hunt one up, and there is more lost time," said Harry
dolefully. "It's a pity we are wasting so much time."

"Yes, but I don't see how we are going to help ourselves."

"No, perhaps not."

Late that night Jack was awakened as he lay asleep in his berth, not by a
flash, as before, but by hearing some one say, as he went by the door:

"It can't be, it's too much like the flying Dutchman."

"That's what I say, but all the same I was sure I saw one come in through
the reefs."

"You didn't see any lights?"

"No, but I could make out her masts and rigging."

The two men went on, and Jack heard no more.

"There has some vessel come in through the reefs," he said to himself as
he sat up in bed. "I must try to find them to-morrow. I have always said
that I thought it possible for a vessel to get through if one knew the
passage, and this shows that it has been done. No wonder these men thought
it was a phantom ship."

Partially dressing himself he went on deck, and looked around him.

He could see nothing, and he hardly expected to do so, but had yielded to
impulse and had come on deck.

Ben Bowline presently came up, looked at him, touched his grizzled
forelock, and said:

"Sir to you. Come up to get the air?"

"Yes," Jack answered shortly.

"Kind of a pretty night, don't you think, sir!" the old sailor said after
a pause during which he stood balancing himself first on one foot and then
on the other.

"Yes, it is a fine starlight night. The moon ought to be coming up soon,
and then we can see things better."

"Yes, so we can. Was you looking for anything particular, sir?" in a
mysterious tone.

"How about that vessel, Ben?" asked Jack in a low tone. "Are you sure you
saw her? What was she, the long, low, rakish craft we read of in old
stories or a saucy steam yacht with tremendous speed?"

"Sh! the old man might hear us," cautioned Ben Bowline. "Do you know I
don't want to think it were the Flying Dutchman 'cause it's plumb bad luck
to see her, but how is a live ship going to get in here?"

"Easy enough, if she knows the way, Ben. Don't say anything about it, but
are you sure you saw something?"

"Well, I dunno, but I think I did. She was out yonder, just where you can
see the open water, and she was only there half a jiffy, as you might say.
Tom saw her, too, or I would have thought I was dreaming."

"Steamer, Ben?" asked Jack, sure now that there was something in the old
fellow's story.

"Reckon she was, though I did see something white, which gave me a creepy
feeling like as if I'd seen a apparition or something similar. Maybe she
had sail on to help her steam. Some of 'em do."

"And you saw her for a short time only!"

"Yes, sir, not half a minute nor half that even. There wasn't time to say
'Jack Robinson' twice, sir, before she was out of sight."

"Well, if she came in she can get out, and so can we, Ben. Keep this quiet
till I speak to the captain about it. It will be just as well not to have
every one know it, and have it talked about all over the vessel."

"Shouldn't wonder if it would, sir," and as Jack walked away the old
sailor continued his own passage up and down the deck.

"There are probably places to hide that we have not seen," thought the
boy, as he took a turn of the deck, and then started to go below, "and we
may not be able to see this vessel in the morning. I shall have a look for
her, nevertheless. If there is to be a bargain made and I don't see why
there should not be, unless we trade directly with lawbreakers and assist
them. That we could not do, of course, but if we hire a pilot we are not
supposed to know whether he is honest or not."

The question was a puzzling one, and Jack had not solved it when he went
below, turned in and quickly fell asleep.

In the morning, nothing having been seen of any strange vessel from the
deck of the yacht, Jack told Percival quietly what he had heard, and after
breakfast they went ashore and set out for a search for the stranger.

"If she is here," Jack said, "she is one of the smugglers, and will not
want to be seen. If we can find her it may mean that we can get out of our
strange prison."

"How are we going to find her, Jack? There are probably plenty of hiding
places about here that we don't dream of."

"I know it, Dick, but we must find them if we want to leave here. I do not
think that Smith will be able to get us out, and if we can do it
ourselves, so much the better."

"Yes, and all the more credit to us, Jack."




CHAPTER XVII

DISCOVERIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS


The boys landed at the point where they had first gone ashore, well up in
the bay, as that would give them less walking, and pushed toward the
north, keeping as near to the shore as they could in the hope of being
thus better able to see the hidden smuggler in case she was still at the
island.

Making their way over rough ground, they at length came to an opening in
the rocks which was quite high enough for them to enter, and Jack said in
an eager tone:

"It is possible we may find something here, Dick. This seems to be a cave,
and smugglers and men of that sort make such places convenient."

"It looks rather dark, Jack," murmured Percival. "We had a pretty gruesome
experience in a dark cave when we first came to the island and I don't
want to repeat it."

