CHAPTER VI
A MAROONED BOY SCOUT
Rushing ashore in the small boat, the boys paused scarcely long enoughto draw their craft to a safe position on the beach before they raced tothe spot where the stranger had fallen.
They were abreast as they approached his prostrate form lying face downin the sand. With one accord they stooped to examine him. Jack rolledthe body over tenderly searching for the mark of the villain's bulletbut found none.
Slowly the prostrate boy opened his eyes staring about in amazement.Jack supported his head while the two chums stood by anxious to be ofassistance in rendering aid to the fallen lad.
"Where are you hurt?" questioned Jack tenderly.
"Nowhere!" replied the lad. "I heard a shot just as I tripped oversomething in the sand and then the next thing I knew you had me. Whathappened, anyway? Who shot and at what?"
"I don't know the fellow's name, but he was at one time a passenger onour boat, I believe. He is a villain if ever there was one!" repliedJack with some warmth.
"Maybe it's the same fellow I know!" declared the stranger. "But may Iask to whom I am indebted for the pleasure of this call?"
Jack introduced himself, and then his two chums. In turn the strangergave his name as Frank Evans of the Bob White patrol of St. Louis. Theboys now started toward the rowboat, keeping a glance around for foes asthey walked.
"Hadn't we better get your things from on shore if you go with us?"asked Arnold, as the boys approached the boat.
"I haven't a thing of my own here!" declared Frank. "If we except, ofcourse, my fire stick and the remains of a flounder."
"A fire stick and flounder!" cried Arnold. "Where are they?"
"Up there by that old bit of wreckage," replied Frank. "You see, I hadnothing but my pocket knife when I landed here, and haven't had muchchance to import goods since my arrival."
"How long have you been here?" queried Harry. "We thought you must be indesperate need from the looks of the fires."
"I think this is the third day," replied Frank. "Yesterday I slept mostof the time while the schooner was standing off and on, and the daybefore that was the day they put me ashore. I've had a rush with thepirates that infest these waters under the guise of honest workingfishermen. They're a bad lot, too," he added.
"Pirates?" gasped the three members of the Fortuna's crew.
"That's what I'd call them," replied Frank. "You see, my chum and myselfcame down the Mississippi River in a gasoline launch. She was abeauty--a thirty-footer. She had a trunk cabin over three-quarters ofher, and an open cockpit aft. We had her fitted up in pretty good shape,too. We wanted a little pleasure trip, so we made up our minds we'dbring the launch down here and if we got a good chance we'd sell her. MyChum, Charley Burnett, and I are the same age--seventeen lastOctober--and we built the boat last winter. When we got through the LakeBorgne Ship Canal below New Orleans, we ran against a lot of roughfellows who tried to steal our boat. We held them at the point of a gunand ran away from their tubby old boats. Then when we got a littlefarther along the coast--to Bay St. Louis--we were warned to turn back.
"Warned to turn back?" repeated the boys in chorus. "By whom?"
"A black browed chap who gave the name of Wyckoff, and who said that hewouldn't have anyone fooling around the Spanish Chest but those whorightfully should share the treasure. We didn't know what he meant, andtold him so, but he wouldn't believe us."
"The Spanish Treasure Chest!" gasped Jack. "What about it?"
"I don't know anything about it!" stoutly asserted Frank.
"We've heard a little about it," volunteered Jack, "but nothingdefinite. We would like to know more and to know why these fellowsshould oppose your coming to this vicinity."
"I've told you all I know about that part of the story," declared Frank."Now you know as much as I do in that line."
"What did this Wyckoff look like?" asked Harry eagerly.
"He's black--I don't mean that he's a negro,--but he's one of thesefellows with a blue-black beard that never can be shaved clean becauseit shows black under the skin. Then he's got a shifty eye and a sneakylook about him. Then, too," he added with a smile, "he's got a smashednose where my fist landed when he put me ashore here. I certainly handedhim a beauty that time!"
"Good for you," cried Harry, clapping Frank on the shoulder.
"What was the cause of that?" asked Jack, "did he hit you?"
"Well, to make a long story short," Frank continued, "he and his gangkidnapped Charley and me from the 'Spray' two nights ago. Where they'vegot Charley I don't know. They put me ashore here without a thing to eator drink and with nothing to make a fire with. As I was shoved ashoreand before the boat got away, I ran up and landed on him. They were on aschooner of which Wyckoff seemed to be captain. I hope they haven't madeaway with Charley."
"If Charley is as resourceful as you, he's all right," consoled Jack. "Iadmire your grit and ability. How did you get a fire?"
"I made a fire stick as all Boy Scouts can and took a shoe lace for abow string. I had hard work getting the first tiny blaze, but after thatI've kept a bed of coals covered with sand as a reserve. I found a pieceof wreckage and used part of it for a shelter. One part had a long spikein it and that I sharpened by scraping it on some of the shells. Then Igot a piece of fat pine that had washed ashore and made me a torch. Withthis sharp spike and the torch I went fishing at night and got threedandy big flounders."
"What's a flounder?" asked Arnold intensely interested.
