CHAPTER XXIII
ABOARD "THE BRIGAND"
The Brigand, a black, schooner-rigged yacht of about 1800 tons, witha yellow funnel amidships, and flying the red and blue burgee of theTransatlantic Yacht Club, lay at anchor on the rolling blue swellsoff the harbor of Assini in the early dawn of the day following thetreachery of Luther Barr. Her crew--for the most part a riff-raffcollection picked up in a hurry, for the old man had only made uphis mind to make his daring grab for the ivory at the lastminute--lolled about the decks idly. There was no one aboard to givecommand, for Jack Halsey, the mate who had been in command since thedeath of the captain had gone ashore the night before.
As old Barr had prophesied, the mate's love for strong liquor hadovercome him and he was now lying hopelessly intoxicated in a lowdrinking den. The raw "trade gin" that he had drunk had renderedhim insensible and so he would remain for many hours to come.
Some sort of animation diffused itself among the crew as they saw alow-laden launch headed toward them from the shore. In it wereseated Luther Barr and several negroes including the black captain.
"Here, you lazy loafers!" hailed Barr, who was evidently in a badtemper and also in a furious hurry, as the launch ranged alongside,"bear a hand here and rig a sling and get this stuff aboard."
The "stuff" referred to was the priceless collection of ivory whichlay higgeldy-piggeldy in the bottom of the launch just as it hadbeen thrown in by the negroes in Barr's pay. Anticipating that theboys would put up a stiff fight for the ivory he had taken theprecaution to hire these ne'er-do-wells, who would do anything, fromcutting a throat to stealing a chicken, for pay. Barr had paid themwell and when he had arrived at the camp he had taken the precautionto leave them down the river about half-a-mile while he went onalone with the launch and her captain to see how the land lay. Whenhe realized that the boys were not fooled by his forged order fromMr. Beasley he decided to use the chloroform he had bought for justsuch an emergency, and then rousing his followers when the boys weredrugged it had not taken long with their united efforts to load theivory.
Urged on by Barr's promise of a large reward the captain of thelaunch had spun his little vessel down the river at top speed andthus had been able to make the coast in record time.
"Where in thunder is that mate Halsey?" roared Barr as he saw thebos'n--a seedy-looking fellow from the London slums--taking chargeof the transfer of the ivory from the launch to the deck of theBrigand.
"He went ashore last night," rejoined the other.
"And I suppose he is helplessly drunk now," raged Barr. "How in thename of fortune are we going to get the yacht out of here?"
"Wait till he gets sober," was the bos'n's grunted reply as the menhastily transferred the last of the precious freight of tusks to theBrigand's deck.
Barr jumped to the accommodation ladder and was aboard in a second,despite his apparent feebleness. His face was distorted with rageand cupidity.
"We have got to get out of here at once--now do you understand?" heroared, crazed with rage.
"I'll give a thousand dollars to the man that will get me out ofthis harbor and well off to sea."
"If it comes to that I guess I can take a chance of navigating theyacht even if I don't hold a master's ticket," replied the bos'n.
"But are you a navigator?" questioned Barr eagerly
"Well, Mr. Barr, I held a master's ticket once before drink got meand I piled my ship on a reef," was the answer.
"You're good enough for me!" shouted Barr overjoyed, "and now we'llup anchor and get away from this abominable coast."
He scanned the sky shoreward anxiously. He did not confide to hisnew captain, however, the fact that at any moment he expected to seeswift vengeance in the shape of the Golden Eagle II pursuing him.
With the roustabout crew that had been shipped in New York from aWest Street boarding-master it took some time to get the anchorbroken out--the men going at their work sulkily. At last, however,it was "up and down" as the sailors say, and Luther Barr himselfsignaled on the engine-room telegraph "Full speed, ahead." Theengines of the yacht begin to revolve and the crafty old pillageralmost gave a cry of joy as he felt the vibration beneath his feet.
The Boy Aviators could not cross the Atlantic in the aeroplane andthere would not be a ship leaving the coast for a month.
Luther Barr chuckled.
He had beaten the boys at their own game.
By the time they arrived in New York the ivory would have been soldin London and he would be traveling in Europe on his ill-earnedgains. That Beasley (his unsuspecting partner) would be ruined gavethe money-crazed old man no care at all.
But even as the launch cast loose from the moving yacht and headedback to the shore--her occupants greedily fingering the bills Barrhad given them for their work--Barr, from his station on the bridge,gave a start and an exclamation.
