CHAPTER XVI
THE ESCAPE
"That was good business," said the leader of the five.
"And bad policy," broke in Ray.
"Shut your yap!" said the man. "And who was askin' your opines?"
"Oh, I've got a big heart for the miserable and ignorant," returned Ray.
"And a long tongue for a kid, I'm thinkin'," said the man.
"It'll be short when I get to talking to some purpose," snapped Ray.
"It's time we're shovin' them in the hole," said the leader now. "Darby,it'll be your watch first," he continued as they led us away.
In ten minutes we were at the foot of a hill, stumbling over roots, andstooping to avoid the branches.
"Now bend your backs an' come on," ordered the man in front.
We pushed through a tangle of growth, and next, stood in the cool of acave, as we saw by the light of the lantern. It was a room fifty orsixty feet across.
"Looks like there's been an earthquake in here," observed Ray.
The dirt of the floor, for the greater part, was in irregular mounds. Itwas evidently done with spade and pick, for nothing else would accountfor the condition it was in.
"They're hunting for treasure," I said in Ray's ear.
We sat crouched against the cool of one of the heaps.
The men had squatted close to the entrance. A bottle was produced.
"Here's two fingers to the success o' this new deal," said the leader,turning the bottle bottom up in the midst of his beard.
The flask went round to the others. One said--"Here's hopin' he'll comeback with the ten thousand." And another--"Here's wishin' him in h--l ifhe don't," as he drank.
"Well the kids' party ain't after our game, that's a comfort," said one,lighting his pipe.
"Why not turn the kids loose, an' so we'll get rid o' the whole mob o'them?"
"Why not? you says; an' you claim to have brains in that thing on yourshoulders! Now didn't our man with the money say as how his successdepended on keepin' the kids' party here a week, an' ain't our tenthousand dependin' on his success?"
"Well, he'll never come back with no ten thousand, success or nosuccess."
"Maybe no, but I'm willin' to take a chance on it, since the chance isso cheap."
They soon fell into discussion of other topics.
"Granddaddy Par always said it was buried in three places. Now becausesome others have been before us in this cave, it's no sign they havebeen before us in the other places. If I hadn't been such a little kidwhen he showed me that map, and said as how he'd take me with him someday an' go after the stuff--it was always 'some day,' and the rheumatiznever left him till he died. As I was sayin', if I hadn't been such alittle kid, I'd made a copy o' the map."
"It's queer you can't remember nothin' on the map."
"I see it in my dreams, times; but when I wakes it's all gone. But Ithink we're on the right track. That old harpoon grown tight in thatcrotch o' the tree, pointin' over to the two trees, blazed, wasn't fornothin'."
"How do ye know them's blazes on the trees?"
"It's plain ye ain't no woodsman. They ain't nothin' can cause suchmarks 'cept blazin'. An' the best thing about it--there ain't been nodiggin' anywhere in that place."
And so they continued till the bottle was finished, and all had dozedoff except the man they called Darby, who came over and had a good lookat our bonds.
Ray and I were wakened by voices. The treasure-hunters were allstirring, preparing to go off to their day's digging. One they calledStephen Conry remained to be our guard. He brought us food when theothers had gone.
"Now, ye'll not monkey with the ropes," said our guard, examining theknots on our limbs, after having given our hands freedom. "I'm quick onthe trigger when I'm mad. So no gum games on Conry. Heed that!"
"Oh! I wouldn't part with these ropes for anything," said Ray. "I'mgetting so used to them I couldn't sleep without them. I'd be afraidsomeone would kidnap me if I didn't have them."
The man stared, lacking humor.
"You'd be none the worse off, if you turned us loose," I told the man."And you'll be no better off if you keep us. That man will never comeback. He isn't the kind--"
"We ain't goin' to discuss that," returned the man. "We'll turn you twoloose, 'none the worse off,' when the time's up, not afore." And he wentback to the entrance of the cave, leaving the lighted lantern on a box.
My mind was taken with painful reveries. Our party was now facingfailure again. Here had Duran got the two of us hidden in a place, ournew guards declared, would never be found out by our friends. Never is along time, you'll say. But suppose our party was to delay two or threedays in the search for us? Would not Duran then be off beyondpossibility of following, and so gain to the mine without fear ofdetection? That he had much reason to fear our pursuit there had beenample evidence. And now he had paid five thousand dollars to these mento hold us--and thus indirectly to hold all our party--for a week, thathe might safely hie away to finish enriching himself from the mine ofthe Brills.
