THE CAPTIVE'S WARNING.
The captive was the first to break the picture. With a violent wrench he
freed himself of the arms of his captors, while the boys gazed in dumb
amazement at the unexpected encounter.
"What's this here buccaneer bein' a' doing of now?" demanded Ben, after
a few seconds.
"We 'uns caught him trying to scuttle you 'uns canoes," explained one of
the crackers, "and we calculate to have him decorating a tree-bough by
sundown on our own account. We don't like live strangers round here."
The face of the man we know as Nego grew as yellow as parchment. There
was little doubt from the expressions of the moonshiners' faces that
they were quite capable of carrying out their threat. In fact a murmur
of approval greeted the cold-blooded proposal. One man--a little short
fellow with a tangle of black whiskers that reached to his waist--even
pointed to a custard apple-tree that grew at the edge of the clearing
and remarked casually:
"He'd look uncommon well decorating that thar tree I'm thinking."
After the boys had made insistent demands to be given the details of
Nego's capture they were finally informed that a group of the
moonshiners, who had been off wild-hog hunting, had been much surprised
to see the motor-boat manoeuvring off the point on the far side of which
the boys had beached the canoes. They stealthily watched the two men who
were in the craft from the screen provided by the mangroves. One of
them--the man they had captured,--continually scanned the shore with a
pair of field-glasses.
"They must have known we had left the sloop and come in pursuit of us,"
exclaimed Frank and Harry in one breath as the narrator reached this
point of his story.
After rounding the point it appeared that the watchers, who had been
sneaking along through the undergrowth, saw Nego order the boat's head
pointed for the shore and when she was fairly close in, get into a small
dinghy that towed astern and come ashore at the spot where the canoes
were lying. He carried a small axe and was about to raise it and destroy
the craft when the crackers, with a startling yell, burst out of the
woods and made him a captive. The other man must have seen his comrade's
plight, for he instantly headed the motor-boat about and giving her full
speed vanished round the projection on the coast of the island.
The boys' faces paled as a common thought flashed across their minds.
"What if the two men had visited the sloop and scuttled her or destroyed
the _Golden Eagle II_?"
Harry was the first to voice their fears. Frank's answer, however, gave
the adventurers a gleam of hope.
"That occurred to me, Harry," he replied, "but, on thinking it over, I
think it is more likely that they planned to destroy the canoes before
attacking the _Carrier Dove_, as with the small craft stove in they
would be able to work without fear of our paddling back and surprising
them."
They agreed that this was a reasonable theory and turned their attention
to the captive who stood defiantly with folded arms and a sneering
expression on his dark face. He looked very different from the
well-dressed man who had first attracted their attention in the
dining-room at the Hotel Willard, but he was unmistakably the same
despite the fact that now his chin was covered with a heavy stubble and
he wore rough clothes and a dark blue flannel shirt.
"Who are you?" demanded Frank finally.
The dark man raised his eyebrows and as he did so the boys noticed at
once the cause of his peculiar expression. The man's eyes were almost
almond-shaped, dark and malevolent looking--the eyes of an Oriental.
Combined with his dark yellow skin they stamped him at once as an
unmistakable subject of the ruler of the far Eastern power the agents of
which the Secretary of the Navy was certain, had kidnapped Lieutenant
Chapin and stolen the formula of his explosive. When he spoke it was in
a rasping voice that matched well his general appearance of sinister
energy.
"What if I should refuse to tell you?" he grated.
"In that case you would be very foolish," rejoined Frank, "you are now
in the power of these men, over whom we have some influence. If you will
give us some information we will in return try to intervene for you,
notwithstanding the fact that you have tried to blow up our aerodrome
and now we find you here attempting to scuttle our canoes. What have you
done with the colored man you took from the sloop last night?" he
demanded suddenly.
"To that I shall simply reply that he is in good hands," was the
rejoinder.
"Not if he's got anything to do with you, he ain't, my fine fellow," put
in Ben indignantly. The man looked at him with cold contempt.
"You may do with me what you will," he said proudly, "I shall not sue
Americans for my liberty or even my life."
The boys were amazed at the cool audacity of the man. With death staring
him in the face, surrounded by the cruel faces of men who would have no
hesitancy in killing him, he showed no more trace of emotion than if he
were still sitting eavesdropping in the Willard dining-room.
"We 'uns will find a way to make him talk," broke in one of the
moonshiners, a big, powerful fellow. "Here, Shadduck, heat up the
gun-barrels."
The boys looked puzzled, but Ben realized at once the horrible thing the
man contemplated. They meant to brand the prisoner with the red-hot
gun-barrels.
"Avast there," he cried, "none of that in this yere ship. Fair play and
all above board. If you want to string up this fellow to the yard-arm I
don't know, if it wasn't for my friends here, that I'd say 'no,' but we
ain't going to have no branding."
"Who are you to be giving orders?" demanded the man who had made the
suggestion angrily and leaning forward on his rifle, "I reckon we 'uns
ain't asking for your advice or figgering on taking it either."
Several of the younger men muttered, "That's right--who's he to come
here 'a ordering us about."
"I wouldn't put it past yer that you're turned a revenue," went on the
first speaker following up his advantage. At this an angry cry went up.
