The girl was Miss Jarrold! She recognized him at the same instant andgave a little cry. Simultaneously Jarrold and Colonel Minturn came faceto face. A hoarse cry broke from Jarrold's throat. He reached into aninside pocket and drew out a bundle, which he threw overboard beforeMinturn could catch his wrist in an iron grasp.
But as the papers splashed, and Jarrold broke out into a mocking laughand cried, "You thought you had me beaten, but it's you that are beatennow, Colonel Minturn," there came another splash, a bigger one.
"It's the kid!" shouted one of the sailors. "He's gone after thatbundle!"
Mr. Metcalf jumped from his seat to the assistance of Colonel Minturn,for Jarrold, maddened by the series of disasters that had overtaken him,had reached for and drawn a pistol. A crack over the wrist from an oarwielded by the first mate, sent the weapon flying overboard.
A few moments later Jarrold, who fought like a tiger, was lying bound inthe bottom of the boat with two sailors guarding him. His niece sat inthe stern sheets sobbing hysterically over the ironic turn of fate thathad caused the ship that they thought was to rescue them to be the veryone they most dreaded.
Jack was hauled back on board after a few seconds' immersion. In onehand he held high a dripping bundle of papers. A sailor reached out totake them from him. But the boy refused to give them up.
"Only one man gets these," he said, shaking the water from his curlyhead, "and that is Colonel Minturn."
With a gasp of thankfulness that was almost a sob, the colonel took thepapers from the boy's hands, thrust them within his coat and then fairlyhauled Jack on board.
By a twist of fate, seemingly incredible, but really attributable to alogical chain of events, the papers relating to the priceless secrets ofthe Panama Canal were once more in the proper hands. They never leftthem again.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
All the way back to the ship the girl sat silent, with bowed head buriedin her slender white hands. Jarrold, tied and harmless, on the floor ofthe boat, raved and swore incoherently. Not till she stood once more onthe deck of the _Tropic Queen_, however, did the girl give way. Then asshe saw her uncle, sullen and defiant now, led to the captain's cabinwhere he was to be questioned, she reeled and would have fallen had notDe Garros, who happened to be close at hand, caught her.
The sudden stopping of the ship had awakened most of the passengers andthey had come on deck to see what was the matter.
"Here, take her below," said De Garros to a stewardess, as thepassengers crowded curiously around.
The ship was once more got under way, the boat lashed home and thevoyage resumed, while in the captain's cabin, facing Colonel Minturn,the wretched Jarrold told his story. But he expressed no sorrow, exceptfor the failure of his mission. Captain McDonald ordered him confined ina cabin, to be turned over to the U. S. authorities when the shipreached Panama.
The sentence had hardly been executed, when a shuddering, jarring crashshook the ship.
Her way was checked abruptly and every plate and rivet in her steelfabric groaned.
Jack was thrown from his chair in the wireless room and hurled against asteel brace. He struck his head and fell unconscious to the floor.
For an instant following the shock, all was absolute silence. Thenbedlam broke loose. Hoarse voices could be heard shouting orders, andthe answering yells of the crew came roaring back. Women were screamingsomewhere below, and men passengers were trying in vain to quiet them.
Sam was hurled out of his bunk, and, rudely awakened, found Jack lyingstunned on the floor. He dashed some water over him and then ran to thebridge. Captain McDonald, firm and inflexible, stood there giving ordersas calmly as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
"Shall I send out an S. O. S., sir?" asked Sam, striving to keep as coolas the ship's commander.
"Not yet. I have not a full report of the extent of the injury to theship," was the reply. "First reports indicate that we have struck asubmerged derelict."
But as Sam went back to the wireless room, he saw the boats' crews allstanding by and every preparation being made for abandoning the ship. Inan instinctive way, he felt that she had been mortally injured. She wasstill moving, but slowly, like a wounded thing dragging itself along.
The first officer came hurrying along the deck and shoved his head intothe door.
"You had better try to raise any ship within our zone as fast as youcan," he said.