"You won't find any devil fish in there, Dick," said Jack reassuringly.
"Besides, we have our flashes with us and are armed as well, and if we do
find anything uncanny we can put up a good fight, I imagine."

"That's all right, Jack, but once I have an experience of that sort I am a
little shy at venturing into a place anything like it. The mere look of
this cave made me think of the other."

"But there is no water here and it may be only a hole in the rocks after
all. Then it may lead to some retreat of these smuggler folk, and if it
does, so much the better."

"All right, Jack, I am with you," said Percival, and the boys entered the
hole in the rocks, as Jack called it.

It was more than that, as they presently discovered, for they found that
it extended much farther than they thought, and Jack, turning on his
pocket flash when there began to be less and less light to guide them, saw
that the passage went on for some distance.

It was high enough for them to walk upright and wide enough for three or
four persons to walk abreast, there being a few turns, but none sharp
enough to cut off the view ahead for some distance.

"Well, we won't get under water as we did in the other place, Jack,"
observed Percival as they walked on, meeting the first sharp turn and
being now unable to see behind them, "for we are going toward the interior
of the island and not toward the sea."

"No, and there will be no one to tumble down rocks upon us and shut us in,
or think they did, as happened before. In fact, the place seems to be
decidedly uninteresting, Dick."

"Nothing has happened so far, if that is what you mean," laughed the
other, "but you never can tell."

They made one or two more sharp turns and at length came to an opening of
greater magnitude where they could see three or four passages leading in
different directions, some very narrow and one wide enough for them to
walk side by side.

"Which one shall we take, Jack?" asked Percival. "The place begins to grow
interesting now that we have several routes to choose from. Does it look
as if men had been here? Do you see any smudges on the walls or any
footprints in the dust? Is this just an accident, or has it been cut out
and made of use for a hiding place?"

"No, there are no smudges which might have been made by torches, Dick, and
I don't see any footprints except our own. I don't believe any one has
been in here for years."

"Then you think that there may have been some one here at some time, Jack?
It has been used?"

"Yes, for it has not the looks of a natural cavern which has not yet been
discovered. It has been cleaned up to a certain extent. Still, I do not
think that the particular gang of malefactors we are looking for has ever
occupied it."

"Then there is not much use in our going any farther, Jack?"

"No, not if we want to find Rollins and the rest."

"Suppose we take the widest passage, Jack!"

"Very well. Come ahead."

They went on for twenty feet, when the floor of the passage began to take
a sudden decline which increased at every step.

"Hold on, Dick," said Jack, holding his light low and flashing it along
the rough floor. "This thing may take a sudden drop and----"

"So it does!" gasped Percival, lying at full length on the floor and
crawling carefully forward a pace or two. "It takes a drop for fair. It is
a lucky thing you noticed it."

"Then we may as well go back, for I don't care to take a drop I don't know
how deep."

"I'll see," muttered Percival, picking up a loose stone as big as his fist
and tossing it ahead of him.

Not until several seconds had passed did the boys hear the sound of the
stone falling into water, and Percival said with a sigh of relief:

"Well, we didn't go that way, at any rate. Come on, Jack, there is nothing
to be seen in that direction."

The boys returned to the place where the passages diverged, and Percival
suggested that they take one of the narrower paths and follow it for a
time.

"All right," laughed Jack, "but I don't believe we shall find any more
than we have already found. In fact, I don't believe the smugglers know of
this place at all and we won't find out anything."

However, they proceeded down the narrow path till they suddenly found
themselves at the end, where the place widened into a chamber about ten
feet square, and here they saw a sight which made Percival tremble.

It was a pile of human skeletons reaching nearly to the roof of the vault
and thrown promiscuously about like so much rubbish.

"I say, I've got enough of this!" gasped the young fellow. "Let's get out
of this, Jack, before we find anything worse. First the bottomless pit and
then a charnel house. I am satisfied!"

"It is not a very pleasant sight," said Jack musingly, "but they cannot do
us any harm. They have probably been here for years."

The boys returned to the chamber they had left and then went back along
the way they had come without seeking to explore any other passages.

Getting out into the light at last, they proceeded with their search for
the smugglers, resolving not to enter any more mysterious caves, but to
look for places where a vessel might be able to hide.

"There must be a lot of coves along here," said Jack, "that we have not
been able to find on account of the difficulty of making one's way along
the rocks, but now we are looking for them we don't mind doing a lot of
scrambling."

"No, we are used to that, and, besides, we are alone, and haven't young
Smith with us. I suppose he would have been delighted to come, for he
likes being with us, but it would have been too much of a task for him."

