CHAPTER XII.
PORK CHOPS PROVES HIS METAL.
It was impossible to consider rounding the island in the canoes in thesea that was running; but this difficulty was got over by Ben, whoimpressed a guide from the moonshiners' settlement to guide them aroundto the spot where they had camped, and off which the _Carrier Dove_ wasmoored. Arrangements were also made to have the canoes carried acrossthe island later by three strapping young crackers, who were glad of thechance to earn a little money by proffering their services.
These arrangements completed the start across the island was made, andafter about three hours traveling the boys reached the spot where theyhad camped. They hurried anxiously to the beach.
It was evident that the storm had not struck this side of the islandwith anything like the violence with which it had broken on the othershore. This raised the boys' hopes for a few moments but they weredestined to be as quickly dashed.
No _Carrier Dove_ rode at anchor.
In fact the usually placid sea, still heaving under the influence of thesquall which had now passed away, was as devoid of life as a desert asfar as their eyes could reach.
It was a bitter moment.
Neither Frank nor Harry dared trust their voices to speak. Theyswallowed hard while their eyes brimmed at this wretched ending of theirhopes.
With the _Carrier Dove_ gone--and more than that with the _Golden EagleII_, at the bottom of the sea, it would be useless to keep on. Theywould have to turn back and admit they had ignominiously failed.
As for Ben Stubbs, he removed his hat, scratched his head and remarked:
"Well, I'll be double-darned, horn-swaggled----"
That was all, but there was a wealth of meaning in his tone.
Lathrop and Billy stood to one side, both realized what the Boy Aviatorsmust be suffering at the sudden dashing to the earth of their highhopes. A cruder disappointment could not in fact be imagined. The workof their brains and the fruit of long experiment and research had beenswallowed by the same hungry sea that had destroyed two of theirenemies.
Practical Ben Stubbs broke the silence.
"Here you get along home and tell 'em to send us some grub," he orderedthe lanky young moonshiner who had escorted them. "I reckon we'll campout to-night."
When the man had hurried off, Ben set to work getting a fire. When hehad it in a bright blaze he shouted:
"All hands to the fire to get dry; no use of dying of rumatiz even ifthe sloop is gone."
The boys, despondent as they were, saw the wisdom of his words andcrowded about the blaze. They stripped to their underwear and hung theirgarments on a sort of long stick laid across two forked ones stuck inthe ground about six feet apart in front of the fire.
"Now, that's ship-shape," he remarked when a row of wet clothes werehung on his handiwork to dry in the warmth, "next thing to do is toconsider the situation, as the young man said when they offered him agood job as hangman."
Ben's flow of spirits had an effect on all the boys, who sat dejectedlyaround the fire in their wet underclothes. To tell the truth the oldadventurer was far from feeling as cheerful as he tried to appear, butlike all men who have faced real hardships he knew the value of makingthe best of a situation.
"Well," said Frank with a melancholy smile. "What do you make of it,Ben?"
"What did that there poor fellow that's drownded say to you he done withPork Chops?" was the irrelevant reply.
"Oh, he said that they had put him ashore early to-day," replied Frank."I don't see what that's got to do with it."
"Might have a good deal," replied Ben. "I wonder where that black lubberis. He'll have fifty-seven varieties of fits when he finds his boat'sgone--worse'n the skipper's cat that lost all his nine lives at oncewhen the shop's rats gave out."
"He can easily replace that rickety old sloop," said Harry irritably;"to restore what we have lost will take months of work and more moneythan we can get."
"If we can even get back to New York from this moonshining island we'llbe lucky," grumbled Lathrop.
"Oh, don't rub it in," muttered Billy.
It was very plain that all the young adventurers were overwrought. Morefor the sake of creating a diversion than anything else, Ben said:
"Wonder what's become of that floating pumpkin-seed the Squeegee?"
"Washed away, I suppose," said Frank in an uninterested tone. The lossof the ungraceful Squeegee didn't interest him much at that moment.
"She'd have been washed inshore by the waves," mused Ben, "if she'd beendriven anywhere; besides I hitched her to that tree yonder down by thebeach. Hullo, that's funny," he broke off suddenly and rapidly walkedtoward the tree to which the Squeegee's painter had been hitched. Heexamined the surface. There was no bit of rope hanging to it as he knewwould have been the case if the painter had been snapped.
