CHAPTER XXXI
A DARING VENTURE
With an expression of baffled rage convulsing his features, Dittyturned and made for shelter. Once safely there, he hurled back thewildest threats and imprecations. So vile they were that Ruthshuddered and put her hands to her ears.
"I said I'd kill you all!" the mate shouted. "I'll take that back.I'll kill all but one!"
The threat was easily understood. Captain Hamilton's face went white,and he glanced hastily at Ruth. But he only said:
"Keep down out of sight, men. They know where we are, but we don'tknow where they are. They may try to rush us, but I don't think theywill at first. Aim carefully and shoot at anything that offers a fairtarget, but don't waste the ammunition."
He had hardly finished speaking before there came a volley, and thebullets pattered against the rocks. They came from several directions.Ditty had arranged his men in the form of a semicircle. They had amplecover, and the only chance for the besieged lay in the chance that oneof the enemy should protrude his head or shoulder too far from behindhis tree.
Many times in the next hour the fusilade was repeated. It was plainthat the mutineers were armed only with pistols.
"Probably Ditty laid in a stock before he left New York," the captainmuttered to Tyke. "Automatics, too."
"His ammunition won't last long if he keeps wasting it this way,"replied Tyke. "An' an automatic ain't always a sure shot."
Just then a cry from Olsen showed that the mutineers' cartridges hadnot been wholly wasted. A bullet had caught the Swede in the shoulder.He dropped, groaning.
Ruth was by his side in an instant. She bound up his wound as best shecould, and, putting a coat beneath his head, made him as comfortable aspossible.
"One knocked out," muttered the captain. "I wonder who'll be the----Ah! Good boy, Allen!" he cried delightedly.
One of the enemy had thrown up his hands and, with a yell, had crashedheavily to the ground. He lay there without motion.
"Leaned his head out a little too far," remarked Drew composedly."That was the cockney, Bingo."
"An' a dirty rat," Tyke said grimly. "That evens up the score."
"Not exactly," replied Drew. "We'll have to pot two of them to everyone they get, to keep the score straight. And they'll be more carefulnow about exposing themselves."
He was right; for in the short moments of daylight that remained theylessened no further the number of their foes. Nor did any bullet findits billet in the body of any of the besieged. But one ball knocked asplinter from a rock and drove it against the knuckles of Binney'sright hand, making it difficult for him to use his rifle.
Now darkness fell, and the enemy seemed to have withdrawn.
"The real fight will come to-morrow," prophesied Captain Hamilton."This was only a skirmish to feel us out."
"Do you think they'll try to do anything to-night?" asked Drewthoughtfully.
"I don't believe so," was the reply; "but we'll post sentinels, and ifthey come they won't take us by surprise."
"As a matter of fact," the captain went on, "I wish they would adoptrushing tactics. Then they'd be out in the open and we could get agood crack at them. As it is, we're concentrated and they'rescattered, and their bullets have a better chance than ours of findinga mark. These sniping methods are all in their favor, if Ditty hassense enough to stick to them."
"They've gained already by this afternoon's work," pondered Tyke."When they started in we were seventeen to 'leven. Now, as far as weknow, they're sixteen to our nine, for neither Olsen nor Binney's whatyou might call able-bodied. The odds are getting bigger against us."
"All the ammunition we have spent has accounted for only one man,"added the captain. "Their cover has served 'em well. And ourammunition is short. I figure out that we haven't much more thanthirty cartridges apiece left for the rifles. That won't last us long."
"Why not dash out and charge them?" suggested Drew.
"We will when our cartridges get low," agreed the captain. "But I'mhoping they'll charge us first in the morning. We could drop a bunchof 'em before they closed in on us, and then we'd have a better chancein hand-to-hand fighting."
After dark the captain posted three men some distance within theforest, with the promise that they should be relieved at midnight andwith strict injunctions to keep a vigilant watch and report to him atonce should anything seem suspicious.
Rogers was delegated to make his way down to the beach, where it wassupposed the mutineers would encamp for the night, to see if he couldgain any information as to their plan of attack on the morrow.
To Ruth this whole situation was a most terrifying one; but nobodydisplayed more bravery than she.
She had attended to the two wounded men skilfully. She had beenobliged to arrange a tourniquet on Olsen's shoulder, or the man wouldhave bled to death; and she had done this as well as a more practisednurse. The wound was a clean one, the bullet having bored rightthrough the shoulder.
Binney's wound was merely painful, and he could not use his rifleeffectively. But he could handle an automatic with his left hand.
The departure of the mutineers and the coming of night released theirminds and hearts from anxiety to a certain degree. Night fowls in theforest shouted their raucous notes back and forth, and there were somesquealings and gruntings at the edge of the jungle that betrayed thepresence of certain small animals that might add to their bill of farecould they but capture them.