"And yet he would not have complained, Dick. He is a plucky little chap.
Just think of his going into the cabin of the wreck, up to his knees in
the water, to get that bag of gold just because he said he would."

"Yes, it was a nervy thing to do, and there are bigger boys in the Academy
who would not have done it. But I say, Jack, it is getting pretty rough
along here. I am afraid we may have to change our route."

They had come upon a mass of high rocks over which it was well nigh
impossible to make their way, and Jack stopped, looked around him and
said:

"It seems a pretty tough job, Dick. Suppose you give me a boost, however,
and let me see if I can get to the top of this one. I am lighter than you,
and perhaps I can make it."

"All right, Jack, just as you say," and Dick bent his back so that his
companion could get upon his shoulders, and then straightened up slowly,
Jack holding on by some of the projections in the rock and going up with
him, being able to reach a bit higher when Percival was at his full height
and saying, with some satisfaction:

"That is fine, Dick. I should reach the top now. Catch me if I come
tumbling down, however."

"I don't think you will, Jack. You are a regular cat to keep your feet,
and I guess you are all right."

Clinging with toes and fingers to the rock and going up inch by inch, Jack
at length reached a point whence it was easier climbing, and here he
advanced more rapidly than before, Percival watching him closely, and
standing ready to catch him in case he happened to lose his footing.

Jack did not, however, and at last, as he reached the top of the rock,
threw himself forward and found himself on a flat, but somewhat rough
surface a few yards in extent with higher rocks on one side, but nothing
in front of him.

Beyond, at some little distance, there were other rocks, but he judged
that if he went to the edge of the rock to which he had climbed he might
see something, and he, therefore, crept along cautiously for fear of being
seen, until he reached the edge.

Here he looked over and saw that there was water below him, quite a good
sized cove, in fact, which ran up from the shore to a considerable
distance, apparently, but had a turn a few rods farther up in shore.

Looking the other way Jack could see the bay in which they lay, and said
to himself:

"That is the way they could come, but now let us see if they did, and if
there is room beyond for a vessel of any size to pass."

The higher mass of rock on his left prevented his going much farther,
however, and he was thinking that he might be obliged to climb to the top
of this, being unable to get around it, when he heard a suspicious sound
below him, and lay flat on his face, peering cautiously over the edge.

There were some bushes and coarse grass here and these hid him somewhat
from observation, while they did not prevent his seeing anything going on
below.

The sound he had heard was the splash of oars and the hum of voices, and
in a few moments he saw a boat containing two men appear around a corner
of the higher rock, which descended sheer to the water's edge, and make
its way slowly toward the open bay.

"I tell you there is one, Davis," Jack heard one of the men say,
recognizing the voice as that of the man with the white mustache, as he
always thought of him, and not as his stepfather.

In fact, he had long since repudiated any relationship whatever with the
man, and regarded him as a stranger who had come into his life without any
wish of his own, and whom he would willingly put out of it, and be
satisfied never to see or hear of again.

"But weren't you in here the other night when I signaled?" asked the other
man, who was rowing. "You answered and told me to come in."

"Me?" with a laugh. "I tell you I was not. I don't know the way in any
more than you, though I know that there is one."

"But I saw lights, and I got flashes from some one on deck, in the regular
code, too."

"They were from the deck of this yacht I told you of, and I will show her
to you if you are patient. Go easy, though, for we may come in sight of
her at any moment."

"But how about the signals I got? How could any one know I was out there,
and how would they know the code?"

"They got you by accident, perhaps, and then were smart enough to take
your signals and answer them. I know a boy who is clever enough for that.
He is on the yacht, too. She has a lot of schoolboys who are on a trip to
these seas. They were carried in here by a tidal wave, and now cannot get
out, not knowing the passage."

"Well, I don't know it myself, and I never would have come in only for
finding a pilot who knows the ins and outs of all the islands in the
Caribbean, but if I noticed any lights when I came in I must have thought
they were yours."

The men rowed on out of sight, for Jack did not care to lean over too far,
partly from fear of falling and partly because he might be seen if any one
else should happen to pass that way.

There had a vessel come into the bay, then, and she was now probably up
the cove out of sight, and the man in the boat with the other was her
captain.

"That is the man whose vessel I signaled the other night," thought Jack.
"Rollins must have come over to this side and met him. They know each
other, it seems. Birds of a feather flock together."

Not caring to expose himself to the risk of being seen by the men when
they returned, Jack now crept back to the other side of the rock and began
to descend carefully, Percival being at length able to help him.

"Well, Jack," said the latter when his friend was safe on the ground, "did
you discover anything!"

