CHAPTER XXIV
THE ALARM
Unaware of the possible tragedy that was being developed within a fewhundred yards of them, Tyke and Captain Hamilton had kept on digging inthe excavation. For Tyke had refused to be kept out of the work ofrecovering the treasure, and when Drew had strolled off with theintention of discovering what had frightened Ruth and had been followedshortly after by the latter, the old man had seized Drew's abandonedshovel and had gone lustily to work.
"Too much of a strain on that game leg of yours to be heaving up thoseshovelfuls," the captain protested.
"Nary a bit of it," answered Tyke. "I ain't ready to be put on theshelf yet, not by a blamed sight, and I guess if it came to a showdown,Rufe, my muscles are as good as yours."
"You're a tough old knot all right," admitted Captain Hamilton, hiseyes twinkling. "But there's no sense in your doing Allen's work.Where in thunder has the boy gone anyway?"
"Oh, he'll turn up in a minute or two," returned Tyke. "Wherever he isyou can bet your boots he's doing something connected with this herework of treasure seeking. It simply ain't in that boy to lay down onany job."
"Drew makes a hit with you all right," laughed the captain.
"And why shouldn't he?" asked Tyke belligerently. "He's been with mefor some years now, and I've had plenty of chances of sizin' him up.If there was a yellow streak in him, I'd have found it out long ago.If I'd had a son of my own, I wouldn't have asked for him to be anybetter fellow than Allen is, and nobody could say any more'n that.He's got grit an' brains an' gumption, an' more'n that he's as straightas a string."
"Go ahead," laughed the captain, as Tyke paused for want of breath."Don't let me stop you."
"I don't mind tellin' you, Rufe, what I've never told yet to any humansoul," continued Tyke, waxing confidential, "an' that is that when Ilay up in my last harbor, Allen is goin' to come into everything I'vegot. He don't know it himself yet, but I've got it down shipshape inblack and white an' the paper's in my office safe."
"He's a lucky fellow," commented the captain briefly.
"An' let me tell you another thing, Rufe," said Tyke, "an' that is thatAllen would make not only a good son, but a mighty good son-in-law."
He nudged the captain in the ribs as he spoke, with the familiarity ofold comradeship.
"Lay off on that, Tyke," said the captain, flushing a little beneathhis bronze.
"You don't mean to say that you haven't seen the way the wind wasblowin'?" rejoined Tyke incredulously. "Why, any one with a pair ofgood eyes in his head can't help but see that those two are just madefor each other."
"I'm not blind, of course," returned the captain, who now that the icewas broken seemed not averse to talking the matter over with his oldcomrade. "I know of course that I can't keep Ruth forever and thatsome time some fellow will lay me aboard and carry her off right fromunder my guns. And I'm not denying that up to a few days ago, I'drather it would have been young Drew than any one else. But now--"here he paused.
"Well, but now," repeated Tyke.
"You know just as well as I do what I'm meaning," blurted out CaptainHamilton. "This matter of Parmalee's death has got to be cleared upbefore I'd even consider him in connection with Ruth. You can't blameme for that, Tyke."
The old man's face clouded.
"I ain't exactly blaming you, Rufe," he conceded, for despite hisardent partisanship of Allen, he could realize how Captain Hamilton asa parent must feel; "but I'm mortal sure that thing will be cleared upbefore long. You know just as well as I do that Allen didn't killParmalee any more than you or I did."
"That's what I want to believe," returned the captain. "I mean," hecorrected, as he saw the choleric flash in Tyke's eyes, "that's what Ido believe."
"It's that scoundrel, Ditty, that did it himself," growled Tykesavagely. "He cooked up the whole thing and then shoved it off onAllen. You've seen enough of him since then to know that he's capableof anything."
"Yes," admitted the captain, "he's a dirty dog. But don't you see,Tyke, that even allowing that Allen is innocent, he's been _charged_with doing it. And to lots of people, that's just about the same asthough he were actually guilty. Then, too, the matter will have to betried out in the courts. Allen will have to stand trial and even if hegets off, as I hope he will, there'll be a cloud on his name as long ashe lives. How could I let Ruth marry a man who had been charged withmurder and who got off because there wasn't evidence enough to convict?"
"Mebbe Ruth would be willing to take the chance," persisted Tykestubbornly.
"Maybe she would," agreed the captain, "but she'd never do it with myconsent. She's too good and sweet and pretty a girl to link her lifewith a man whose name was smirched. I wouldn't stand for it for aminute."