High in the air, and not more than ten miles inland, a black objectthat looked like a huge bird, but which Barr knew in his guilty soulwas the Golden Eagle II, was rapidly winging its way toward them.
"More steam," he shouted down the tube to the engineer and theyacht, a long creamy wave curving away from her sharp black bow,began to move even faster.
"What are we making?" Barr asked eagerly of the late bos'n who,binoculars in hand, was taking the ship out through the treacherousharbor entrance as confidently as if he were once more a captain.
"Twelve knots," was the reply.
"We must do better," raged Barr.
"Impossible!" was the answer. "We are risking the yacht now. I amnot familiar with this harbor and there are shoals and reefs allabout us stretching many miles out to sea. At any moment, unless weproceed cautiously, we may run aground. Five knots would suit mebetter than twelve."
Barr chafed silently. The reply was unanswerable.
Better to go slow than to run the ship ashore. Suddenly he snatchedthe binoculars from the man beside him and turned them on theaeroplane. He almost uttered a cry of triumph as the craft swunginto his field of vision.
There was something the matter with her.
She was no longer rushing straight ahead.
As Luther Barr watched her he saw the great aircraft swoop in a hugecircle above the town and then settle down so swiftly that it lookedas if she must have been dashed to pieces. But the town was hiddenbehind a point and he could not see it.
"I hope she has been dashed to pieces," he gritted between his teethsavagely, "that would mean the saving of a lot of trouble for me."
But even as he prepared to put the binoculars back in the pocketalongside the binnacle with an evil smile playing about his thinlips, there came a startling shock.
Barr was almost thrown from his feet and only saved himself fromfalling by grasping a stanchion. The ship quivered from stem tostern as if she had been hit a staggering blow.
"We've struck a reef!" exclaimed the late bos'n.
"A reef!" yelled Barr, beside himself with fury.
"I told you we would if you insisted on keeping up such a speed,"angrily replied the other.
Beside himself with rage Barr picked up a heavy belaying pin towhich, the signal halyards had been attached and struck the manbefore him a terrible blow with it.
Fortunately for his intended victim--for Barr in his rage would nothave cared had he killed him--he ducked just in time and the blowwas a glancing one. The man came at him like a tiger, but Barr,quick as a flash, slid his hand into his coat pocket.
"If you advance a step nearer I'll blow your brains out," he saidcoldly.
There was a glitter in his eyes that showed he meant what he saidand with a muttered:
"I'll get even with you, Barr, as sure as my name is Al Davis," thelate captain of the Brigand left the bridge.
Barr's active mind was at work at once planning schemes to get theivory off immediately. Accustomed to crises of all kinds, therecent scene with the man Davis hadn't even warmed his chilly blood.
Calling the engineer he o
rdered an immediate inspection to be made.The result was discouraging. The Brigand lay with her bow hard andfast on a low sunken reef and while there was no apparent leak thechief engineer shook his head at the vessel's plight.
That there was grave danger was evidenced a short while after whenthe fire-room force--which had been ordered to keep steam up in thehope of backing the ship off later--came pouring on deck crying thatthere was three feet of water in the fire-room.
"That settles it," said the chief. "We are on a doomed ship."
"The boats! The boats!" shouted the men.
"Stay where you are," bellowed Barr, mad with rage, "get that ivoryoff first."
"To blazes with your ivory," shouted a grizzled old fireman, "do youthink we are going to perish aboard here for such an old skinflintas you?"
"Why, if we had time we'd run you up at your own main-gaff you oldland-shark," shouted another.
"Come on! the boats--the boats!" they yelled.
Barr stood irresolute while they lowered the four boats that theBrigand carried and piled into them. The shore was only a few milesoff and they would reach it in a few hours.
While Barr hesitated he felt the ship give a lurch. She wassettling!
That decided him.
Ivory or no ivory he feared such a death as he felt convinced wouldcome to any one unfortunate enough to be aboard the ship in a fewhours' time even more than he did the loss of the ivory.
"Hold on!" he shouted to the men in the boats, "I'm coming along."
"Not much you ain't," yelled Davis--the man he had dealt the blowto, "you stay there and rot with your ivory--you old crook."
With mocking laughs the men pulled away and Luther Barr, master ofmillions, was left alone on the sinking yacht.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE BOY AVIATORS HOLD A WINNING HAND
The cause of the sudden swoop of the Golden Eagle II that Barr hadseen from the yacht with such satisfaction was the need ofreplenishing her gasoline tank. The big craft landed in the dustypublic square of the city where pretty well every one in the townwas on hand when her runners and pneumatic tired supporting wheelsstruck the ground. The young adventurers were out of her in a fewminutes and the first man to grasp their hands was M. Desplaines.
