CHAPTER VIII.
WIGWAGS FROM THE BEACH.
For a long time after the departure of Ned, Jack and Frank sat in thecabin of the _Manhattan_, looking out on the steady downpour. They werenot quite satisfied with their share in the activities of the day.Instead of being housed in the cabin, they preferred an exciting hunteven in the rain, over the hills of the little island in view.
"If we stand for it," grumbled Jack, "we'll have to spend most of ourtime keeping house! Jimmie will scatter himself all over the Asiaticdivision of the map, and Ned will spend most of his time looking himup!"
Frank laughed at this outbreak of ill humor, although he was as anxiousas his chum to be on the firing line.
"I wish we'd not taken the _Manhattan_," Jack continued. "I'm the onlyone in the party that can operate it, and I'll be tied down like agalley slave!"
"Go it!" laughed Frank. "Growl your head off, if you want to, Mr. BlackBear! Instead of snarling, why don't you tell me what makes the boat gowhen you do something to the wheel and that switch?"
"I thought you owned a launch?" said Jack.
"Father bought me one," was the reply, "but I've never learned how torun it. I'm too fat to bother my head about such things!"
"Then what are you asking me about the mechanism of the thing for?"asked Jack. "If you don't want to know, what's the use of my telling youhow to run a motor boat? You make me weary!"
"If I had a nice little temper like yours," Frank grinned, "I'd go andbump my head against a tree! Come, old man, tell me about the boat. Imay want to run it some time, after you get caught by a cat or filledfull of poisoned arrows! Come! honest! What makes it go?"
"And you don't even know the action of a gasoline engine?" exclaimedJack, in better humor. "Well, I'll tell you. A jet of gasoline, which isthinner than water, is sprayed, as one would spray any liquid from anatomizer, into the chamber of the engine cylinder-head, which it reachesin the form of vapor, having been mixed with air."
"That's all simple!"
"Here the vapor is compressed by the rising piston, and when it issqueezed up as close as it can be an electric spark is introduced intothe chamber. That is what the electric battery and gear are for."
"I was wondering why one had to have electricity and gasoline both,"said Frank, very much interested in the simple recital.
"The result of the introduction of the spark is the explosion of thecompressed vapor, which sends the piston downward. The motion turns theshaft, and that turns the boat's propeller."
"Easy as pie."
"This operation is repeated from two to six hundred times a minute,"Jack went on, "and that causes the continuous action of the machinerywhich sends the boat along."
"What is there about that so complicated?" demanded Frank. "Everybodyyou hear talking of an engine seems to speak as if it were one of themysteries of the universe."
"It is usually the electric system which gets out of order," was thereply, "but sometimes the gasoline section balks. A man often has to tryso many different things when his engine stops that he actually does notknow which one remedies the evil and sets the thing in motion."
"All right!" Frank said. "Now show me how to start the thing."
"That's easy. First turn on your gasoline, as you would turn water froma faucet into a kitchen sink. The gasoline fills the carbureter, whichis the thing which feeds the engine automatically. Then you turn on yourelectricity by shifting a switch. That is to supply the spark. Then turnthe fly-wheel two or three times so as to get the vapor into thecylinder and secure the first explosion. That is all there is to it. Ihope you do learn to run this boat, so I can get away now and then!"
"You may get away farther than you want to!" cautioned Frank.
The _Manhattan_ was a plain, usable boat, twenty-five feet long and tenfeet wide, with bow and stern rather square in order to make more roominside. The cabin was ten feet long, with strong oak sides andbrass-rimmed ports for light and ventilation. The cockpit, or outdoorsitting room, was of the same length as the cabin.
The engine was a plain, solidly built machine, with two cylinders, andrated at ten horsepower, with a speed of fifteen miles an hour. It wasinstalled under a short bridge-deck in front of the cabin, while thegasoline tanks, holding fifty gallons, were hidden under the cockpitseats.
The cabin had two wide slatted berths, supplied with hair mattresses, amovable table, an ice chest, a small coal range--the boat was notdesigned especially for tropical use--an ice-chest and an alcohol stovefor cooking. The storage lockers and water tanks had a capacity of aweek's supply of stores for four persons. It was a government boat, andwas in good repute as a racer in and about Manila, in spite of its bluntbow and wide beam.
