CHAPTER XVI
ON GIBRALTAR'S PEAK
That afternoon the Battleship Boys got leave to go ashore. Their goodconduct always earned a quick shore leave for them when many others weredenied it.
The quaint old semi-Moorish town at the base of the great mountainappealed to the lads and impressed them deeply. Red-coated Britishsoldiers were everywhere about, wearing their jaunty caps tilted to oneside, carrying their swagger-sticks airily, and now and then deigning aglance at the Battleship Boys.
"Do you know what those fellows remind me of?" questioned Hickey.
"Not being able to read your mind, I cannot say," answered Dan.
"That cap, at least, reminds me of the organ grinder's monkey thatpasses the hat for pennies. But they are the real thing, aren't they?"
"The caps?"
"No, the monk--I mean the soldiers."
"Boom!" roared a gun.
There was no answer to it, and Dan, wondering, asked a citizen what themeaning of the shot might be.
"One o'clock, me lad," was the answer.
Sam laughed aloud.
"Do--do they announce the hours here by firing guns?" he questioned.
"They do."
"Then--then I guess I would prefer to sleep at sea. What do you think ofthat?"
"It certainly is a curious custom," agreed Dan.
The boys wandered about the quaint town, peering into out-of-the-wayplaces, talking with a soldier here and there, when they found one whowas willing to unbend sufficiently to answer their questions.
What impressed them most was the tremendous masses of masonry, parapetsand guns. In whatever direction the boys glanced their eyes rested onthe frowning muzzles of big guns.
"How would you like to have all those guns turned on a ship in which youwere?" asked Dan.
"If they all shot straight it would be all day with us. But, Dan, don'tyou think that rock is a pretty good mark itself?"
"Yes. And if it is all like what it is here at the bottom, I think ashot from a seven or eight-inch would crumble it. I----"
"Look!" cried Sam.
What appeared to be a basket of some sort was rising in the air farabove their heads.
"What is it?"
"It looks like some kind of air-ship. But that cannot be possible."
"There's some one in it!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," answered the red-headed boy, now all excitement.
"I know now what it is," cried Dan. "I've read about that--no, I haven'tread about it either. A jackie on the 'Long Island' told me about it.That is a metal basket in which the signal men and watchmen go up to thelookout station that you see on top of the mountain."
"You don't say," muttered Sam in amazement. "How does it soar throughthe air that way?"
"It doesn't. It is on a cable that is pulled up by some sort of power."
"Let's go over and look at the thing," urged Sam.
Dan was willing. He was as curious as was his companion, and even moreenthusiastic, for all this was new and full of interest.
It was after making numerous inquiries that they found their way to thelanding platform from which the basket started on its way upward. Bythis time the metal basket had returned. There was room in it for fourmen. The boys looked it over curiously and enviously.
"How would you like to take a ride in it?" questioned Dan, smiling intothe solemn face of his companion.
"I'd give a dollar and a half," answered Sam earnestly. "Let's get inand look the thing over."
"I am afraid strangers are not allowed to do that. Yes, we'll get in. Wecan imagine we are going up to the top of the mountain, anyway."
Both boys climbed into the basket, gazing up into the air, where thethread-like cable grew smaller and smaller until it was lost to viewentirely.
"I wonder how it works?" questioned Sam, turning to the mechanism of thebasket.
"Perhaps by electricity. Sh-h-h!"
"What is it?"
"Some one is coming," whispered Dan.
The boys crouched down out of sight in the basket, laughing delightedlyas they nudged each other.
"They'll be surprised, if they find us here," said Sam.
"Keep still. He's going away now, whoever he is." Peering over thebasket, Davis saw that the man, a soldier, was walking rapidly down tothe engine house, just below the landing platform. The man disappearedwithin.
"Look out! We're moving!" howled Sam.
"We're Going Up!" Howled Sam.]
A glance over the side showed the platform dropping from beneath them ata rapid rate.
Sam made a move as if to jump from the basket.
"Sit down!" commanded Dan. "Do you want to kill yourself?"
"But we're going up," protested Hickey.
"We can't help it. We don't know how to stop the car, and even if wedid, I doubt whether we could do it from here. I have an idea that thecar is controlled from that engine house down there. I know now why theman came up to look at the car. He wanted to see that everything wasright before he started the basket upward."
"Do--do you think we are going to the top?"
"It looks very much that way," answered Dan, with a mirthless laugh.
The basket appeared to be gaining a little speed as it moved upward. Itwas swaying giddily from side to side, and had the boys not been used tobeing in high places on a rolling ship, they no doubt would have beenmade sick by the swinging of the basket.
"Hurrah!" cried Dan. "I know what I'll do!"
"Are you going to jump overboard?"
"No. Do you see the 'Long Island' lying out there in the harbor?"
"Sure I see her."
"I'm going to wig-wag to her."
Dan stood up while Hickey held him. Then Davis began making signals tothe ship with his handkerchief.
"There they go. Some one is answering," cried Davis in high glee. "Won'tthey be surprised?"
"What are they saying?"
"I can't read the message so far away. I wish we had a glass."
"Come on up, fellows. We're having a ride up to the clouds," wig-waggedDan.