"I am delighted to see you," he exclaimed, "but if you anticipatedcatching Luther Barr you are too late."
"We saw his yacht steaming out to sea," rejoined Frank, "but if onlywe can get more gasoline we can catch him yet."
"What, you mean to pursue him?"
"We certainly do. He has stolen the ivory that we recovered at somuch risk to ourselves."
"I didn't realize, of course, what your errand was," said M.Desplaines in reply, "till Mr. Barr arrived here in his yacht theother day and informed me that you had stolen a cache of ivorybelonging to him and asked my aid to help in capturing you. I hadno means of disproving his story so I lent him the steam launch, butI see now by his action in hastening to the yacht that he is, as yousay, the real thief."
Hastily Frank told a part of their adventures and if he had had anyremaining doubt of the boys' sincerity the consular agent was soonconvinced of the truth of their story and of the villainy of Barr.
"I can get you some gasoline--," he said. "A merchant here in townrecently bought a launch and as the freight boats do not touch inhere often he has laid in a large supply of the fuel. I have nodoubt that at my request he will be glad to sell you as much as yourequire."
This was good news indeed, and the boys hastened round to the houseof M. Desplaine's friend. To their unspeakable regret, however, hewas absent on a fishing expedition in his launch.
"If that isn't tough luck," exclaimed Billy disgustedly, "what canwe do now?"
"Wait till he gets back or else break into his warehouse," saidHarry.
"We cannot commit burglary," said Frank, "we shall have to wait."
M. Desplaines invited the party to lunch at his house but as may beimagined they did not eat much. Each was in too much of a hurry toascertain if the fisherman had not returned. Immediately the mealwas dispatched, therefore, they hastened out into the street andhere they encountered a strange scene.
A score or more of rough-looking characters had just landed fromfour ship's boats that lay moored at the small wharf. They hadjoined forces with the crew of the launch that had aided in theivory hunt and all were bent on a carouse. The boys were hardlyable to speak from excitement when they read on the stern of each ofthe boats the words "Brigand N. Y."
"Those boats are from Barr's yacht," cried Frank.
"So they are," cried M. Desplaines, "and from some of these menperhaps we shall be able to hear what has happened."
It was an easy matter to get the story from the crew.
The only trouble was they all wanted to talk at once. Bit by bit,however, the boys got the story and learned that the Brigand wassinking with a big hole in her bottom. While the others weretalking a tall man, who formed part of the crew that had justlanded, beckoned Frank aside:
"Come here, young master," he said, "I want a word with you. Youare one of the Boy Aviators?"
"I am!" replied Frank, "who are you?"
"My name's Al Davis; I was a skipper once--but never mind that now.But if you want to make a piece of money out of salvage I'll tellyou how if you make it worth my while."
"What is it you have to tell me?" asked Frank.
For reply the man put his hand up to Frank's ear and whisperedcautiously.
"Is that worth anything?" he asked after he had imparted theinformation.
"Well I should say so," cried Frank joyously, and he slipped the mana bill of large denomination.
"I'll buy everybody a drink," shouted Davis, shuffling off.
"Come on, boys, we've no time to lose!" Frank exclaimed the nextminute and they hastened round to the house of M. Desplaines'friend.
This time that worthy was at home and greeted them warmly. He had aplentiful stock of gasoline more than enough, he said--and he gladlysold them all they wanted.
In a few minutes the Golden Eagle II's main and reserve tanks werereplenished to the full and the boys were ready for a record flightto the wreck.
So far Frank had not divulged to the others what his informationconcerning the wreck was that he had received from Davis, and he didnot now though he felt sorely tempted to.
Amid cheers from the crowd the Golden Eagle II, with all theadventurers aboard, soared once more into the air; but this timeheaded out to sea. They had not risen a hundred feet before theysighted the wreck, which had struck round a low point out of sightfrom the town. She lay, a dismal-looking object, heeled over to oneside; but Frank saw, to his intense joy, that there was still afeeble curl of smoke coming from her stack.
This meant that the water had not yet extinguished her fires and wasfavorable to the daring plan he had conceived.
As the Golden Eagle II drew nearer, the figure of old Luther Barrcould be plainly seen rushing about on the upper bridge.
He seemed demented with terror.
"Save me! save me! the ship is going down!" he cried in agonizedtones, as a few minutes later the aeroplane swung in big circlesabove his head.
The boys, despite their righteous anger at the wicked old man, yetcould not help feeling some pity mingled with their amusement as theold coward ran about the bridge like a crazy man.
