CHAPTER XXVII.
HEMMED IN BY FLAMES.
In the meantime in the noisome dungeon in which they lay, Frank andHarry Chester, and the officer they had struggled so bravely for, hadgiven up all hope of ever seeing the light of day again. As nearly asthey could calculate it was twelve hours or more since Bellman hadthrust his head into their place of confinement and shouted that hewould give them a last chance if they would tell him where the _GoldenEagle II_ lay and where their companions were encamped. The boys, thoughfaint from lack of food and almost dead with thirst, refused and Bellmanwith a savage curse had slammed the door.
For a time they had heard tramping about overhead as if there were lasthasty preparations being made for the departure and then all grew silentas a grave. At that time, however, their fears were not so much thatthey were to be left behind to be starved in this black hole, as theyhad implicit faith in the man to whom Frank had given the Buddha. Timeand again Harry, whose voice was growing momentarily fainter, hadmurmured to Frank:
"You don't think he will fail us, Frank?" and Frank, although his ownfaith was beginning to diminish as the hours went by, had alwaysresponded reassuringly. He pointed out cheerfully--or as cheerfully ashe could--that to the Oriental mind an oath made in the manner in whichthe red-banded serang had made it was sacred and to be obeyed at allhazards. Anything might have happened to delay the man's coming, heargued, and there was no doubt that he would appear in due course andredeem his promise. Frank's thoughts belied his cheerful words, however.There were a dozen things beside the breaking of his oath that mighthave caused the serang to be unable to liberate as he had promised. Asthe time passed by the conviction steadily grew in Frank's mind thatthey had been deserted and that the three miserable occupants of thedungeon were at that moment the only living things on the island.
As for the lieutenant, he was sunk in a sort of coma in which it isdoubtful, if he felt anxiety or any other emotion. He seemed stupefiedby his sufferings after his first returning dawn of reason.
Suddenly, and when the boys' hopes had reached their lowest ebb theywere startled by the sound of footsteps walking above them. They shoutedat the top of their voices and the footsteps ceased. Then they beganagain. Who could it be?
For a moment the idea of a rescue party flashed across Frank's mind buthe dismissed it as improbable. Nobody could have heard of their flightor located their place of captivity unless--Quatty!
Could it have been possible that the negro had conveyed word to theircomrades of their plight. Frank hastily communicated his idea to Harry,but Harry dismissed it as improbable. Frank, too, agreed that Quatty wasfar more likely to have saved himself than to have bothered about them.How unjust they were to the black we know.
But there were certainly footsteps upstairs. The boys shouted andshouted. Friend or foe it made little difference to them. They werefamished and even their foes would surely not be so inhuman as to refusethem food. Even the lieutenant aroused himself and set up a poor, feeblecry.
Hark, what is that they are shouting upstairs?
"Frank! Frank! Harry, where are you?"
A second's listening convinced the boys they were not dreaming. Whoeverwas upstairs was shouting their names. They set up redoubled shouts andshortly after they heard hands fumbling at the lock of the prison door.A few seconds later the lock having refused to yield, the door cameflying inward, burst from its hinges by a tree-trunk cut and used as abattering ram by Lathrop and Billy.
The scene after the boys were reunited and Lieutenant Chapin had beenintroduced may be imagined. There surely was never a more joyful reunionnor in more strange surroundings.
Billy described how after their flight from the mound-builders' islandthey had decided, after careful reconnoitering, that the island wasdeserted. How this had come about of course they did not know, and wereat first in despair as they concluded that the boys and the lieutenantmust have been taken to the coast and carried off to slavery in the FarEast. At the actual baseness of Captain Bellman's mind they had notguessed till they found the prisoners.
They had agreed, however, to land and explore the island in the hopethat they might find some clue to their comrades, and with thatintention had descended to the large open space where the reducingoperations had been carried on. In course of time they had arrived atthe door of the big bunk-house and here had made a startling discovery.
Stretched across the door of the place was a dead body.
"And what do you think, Frank?" exclaimed Lathrop, "on examining it inone hand we found tightly clutched a key and--here's the extraordinarypart--in one of the pockets of the loose blouse he wore we discovered alittle green Buddha exactly like the one the moonshiner sold you."
"Poor serang," sighed Frank, "he did then try to keep his word."