These reflections made me squirm with impatience. Some way must be foundto accomplish escape before night, for then Duran would surely be off,and all of us undone. Our guard, I saw, kept a sharp eye out, so wedurst not even look at our bonds.
A little before noon, John Mullins, the leader of the treasure-hunters,came crawling into the cave, chuckling over a bit of news.
"And what do you think, Steve? The kids' friends have been 'round,askin' if we'd seen anything of them. There was three on 'em; a bigfellow with a rifle and two kids. He said it was two boys they waslookin' for. I says I ain't never seen no boys on this island 'cept themhe had with him. An' then he wants to know if we'd seen some blackcannibals, an' a white cannibal amongst 'em. Think o' that, Steve,cannibals!
"'Lor' bless you!' I says, 'there ain't no cannibals in this part o' theworld!'
"'Well,' says he, 'you can take it from me as how there's no less'n adozen cannibals on this here island now, an' a white skunk is theirleader.' Now what do you think o' that, Steve Conry?"
"I--I don't rightly make it out," said Steve, ruminating--scratching hishead. "They must o' had their bellies full when they left the kids withus to keep. Now do you suppose," went on Steve with a new thought, "ashow maybe they mean to come back at the end o' the week we was to keepthe kids, an' that then they're expectin' to have their appetites again,an' eat the kids--an' then eat us too, an' get back the five thousan' toboot?"
I nudged Ray at this, and got a poke in return.
"Ha! That's all bosh," laughed the other. "They ain't no more cannibalsthan you an' me. The feller was just tryin' to scare us--maybe thoughthe'd get us to help them against the black crowd--whatever the game is,but I let him see John Mullins wasn't born yesterday, and not frightenedo' bogey stories. So when he saw it was no use he just moved on. Well,Steve, you go an' get your grub, an' bring a snack for the kids. We gotto keep 'em fed up for the cannibals." And he laughed at his joke.
Steve disappeared through the hole, and Mullins turned to Ray andmyself.
"I reckon your friends 'd pay a nice little wad to get ye back," heventured.
"I reckon they wouldn't," I promptly told him. I began to fear he mighttry them, and perhaps find Julian too willing to offer a reward for us.I had another idea than that.
"Oh, you don't think they would, hey?" said Mullins, a bit taken abackby my answer. "I thought," he said, "they was kind o' keen to get ye."
The thought of that piece of indelible pencil in my pocket rose in mymind again. "Well, they might if I was to write them a note telling themto."
"Oh," said Mullins, "if you was to write them a note." He ruminated."Now that would be tellin' them we knew where you was. Well, we'll thinkabout it a day or two."
A day or two, I thought, wouldn't suit our book.
Steve had soon returned, and Mullins went out. Our guard came to see toour bonds; and he twisted his head in a way that told me he hadsomething on his mind.
"These here niggers," he began, "they ain't no cannibals, I reckon?"
"Well, they sure are," said Ray. "I reckon we ought to know."
The man looked to me, as if for my verification.
"Yes, they're cannibals," I told him. And then went on to relate to himsomething of the doings that night in the forest, recounting how I'dseen Duran with the knife at the throat of the child, and the kettle forthe boiling of the human meat. And I was careful to tell him about thegrown man who had been buried alive, and in the night disinterred by thevoodoos who had torn out his heart and lungs to be devoured. I assuredhim I had looked on the wife of the man, while she told the story, whichhad been verified by others. My story, being fact, rang true, and Icould see the man was nine parts convinced, and not a little frightened.
A number of things had come under my observation. Our guard kept a knifeon a little ledge by the entrance to the cave, which knife he used tocut tobacco for his pipe. And it was the practice to tie our hands tightwith thongs whenever the guard wished to leave the cave for a minute ortwo. While the man, Steve--he was the weakest of the five--smoked hispipe near the entrance and ruminated over the story I'd told him, Iwhispered to Ray, giving him a plan I had for escape. Our present guardwas to remain on till the next morning, when he would be relieved by onecalled Joseph Glasby.
Once, when Steve Conry came to set the thongs on our wrists preparatoryto a turn outside, Ray showed a pair of sore wrists--he had contrivedthe marks--and begged that he would not pull the strings so tight as tocrucify him that way. The man was impressed, and the thongs were set abit looser.