"Well," explained Frank, "a flounder is a queer sort of a flat fish.He's dark on top and white on the bottom. He swims on his side and hashis two eyes on the one side of his head unlike any other fish. When thetide comes in he comes close inshore and burrows down into the sand towait till a minnow floats by. He reaches up and snaps Mr. Minnow andthen goes on to another good spot. If you take a bright light you canwalk right up to the flounder without alarming him. Then before he knowswhat is coming, you thrust a spear down through his head and you havehim."
"Did you get yours that way?" eagerly asked Arnold.
"Not the first one," replied Frank with a laugh. "I just scared thefirst one. And I'm afraid I forgot for a minute that I was a Boy Scout.I was mighty hungry and that fellow looked so nice and fat I just feltas if I simply had to have him."
Jack's arm stole inside Frank's and a pressure of sympathy told the BobWhite that a Beaver understood his former trouble.
"I move we go and get Frank's fire stick and bow," Harry suggested, "andthen put out the signal fires and hit the trail for the mainland. It isgetting along in the afternoon and I'm hungry and if we make Pascagoulatonight, we'll have to go some."
"Second the motion," declared Arnold. "But where does Pascagoula liefrom here? Where is this place, anyway?"
"We're on Petit Bois Island, I think," replied Frank. "At least, one ofthe men suggested that I be put ashore on Petit Bois and the restagreed, arguing that I would stay here only a short time before somefishermen would visit the island and find me."
"Then in that case," Jack stated, "Pascagoula lies just about northwestof us. If our compass hadn't been disarranged by the horseshoe, we'dhave been in the harbor by this time," he added.
"Your compass disarranged by a horseshoe?" queried Frank.
"Yes," was Jack's laughing rejoinder. "Did you ever hear such a tale?And it was lucky for you it happened. There's a case of a horseshoebeing lucky for you when you've never seen it yet!"
After Jack had related the tale of the horseshoe and its relation totheir present situation, Arnold suggested that they visit Frank's campand then go aboard the Fortuna. This met the approval of all the boys. Atrip to the wreckage disclosed the fact that Frank had made his bed onthe hard, smooth sand with a fire in front of him for protection fromthe chill winds of the night.
"Here's the fire stick," exultantly cried Arnold. "Gee, won't I have agreat story written about this adventure when I get back to little oldChi. Sherman Street won't know me when I arrive."
"Hurray," cried Harry who had wandered a short distance from the others."Hurray, I've found the horse that belongs to the horseshoe! Here he isburied upside down in the sand."
Hastening to the spot indicated the boys saw what looked to be a horse'sfoot upside down in the sand. So startling was the resemblance that Jackand Arnold were completely deceived for a moment, but Frank's laugh soonindicated that they had been mistaken.
"What is it?" asked Arnold eagerly. "Gee, but I see so many new thingshere I don't know which to write a story about first."
"Better not write any story about this," admonished Frank. "Thewonderful phenomenon you see before you, my friend, is not a horse atall. It is merely a crab shell from which the crab has gone."
"A crab shell?" repeated Arnold in wonderment. "A real crab?"
"Sure enough," declared Frank. "The underside of the shell has exactlythe same outlines as the under side of a horse's foot. This fellow hasprojecting from the heel a spikey tail that is hard and sharp at theend. The whole thing, as you see, is dried and hardened by exposure tothe weather. The crab has been gone a long time."
"I'm going to take it along," asserted Arnold. "I'll put it in my lockerand make a collection of things I pick up. I'd like to see a floundernow so as to recognize one the next time I see it."
"I have a fine big fellow at the place I had my fires," Frank answered."We'll go over there and see how he's getting on. I got him last night.I think he must weigh as much as three or four pounds."
"Tell me some more about this Spanish Treasure Chest," Jack said as theboys turned toward the site of Frank's camp. "I'm anxious to knoweverything you overheard anywhere that would have a bearing on thematter from any viewpoint. It's interesting."
"I can't tell you any more than I have. I know these fellows objected toour visiting this locality because they seemed to believe that we weretrying to get something that belonged to them and they were ready toemploy force if necessary to keep us out," Frank said.
"We know they are a desperate gang," Jack admitted. "Our own experiencesshow that. They also believe we are here on the same mission and alreadythey have attempted to disable and sink our boat."
Frank stopped in alarm. Glancing hurriedly about he grasped Jack's armand in a trembling tone entreated him to leave the vicinity at hisearliest opportunity. Jack's answer was a negative shake of his head.His companions also indicated their disapproval of the course.
"Well, here's the flounder," announced Frank at last picking up a finespecimen of that denizen of the Gulf waters. "He's a beauty."
The boys gathered about the fish admiring and investigating thepeculiarities already mentioned by Frank. At last Harry spoke:
"But he wouldn't be good raw and you had to have a fire. I'm alwaysinterested in seeing fire produced from a stick."
"Oh, that's not so difficult," Frank answered; "watch me."
Kneeling on the sand he grasped his fire stick in his left hand afterplacing the bowstring in position. With a shell over the upper end ofthe stick, he sawed away busily for a moment. A tiny wreath of smokeeddied away from the lower end of the stick.
"Hurray," cried Harry, "You're fetching it. I can see it coming aroundthe bend. Just look at that, boys. I can see it coming."
"Put up your hands," came a coarse voice from the rear.
Startled, the lads with one accord jumped to their feet to see theirguest of a short time previous pointing an automatic at them.
"Drop that gun," came an order in Tom's ringing voice.