CHAPTER XXVI
HOPE DEFERRED
There was a wild babble of questions and answers, and it was a longtime before all had calmed down enough to talk coherently.
The captain and Tyke in their frantic search had come just abreast ofthe outlet at the moment when Ruth and Allen had burst out intodaylight and safety.
Their hearts thrilled as they listened to the dreadful perils throughwhich had passed the two who were dearest to them on earth and thenarration was punctuated with expressions of consternation and sympathy.
"Well now," suggested Ruth after a half hour had passed, "let's getback to work."
"No more work this afternoon," ejaculated the captain. "You're goingstraight back to the ship."
"Indeed I'm not, Daddy," rejoined Ruth. "I'm all right now and I'll bevastly happier sitting here and seeing you go on with the work than tofeel I've made you lose a day. We've got some hours of daylight yet."
The captain protested, but Ruth coaxed and wheedled him till heconsented and they all went back to the ditch they had started and wentto work, Ruth alone of the party being forbidden to lift a finger.
They excavated to the volcanic ledge in half a dozen places. In nonedid they find a trace of treasure--not a sign that this soil had everbefore been disturbed by the hand of man.
"Bad mackerel!" grumbled Captain Hamilton, finally climbing out of hislast pit. "This looks as if we'd been handed a rotten deal from a colddeck."
Tyke looked up from his work, and began:
"Mebbe that--Now, if I was superstitious--Oh, well," he went onhastily, "you can't expect to find a fortune in a minute."
"But we got the bearings all right, according to the map, didn't we?"demanded the captain with some asperity.
"We certainly did," Drew put it.
"We can't dig over the whole island," complained Captain Hamilton. "Itwould be foolish. Hush! What's that?"
A rumble, a sound from the very bowels of the hill, smote upon theirears. Ruth ran to them.
"Oh, Daddy!" she cried, "is there going to be another earthquake?"
"Look there!" Drew said pointing upward.
Over the summit of the whale's hump hung a balloon of smoke, or ofsteam, its underside of a lurid hue.
"I say I've had enough for one day," declared the master of the _BerthaHamilton_. "Let's get back to the schooner before anything elseoccurs. Maybe a night's sleep will put heart in us. But I tell youright now, I, for one, would sell my share in the pirate's treasure ata big discount."
The captain was the most outspoken of the treasure seekers; but theywere all despondent. They hid their digging tools, and departed forthe shore of the lagoon, the volcano rumbling at times behind them.
They emerged from the forest just as the sun was setting. As they cameout on the beach they were surprised to see that it was bare. Neitherthe longboat nor the smaller one was in sight, nor could anything beseen of the crews.
The captain called some of the men by name. There was no response.Then he cupped his hands at his mouth, and his stentorian voice rangover the waters of the lagoon.
"Ship ahoy!"
In a moment there was an answering hail, and they soon saw that a boatwas being manned. It came rapidly inshore, propelled by four membersof the crew, and, as it drew nearer, they could see that Rogers wasseated at the tiller.
As the boat reached the beach the second officer stepped out.
"What does this mean, Mr. Rogers?" asked the captain sternly.
"Mr. Ditty's orders, sir," replied the second officer. "The men gotscared at the earthquake this morning, sir, and after that second quakethey flatly refused to stay ashore. So Mr. Ditty let them go back tothe ship."
"But why didn't he leave the other boat's crew waiting for me?" askedthe captain. "If they were afraid to remain ashore they could havestayed in the boat, rigged an awning to shield them from the sun, andlaid off and on within hail."
"That's what I thought, sir, and I said as much to Mr. Ditty. But heshut me up sharp, and said it would be time enough to send a boat whenyou should come in sight, sir."
The captain bit his lip, but said no more, and the party stepped intothe boat. They soon reached the _Bertha Hamilton_, and all climbedaboard. The first officer was standing near the rail.
"Come aft and report to me after supper, Mr. Ditty," ordered thecaptain brusquely.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the mate.
As soon as supper was over and Ruth had gone to her stateroom thecaptain started to go on deck, but Tyke put his hand on his arm.
"Going to give Ditty a dressing down, I suppose," he remarked.
"He's got it coming to him," snapped Captain Hamilton.
"He surely has," agreed Tyke. "But have you thought that perhapsthat's jest what he wants you to do?"
The captain sat down heavily.
"Get it off your chest, Tyke," he said. "Tell me what you mean."
"I mean jest this," said Tyke. "Often there's trouble in the wind thatnever comes to anything because the feller that's brewing it don't gita chance to start it. He fiddles 'round waiting for an opening; but ifhe don't find it the trouble jest dies a natural death.
"Now, this Ditty, _I_ think, is looking for an opening. As far as hisletting his own boat's crew come on board when you had told him to keepthem on shore for the day is concerned, that can be overlooked. Youcan't blame the men for being scared, an' any mate might be excused forusing his own judgment under those conditions.
"But his not keeping your boat's crew waiting for you, even if theystayed a little away from the shore, was rank disrespect. He knew youwould take it so. He knew it would weaken your authority with thecrew. An' he expects you'll call him down for it. Isn't that so?"
"Of course it is," agreed Captain Hamilton.
"Well then," pursued Tyke, "if he did that deliberately, expectingyou'd rake him fore and aft for it, it shows that he wants you to startsomething, don't it? An' my principle in a fight is to find out whatthe other feller wants and then not do it. He wants to provoke you.Don't let yourself be provoked or you'll play right into his hands."
"I might as well make him captain of the ship and be done with it,"cried Captain Hamilton bitterly. "I've never let a man get away withanything like that yet."
"An' we won't let this feller git away with it for long," answeredTyke. "We'll give him a trimming he'll never forgit. But we'll chooseour own time for it, an' that time ain't now. Wait till we've foundthe treasure an' got it safe on board. Then, my mighty! if he startsanything, put him an' his gang ashore an' sail without 'em."
"You think, then, he wants me to knock the chip off his shoulder?"mused the captain.
"Exactly," replied Tyke. "An' if you don't, he may be so flabbergastedthat before he cooks up anything new we'll have the whip hand of him."
"Well, I'll do as you say, though it sure does go against the grain."
Tyke's recipe worked; for when Ditty sauntered to the poop a littlelater to receive the rebuke which he expected and which he was preparedto resent, the wind was taken out of his sails by the captain's goodnature and pleasant smile.
"Quite a little scare the men got, I suppose, when they felt the quakethis morning?" Captain Hamilton inquired genially.
"Yes, sir," replied the mate. "There was nothin' to do but to get backto the ship. Some of 'em was so scared that they would 've swum thelagoon, and I didn't want 'em to do that for fear of sharks."
"Quite right, Mr. Ditty," returned the captain approvingly. "That isall."
Still Ditty lingered.
"I ordered the men in your boat to come back too," he said, eyeing theskipper aslant.
"That was all right too," replied the captain absently, as though thematter was of no importance. "The ship was so near that it wasn'tworth while keeping the men out there in the sun all day."
Ditty stared. This was not the strict disciplinarian that CaptainHamilton had always been. He hesitated, opened his mouth to say
something, found nothing to say, and at last, with his ideasdisordered, went sullenly away. If he had planned to bring things to acrisis he had signally failed.
Captain Hamilton watched the retreating back of his mate with a somberglow in his eyes that contrasted strongly with the forced smile of amoment before, and then retired to the cabin to go again intoconference with Grimshaw.