Working under his directions, Sam broke into the storeroom where suchsupplies were kept by the ship's electricians, and got two huge coils ofinsulated wire. Carrying these, he followed Jack, who bore a lantern, toNumber One hold. It had been broken open at Kingston and the battens hadonly been loosely replaced for the run to Santa Marta, so that it was aneasy matter to gain access to the hold.
Down the steep iron ladder they climbed till they stood among high-piledboxes and bales. Jack flashed his lantern about and at last uttered acry of triumph.
"There they are," he cried, pointing to some big boxes labeled, "Jose deRamon, Santa Marta."
"Now for the test," chimed in Sam.
The boys attacked the cases vigorously with hatchets they had broughtwith them, and soon had the ten powerful storage batteries exposed.
"Now get to work, Sam," said Jack, producing some pliers and seizinghold of a coil of wire.
CHAPTER XL
THE ANSWER TO THE WIRELESS CALL
Most of my readers have, in all probability, by this time guessed Jack'splan. It was nothing more nor less than to harness up the powerfulstorage batteries to the wireless apparatus, and thus secure a wavethat, while not as strong as the one from the ship's dynamos, would yetreach for two hundred miles or more.
This was the inspiration that had come to him when his eye had fallen onthe momentous entry on the manifest. The boys worked feverishly. At lastthe batteries were connected, and it only remained to run the wires tothe instruments in the wireless room. Then would come the supreme test.
At last everything was "hooked up" to Jack's satisfaction, and he sathimself down at the key. He knew that his wave lengths would not be veryheavy nor his radius large, but he calculated on the fact that alreadythis part of the ocean was alive with scout cruisers and warshipshunting for the _Endymion_.
With a beating heart and a choking sensation in his throat, he seizedthe key. Sam could not speak for excitement and suspense, but leanedbreathlessly over his chum's shoulder.
Downward Jack pressed the key.
A simultaneous shout burst from both boys' throats. The wireless wasalive once more!
A green spark, like an emerald serpent, leaped from point to point ofthe sender. With swift, practiced fingers Jack began sending abroad themessage of disaster and the appeal for rescue.
Almost the entire night passed away without any answer reaching hisears, although he ran the gamut of the wireless tuning board. He beganto fear that the current was too weak to reach any of the ships that heknew were scouring the sea for the Endymion, when suddenly, in responseto his S.O.S., came a sharp, powerful:
"Yes--Yes--Yes."
"Oh, glory!" cried Jack. "I've got a battleship! I know it by thesending."
"This is the _Tropic Queen_," he flashed out. "We are wrecked on CastleIsland. Send help quickly. Rush aid. We are----"
A loud, terrified cry from Sam interrupted him. Through the door thewhole sky could be seen a flaming, lurid red. The stranded ship shook asif in the grip of cruel giant hands. The boys were thrown helter skelterabout the sloping cabin floor.
The place gleamed with the glaring, crimson light. A dreadful roaringsound filled their ears. The sands beneath them appeared to heave up anddown in sickening waves like those of the unquiet sea.
Then came a vast uproar, and the two terror-stricken boys clawed theirway out on the slanting deck. They looked toward the island. The skyabove it was blood red. The rugged sky-line of its peaks stood outblackly against the scarlet glare. The air was full of a gas that burnedthe throat and choked the lungs.
"It's the volcano!" cried Jack. "The volcano! Look!"
But Sam was clutching the other's arm and pointing frantically seaward.Rolling toward them, its foaming head crimsoned by the lambent glare ofthe volcano, was a giant wave.
"Into the wireless room. Quick! For your life!" screamed Jack.
They scrambled up the sloping deck and threw themselves flat on theirfaces in the coop, clinging to stanchions with a death-like grip. Thenext instant there was a roar like a thousand Niagaras. They felt thesolid fabric of the _Tropic Queen_ lifted dizzily skyward, while tons ofwater roared down on her. Then there came a sickening crash that shookthe boys loose from their grips and sent them rolling about the cabin.The door was burst open and they staggered out on the deck. The _TropicQueen_ was almost upright now, with her bottom smashed in till she stoodflat upon her bare ribs in the soft sand.