"Yes, I did," and Jack told him briefly what he had seen and heard.

"H'm! then there was a vessel coming in last night, and old Ben was not
mistaken?" exclaimed Percival.

"No, he was not, and she is in a cove somewhere on the other side of the
rocks. I don't know how far up it goes, but there is one there. I could
not see the vessel either."

"We must try to find it, Jack."

"Yes, and we must get around these rocks. There is no way of getting to
the cove this way, unless we climb another high rock, and it is dangerous
and we might be seen also."

"Then let's look for another way."

They went back for a distance, and then began clambering over masses of
other rocks they came to, getting higher and higher, but at last coming to
a great mass of ledge rock, which rose sheer above their heads for twenty
feet without a single projection upon which they could rest their feet and
without a crevice where they might get a finger hold.

"There is no use trying to get up there, Jack," murmured Percival in
disgust. "A goat could not climb up there. Nothing without wings could
manage it, in fact."

"No, there is clearly no getting around this way, Dick. We shall have to
go back and try some other place. There is a vessel on the other side of
those rocks, but how to get a sight of her is the question. I think we
would better try to find the head of the cove."

They went back, therefore, to where they had tried to ascend the rocks,
and pushed on toward the interior of the island, finding the way
difficult, but at length getting clear of the rocks and after struggling
through a perfect jungle coming out upon one of the paths they had
themselves made in their explorations.

"Well, we know where we are now!" exclaimed Percival with considerable
satisfaction, "but we seem to be no nearer the head of the cove than
before. What are you going to do, Jack?"

"Look for the cove," said Jack tersely.

"All right, my boy, I am with you," said Dick with a chuckle, as if the
idea was a most amusing one.

"Seems funny, doesn't it?" said Jack, smiling. "Well, we have had a lot of
trouble, I admit, but you are not the one to give up when you undertake a
task, and you know that I do not like to."

"Not only that you don't like to, Jack, but that you don't do it."

They set out toward the shore again, determined to find the cove if it
were a possible thing, and looking for every possible clue to its
whereabouts, and plunging into what seemed the most impassable thickets in
their efforts, halting at nothing, in fact.

"We should have brought axes, Jack," muttered Percival in disgust, as both
boys paused at length, tired and hot in a little glade where the way was
clearer than before, and yet having no assurance that they were anywhere
near the place they sought.

"Yes, but that is just like a couple of boys who are bound to do a thing
and don't make all their calculations ahead. Our hind thought is better
than our forethought, Dick."

"Yes, but we could not think of everything. I think we have done pretty
well, considering."

"Yes, I suppose so, but it rather takes the conceit out of a fellow to
meet with so many obstacles. Why, I always thought I was good in making my
way through tangled woods, but I begin to think that I am not."

"There is one thing you have forgotten, Jack. We are in the tropics, the
woods here are regular jungles and the temperature is something
considerably above what you have been used to. You must not scold yourself
too much, Jack. I think we have done very well--'sh, what's that!" in a
hoarse whisper, and looking around him with alarm.

"Some one coming, Dick. Hide, quick!"




CHAPTER XVIII

IN THE LAIR OF THE FOX


The boys quickly secreted themselves in the high grass, and in a few
moments several men came into the glade, evidently in great excitement.

"We've got to get him quick," said one. "Is this the right way, do you
think? We can't waste no time waiting around here with that revenue cutter
hanging around."

"Him and Davis went over to this side 'cause he wanted to show Davis that
there was a vessel in the bay, and now this here other one is hanging
about, and she may come to our side and find us," said another. "This here
is the way, I think, but I ain't sure."

"Well, come on and find him," growled a third man. "As you say, we'd
better not waste no time with a revenue cutter hanging about and looking
for us. Come on!"

The men hurried on, and when there was no longer any sign of them Jack
arose and said:

"They have seen a vessel outside, probably from one of the hills, and have
taken the alarm. It is likely that this is the vessel Mr. Smith has sent
to get us out. I hardly believe she is a revenue cutter, although these
men would hardly be deceived on that point."

"They might," said Percival. "They would take alarm at anything. I think
myself that it is likely to be the vessel sent to get us out. She should
be here by this time, according to our calculations. Let us get on the
hill, Jack, and have a look at her ourselves. We may be able to tell what
she is if we can get a good look at her."

"Very good," and the boys at once struck out in a direction which they
judged would take them into one of the paths leading to the northern end
of the island.

They reached one in five minutes, and then pushed on till they came to the
open, and in another few minutes came out upon a higher level whence a
fairly good view of the open sea could be obtained.