Tyke was framing a reply when suddenly the earthquake which wroughtsuch dire results to the two of whom they were speaking shook theground. The two men were thrown against each other and both went in aheap to the bottom of the ditch. The breath was knocked out of theirbodies, and every thought was driven from their minds except theinstinctive desire to remain alive until nature's onslaught had ceased.
When the worst was over, they scrambled to their feet, brushed the dirtfrom their clothes and faces, and stared grimly at each other.
"If it didn't seem too conceited to think that all this fuss was beingmade on our account," growled the captain, as he picked up his spade."I'd surely make up my mind that something was trying to shoo us awayfrom this treasure hunting."
"Yes," agreed Tyke. "Now, if I was superstitious--"
"I wonder," broke in the captain with sudden alarm, as he thought ofthe two errant members of the party, "where Ruth and Allen were whenthis quake happened."
"The only safe thing is to say that they were together somewhere," saidTyke. "I notice that they're never far apart. Don't you worry, Rufe.Allen will take good care of her."
But the captain was already climbing out of the excavation. He gaveTyke a hand and helped him up.
"Where did you last see them, Tyke?" Hamilton asked, as his eyesscanned the surrounding landscape without catching a glimpse of thefigures he sought.
"The last I saw of Allen he was going down toward them trees," repliedTyke, indicating a corner of the jungle, "an' a little later, out o'the corner of my eye, I saw Ruth going in the same direction. Now,don't fret, Rufe. They'll turn up as right as a trivet in anotherminute or two."
"The jungle!" gasped the captain in alarm. "Don't you see, Tyke, thatsome of those trees have been shaken down. Maybe they've been caughtunder one of them. Hurry! hurry!"
He set off, running hurriedly, and Tyke hastened after him as fast ashe could.
They were soon at the jungle's edge. Several giant trees had fallenvictims to the earthquake's wrath, but a frantic searching among theirtrunks revealed no traces of the missing ones.
The captain wiped his brow and gave a great sigh of relief.
"So far, so good!" he exclaimed. "They've escaped that danger anyway.I had a fearful scare. I don't mind admitting that my heart was in mymouth for a minute."
"Same here," assented Tyke, who despite his faith in Drew'sresourcefulness had secretly shared the captain's alarm. "But ifthey're not here, where in Sam Hill can they be?"
They raised their voices in a shout, but no answering sound came back.
Several times they repeated the call, but all to no purpose.
"Strange," muttered the captain uneasily. "It isn't like Ruth to gooff to any distance without telling me about it beforehand."
"Nor Allen neither," put in Tyke loyally.
"You might almost think the earth had swallowed them up," pursued thecaptain, little thinking how near he was to guessing the truth.
"Well, the only thing to do is to keep looking for 'em until we find'em," said Tyke. "You take that side of the hill, Rufe, and I'll takethe other. We'll come across them probably before we meet up with eachother."
The two men separated on their quest, c
alling out at frequentintervals. It did not take them long to skirt the base of the whale'shump, but when at last they met each saw only disappointment and agrowing alarm in the eyes of the other.
"We'll have to try it again and make a wider circle," exclaimedHamilton desperately. "We've simply got to come across them somewherearound here."
"Of course we shall," said Tyke heartily, though the crease in hisforehead belied the confidence of his words.
Once more they made the round of the hump, this time ranging out muchfurther from the base. Still their efforts were fruitless, and whenthey met once more, neither tried to disguise from the other thegrowing panic in his heart.
"Ruth, Ruth!" groaned the captain.
"Come now, Rufe, brace up," comforted Tyke. "While there's lifethere's hope."
"That's just it," replied the captain. "But how do we know there islife? Something serious must have happened to them, or they'd neverstay away like this. They'd know we'd be worried about them after thatshock came and they couldn't have come back to us quick enough, ifthey'd been able to come."
Tyke could not deny the force of this.
"Well now, Rufe, let's get down to the bottom of this," he said. "I'mafraid just as you be that they're in trouble of some kind. Now whatcould make trouble for them on this island? There ain't any wildbeasts of any account here, do you think?"
"Not that I ever heard of," replied the captain. "We're too far southfor mountain lions and too far north for jaguars. There may be anoccasional wildcat, but it wouldn't be likely to attack a single personlet alone two together. There may be snakes here though for all Iknow."