Jack could see, by the glare of the burning mountain, the bleakfigures of men far up among the rocks. The tidal wave, then, had beenseen in time for some of them, at least, to save themselves. He hadjust time to observe this when before his eyes the sea suckedoutward--outward--outward. The ocean floor rose into view, all crimsonedfrom the flaming volcano. He could see gaunt rocks uncovered for thefirst time since the creation, perhaps, sticking up blackly in theslimy depths.
And then the sea came back! Out in the far distance across the exposedflats a mighty wave shouldered itself. Its body and huge hollow incurvewas black, but its crest was glowing with reflected flame. Jack gave oneglance ashore. He could see black figures scuttling high up the rocks.
They had just time to rush into the wireless room, with its steel wallsand stout foundations bolted to the iron superstructure, when, with aroar, the mighty wave swept landward. Jack and Sam felt the _TropicQueen_ lifted and rushed toward the shore, then lifted again and againand again till it seemed impossible that anything man-made could resistthe awful force.
But at last the ship grounded with a shuddering, sidewise motion thatseemed like a last expiring gasp. The boys ventured forth. The ship waslying on the beach almost at the foot of the cliffs. Her funnels andmasts had vanished, snapped off like pipe stems. She lay a sheer,miserable hulk in the flaring light of the volcano.
Seaward, the waves were breaking tumultuously, but the tidal wave hadspent its fury. Dizzy, sick and battered the boys made their way overthe side of the lost liner and crept up the beach. It was littered withthe smashed fragments of the two boats and the remnants of the hastilyabandoned camp.
Through the glowing darkness a figure came toward them.
"Great heavens, boys, is it you?" they heard.
"Yes, Captain," rejoined Jack. "We've come ashore."
"Thank Heaven you are safe! We are all right except for four poorsailors who did not awaken in time. But where have you been? How did youget on board?"
"We swam out," said Jack simply, "and had just got out a wireless callwhen the big blow-up came."
"A wireless call! Are you out of your head, boy?"
"By no means," said Jack. "We got out a call, and, better still, got ananswer. I don't know what ship it was, but it was a naval craft. I gaveour position and then came the tidal wave."
"It is our only chance," said the captain. "Both boats were, of course,smashed, and we are marooned till aid comes."
It was the next night. The disconsolate castaways were huddled near thepathetic wreck of the lost liner. Food had been obtained from on board,so that there was no actual suffering, but the volcano still glared andrumbled and at any moment a disastrous eruption was to be feared.
De Garros and Miss Jarrold stood together apart from the rest.
"And your uncle's influence over you is broken forever if we ever escapefrom this?" he was asking.
She nodded.
"That time in Paris when he tried to persuade you to give up theaeronautical plans was when I first began to mistrust him. I neverthought I should see you again after our engagement was broken off, butfate has brought us together. It has been like a dream," she went on. "Ithink sometimes that he exercised a hypnotic influence over me. But Iknow it all now and can see things clearly."
De Garros was about to answer, when suddenly his body stiffened. Hepointed to the northern horizon.
"There," he cried. "Look there!"
His excitement was mounting high.
"See," he shouted, "that white light! It's sweeping the sky! What i
sit?"
Far off, a faint pencil of light swung across the zenith as if on apivot. It dipped to the horizon, rose again and swung like a radiantpendulum across the sky.
"Signals," the girl choked out. "It's a searchlight!"
From the seamen there came a hoarse cheer.
"It's a battleship! She's signaling!" shouted Jack in a voice thatshook. "It's Morse!"
He took a long breath or two. Then he choked out the message that wasflung on the sky.
"Courage! We are coming!"