"There she is!" cried Jack, pointing out to sea. "She is a cutter, Dick.
The men were right. She is under a good head of steam, too, as you can
tell by the smoke pouring from her funnels. She is cruising about here,
and is evidently in search of some one. Perhaps she suspects that Davis is
in here, and is trying to locate him."

The boys watched the cutter for ten minutes, and then saw her alter her
course, and take one which would bring her around to the other side of the
island.

"I wonder if Storms has seen her?" said Jack. "I don't believe she knows
the way in here. If she did she would have come in. She is going away. We
won't see her in a short time."

"I don't wonder that the smugglers were alarmed. Well, if she goes to the
other side Rollins may leave unless he is hidden in a cove, the same as
Davis is. The latter will have a good chance to get out if the coast is
clear. She is getting farther and farther off, Jack."

"Yes, and we won't see her in a little while. She is probably going to the
other side to look for these fellows. Well, we have not seen exactly what
we came out to see, but we have seen something, and I think we had better
go back. It is getting later than I thought."

The boys, accordingly, set off toward the shore, and at length reached it,
finding Ben Bowline waiting for them with the boat.

"Your Flying Dutchman was a real vessel, Ben," said Jack, "and she is
hiding in a cove along shore, but just where I can't tell you. I would
have to look for her. Did you see the revenue cutter outside?"

"No, we did not. Revenue cutter, hey? Not the vessel that's coming to take
us out, sir?"

"No, but a revenue cutter. She is looking for your Flying Dutchman, I
imagine, or for another smuggler. This place seems to be a favorite hiding
place for such craft."

"Well, they're welcome to it, sir, for if we get out all right they can
have it to themselves, for all o' me."

"The trouble is how to get out, Ben," said Percival. "Whichever way you
turn there seems to be some difficulty ahead of you."

"Yes, and that reminds me of a time when I was sailing around the coast of
Africky lookin' for slavers. Ever heard tell about it!"

"No, but you must be older than I thought, Ben, to have been alive at that
time. There have been no slavers for sixty years or more around these
parts, and you wouldn't----"

"Well, there was slavers for all that," persisted Ben. "I didn't say I was
chasin' American slavers. They is others, or was. Portuguese an' other
fellows was in the business in them days. Well, anyhow, talking about
meetin' trouble wherever you turn, this here adventure o' mine was that
sort."

"What was it, Ben? We have time to listen to it before having to start
back, I guess, or you can tell it to us while you are rowing us out to the
yacht."

"Well, we was cruisin' around the Guinea coast, and one day I went on
shore to look about and got separated from the other fellows, and all to
once got so tangled up in the jungle that I didn't know which way to go
nor nothing."

"That's interesting," said Percival.

"Then all of a sudden about forty black niggers jumped out of the jungle
and gave chase, for I didn't stop to calc'late which way I orter go when I
seed them, but just laid a course what would take me away from 'em the
quickest.

"I just put through the jungle as tight as I could jump, and suddenly come
face to face with a scrouching lion as big as a elephant, all ready to
pounce upon me, and there I was between two fires.

"You might say three, because I was on the edge of a swamp and there was a
big alligator with his mouth wide open, ready to swaller me the minute I
got into the swamp."

Percival gave Jack a knowing wink and said:

"Well, that was a dilemma. What did you do?"

"Well, I just didn't know what to do, 'cause whichever way I went there
was danger. The lion and the 'gator was in front an' the savage niggers
behind, and it was as bad to stand still as to run and no port in a
storm."

"Well?" and Dick gave Jack a wink.

"I just didn't do nothin', 'cause good luck did it for me. The niggers run
plump into the jaws of the lion or smack into the 'gator, an' in a brace
o' shakes one an' t'other was so stuffed full o' meat that they had no
appetite for me, an' I just laid a course down the river an' found my
mates in a jiffy."

"That's another steal from Baron Munchausen with a few variations,"
laughed Percival. "Did you ever hear of him, Ben?"

"Huh! they's no 'arthly use o' spinin' any yarns to you, young gentlemen,
'cause you don't believe 'em nohow," muttered Ben in a disgusted tone, and
then he gave way upon the oars and did not say another word.

When the boys reached the vessel, shortly before dinner, Jack told the
captain of what he had heard and seen, the officer being greatly
interested, and saying shortly:

"If the fellow in the cove has a pilot on board maybe we can hire him to
take us out or maybe force him to do it. You couldn't signal to the
cutter, I suppose?"

"No, we had no means. She has gone to the other side of the island now,
probably in search of the other vessel. You have not had any message from
the one that is coming to our assistance?"

"No, I have not, but I expect her to-day or to-morrow. Could you find the
cove where the smuggler is hidden?"