Glasses already were trained on them from more than one ship in theharbor.
"Two enlisted men going up on the cable, sir," said the officer of thedeck to the captain of the "Long Island."
"Who are they?"
"I'll ascertain, sir."
Dan caught a flash of the signal flag as the sun shone down on it, and,with quick intuition, he understood that the ship was asking who theywere. He signaled their names back.
"I can't read you so far away. Have no glasses," wig-wagged Dan. "Goingup by accident."
The information was quickly conveyed to the captain of the "LongIsland."
"Those boys are both wired for electricity," laughed the commandingofficer. "All they need is a dynamo to set them in operation, and theyusually carry the dynamo about with them."
"I'm afraid they will get into trouble with the authorities, sir," saidthe executive officer.
"Why so?"
"They have no business to go up there. The English government is, as youknow, very secretive and very strict about its fortifications here atGibraltar."
"Never mind, Coates. Leave that to the lads. They have a way of gettingout of scrapes."
In the meantime the swaying basket was mounting higher and higher intothe air. So lost were the Battleship Boys in admiration of the wonderfulview unfolded before them that they almost forgot to take note of theirsensations.
A gun was fired from somewhere below them. The boys instinctively threwtheir hands to their ears. It sounded as if the gun were right besidethem.
"We are a pair of landlubbers," announced Dan Davis, with a sheepishgrin.
"I thought it was right here."
"So did I, for a minute," answered Dan. "Sound travels up fast andstrong, you know. There is the signal tower. We shall be up there prettysoon. Look out for a row when we get there, Sam."
"I'm ready for any old kind of a row. I
'm having the time of my lifethis morning."
Looking up with shaded eyes, they saw the lookouts examining theirbasket with their glasses.
"They have spotted us," said Dan.
"I don't care. Let them spot. Maybe they will know us next time they seeus."
The basket mounted the last stage of the journey, going more and moreslowly. At last it reached the landing. Dan was the first to leap fromthe car, followed quickly by Hickey.
"Good morning," he greeted, coming to a salute, as he found himselffacing three red-coated soldiers.
"Who are you?"
"Men from the U.S.S. 'Long Island.'"
"What are you doing here?"
"Just taking a little pleasure trip," answered Hickey, before Dan couldopen his mouth to explain. "You've got a fine place up here, but itmust be rather drafty in winter time. I never did like drafts at thattime of the year. Do you know----"
"Get back into that basket!" interrupted the lookout sternly. "You haveno business, up here."
"Well, I must say you fellows are not very hospitable," grumbled Sam."Can't we take a look around your shack?"
"You cannot. You will be lucky if something worse doesn't happen toyou."
"I am sorry if we have done anything wrong," spoke up Davis. "We gotinto the basket to look it over and the machinery started. But that isno reason why you should be so gruff about it."
"Get in there!"
"Come on; he's a grouch," exclaimed Sam. "I'd rather be viewing thescenery on the way down than standing here looking at that. Why, heneeds only a cake of soap in his hand to make a full-page ad. of him."
Sam made a dive for the basket.
"Start your machinery going as soon as you want to," said Dan. "We areready."
There followed a peculiar grinding sound. The basket began to move,gaining speed as it proceeded. It was going down much faster than it hadascended.
The boys waved their hands in farewell to the grouchy sentry.
"That's what I should term a formal call," announced Davis with a laugh.
"It wasn't a call at all; it was a call down," retorted Sam. "Wow! Justlook over the side!"
Dan took one peep, then withdrew his head.
"What a fall that would be," he breathed.
"Yes, we'd be the Batteredship Boys instead of the Battleship Boys, werewe to fall down the rest of the way," jeered Hickey.
"That was an awful joke, Sam; but perhaps it is better to get a thinglike that out of your system. My, but we're going fast!"
The basket seemed to be gaining momentum every second. Sam Hickey's hairwas rising, his cap having soared away on the breeze.
"Stop it!" howled Sam.
"I'd like to, but I can't."
"Put on the brakes! There must be a brake. Do something!"
"Do something yourself. I don't know how the machine works."
"We are nearing the bottom. I think the car has slackened its speedsome. I see that I've got to do whatever is done here, or we'll bothland in the middle of the bay with a loud splash," retorted Sam.
Hickey ran his hands over the mechanism, finally discovering a lever onthe outside of the basket.
"Here it is. Here's the brake. Now you'll see me steer the old tub. I'llmake a landing that would make our quartermaster green with envy."
"Be careful. We are nearly at the bottom now, Sam. I think it will slowdown without any effort on our part. That evidently is the way thebasket always comes down."
Sam gave the lever a shove.
"Shut it off! What have you done?" yelled Dan.
The basket shot forward, as if impelled by some sudden force.
"I--I can't. The--the thing won't work."
"You've done it this time," groaned Davis.
"You've killed us both----"
"Wow!" howled Hickey.
Dan made a grab for his companion just as Sam's heels were disappearingover the side of the basket. Davis missed the heels, then he followedHickey, while the basket was smashed with terrific force against somesolid object. The boys shot from the basket, turning somersaults in theair as they plunged downward.
They did not cry out, but each lad believed that his time had come.