And then pandemonium broke loose. Under the glaring sky, seamen dancedand shouted and the other members of the party shook hands. Only Jarroldstood silent and aloof, looking at his niece and De Garros. It was as ifhe knew that his hold over her was broken forever, and that theapproaching warships, speeding to the rescue, meant for him shackles andiron bars.
The scene shifts to Colon harbor. Into port are steaming the_Birmingham_, scout cruiser, and the _Wasp_, torpedo destroyer, thecraft that rescued the castaways of Castle Island. Already by wirelessthe story of the lost liner and the wonderful resourcefulness of JackReady and Sam Smalley has gone out to the world. Big crowds are waitingto meet the rescuing warships. Among them are the military attaches towhom Colonel Minturn, thanks to Jack, will be able to hand the Panamadocuments so nearly lost forever.
At the stern of the _Wasp_, under the ensign, are standing Jarrold'sniece and De Garros. He is telling her that Colonel Minturn has promisedto intercede for her uncle, and that in all probability he will bedeported with a warning never to tread American soil again, in place ofbeing imprisoned. Nations do not care to advertise their troubles withinternational spies, if it can be avoided.
Jack and Sam, on board the _Birmingham_, stand happily by the wirelessoperator of the cruiser. He is taking a message. Presently he turns tothem.
"Some news that will interest you, fellows," he says. "All the boatsfrom the _Tropic Queen_ have been picked up, without the loss of asingle passenger."
"Good work!" exclaim the two listeners heartily.
"And the _Endymion_," continues the operator, "has been in port for aweek, and her crew and captain are detained pending an inquiry."
"Well, I guess they'll get out of the scrape, all right," says Jack,"for they didn't know what schemes Jarrold was up to when he charteredthe yacht."
"What about Cummings?" asks Sam.
"So far as I am concerned, I shall take no action," replies Jack. "Allthat I am anxious for now is for a sight of the good old U. S. A. andUncle Toby and----"
"Somebody named Helen," chuckles Sam, while Jack turns red under histan.
And here, with their adventures on the lost liner at an end, we will sayfarewell to our ocean wireless boys till we encounter them again in aforthcoming volume dealing with their further stirring adventures at theradio key.
THE END.
BOY AVIATORS' SERIES
By Captain Wilbur Lawton
Absolutely Modern Stories for Boys
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THE BOY AVIATORS IN NICARAGUA, Or, Leagued With Insurgents
The launching of this Twentieth Century series marks the inauguration of a new era in boys' books--the "wonders of modern science" epoch. Frank and Harry Chester, the _Boy Aviators_, are the heroes of this exciting, red-blooded tale of adventure by air and land in the turbulent Central American republic. The two brothers with their $10,000 prize aeroplane, the _Golden Eagle_, rescue a chum from death in the clutches of the Nicaraguans, discover a lost treasure valley of the ancient Toltec race, and in so doing almost lose their own lives in the Abyss of the White Serpents, and have many other exciting experiences, including being blown far out to sea in their air-skimmer in a tropical storm. It would be unfair to divulge the part that wireless plays in rescuing them from their predicament. In a brand new field of fiction for boys the Chester brothers and their aeroplane seem destined to fill a top-notch place. These books are technically correct, wholesomely thrilling and geared up to third speed.
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By Captain Wilbur Lawton
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THE BOY AVIATORS ON SECRET SERVICE, Or, Working With Wireless
In this live-wire narrative of peril and adventure, laid in the Everglades of Florida, the spunky Chester Boys and their interesting chums, including Ben Stubbs, the maroon, encounter exciting experiences on Uncle Sam's service in a novel field. One must read this vivid, enthralling story of incident, hardship and pluck to get an idea of the almost limitless possibilities of the two greatest inventions of modern times--the aeroplane and wireless telegraphy. While gripping and holding the reader's breathless attention from the opening words to the finish, this swift-moving story is at the same time instructive and uplifting. As those readers who have already made friends with Frank and Harry Chester and their 'bunch' know, there are few difficulties, no matter how insurmountable they may seem at first blush, that these up-to-date gritty youths cannot overcome with flying colors. A clean-cut, real boys' book of high voltage.