"I might," answered Jack thoughtfully.

"If I can find her before she gets out," the captain continued, "I'll
catch him, and make him take us out of the bay to the open. Then I'll turn
him over to the cutter, and get the reward. These fellows captured one of
our vessels, and it'll be only turn about, which is fair play for
everybody."

"Are your men armed?" asked Jack. "Remember, these men are ready for fight
at any moment. They always expect it, and are prepared. They act in
defiance of the government, and know that if caught they will be
imprisoned, and they are always on the defensive."

"Yes, I know that, but if I can take them by surprise they won't have a
chance to fight."

"Well, I will try to find the cove for you, sir, but, of course, I cannot
join in any fight you may have with the smugglers. The doctor would not
allow it."

"No, I suppose not, and quite right, too. I'll see that you don't get into
trouble on our account, but I do want to catch this chap, and make him
take us out of here."

"I heartily hope that you will, Captain," said Jack.

After dinner the yacht steamed out into the open bay, inside the reefs,
and a lookout was kept for the cutter, which might still be in the
neighborhood, and at the same time Captain Storms told the doctor what he
had contemplated, and asked his permission to take Jack as a pilot to
discover the whereabouts of the smuggler.

"He will be in no danger, I trust?" asked Dr. Wise, glaring at the
captain, as was his wont when greatly interested.

"I will look out for that, sir," replied the captain. "He and his chum
were looking for this fellow this morning, and found out where he lay,
from the shore. I think he will be able to locate him from the water, and
if he does I'll have the rat out of his hole in a brace of shakes,
provided you will let me have him."

"Why, yes, I think so," rejoined the doctor, looking as wise as his name
would indicate. "I am most anxious to get away from here, and if you think
there is a chance of it I am quite willing to let you use your own
judgment. You know best about such matters."

A boat was lowered containing the captain, Jack Sheldon, Dick Percival and
six stout sailors, the entire party with the exception of the boys, being
heavily armed.

A second boat, in charge of the mate, was lowered, and followed the first
at a little distance, the officer having orders to close up quickly in
case it became necessary.

Jack sat in the stern with the captain, and, as they skirted the shore,
kept a sharp lookout for any possible inlet to the cove where the smuggler
lay in hiding.

There was a full tide, and this enabled them to go closer to the rocks
than if it had been low, and Jack peered into every opening in the hope of
finding the right one at last.

At length as they were proceeding slowly at a safe distance from an ugly
looking mass of rocks, which projected to some distance into the water,
and where there were dangerous looking eddies, Jack noticed a steeple
shaped rock higher than the rest, and at some little distance in shore.

"That is the rock I could not get around, Dick," he said to Percival. "Of
course, I cannot from here see the rock from which I looked down on the
men in the boat, but I know that rock well. Keep on, Captain, and watch. I
think I can find the way now."

"There was a turn in the passage, wasn't there, Jack?" asked Dick.

"Yes, but there may have been others, and I think that the general
direction of the inlet was about east. I shall look for it at any rate."

They kept on slowly, Jack directing them closer in to shore, and looking
sharply for any sign of the channel, which he presently detected by
keeping his eye on the water.

At a point where the rocks seemed to have no opening he detected a motion
toward the bay, and, knowing that the tide was now on the ebb, had the
captain steer closer in to the rocks.

"You won't run us onto them, sir?" whispered Storms.

"No, sir. Look toward them. Can't you see that the tide is setting this
way, that there is no eddy, but the regular flow of the tide?"

"By gravy! yes, I do," exclaimed the captain hoarsely. "Keep on, my boy,
and I believe you'll find the place."

Jack watched the water, steered in closer, and suddenly, in rounding a
blunt point, saw the entrance to the cove before him, and noticed that the
tide was running steadily out of it toward the sea.

"Here we are, sir," he said to the captain, and at once the other boat was
signaled, and came up in a few moments.

Both proceeded up the creek side by side, and at length Jack saw the rock
whence he had watched the men in the boat, and pointed it out to Percival,
together with the one like a steeple, which had first called his attention
to the place.

There was room for the two boats abreast, the passage being wide enough
for a good-sized vessel to pass, and they kept on side by side, past the
bend in the inlet, and then on and around another, suddenly coming in
sight of a vessel at anchor.

"That's the _Circe_, the steamer that was taken by the smugglers," said
the captain. "I know her well, though I never sailed in her. They've
painted out her name, but that's her, I'll take my oath."

At a signal from the captain the two boats dashed forward, and were
alongside the steamer before any one on board knew of their approach.