His words demanded an explanation and the boy rapidly told the rescuersof the dead man's oath to release them.
"If you had taken that key, Lathrop," he concluded, "you could haveopened the door easily without battering it down. Poor fellow--Bellmanmust have caught him coming back here and guessing for what purpose, hekilled him."
"The first thing to do is get you out of these stocks," said Billy afterhe had detailed how, on hearing the boys' shouts, they had traced themto the cellar in which they lay.
"Why not try the key," suggested Billy, "it looked a pretty big affairto me to fit the lock we found on that door."
"That's a good idea," assented Lathrop. He was up the stairs and back ina very short time and carried with him the key that had been found inthe dead man's hand. It fitted the stocks perfectly and furnished afurther proof that the serang had actually been on his way to keep hispromise when he was killed.
A twist of it in the heavy padlock and the unfortunate prisoners were atliberty with the exception of their handcuffs. With a cold chisel andhammer Lathrop struck these off. A few minutes later the boys had beenhelped out of the dungeon into what had been the blacksmith shop ofBellman's gang. With the exception of a great stiffness and soreness,occasioned by their confinement, the prisoners were soon as well asever, and after a hearty meal from the provision lockers of the _GoldenEagle II_, and a long account from Lieutenant Chapin, who was rapidlyrecovering, of his adventures, the boys were ready to start.
So interested had they been in talking, however, and so rapidly had thetime flown that they had not looked about them or taken any note ofanything but each other. Now, however, when they looked up they noticeda peculiar haze in the air and at the same time became aware of achoking sort of feeling that made their eyes sting and their nostrilsitch.
"What is it?" asked Harry as they all noticed these symptoms.
Frank and Lieutenant Chapin were both on their feet and had exchangedgrave glances. From where they had been seated they had not commanded aview of the 'glades. Now, however, as the little party hastily emergedthey saw before them a sight that chilled the blood of the boldest ofthem. For as far as they could see, and sweeping down on them atterrible speed, was a wall of flames.
The Everglades were on fire!
With a quick gasp Frank recollected the dried brush he had noticed onthe trail the day he and Harry left the boat. He realized that if theflames reached the island with such tinder to feed on they would sweepit from end to end. The _Golden Eagle II_ would be destroyed and theydoomed to a slow death from starvation.
"What about the other side of the island? Perhaps there is some way outthere," suggested the Lieutenant.
Frank shook his head.
"By the time we get there the flames would be roaring up the hillsidehere," he said, "there is only one thing to do. Run for it."
"Run for it?"
"Fly for it rather. In an hour's time this island will be a blackcharred ash-heap," was Frank's reply.
"But, Frank," was Harry's exclamation, "the _Golden Eagle II_ will onlycarry four, and then she is overburdened, and there are five of ushere!"
"She's got to carry
us," said Frank grimly, "or we'll be burned tocrisps, or starved if we escape death by fire."
"What are you going to do?"
"Lighten her," was the quiet reply, "dump overboard every ounce ofweight we can spare."
Feverishly the little party went about the work. First the transoms wereruthlessly ripped out and thrown aside. Then came the provisions andother equipment, and lastly even the navigating instruments.
"That's lightened her about 150 pounds," pronounced Frank. "We'll tryher with that and if it doesn't work we'll have to tear out the wirelessand let that go too."
By this time the advance guard of the flames was marching in a longruthless line perilously close already to the island. The dry saw-grassblazed like tinder and the party on the island could distinctly hear thehungry roar of the flames as they advanced. The conflagration leaped thenarrow water-courses as it came to them like a steeplechaser and thenumerous runnels offered no more check to it than if they had not beenthere.
Even the broad water-course, used by Bellman and his men to get to andfrom the coast, did not check the progress of the flames. There was afair wind blowing out of the northwest and before it red-hot brands werewhisked across the stream and ignited the dry wastes on the other side.
"If we don't hurry," exclaimed Frank, as his eye took in this, "we shallbe hemmed in."
This was a new peril. With the flames only on one side they might havehoped to escape but if the blaze ringed the island in there would begrave danger in trying to cross it in their overburdened air-ship. Forone thing the strange cross-currents created by a fire are alone enoughto throw an aeroplane onto dangerous angles and Frank, as he gazed atthe height to which the flames were leaping, added to this menace thefear that the overladen ship would not be able to rise high enough toclear them. What that meant there was no need for him to tell theothers--he did not dare to entertain such a thought himself.