"Nothing doing there," said Tyke decisively. "Mebbe there's boas, butif so there're a mild and harmless kind, such as those they makehousehold pets of in some places to keep away the rats. And if thereare any poisonous snakes, it's against all likehood that both Ruth andAllen would be bitten. One of them would come scurrying to us at oncefor help for the other.
"Besides," he went on, "I know that Allen had his revolver along withhim and he's a sure shot. No, I don't think we have to worry aboutanimals or snakes."
"What is there left then?" groaned the captain.
"There's two things left," replied Tyke reflectively. "One of 'em isold nature herself. What she can do is a plenty, as we've seen sincewe come to this island----."
"This infernal island," broke in the captain viciously. "I wish toheaven we'd never seen it. I wish some one of these earthquakes hadsent it to the bottom of the sea."
"I don't blame you much," assented Tyke. "But being here, we've got totake things as they come. Now, as I was saying, old nature may havetaken a hand in causing trouble for the two young folks. But for thelife of me I don't see how. We've already seen that they weren'tcaught under those falling trees. And there didn't any lava flow comewith that last quake. And that being so I can't see where nature's gotinto the game.
"Now," he continued, "there's just one thing left--and that's men!There may be some natives on this island that feel sore at our buttingin on 'em and they may have come across them youngsters and captured'em."
"I don't think that's at all likely," rejoined the captain. "There'dcertainly have been some sign of them, some boat, some hut or somethingelse of the kind. But we haven't seen hide or hair of anything sincewe landed. The boat's crew, too, have been roaming over the island andthey'd have reported to us anything they'd seen that looked as thoughpeople lived in this God-forsaken spot."
"Yes," assented Tyke. "And it stands to reason that Allen with hisautomatic would have put up a fight and we'd have heard the sound ofshots. But there are other men besides natives on the island."
"What do you mean?" asked the captain in surprise.
"I mean Ditty and his gang of water rats," replied Tyke.
"You don't think that skunk would dare--" spluttered the captain.
"I think that one-eyed rascal would dare almost anything," answeredTyke. "And it struck me as barely possible that he might have comesneaking around to see what we were doing and perhaps run across Allenand Ruth. There's bad blood there, as you know, and it wouldn't takemuch to bring about a scrap.
"Not that I think that has happened," he went on, "because it isn'tlikely that Ditty's plans are far enough forward yet for him to showhis hand. Still I may be wrong. I tell you what I think you'd betterdo. You can git around faster than I can with this old game leg ofmine. Suppose you run back to the shore and see if Ditty is hangingaround there. If he is and everything seems shipshape we can leave himout of our calculations. Then we'll have to figure out what we're todo next."
It was grasping at straws, but in their utter ignorance of the realfacts they had nothing but straws to grasp at. The captain set offhurriedly, while Tyke went once more around the mountain base in theforlorn hope that this time something tangible would come to reward hisefforts.
Once he thought he heard something that sounded like shots and hestopped short in his tracks. His old eyes, keen yet, despite hisyears, looked eagerly around. But as far as his eyes could reach therewas nothing to be seen, and he came to the conclusion that he must haveimagined the sounds or that they were caused by some rumbling of theearth.
In a surprisingly short time, the captain was back, panting and windedby his exertions.
"Well," asked Tyke eagerly, "did you find out anything?"
"The men were all huddled down on the shore evidently scared out oftheir wits. I guess we can cross them off our slate. But how aboutyou? Did you find any clue?"
"Nary a thing," answered Tyke dejectedly. "I thought at one time thatI heard shots, but when I come to look it up there was nothing in it."
"We must find them!" cried the captain excitedly, pacing back and forthlike a wild animal and digging his nails into his palms as he clenchedhis fists in anguish. "We'll go over every foot of this island. I'llget out every man on the ship and set him to work searching."
"I wouldn't do that--at least not yit," adjured Tyke, laying his handon the captain's arm. "Of course we may have to do that as a lastresort. But you know what sailors are, an' we don't want to have 'emcracking their jokes 'bout Allen an' Ruth going off together. Wait abit. The day's young yet an' they may turn up any time of their ownaccord. In the meantime, we'll explore places that we haven't triedbefore an' mebbe we'll run across 'em. If everything else fails, thenwe'll turn out every man jack of the crew and go over every inch of theisland."
To the agonized father, everything that savored of delay seemedintolerable, but he yielded to the wisdom of Tyke's suggestion and oncemore they started out in their desperate search.