"Someone untied that rope," said Ben to himself in a tone of deepconviction.
Hastening up the beach to where the boys were grouped Ben confided hisdiscovery to them.
"Who do you suppose took it?" asked Frank.
"Some no-good moonshiner, I suppose," snorted Ben indignantly. "Keelhaulthose fellows, they're a natural born pest, the whole boiling of them."
"Do you think they could have weathered the squall in her?" asked Billy.
Ben laughed incredulously. "No, sir," he replied. "I doubt he'd last outa squall as long in that craft as it would take a sailor to eat a pieceof plum-duff. Whoever took that boat is at the bottom of the sea by nowand the Squeegee along with him."
It was dusk when the young moonshiner returned loaded with provisionsfor which the boys against his protest insisted on paying. There was abig piece of roast venison, sour-dough bread, roast land crab, aplethoric pot of beans and a plentiful supply of cassava cakes--evencoffee had not been forgotten. Everybody cheered up a little at thesight of the food. It is wonderful what heart a good meal, even inprospect, can put into a healthy boy, and our young adventurers were noexception to the rule. Declining their invitation to stay and share themeal the young moonshiner plunged off hurriedly into the home trail.
In fifteen minutes Ben had the coffee ready and the cassava cakes heatedon hot stones. After a hearty meal, of which indeed they stood in need,the party donned their clothes,--which were now thoroughly dry,--andearnestly discussed their prospects. Only Ben, who sat apart, took nohand in the conversation. Only once, however, he irrelevantly remarked:
"Keelhaul that Pork Chops, where is he?"
That the boys did not sleep their usual peaceful slumbers that night maybe imagined. For hours they tossed and turned under their blankets andwatched the fire die down and fade first to a ruddy glow and then toblackness.
It might have been an hour after midnight when the moon rose andshimmered over the sea, now perfectly smooth. Had their minds been atease the boys would have been enraptured with the beauty of the tropicnight. As it was, however, the coming of the moon and the illuminationof the sea merely served Frank as an opportunity further to scan thescene for any trace of the _Carrier Dove_.
Casting off his blanket he hastened to the strip of beach on which thesmooth swells were breaking with a milder thunder than usual. With hisnight-glasses he swept the midnight sea from horizon to horizon. Therewas no result. Thoroughly dejected he cast himself at the foot of a hugepalmetto and gazed intently out to sea riveting his mind on the presentsituation of himself and the little band of which the Boy Aviators werethe leaders.
Suddenly the current of his gloomy thoughts was broken in on by anoccurrence which brought him to his feet with a bound.
A low lying group of brilliant stars just above the horizon had beenblotted out. Something had passed between the boy and the stars. Thatsomething could only be a sail, and a sail meant at least rescue fromthe island.
With a bound Frank, glasses in hand, was knee-deep in the surf.
It was a sail!
With trembling hands he brought the glasses to a
better focus. Intentlyhe gazed till his eyes burned in his head.
The craft was a sloop!
Hardly daring to admit to his mind the wild hope that had suddenlyarisen, Frank watched the strange sail as it grew nearer. Before thegentle breeze the craft advanced slowly to within a hundred yards ofshore and then a dark figure bounded along her decks and there was aloud rattle from her cable as the anchor was let go and she swung intothe wind with flapping mainsail. Another moment and her canvas waslowered with a run and she lay at anchor.
With his heart in his mouth Frank hailed:
"_Carrier Dove_, ahoy!"
"Dat you, Marse Frank--bress de Lawd--bress de Lawd!" came back acrossthe water in Pork Chops' rasping voice; but had it been the golden tonesof an opera singer that answered his hail the sound could not have beensweeter to Frank's ear at that moment than Pork Chops' frog-like croakof welcome.
_The Golden Eagle II_ was safe!
Before the echo of the _Carrier Dove's_ noisy arrival had died out inthe woods, the young adventurers, hand-in-hand, were dancing in a wildcircle round the bewildered Ben Stubbs, yelling like Comanches.
"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!"