The captain and mate, followed by four men from each boat, scrambled up
the side like monkeys, and made a dash for the cabin as a man came out and
demanded gruffly:

"Hello! who are you, and what do you want?"

"That's Davis," said Jack. "I know his voice. We have made no mistake."

"Of course not," said Percival "Do you see that fender hanging over the
side? These fellows have forgotten it. There is your name _Circe_, as
plain as you please."

"Yes, I see it."

"There are lively times up there, Jack," Dick continued. "I'd like to join
in it."

"Let the men go instead," laughed Jack. "We can look after the boats."

"All right. Up with you, men!" and the invitation was accepted in a
moment.




CHAPTER XIX

THE WAY OUT FOUND


The men scrambled out of the boats and on deck as soon as they had the
boys' permission, and for a minute or two there was the liveliest sort of
fracas on the deck and in the cabin of the _Circe_, but this shortly
ceased, and the mate coming to the side leaned over and said:

"We've got 'em! They put up a fight, but everything is dead against them.
This is our company's vessel, and we've found enough unstamped stuff in
the cabin to give 'em a good long rest in jail. We've got Davis, the
captain, but the other fellow is over on the other shore, unless he has
made his escape by this time. Come on board, boys."

The boys quickly accepted the invitation, and went on board where they
found Davis and his men prisoners.

There was not a large crew, and some of them had been asleep at the time
of the surprise, these being captured before they knew what was going on.


"Go aboard with the boys and all the men you need," said the captain to
the mate. "I am going with the pilot. Follow us and do exactly as we do.
I've got this fellow under my thumb. He knows he'll get a good long term
for smuggling, but I can get some of it taken off if he pilots us out, and
I've promised him to do my best for him. It'll be as hard as finding a
needle in a haystack to get a pilot and we have him, so what's the use of
looking?"

"Quite right, sir."

The captain stood in the pilot house with a pistol at the head of the
pilot, and told him to give his orders, and to give wrong ones at his
peril.

"If you sink us you'll sink yourself," he added, "so mind your chart and
steer straight."

"All right, Captain," said the other. "I'll do as you say. I am not over
fond of Davis, who has done me many a dirty turn, and as for Rollins,
there is no more trusting him than there is a wolf, and I shall be glad to
be shut of both of them and the business at the same time."

The boats were sent back to the yacht, which was put in charge of the
first officer, and followed in the wake of the _Circe_.

In this case she proved to be worthier of trust than her beautiful
namesake of the days of Ulysses, and she not only made her way safely out
through the tortuous channel among the reefs, but led the yacht with the
boys on board to the open water outside.

More than once as Captain Storms saw the waters bubbling and boiling
around them, and saw how close they were to the rocks he thought that they
were doomed, but as he watched the face of the pilot he saw that the man
was to be trusted, and held his peace.

When they were outside, and a great cheer went up from the Hilltop boys,
they proceeded to the end of the island in search of the cutter and at
last saw her smoke in the distance.

Sending her a wireless message they at length had the satisfaction of
seeing her approach, and at last the captain came on board and the _Circe_
and her crew were turned over to him, Storms saying:

"Look out for the pilot. He is not as bad as the rest, and deserves some
consideration on account of getting us out of a bad scrape. Have you
caught Rollins?"

"No, he was too quick for us, and slipped away, but we'll catch him yet."

"I doubt if you do. However, never mind that. I'll put you in charge here
and will go back to my own vessel."

He had been back in his own cabin but a short time, receiving the
congratulations of the doctor and the boys when the man on the lookout
reported a vessel in the offing, which flew the company's flag, and seemed
to be familiar to many of the officers and men.

"That's the ship that Smith has sent to get us out," laughed Storms, "and
we've got ahead of him, and got out ourselves."

He was correct, for in half an hour the newcomer was alongside and in a
moment Mr. Smith himself was over the side and grasping his son, Jesse W.,
in his arms.

"But how is this?" he asked. "I thought you could not get out. Did you do
this for a joke so that you could see me?"

"No, indeed, sir," said young Smith. "We have not been away from the
island more than an hour or two, and it is to Jack Sheldon that you owe
your getting out. Come here, Jack, I want to introduce you to my father."

"I am pleased to see you, sir," said Jack, coming up. "I am afraid that
Jesse W. gives me too much credit, although I am willing to take a little
of it. Captain Storms deserves the greater part of it, however."

Mr. Smith held a consultation with the captain of the revenue cutter, and
an arrangement was shortly made between them whereby the _Circe_ was to be
in the government's custody for a time, and then to be turned over to her
owners.

The whole story was told and Jack, Dick, and many of the boys came in for
their meed of praise from Mr. Smith, as well as from Dr. Wise and the
captain.