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By Captain Wilbur Lawton
Absolutely Modern Stories for Boys
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THE BOY AVIATORS IN AFRICA, Or, An Aerial Ivory Trail
In this absorbing book we meet, on a Continent made famous by the American explorer Stanley, and ex-President Roosevelt, our old friends, the Chester Boys and their stalwart chums. In Africa--the Dark Continent--the author follows in exciting detail his young heroes, their voyage in the first aeroplane to fly above the mysterious forests and unexplored ranges of the mystic land. In this book, too, for the first time, we entertain Luther Barr, the old New York millionaire, who proved later such an implacable enemy of the boys. The story of his defeated schemes, of the astonishing things the boys discovered in the Mountains of the Moon, of the pathetic fate of George Desmond, the emulator of Stanley, the adventure of the Flying Men and the discovery of the Arabian Ivory cache,--this is not the place to speak. It would be spoiling the zest of an exciting tale to reveal the outcome of all these episodes here. It may be said, however, without "giving away" any of the thrilling chapters of this narrative, that Captain Wilbur Lawton, the author, is in it in his best vein, and from his personal experiences in Africa has been able to supply a striking background for the adventures of his young heroes. As one newspaper says of this book: "Here is adventure in good measure, pressed down and running over."
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By Captain Wilbur Lawton
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THE BOY AVIATORS TREASURE QUEST, Or, The Golden Galleon
Everybody is a boy once more when it comes to the question of hidden treasure. In this book, Captain Lawton has set forth a hunt for gold that is concealed neither under the sea nor beneath the earth, but is well hidden for all that. A garrulous old sailor, who holds the key to the mystery of the Golden Galleon, plays a large part in the development of the plot of this fascinating narrative of treasure hunting in the region of the Gulf Stream and the Sagasso Sea. An aeroplane fitted with efficient pontoons--enabling her to skim the water successfully--has long been a dream of aviators. The Chester Boys seem to have solved the problem. The Sagasso, that strange drifting ocean within an ocean, holding ships of a dozen nations and a score of ages, in its relentless grip, has been the subject of many books of adventure and mystery, but in none has the secret of the ever shifting mass of treacherous currents been penetrated as it has in the BOY AVIATORS TREASURE QUEST. Luther Barr, who
m it seemed the boys had shaken off, is still on their trail, in this absorbing book and with a dirigible balloon, essays to beat them out in their search for the Golden Galleon. Every boy, every man--and woman and girl--who has ever felt the stirring summons of adventure in their souls, had better get hold of this book. Once obtained, it will be read and re-read till it falls to rags.
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By Captain Wilbur Lawton
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THE BOY AVIATORS IN RECORD FLIGHT, Or, The Rival Aeroplane
The Chester Boys in new field of endeavor--an attempt to capture a newspaper prize for a trans-continental flight. By the time these lines are read, exactly such an offer will have been spread broadcast by one of the foremost newspapers of the country. In the Golden Eagle, the boys, accompanied by a trail-blazing party in an automobile, make the dash. But they are not alone in their aspirations. Their rivals for the rich prize at stake try in every way that they can to circumvent the lads and gain the valuable trophy and monetary award. In this they stop short at nothing, and it takes all the wits and resources of the Boy Aviators to defeat their devices. Among the adventures encountered in their cross-country flight, the boys fall in with a band of rollicking cow-boys--who momentarily threaten serious trouble--are attacked by Indians, strike the most remarkable town of the desert--the "dry" town of "Gow Wells," encounter a sandstorm which blows them into strange lands far to the south of their course, and meet with several amusing mishaps beside. A thoroughly readable book. The sort to take out behind the barn on the sunny side of the haystack, and, with a pocketful of juicy apples and your heels kicking the air, pass, happy hours with Captain Lawton's young heroes.