When the guard was gone, Ray tugged for a moment, and--"It's easy," hesaid, and he held up his hand. His hands were thin, a little easing ofthe knot, and he slipped them out of the thongs. But we heard the guardcoming, and he slipped his hands back into his bonds again.
"They're a long time away," grumbled Conry. "I'm gettin' tired o' this."
"Where are they gone?" said Ray.
"They've gone to have a look at the ships--your friends' an' the otherone," he said. "There's too much o' this puttin' things on--"
His grumbling was cut short. There occurred some kind of concussion,that shook the earth. Particles fell from the roof of the cave to thefloor.
"An earthquake!" shouted Ray.
Conry jumped erect. And the next moment he was scrambling out throughthe hole.
"Now, Ray!" I said.
Ray had his hands out. He rolled to the entrance, got up to the knife.In a half minute both of us were free of our bonds. I grasped a box ofmatches, then blew out the lantern light.
Conry came crawling back into the cave.
"Humph! What's come o' the light," grunted Conry.
When he went groping for the lantern, Ray and I scrambled out. We wereastonished to find it was night, when we came into the open. We hurriedthrough the forest, not caring what the direction, till we should besafely away from the region.
We made what speed we could for a considerable time amongst theundergrowth; and when at last we came to an open space, we heard thesurf close by. And we were a good deal taken aback to see a schoonerlying at anchor, some way off from the beach, in the small harbor. Thebright moonlight showed her outlines plain to us, and she was neitherthe _Pearl_ nor the _Orion_. We had traveled in a circle apparently; andthere came the shouting voice of Stephen Conry, nearby, calling hiscomrades.
"We're back almost where we started from," said Ray.
"Yes," I said. "We'll have to go by the moon, now, or we'll not getanywhere."
We plunged again into the forest, and were careful to keep the moon onour left; this insured our holding our course in a westerly direction.We kept, too, as much as possible to the higher ground, for the goingwas easier, there being less undergrowth to tangle our feet.
We hadn't been twenty minutes struggling on, when we were startled by avoice just before us. I seized Ray by the arm and dragged him with meinto a thick bush.
"It's just like I've been a tellin' ye. The kids' friends tried to sinkthe other schooner," said the voice of Mullins.
"An' I've been axin' ye," spoke another voice, "for why would they besuddenly--now--be wantin' to sink them. Why didn't they try it afore,if--"
The voices were lost in the forest, as the men went back the way Ray andI had come. We took up our march again, and a half hour had not gonewhen we arrived at the western end of the island, and stood under thecocoanut palms, looking on the two schooners, the _Pearl_ and the_Orion_. A little breeze rippled the waters of the bay. No lights showedon either vessel.
"Doesn't she look good?" said Ray.
"Yes," I assented. "I wish we were aboard."
I led the way up the beach to the north a piece. We wove a bit ofmatting of palm fans, for a screen; and then soon had collected some drywood for a signal-fire. We selected our fireplace at the edge of thepalms, and so disposed the screen that the fire would be visible to the_Pearl_ but not to the _Orion_.
A match was struck; we had a blaze. Using my shirt, I let out flashafter flash for the benefit of those on the _Pearl_; and we watched foran answer. For a considerable time we fed the fire, signalled, andwatched. But no answering flash came. "Looks like they're dead,"grumbled Ray.
"That Mullins didn't talk like it," I returned. "Well, they'll look thisway yet!" And I continued to signal.
Then suddenly we heard voices down the beach. Fortunately it was on thescreened side of the fire.
"Quick, Ray!" I said. And we buried the fire in sand. We grasped thescreen and fled into the brush.
"It's Mullins and his crowd again," I said.
"They've come looking for us," observed Ray.
We went a little way to the north in the forest, and came again to thebeach.
"There's a boat from the _Pearl_!" said Ray.
The boat was moving fast toward the beach.
"They're already too far in to signal them," I said. "Let's swim downand crawl to the boat while they're talking with Mullins and his gang."
We entered the water. The little waves helped to keep our headsinvisible. We kept out from the beach till we were in line with the boatand the group on shore. It was then we moved directly to the boat, andgot our heads close under the gunwale. I then rose close to a thole andpeeped over. The moon was fairly bright.
I could see Robert and Julian between the group and the boat. I gave alow whistle intended to carry only so far as to the boys. Twice Irepeated it. Then Robert started. Once more I whistled low. Robert nowjoined Julian, and the two came into the boat.
They made of themselves a screen for us, while Ray and I climbed in. Andwe lay ourselves down under the thwarts.