Mr. Smith had not found a pilot who could take him through the reefs to
Lost Island, as they all still called it, but his chagrin was greatly
tempered by seeing his son and all the boys safe out of their island
prison, and he complimented Jack on all that he had done, and said:

"My dear boy, I have already promised my son to look after your interests,
and you need have no fear that they will be thoroughly attended to."

"I am much obliged to you, sir," replied Jack, blushing, "but I am glad to
have found such good friends. I want to say a few words in behalf of your
son, and am only expressing the sentiments of the majority of the boys
when I tell you that he is a plucky little chap, and a credit to the
Hilltop Academy. I trust that we may long have him with us."

"Hurrah for Jesse W., boys, give him a rouser!" cried Percival, and they
were given with a will.

Mr. Smith went back to the relief vessel, the cutter took away her prize,
and by night the vessels had all parted company, Jesse W. Smith's father
to return to New York, and the yacht to proceed on her cruise, which,
although somewhat shortened as to route, was to continue until the time
originally set as to its duration.

The cruise was a most pleasant one, and the boys learned much while it
lasted, and were sorry when it ended, and they set out for the north and
the Academy in the highlands.

Later the _Circe_ was turned over to its owners, and a share of the reward
for its recovery put to Jack's account in the bank, much to his surprise,
as well as satisfaction.

The man with the white mustache, who was one of the boldest of the
smugglers, had made his escape, whither he had gone no one could tell, but
Jack's only interest in the man was to hope that he would keep away on
account of his mother, to whom he related nothing concerning his meetings
with the man, either at the Academy or in the tropics.

"I do not wish her to think of him," he said to Percival, "and I do not
wish to think of him myself. Never mention him, Dick."

"You may be sure I won't!" replied Dick with emphasis.

There were some of the boys who did not escape seasickness on the way
back, for all they had been on the water so long, but the run home was, on
the whole, most pleasant, and Jack, Dick, young Smith and some others
enjoyed it thoroughly.

"We shall have enough to think of and to talk about for a long time,"
remarked Jack to Percival when they were at last on the train going back
to the Highlands, "and it is all the better that the trip was not what it
was originally planned to be. The very unexpectedness of our adventures
gave them all the greater charm."

"I suppose so," said Dick, "but I generally like to know what is coming,
and then if I don't like it, I can get out of the way."

"Well, we are all of us richer in experience."

"And you in pocket," laughed Dick. "Don't forget that, my boy."

"Oh, I have something that is worth a good deal more than the money that I
happened to get," said Jack, smiling.

"What is that?" asked Percival.

"The friendship of a lot of good fellows, and of one or two who are a good
deal more than mere good fellows, real friends, in fact."

"Well, that is worth a good deal, of course, but it seems to me that one
always has plenty of friends if he has money."

"If he keeps them when he has no money, then they are friends, indeed,"
said Jack, "and I think that I can count upon mine in any case."

"Then you are lucky, Jack."

For all that they had enjoyed themselves while afloat, the Hilltop boys
were glad to be back at the Academy again among the old familiar scenes,
and the work of the school went on with renewed vigor, Jack, in
particular, giving his entire attention to it so as to be as high as
possible in his classes at the end of the term.

The greater part of the boys at the Academy, as well as the doctor and all
of the professors, were his friends, and the fact that some of the boys
were not, and did all they could to injure him did not worry him, for he
thought little or nothing of it.

At the end of the term he was at the head of his class, and was so close
upon Percival that the latter said with a good-natured grin:

"You'll be up with me next term, Jack, whether I look out for myself or
not."

"Well, we generally have pretty good times together, Dick," Jack replied,
"so I don't think you will be sorry."

"Not a bit of it," said Dick.

Those who have been interested in following the fortunes of the Hilltop
boys may be glad to continue their acquaintance with Jack Sheldon and his
friends and enemies in the next volume, "The Hilltop Boys on the River,"
which, in addition to giving an account of many aquatic sports, contains
also a number of thrilling incidents, which serve to bring out the
characters of the boys to good advantage.

It was at the end of the term, and many of the boys were preparing to go
home when Percival said to Jack:

"The doctor is going to let us have a summer camp for a few weeks. We are
to live on the river, and have all the fun we want with the addition of
some study, just to keep our hands in. What do you say, Jack? Will you
stay over if I do?"

"I may stay in any event, Dick. I want to get on as fast as I can, and
this will give me a chance."

"Then if you stay, so will I," heartily, "and between you and me you will
find a lot more who will do it if they know you are to be here."

"The more the merrier," said Jack.


THE END






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