With all the speed they made the flames were swifter and by the timethey had all scrambled into the chassis the island was surrounded byroaring flames and the hungry fire was beginning to attack the driedbrush on its sides.
"Can we make it?" gasped Lathrop as he gazed at the terrifyingspectacle.
"We've got to make it," snapped Frank as Harry started the engine.
The atmosphere was by this time so obscured by choking smoke that it wasas thick and dark as a fog. Water streamed from the boys' eyes and nosesand they speedily found that every breath they took seared their lungsas though a red-hot iron had been plunged into them.
Even if they could weather the flames, could they get through such smokealive?
With a prayer on his lips Frank started the _Golden Eagle II_ into theawful smothering pall. He could not see a foot in front of him and,indeed, in a second his eyes were blinded by the acrid reek.
"We've got to do it, we've got to do it," he kept saying to himselfthrough clenched teeth as he drove the aeroplane full into the inferno.It was as dark as night and as hot as a furnace mouth.
Caught in the currents generated by the heat the aeroplane swayed andzigzagged drunkenly. Frank, his eyes closed and drawing every breathwith agony, clutched the wheel till the varnish came off on his hands.He could smell the scorching paint of _The Golden Eagle II_ as the awfulheat blistered it.
It flashed across his mind that the cloth covering the planes mightcatch and then? Somehow nothing seemed to matter much then to the dazed,half-suffocated boy, only one clear idea presented itself repeating overand over with trip-hammer regularity:
"Keep going ahead."
The dash through the flames in the Everglades.]
But were they going ahead? Frank did not know. So badly was the crafthandicapped by her weight and in such a whirl of heat-engendered aircurrents was she caught that it was difficult for Frank, blinded as hewas, to tell.
Suddenly she gave a swoop down.
Was it the end?
No, she righted herself, more by instinct on Frank's part than anything.The blinded, choked, helmsman jerked up her rising planes. But the nextminute she repeated the blundering stagger downward and Frank realized,even in his dazed state, that she would never rise again if she wasn'tlightened.
The wireless! That would have to go.
With a cracked voice that sounded like a ghost of his usual heartytones, Frank shouted back the command. But there was no response.Temporarily he checked the aeroplane's downward tendency but he knewthat the next time she would drop into the flames in spite of him andshrivel up with her passengers like a handful of flax.
Blinded by smoke, with cracked lips and swollen tongue Frank realizedthat something must have happened to the others. With one hand on thesteering wheel, he reached back and seized the wireless-box by its base.It weighed 165 pounds and if he could get it free it meant theirsalvation.
He tugged with all the strength in his arms. The case moved slightly onits base. Frank knew the screws that held it in place did not reach verydeep, but with one hand he could not manage to tear it loose.
Then he did a daring thing. Setting the rising planes at their fullupward tendency he left the wheel locked by its spring gear and reeledwith outstretched hands toward the apparatus. Once he tugged,--twice hetugged.
The box was coming loose but the aeroplane was sagging, he could feelit. It was getting hotter, too.
With bursting brain and blistered hands he heaved at the box till theblood ran from under his nails.
Would it never come?
With an effort that seemed to crack his shoulders, Frank gave a mightyheft. The box ripped loose with a suddenness that sent him staggeringback; but the next minute he recovered his balance and heaved itoverboard into the roaring vortex beneath them.
Then, with the instinct born of necessity, he groped his way to thewheel and as he set the _Golden Eagle II_ on a rising course he realizedthat she was responding and they were saved.
Ten minutes later they emerged into the blessed air that, though stillsmoke-filled, above the fire-swept flats was still breathable. Withblackened face and singed hair and eyebrows, Frank felt the difference,although his eyes were still closed and giving him agony. He inhaled itin great breaths of delight, saturating his lungs in its comparativefreshness. Finally, when he could open his eyes, he looked back for theothers.
They lay on the floor senseless, smoke-blackened, without motion.
But the _Golden Eagle II_ under Frank's guidance had passed the ordealof flame and as she skimmed through the cooler air the unconsciousmembers of the party, one by one recovered and grasped the hand of theboy who had saved them.