Frank pottered away at the machinery until he announced that it was liketaking candy away from the children to run it, and then the two retiredto the cabin to get rid of their wet garments.
"Ned and Jimmie are having a good soaking," Jack said, his ill humor allgone, as he soused his wet underclothing in a tub of sea water. "I wishthey'd come home."
A dull thump, as of a canoe striking the motor boat, and a quick step onthe prow caused both boys to spring to their feet.
"There they come now!" Jack cried, glancing out into the slanting rain,"and it's good and wet they are."
The boy was about to step forward and open the cabin door when Frankcaught him by the shoulder.
"Wait!" he said. "Look there!"
Jack followed the pointing finger with his eyes and saw half a dozenFilipinos clambering into the cockpit, and also saw the muzzles ofAmerican-built rifles covering the cabin door.
"Get your gun!" Jack whispered.
"We've got to do something besides shoot," Frank said. "They have thedrop on us. We should have been looking out for an attempt at surprise."
There was a moment's silence, and then a man enveloped from neck toheels in a heavy raincoat and sweating tremendously in consequence,advanced to the cabin door.
"Never mind the guns!" he said, through the glass. "My men have youcovered, and it would be a pity to shoot two likely boys!"
"What do you want?" demanded Frank.
"We want this boat," was the reply.
"Well, you've got it!" Jack said, angrily.
"Of course we have," was the reply. "We seem to be getting abouteverything we want in this corner of the world! Where are the others?"
"Gone after a battleship!" declared Jack.
The man grinned and, opening the cabin door, stepped inside. He wastall, rather slender, with clean-cut features and bright gray eyes. Hisbearing was that of a gentleman, and Frank began to have an indefinableidea that he had met him before somewhere, just where he could notdecide. The fellow evidently was an American, though his followersseemed to be Chinese and Filipinos.
"So he's gone after a battleship, has he?" the intruder said, shuttingthe cabin door behind him, after making sure that his men were standingat attention with their guns. "Do they pick battleships off trees up onthe hill?"
"I don't see anything funny about it," Jack said, sourly. "Who do youmean by 'he'? What do you know about the crew of the boat?"
"I've heard of Mr. Ned Nestor," was the calm reply, "and was hoping tomeet him here. However, you seem to be cheerful young fellows, and acruise with you may not result in lost time. You are Jack Bosworth andFrank Shaw. Which one is Shaw, and which one is Bosworth?"
"I'm Shaw," answered Frank, somewhat amused at the cool impudence of theman. "What is your name?"
"I'm French," was the reply. "Not French tribally but just French. Oneof the sort of Frenchmen who are born of Irish parents in the city ofChicago! Anyway, you may call me French. That is near enough."
"You seem to be an amusing sort of a character," observed Frank. "Whatare you going to do with the _Manhattan_?"
"Why," was the smiling reply, "there is a sort of a political conventioncalled for that hill over there, and some of the delegates are slow incoming. So I thought I'd borrow your boat and go and
fetch them. Theyare not far away. Some of them, in fact, live on islands, not more thanfour or five hundred miles off."
"That will be nice!" Frank said, falling into the mood of the other."Only you can't carry many native chiefs in this boat, not if theyinsist on bringing their wives and attendants along. Suppose one shouldinsist on appearing before the convention riding in state on the back ofa white elephant?"
"Never thought of that," replied the other with a grin, "but how did youlearn that the delegates were to be native chiefs?"
"I guess most everybody knows what kind of a game you're playing," Franksaid with a grin which he intended to be provoking. "When you get yourdelegates assembled, Uncle Sam will give you an imitation of a manshooting up traitors."
"We'll have to take our chances on that," replied French, with apparentgood nature. "In the meantime, we'll have to ask you to vacate the boatwhile we make our collection of delegates. I presume that you can getalong very well on shore. Only be careful that the little brown mendon't pot you with their funny little guns."
"Oh, we'll get along with the little brown men, all right," growledJack. "When are you going to put us ashore?"
"Well," was the cool reply, "I want to wait here until I form theacquaintance of Mr. Ned Nestor and Mr. James McGraw. I have long felt adesire to meet them!"
"They'll feel proud, I know!" Jack said, provokingly. "Pirates andtraitors are not so thick that it is not a pleasure to meet them. We'llall remember, after you are all hanged, that we met you here."