"We'll forage for grub to-morrow," said Captain Hamilton. "It's toodark to-night to tell what you were catching, even if you went afterthose creatures. Ruth says she doesn't want agouti because they're toomuch like rats; but maybe there are creatures like polecats here--andthey'd be a whole lot worse."
A daring idea came into Drew's mind, but he did not mention it to Tykeor the captain because he felt sure that they would not approve. Heacknowledged to himself that it was a forlorn hope, but he knew, too,that forlorn hopes often won by their very audacity.
He knew that the moon rose late that night, and as darkness wasessential to the execution of his plan, he rose shortly and said:
"Think I'll go out and do a little scouting on my own account."
The captain looked at him in some surprise.
"Well," he said slowly, "we can't get any too much information; butwe're fearfully short of men, and you're the best shot we have. Betterbe careful."
"Yes, do be careful, Allen!" exclaimed Ruth. "For my sake," she addedin a whisper.
"Do you care very much?" he responded, in the same tone.
"Care!" she repeated softly. It was only one word, but it was eloquentand her eyes were suspiciously moist.
He pressed her hand and she did not try to withdraw it.
"I'll be careful," he promised, releasing it at last. Another momentand he had surmounted the barrier and was swallowed up in the gloom ofthe forest.
From his repeated trips over the trail, Drew had a pretty good idea ofthe locality, and had it not been for the fallen trees that had beentorn up by the cataclysm of the morning, he would have had littledifficulty in gaining the beach. But again and again he had to makelong detours, and as the darkness was intense he had to rely entirelyon his sense of touch; so his progress was slow.
Nearly two hours elapsed before he caught sight of a light beyond thetrees that he thought must come from the campfire of the mutineers. Hecrept forward with exceeding care, for at any moment he might stumbleover some sentinel. But, with the lack of discipline that usuallyaccompanies such lawless ventures and relying upon their preponderancein numbers, the mutineers had neglected such a precaution.
With the stealth of an Indian on a foray, Drew approached the beachuntil he was not more than a hundred yards from the fire. There hesheltered himself behind a massive tree trunk and surveyed the scene.
He saw Rogers nowhere about. The mutineers had made a great fire ofdriftwood, more for its cheerful effect than for any other reason, forthe night wa
s oppressively warm. At some distance from it the men weresitting or lying in sprawling attitudes. Some were sleeping, somesinging, while one tall man, whom Drew recognized as Ditty, was engagedin earnest conversation with two others, probably his lieutenants.
Drew counted them twice to make sure there was no mistake. There weresixteen in all. Only one, then, had been accounted for that afternoon.And there were but nine able-bodied men in the fort, counting Binney asable-bodied.
Sixteen to nine! Nearly two to one! And men who would fightdesperately because in joining this mutiny they knew that they stood inperil of the hangman's noose or the electric chair.
Drew's resolution hardened. The fire cast a wide zone of light on thebeach and the surrounding water. But over the eastern end of thelagoon darkness hung heavily. Keeping in the shelter of the palms, hewent northward, following the contour of the lagoon until he reachedthe point where vegetation ceased and the reef began.
Although this reef was volcanic (indeed the whole island hadundoubtedly been thrown up from the floor of the sea by somesubterranean convulsion in ages past), the coral insects had been atwork adding to the strength of the lagoon's barriers. The recent quakethat had lifted the reef had ground much of this coral-work to dust.Drew found himself wading ankle deep in it as he approached the water.
The little waves lapped at his feet. There was a shimmering glow onthe surface of the lagoon, as there always is upon moving water.Outside, the surf sighed, retreated, advanced, and again sighed, inunchanging and ceaseless rotation.
Drew disrobed slowly. He could not see the schooner, but he knew aboutwhere she lay. Indeed, he could hear the water slapping against hersides and the creaking of her blocks and stays. She was not far offthe shore.
And yet he hesitated before wading in. He was a good swimmer, and thewater was warm; the actual getting to the schooner did not trouble hismind in the least. But, as he scanned the surface of the lagoon, therewas a phosphorescent flash several fathoms out. Was it a leaping fish,or----
His eyes had become accustomed to the semi-darkness. Drifting in wassome object--a small, three-cornered, sail-like thing. Another flashof phosphorescence, and the triangular fin disappeared. Drew shudderedas he stood naked at the water's edge. He could not fail to identifythe creature. Something besides the _Bertha Hamilton_ had been shut inthe lagoon by the rising reef.
"And I venture to say that that shark is mighty hungry, too--unless hefound poor Sanders," muttered the shivering Drew.
He then waded into the water.