CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE BLACK AEROPLANE.
The _Tarantula_, black, grim and business-like, lay at anchor off themouth of the Jew-Fish River, her long, lean form rising and falling onthe heavy swells and a curl of black smoke lazily issuing from each ofher four black funnels, the foremost one of which was striped with fouryellow bands.
Forward her crew lay about and loafed or fished, while aft LieutenantSelby and the ensigns assigned to the command with him, paced the deck,looking from time to time into the wireless room to ascertain if anynews had been heard from the boys. The answer each time was in thenegative and hourly the naval officer's apprehension grew. What could bethe matter? If everything had gone well he should certainly have heardfrom them by now.
Of the submarine, also, nothing had been seen and this fact encouragedthe young officer to believe that she was still up the river somewhere.A bright lookout had been kept day and night since Frank's wirelessannouncing the discovery of Captain Bellman's destination, but nothinghad been seen of the expected craft. That she had utilized her divingapparatus and passed unnoticed in that way was unlikely as the water inwhich the _Tarantula_ lay, was shoal even for her and the soundings thatthe lieutenant had made the day before showed that it would have beenimpossible for the submarine to have passed out in any other way but themain channel. So with steam up the _Tarantula_ swung at her anchor andwaited like a patient cat, watching an opportunity to pounce on a mouse.The idea of entering the river in boats and scouting for the submarinehad entered the lieutenant's head, but after consideration he hadabandoned it. To reveal his presence to Bellman might spoil everythingand as it was if the submarine was in the river, she was securelybottled up.
The hours slowly passed on and still no word came. Evening set in andthe wireless was still silent.
"If those young rascals haven't shown up by tomorrow morning, Bagsby, Ishall be sorely tempted to head an expedition myself and go in search ofthem," declared Selby--on whom the strain of the long wait waswearing--to one of his ensigns.
"Air-ship! dead off our bow, sir!" suddenly hailed the lookout forward;who, like everybody else, had been keeping a watch all day for somesigns of the boys' craft.
"By Jove, so it is!" exclaimed the lieutenant, bringing his glasses tobear.
High in the evening sky above the tangle of islands an air-craft waswinging its way toward them. At first sight a mere speck, she grewrapidly larger as she neared the shore.
"But what can have happened to her?" exclaimed the lieutenant as thefirst vague blot of the ship resolved through his glasses into definitelines, "here, take a look, Bagsby."
He handed the glasses to his subordinate, who laid them aside in a fewminutes with the exclamation.
"Why, she's as black as a coal, sir!"
"What's that dangling at her stern, Bagsby?" asked Lieutenant Selby thenext minute.
"Why, it looks like an American flag, sir," responded the ensign, "butit's almost as black as the rest of her and--just look at that, sir--themen in her all black, too!"
Hardly able to control his excitement the lieutenant took the glassesfrom his subordinate, though by this time the air-vessel was so closethat the five persons aboard her were visible to the naked eye. Theywere waving furiously and shouting at the tops of their voices, thoughthese sounded, to tell the truth, a bit feeble.
"_Tarantula_, ahoy!" came a hail from the aeroplane, as she swung in agraceful circle about the destroyer.
"Ahoy there," hailed the lieutenant through a megaphone, "who are you?"
"The _Golden Eagle II_, Captain Frank Chester," came back from theaeroplane as she swung by, "with Lieutenant Bob Chapin, aboard."
The cheer that went up then roused the herons that were just settlingdown to bed and sent them and a hundred other varieties of Evergladebirds swirling in wild affright up around the tree-tops. As for Selby heclapped Bagsby on the back till the young ensign sustained a violent fitof coughing.
"It's Chapin and he's safe; hurray!" he shouted. "Those boys have donethe trick!"
"Send a boat ashore for us," shouted the leader of the adventurers fromthe smoke-blackened 'plane, as she swung by once more, "we've got a lotto tell you."
"I should think so," commented the lieutenant to himself, as he ordereda boat lowered and seated himself in the stern sheets. While this wasbeing done the boys had landed on a long sandy bar, which made an idealgrounding place. It didn't take long, you may be sure, to get them intothe boat and row them aboard the _Tarantula_ where, after soap and towelhad removed their sooty disguise, they made a meal that tasted to theminfinitely more delicious than any of the more elaborate repasts any ofthem had ever eaten in New York. As for Lieutenant Chapin, to be oncemore aboard one of Uncle Sam's ships and in the hands of friends,affected him to such a degree that after dinner he begged to be excusedand paced in solitude up and down the deck for an hour or more, whileFrank told and retold the story of their adventures.
While the lieutenant was gratefully recalling the boys' exploit, he wasawakened from his reverie by the splash of a paddle and looking up saw acanoe drawing near in which were seated three people. It was too dark ofcourse for him to make out more than the outlines of their figures.
"Boat ahoy! What boat's that?" hailed the lookout sharply.
"Well, we ain't got no name but an Injun one and I disremember that,"came back the reply, "but tell me have you got two young chaps, namedChester, aboard?"
"Who is that?" hailed the lieutenant.
"My name's Ben Stubbs. Who the dickens are you?" was the bluff reply.
"Lieutenant Chapin," was the calm reply.
The result was astonishing.
"Well, I'll be double horn-swoggled," shouted the same bluff voice thathad framed the question and the next minute there was a splash and loudsputtering sounds of indignation.
"Man overboard!" cried the _Tarantula's_ lookout.
"You black landlubbers! Upsetting me overboard and trying to drown me,eh? Ef I had you at a rope's end I'd make you walk fancy," came over thewater in tones running the gamut of indignation.
By this time the boys and the others were on deck and as they heard andamazedly recognized the sputtering voice there came from them adelighted hail of:
"Ben Stubbs!"
"Come aboard!"
"Sure I will if this consarned contraption of a canoe we're in wull holdme an' my voice, but every time I speak it tips over," was the indignantreply.
But there were no more accidents and a few seconds later the boys andthe dripping Ben were wringing hands and slapping backs till the tearscame to the rugged old adventurer's eyes.
"Keelhaul me if I ain't glad to see you," shouted Ben, "and thelootinant, too. I knowed they'd git yer ef they set out to," roared Ben,"and by the great horn-spoon, they have."
While this was going on the two other occupants of the boat--who werenone other than Quatty and Pork Chops--had clambered on deck and stoodshyly by. They, too, came in for their share of greetings andcongratulations.
Then Ben, of course, had to relate his adventures with the Seminoles,winding up with the account of how he came to leave the Indian village.
It seemed that a wandering party of Seminoles had come across Quatty,wearily paddling toward the coast from the mound-builders' island, andas he was almost exhausted had taken him in their canoes and poled himat top speed to the island. Arrived there Quatty was roused to greatindignation, as well as surprise when he discovered that Ben was acaptive and demanded his immediate release. By virtue of Quatty's powerover the tribesmen, Ben had immediately been set free and he and Quattycanoed to Camp Walrus. Here they found Pork Chops, half crazy fromfright and as he would not hear of being left alone any longer theyagreed to take him with them to the _Tarantula_, whither Ben had decidedto go as soon as he found the camp deserted. The rest the boys knew.
The relation of Ben's narrative, and of course that of the boys whichhad to be retold to the newcomer,
consumed so much time that they wereall startled when eight bells (midnight) rang out.
The echo had hardly died away when a black form was seen rushing throughthe water from the mouth of the river.
It was sighted simultaneously by almost all on deck and recognized atonce for what it was.
Captain Bellman's submarine!