"Thank you!" replied French, not at all indignant at the remark, "andnow if you'll hand over the guns you have, and tell me where the othersare hidden, you can walk about the boat in comparative freedom while weget supper. You see it is beginning to get dark, and I'm hungry."
There was nothing to do but to comply with the polite request, and soonthe intruders were making themselves at home all over the boat. Frenchbrought one of the Filipinos into the cabin, where he sat with his gunpointing ominously at the boys whenever they moved toward the door,while the others were stationed on the prow, where they sat stolidly inthe rain, with their guns under their coarse coats to keep them dry.
"Rather a scanty supply of provisions!" French said, as he investigatedthe lockers. "I really think I'll have to send one of my men ashore fordinner. Two men with perfectly good guns and eyesight ought to be ableto keep us on friendly terms here. Besides, it seems a waste of goodmaterial to feed those fellows from this choice stock when they preferboiled dog."
"Say, French," Jack said, "if you weren't crooked enough to make acorkscrew look like a straight-edge, you'd be a pretty good sort of achap to go on a cruise with."
"Oh, I'm all right when I'm not abused," French replied. "If Dad hadpresented me with a million instead of a thirst for other people'sproperty, I'd have had my name in the society columns every day! Isn'tit about time for Ned and Jimmie to come home?" he added. "If you don'tmind, I'll run the boat out a little farther, so they'll have to calland signal when they do come."
"They should have been here long ago," was the reply.
"I must insist that you remain perfectly quiet when they do come,"French said, after the boat had changed position, in a moment. "I don'twant to spoil this pretty boat with dark stains. Perhaps, however, theyhave been captured."
"You would know if they had, wouldn't you?" asked Jack.
"Why, no, I think not. You see I have just arrived, coming in the secondlaunch, now over there in the bay. I did not go to the camp, but edgedaround the hill with half a dozen men in order to see if all was safe.We've got some pretty high-up men in this game with us, and I'm afraidWall street would stand up on its hind legs and howl if their names wereknown. Hence this caution."
French seemed to be a college educated man and a gentleman by instinct.While they were preparing supper he amused them with stories of histravels and adventures, and both boys heartily wished he was with themas a friend instead of an enemy. When it grew dark he sent all theFilipinos away but two, and they sat down to a good meal.
Frank questioned French, cautiously of course, but could gain littleinformation from him. The fellow seemed fully aware of the purpose ofthe boy, and replied to his questions with the most extravagant storiesof the empire that was to be raised in the Philippines after the UnitedStates protectorate had ceased.
"You're a queer chap," Frank said, at the conclusion of one of French'sstories of the grandeur of the coming empire, "and I'd like to hear youspin yarns all night, but, if you don't mind, I'll go to bed."
"Just as you like," was the amiable reply. "I'll sit here and smoke afew more cigarettes and then follow your example. It is such a wildnight that your friends may have stopped at a down-town hotel!"
"Perhaps they've stepped over to the Waldorf!" Jack replied.
The lads occupied the same bunk, and talked in whispers all through thenight. They had no idea what had become of Ned and Jimmie except thesupposition that they had been captured by their enemies. French retiredabout midnight, as calmly as if he were in his own rooms, leaving thetwo Filipinos on guard in the cabin.
Once Frank arose and tried to slip out, his idea being to reach theshore and look for his chums, but the brown men lifted their gunsautomatically as he looked out on them. All through the night they satunblinkingly, looking out in the dim light much as glass eyes might havelooked out of the head of a wooden image.
"We're sure in a bad box," Jack whispered, after this attempt at escape."I don't believe they'll turn us loose on the island, knowing what weknow. They won't take any chance of our getting away! If Ned was free,he'd have been here before this, so we may as well make up our mindsthat he's in trouble also."
With daylight came a cessation of the storm, and soon the sun wasshining smotheringly down on the little bay. Sweltering in the cabin,Frank looked out of a port and saw a pole lifted above a clump of lowbushes just back from the distant beach. As he looked the pole movedforward and back, then to the right, ducking three times and coming backto a vertical position. The pole wavered to right and left and to thefront for a time, and the boy waved his hand from the open port.
"Wigwag!" he whispered. "It says: 'Brace up!' That's Jimmie!"