"You are going to send the passengers off?" asked Sam.
"Yes, as a measure of precaution. The derelict we struck has torn a bighole in the engine room. It is impossible to say how long we can keepafloat."
He hurried off. Sam heard a groan and saw Jack rising on an elbow.
"What is it? What's up?" he asked bewilderedly, and then: "Oh, Iremember now. Any orders for an S. O. S., Sam?"
"Not yet. But we're to raise any ship we can. They are sending thepassengers off in the boats."
"Wow! That was a crack I got when she struck," said Jack, getting on hisfeet. "What did we hit, did you hear?"
"A submerged derelict. It has torn a big hole in the engine room."
Jack took the key from Sam and began pounding it. But an exclamation ofdismay spread over his face as he did so.
"No juice!" he exclaimed. "Or not enough to amount to anything. Here's afine fix."
Below them, as they stood facing each other, thunderstruck at thisdisaster, every light on the ship went out.
"Dynamos out of business," gasped Jack. He struck a match and lighted alamp that hung in "gimbals" on the bulkhead.
They could hear the sharp staccato commands of the ship's officers asthey quelled the incipient panic that had followed the extinguishing ofthe lights. The boats were being filled and sent away with quiet andorderly precision, a boatswain or a quartermaster in each one. Thehigher officers could not leave the ship till later, by the law of thesea.
Everything moved quietly, almost silently. It was like watching a dreampicture, Jack thought afterward. Luckily, the moon was bright and gaveample light for the disembarking of the passengers. It was just this,the bright moonlight, the cloudless sky and the smooth, summery sea thatmade it all seem so unreal. It seemed impossible that a death blow hadbeen dealt to a mighty liner and that her passengers were in peril, on asea like a millpond and under an unruffled sky.
Jack hastened forward to report the failure of the current, withoutwhich not a message of appeal could be flung abroad. The captainreceived the news without the flicker of an eyelid.
"At any rate, the passengers are all safe," he said, "the boats are alloff. Each has plenty of provisions and water and is in charge of acompetent man. We are in for a long spell of fine weather and the coastis not far off. At the worst it will be a sea adventure for them withfew discomforts."
"Are you going to abandon the ship, sir?" asked Jack respectfully.
"No. My duty is to stay by her as long as I think there is a chance ofsaving her. The report from the engine room is that she can be runseveral miles yet before the water reaches the boilers. All the pumpsare at work, full force, and that is the reason there is no power leftfor the dynamos."
"Do you mean you are going to try to beach her, sir?" inquired Jack.
"If I can possibly do so," was the reply. "There is an island not far tothe south of here called Castle Island. If I can reach it in time andbeach her, there may be one chance in a thousand of salving her, afterall."
Jack had asked all the questions he dared. Had it not been a time ofsuch stress, he would not have ventured to ask so many.
He hurried back to the wireless room. Sam was busy at the key, but heshook his head in reply to Jack's inquiring glance.
"Nothing doing," he said. "Any news forward?"
"Yes. All the passengers are off and there are now on board only theofficers and crew. The skipper means to run for an island called CastleIsland and beach her there. He thinks that later there may be a chanceof getting her hull off, if he can m
ake it."
"Then she is leaking fast?"
"Yes, they've got all the pumps going to keep the water from getting tothe fires. That's the reason we've got no juice."
"Let's look up Castle Island," said Jack, partly to relieve thetenseness of their position as the wounded ship crawled strickenlysouthward and partly to keep Sam, who was making a plucky effort tofight back his fears, from thinking too much of their situation.
They soon found it--a small island shaped like a splash of gravy on aplate. It was marked with a red dot. Under this red dot, in italics, waswritten, "_Volcano. Probably extinct._"
"Well, any old port in a storm," remarked Jack, as he closed up theatlas.
CHAPTER XXXIX
JACK'S RADIO
Darkly violet under the light of the dawn-fading stars lay CastleIsland. Cradled in the heaving seas it was watched by scores of anxiouseyes on the _Tropic Queen_, now in her death struggle. The fire roomcrew was kept at work only by physical persuasion. The water was gainingfast now through the jagged wound in the craft's steel side.