"We'll get you off if you'll agree to do something for us," hailedFrank through his megaphone as the aeroplane soared in big circlesround the wreck and the distracted old man.
"Anything, anything!" cried back old Barr piteously.
"Will you sign a release for the ivory you stole from us, admittingyour theft?" asked Frank.
"Yes, yes, my boys. I'll sign anything, but get me off. I don'twant to die like this. Oh this is a terrible end!"
"What are you going to do, Frank?" asked Billy, as the Golden EagleII, in obedience to Frank's controlling hand, began to drop.
"You see that sand bank that th
e falling tide has exposed," wasFrank's reply.
They all nodded.
"I am going to land there and we can wade through the water to theyacht. I judge the water isn't more than three feet deep at thedeepest part."
The landing was made without a hitch--the sand being of thehard-ribbed variety that covers the numerous reefs along the westAfrican coast.
After a short interval of wading the boys stood on the deck of theBrigand, where she hung on the edge of the reef. Frank's sharp eyesnoticed that except for her forefoot the vessel was in deep water,as the reef dropped off quite abruptly.
Old Barr received them with almost hysterical joy.
"This is better than I deserve, boys; better than I deserve," hekept repeating.
"You had better stop your sniveling," said Frank sharply, thoroughlydisgusted with the cowardly old rascal. "Where are pens, ink andpaper?"
The ivory merchant led the way to the chart-house. "Be quick,boys--she might sink," he stuttered.
The document that Frank dictated, Luther Barr signed and the otherswitnessed, read like this:
"I, Luther Barr, of New York, do here by deed, make over and assignto the Boy Aviators--namely Frank and Harry Chester, William Barnesand Lathrop Beasley, all my share, claim or equity in the ivorywhich I wrongfully stole from them, which fact I with shameacknowledge. I hereby affix my signature which I admit in thepresence of witnesses to be my true manner of signing."
"Now," said Frank, "just to show we are not mean, there is someivory left in the Moon Mountains, near the spot which is indicatedon your map. Sikaso, a faithful Krooman, hid it for us when wecould not carry it away. If you find it you can have it."
The old man rubbed his hands in greedy glee.
"Oh thank you, boys; thank you, I'll find it, I'll find it," hecroaked, his wrinkled old face wreathed in smiles.
"Lathrop," ordered Frank, "you and Billy take Mr. Barr back toshore. Harry and I will stay here.
"We have a lot to do. Leave the Golden Eagle ashore to be packedand forwarded later. Hurry back in the launch."
"What are you going to do?" demanded Barr.
"I think that your interest in our movements ceased with the signingof this paper," rejoined Frank.
At that moment the Brigand gave a violent shudder as if she wasindeed about to go down. With a shrill scream of terror old Barrran out on deck and hastily clambered down on to the reef. Fromthere he waded with Billy and Lathrop to the Golden Eagle II, andwas taken ashore.
"Now then to work," said Frank as the aeroplane winged her wayshoreward with their enemy.
"What are you going to do?" demanded Harry in an astonished tone.There didn't seem to be much to do to his mind but wait till theywere taken off the stranded yacht by the launch.
"You'll see," replied Frank. "In the first place, Harry, theBrigand was never in any danger of sinking. She is as sound as adollar."
"Are you crazy?" cried Harry, "why there's a lot of water in herengine-room. She must have sprung a leak as big as a house."
Frank laughed.
"There are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it withcream," was his cryptic remark. "What would you say if I told youthat in an hour's time we, will have every drop of water out of theyacht, and that following that we will have her afloat again athigh-water."
"That you are a marvel."
"Well, it's going to happen--come with me."
Frank led the way to the engine-room.
"Luckily I know something about marine engines since we took thattrip on the gun boat in Nicaragua."
He examined the gauges. They showed sixty pounds of steam still inthe boilers.
"Not much--but enough," was Frank's comment. He then turned to twovalve wheels on the working platform and started to screw them up.
"What in the world are you doing?" asked Harry.
"Closing the sea-cocks which were opened by Al Davis, the formerbos'n, in revenge for a blow Luther Barr struck him when the shipwent aground," was Frank's astonishing reply.
"But how in thunder do you know about that?"
"Davis told me while you were trying to get something out of thosefellows who were all gabbling at once."
"And when you have closed up the sea-cocks?"
"Then I shall start the centrifugal pumps going to empty theengine-room, and we'll soon have her as sound as a dollar."