In the soft radiance that precedes the first flush of a tropic dawn, thetwo young wireless men, their occupation gone, watched its notchedskyline grow into more definite shape.
As the light grew stronger, they saw that it was a bigger island thanthey had supposed. Vast chasms rent the sides of rock-ribbed mountains,and the place looked desolate and barren to a degree. Suddenly, too,Jack became aware of something they had not at first noticed.
From the summit of the rocky apex that topped the island, a smudge ofsmoke was blurred against the clear sky.
"The volcano!" exclaimed the boys in one breath.
"But I thought it was extinct," said Sam, in a dismayed voice. Thethought of being in the proximity of an active volcano was anything butpleasing to him.
"Extinct volcanoes smoke sometimes," said Jack. "I've read of several inMexico that do."
On the bridge, gray-faced from their long vigil, the ship's officersclustered about Captain McDonald, watched with anxiety the growingoutlines of the island.
"There are shoals of sand off to the southeast there," said the captain."I was here years ago when I was an apprentice on the old _Abner A.Jennings_. If we can reach them the old ship will lie easy unless badweather comes on."
The steamer crept slowly forward. She hardly seemed to move, in theminds of the impatient souls on board her. But at last the water beganto show green under her bows, signifying that she was getting into shoalwaters. On and on she crawled, till she was a scant quarter of a milefrom the mantling cliffs.
It was then that Captain McDonald sent word below to let the stokerscome on deck. It was none too soon. The men were working at pistol pointwith water up to their waists, when the word came to evacuate thestokehold. Even firearms could not have kept them in that water-filledblack pit much longer.
The engines were left running and a short time later, like a tiredchild, the _Tropic Queen_ cradled herself in a bed of soft sand and hervoyage was over. An impressive silence hung over the ship as shegrounded, which was not broken till the sharp orders that preceded herabandonment were issued.
Then all was bustle. The two remaining boats were lowered and the mensent ashore. At last all that were left on board were the officers andthe two wireless boys. The men had carried ashore provisions and canvasfor tents, and a stream of water that the first arrivals reported nearthe landing place, showed them that there was no danger of their goingthirsty.
It was just as Jack and Sam were preparing to get aboard the boat that astrange thing happened. The tall, slender form of a young woman appearedon deck. It was Miss Jarrold. An instant later De Garros joined her.
"Why, I thought you were on board the other boats!" exclaimed CaptainMcDonald, fairly startled out of his stoic calm.
"Like myself, Mr. De Garros elected to see this thing out," chimed inanother voice, and there was Colonel Minturn.
"So we stayed below while the other passengers were being taken off,"said the young aviator, "knowing that if there was any real danger wewould still be able to escape. A shipwreck was too exciting anexperience to miss."
"Well, if you want to make two fools of yourselves, I can't stop you,"said the captain, in slightly nettled tones. "But this young lady. Whatis she doing here?"
"Inasmuch as my uncle is a prisoner on this ship, it was my duty tostand by him," said the girl, firmly compressing her lips.
"But I specifically ordered that Mr. Jarrold be taken off in one of theboats," said the captain, in a bewildered tone.
"Then whoever you gave the orders to disregarded them," replied the girlcalmly. Then quite in a matter-of-fact voice she added, "Are we going tocamp on that island?"
"Till help comes, yes," replied the captain. "I will see that you have atent and are made as comfortable as possible, but of course you can'texpect luxuries."
An hour later they were all on shore. Captain McDonald made an addressto the men, who were quiet and orderly, telling them that the disciplinein the shore camp would be the same as on board the ship, and that lateron a consultation would be held and the best means of getting assistancedecided upon. They had two boats and it was likely that Mr. Metcalf, inone of them, might be sent to the mainland in quest of aid.
Castle Island was a dismal-looking spot, but the boys decided to makethe best of a bad business and set out, after a mid-day meal of cannedprovisions, coffee and crackers, for a walk along the beach. They didn'tfind much of interest, however. In fact they could hardly keep theireyes off the _Tropic Queen_, lying on the shoals helpless with smokelessfunnels, and listed heavily to port.
It was on the way back to camp that an odd thing happened. Sam waswalking slightly in advance. Suddenly he turned around on Jack: "Say,what are you doing?" he demanded. "Don't shove me."
"I didn't shove you," said Jack. "I felt the same thing. I----Gracious,it's the earth shaking!"
"Look, look at the volcano!" cried Sam suddenly.
Jack looked up at the towering, gaunt crest miles away, rearing to aninfinite height above them. An immense cloud of yellow, sulphuroussmoke, muddying the blue of the sky, was pouring from it.
The earth shook again sickeningly. White-faced, the boys hastened backto camp. They found Captain McDonald and the other men trying to quietthe fears of the crew, who fully believed that before night the volcanowould be in eruption, burying them, maybe, in lava. They succeededfairly well, but the men kept their eyes turned to the smoking crestalmost ceaselessly.
Miss Jarrold sat apart in front of her tent with her uncle, whose bondshad been taken off.
The day wore on and the tremors were repeated from time to time. Butnothing serious occurred. In fact, the marooned party began to grow usedto the shocks. It was arranged that early in the morning, Mr. Metcalf,with one of the boats and a picked crew, was to set out for the mainlandand summon help.
During the afternoon, to fend off his melancholy thoughts, Jack decidedto write down all that had happened since the eventful voyage of thelost liner started. He begged some paper from the purser, who gave him astack of duplicate manifests. He sat himself down, pencil in hand, andwas beginning to scribble, when he suddenly stopped short and satstaring at a sheet of paper that had fallen to the ground beside him.
His eyes were centered on an entry at the top of the page. There didn'tappear to be much about the entry to cause Jack's pulses to throb with awild hope and his heart to beat quicker, but they did. Here is what heread:
"To Don Jose de Ramon, Electric Supplies, Santa Marta. 10 storage batteries from Day, Martin & Co., New York."
Storage batteries!
Jack threw aside his writing and made for the purser.
"Where are those storage batteries for Santa Marta stored?" he asked.
"In hold Number One," was the reply. "They are on the top of the SantaMarta cargo."
"Can they be got at easily?" asked Jack.
"They are among the 'fragile' goods," was the reply, "on the port sideof the h
old. They were to be the first things ashore at Santa Marta. Butwhy do you want to know?"
"Oh, there's a reason, as the ads. say," laughed Jack.
That afternoon the two young wireless men spent in long and anxiousconsultation. Dark came, and from the volcano a lurid glare lit the sky,yet no heavy convulsions of the earth occurred. Supper was over and thesailors, after desperately trying to keep up their spirits by singing,turned in. Soon the whole camp was wrapped in silence. The only onesawake were Jack and Sam.
Silently, on the soft sand, the two lads crept from the camp. Aroundtheir waists they wore life belts taken from the boats, which lay on thesand where they had been pulled up. The inspiration that had come toJack when he read that entry on the manifest, was about to be put to thetest.
"You are sure you can swim it, Sam?" asked the boy as the two lads wadedinto the water with their eyes fixed on the black hull of the strandedsteamer.
"With this life jacket on I could swim round the Horn," declared Samconfidently.
"All right, then, here goes." Jack struck off into deep water, followedby Sam.
The water was almost warm and quite buoyant. It was a real pleasureswimming through it in the moonlight, while at every stroke thephosphorescence rippled glowingly from their arms and legs. They reachedthe ship almost before they knew it, and swam around her till they foundthe Jacob's ladder by which the descent to the boats had been made. Theyscrambled up this with the agility of monkeys, and then made their wayalong the steeply sloping decks till they reached the wireless room withits silent instruments. Everything there was in perfect order, exceptfor "juice" that was needed to wake them to life. And this Jack intendedto have in short order.