Luckily the water had not, as Frank had surmised, reached the fires,and though low there was enough pressure of steam to run the pumpstill the boys were able to work in the stoke-hold. Then both boysset to work with a will and soon had the furnaces going full-blast,and the steam gauges registered seventy, then eighty and then onehundred and fifty pounds.
"There, that will do," exclaimed Frank, as, pretty well tuckeredout, they threw aside their shovels. "Now we have to wait for thetide and reinforcements."
They had not long to wait.
Of course at the height the tide now was the reef was pretty wellcovered and it would have been impossible to make a landing in theair-ship, so Billy had chartered the power launch of the friend whohad sold them the gasoline.
Ben Stubbs and Sikaso, who had arrived late that' afternoon, were onboard the little craft and Ben's loud "Ahoy!" brought the BoyAviators to the rail on the jump--waving and shouting greetings.
But there were others in the launch, and among them the boys spiedseveral faces of bronzed men who looked thorough seamen. M.Desplaines, who was in the launch, explained that they had formedpart of the crew of a steamer that had been wrecked down the coastsome weeks previously. They had been waiting for a ship and werewilling to work their passage home: to New York. Among them wastheir captain, a good seaman and a former yacht skipper.
"But--but," said Frank amazedly, as the men piled on board and theboys all shook hands madly with everybody. "We can't take thisyacht--it isn't ours, we have no right."
M. Desplaines held out a piece of paper; smiling as he did so. Itwas covered with writing in Luther Barr's cramped hand and was acharacteristic document. Stripped of its legal phraseology it wasan agreement to the effect that if the boys would make no salvagecharges for saving the yacht, they could have her free of cost tosail back to New York.
"But," said Frank, "how did he know we intended to save her?"
"'The man Davis got boisterously drunk and when arrested admittedthat the yacht was in no danger and that he had flooded herstoke-hold out of revenge," explained M. Desplaines.
"In that case, why does not Mr. Barr come back to New York on her?"demanded Frank.
The consular agent smiled.
"He thinks he is on the track of more ivory and has already engagedpart of an expedition," he replied. "To tell you the truth, hisanxiety to save expense on the yacht has had quite as much to dowith his loaning her to you as anything else. He expects you to paythe crew. If you wish to go back to New York on this yacht I willhave your aeroplane dismantled and forwarded by freight."
"Well," laughed Frank, "will we, boys?"
"I should say we will!" came in a chorus.
"And steam back to old New York?"
"You bet."
As Frank had anticipated, at flood-tide the yacht was backed offunder her own power and then came the time for farewells--and warmones they were. To Sikaso the boys presented a rifle and anautomatic revolver as the noble old fellow would not hear of takingmoney. The last glimpse they had of their black friend, as theyacht headed due west for America, he was standing gloomily in thestern of the launch--one hand on his faithful axe and the otherraised against the blue sky as if in benediction.
"Well," said Frank, as the distance shut out the picture, "we arebound for home at last."
"What ever will they say when they hear of our adventures?" criedHarry.
"And the recovery of the ivory?" chimed in Lathrop, "my father'sbusiness is saved. We must cable from the Canaries of our success."
"And the narrative of George Desmond and our own experiences withthe Flyin
g Men?" chimed in Billy.
"Oh, you'll have to can that rarebit dream!" cried Harry.
"I will not!" exclaimed Billy indignantly. "I'm going to print it."
"On the funny page maybe. I'd like to see the newspaper that wouldpublish such a yarn."
Alas for poor Billy! Harry was right.
Nobody would believe his strange tale and last he grew tired oftelling it, and even to hardly credit it himself.
As for George Desmond's time-yellowed pages they repose in theSmithsonian Institute, and after a learned wrangle between savantsof all countries--lasting many months--it was agreed that the poorexplorer must have lost his mind and that the narrative of theFlying Men was the offspring of a brain crazed by suffering.
"It's a strange termination to our adventures to be steaming home onBarr's yacht," said Frank, after a long pause in which they had allgazed back at the fast dimming shore of the Dark Continent.
"I should say so," cried Lathrop. "It's as near as I ever want toget to him, too."
"Same here," joined in Billy, "but I don't suppose we shall everhear from him again."
But Billy was wrong.
The boys did hear from Luther Barr again and in an extraordinarymanner. The malevolent old man was to be the cause of somesurprising adventures in which the boys at the risk of their liveswere once more pitted against powerful enemies.
With what flying colors they emerged from their dangers,difficulties and adventures will be told in the next volume of thisseries--"THE BOY AVIATORS' TREASURE QUEST; or THE GOLDEN GALLEON."
THE END
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