The boys and Ben perceived that matters would soon reach a crisis if
something were not done. Ben, however, knew how to handle these people
better than his young companions imagined.
With two quick steps he was alongside the trouble-maker and seizing him
in an iron grasp put his face close to his and fairly hissed in his ear:
"Look a here, 'Red' Mavell, one more word like that and you're as good
as dead--understand?"
The other apparently did for he sullenly muttered:
"Ain't no use a gettin' het up. You know the way we do these things an'
if you don't like 'em you don't have to stay and watch."
During this scene Nego had stood as impassively as if carved out of
wood. Indeed with his parchment-like skin and dark, slit eyes he did
resemble an Oriental ivory image almost as much as a human being.
It was of course evident to him that escape was impossible. Rugged,
wild-eyed moonshiners stood all about him and the women even had come
out of the huts, with their timid children peeping from behind their
skirts, to be onlookers at the unwonted scene. The captive retained his
posture of proud defiance in the face of this. His bearing was even
insolent in fact.
"Look here, mates," went on Ben, turning suddenly to the boys, "we don't
want to have any hand in killing this here reptile--much reason as we've
got to--and we don't want him to be tortured, and I'll be keelhauled if
we want to keep him," he glanced ferociously at the captive, "the only
thing to do is to turn him loose."
The captive's face lost its impassivity for a moment. So completely had
Ben's determined manner cowed the more ruffianly moonshiners that even
they did not demur.
"But there's a string hitched to the offer," went on Ben, "if we do let
yer go you've got to make tracks in that thar motor-boat of yours for
the north and swear to follow us no further. And tell us what you've
done with that thar poor coon."
"Yes, that is our proposal," said Frank, "if we get you out of the hands
of these people you will have to pledge us your word to trail us no
further and to leave this part of the country at once--will you do
that?"
"If we were only north we'd have you in jail by this time," put in Billy
angrily.
The man was silent for a moment with his eyes downcast, then he looked
up but with some of the expression of sullen cunning obliterated from
his dark face at least temporarily. It was plain the Americans'
generosity had affected him.
"I do promise--yes," he said quietly. "My companion was to wait for me
in the motor-boat till I signaled to him that I was going to put off
again. If you will let me go I promise to go straight on board and never
trouble you again."
"But they said your companion put about and drove the boat round the
point when he saw your capture," objected Harry.
The other smiled.
"Simply a measure of prudence," he said. "I can easily signal him with
this," he drew from his pocket a small whistle, of the shrill kind known
to seafaring men as the "bos'n's pipe."
"But," he went on in a grave tone, "I want to do something to repay you
for your kindness which I confess I do not understand--you Americans are
a queer people."
"Blame lucky for you we are," snorted Ben, who didn't much like the cool
way the captive took his good fortune.
"Do not fear for your negro. He is safe. We put him ashore this morning,
and by this time he must be at your camp. We only carried him off in an
attempt to prevent his giving the alarm. But," and his voice sank to a
whisper, "give this attempt up. Do not go into the Everglades."
Frank gazed at him in astonishment. The tone he used was full of import.
"Grave danger threatens you there," the other went on, "more than
danger--death itself and in a terrible form. As for me I have pledged
you my word. I am your country's enemy, but I know brave and generous
men when I see them; you have no more to fear from me----"
"Well, you haven't done us much harm anyway," Frank could not refrain
from saying, "though I'll admit you have tried," he added.
"I have but been the agent for others more powerful, more unscrupulous
and more to be feared than I," the other replied, "even now your coming
is being looked for."
"Then you did spy on us in Washington," cried Frank.
"I did, and telegraphed my report to my superiors," replied the man, "it
was my duty. We soldiers of the Samurai know no word but duty when we
are assigned to a task."
"Then you are an officer?" asked Frank.
"I am in the Onaki regiment. I fought through the Russian war and was
afterward given the honor to assist in the enterprise which you are
about to try to frustrate."
"I don't see much honor in what you and your countrymen have done,"
rejoined Frank warmly; "it looks to me like plain everyday stealing and
worse."
"Perhaps," replied the other with a slight shrug. "Our points of view
are different. Now," he said abruptly, "I must be going. We must be well
on our way north by dark for the inland channels are very intricate to
navigate in and our boat draws a good deal of water.
"Recollect what I have said and be warned," he repeated impressively.
As he spoke there came a low growl of thunder in the distance and a
heavy splotch of rain fell on the back of Frank's hand. They all looked
up astonished. So engrossed had they been by the remarkable scene that
had just transpired that they had not noticed that for some time the sky
had been growing blacker and that one of the sudden storms, peculiar to
the tropics, had been advancing towards them with all the rapidity that
marks the advent of a "Black Squall," as they are sometimes called. The
sky had in a few minutes become overcast completely with an ominous
slate-colored pall. A hush as if of expectancy had fallen on the jungle
about them.
"You are likely to get a ducking if you don't git aboard before this
yere squall breaks," growled Ben as his seaman's eye noted the signs of
bad weather. The Oriental swept the overcast sky with a quick glance. He
nodded.
"Good-bye and thank you," he said, and the next minute, guided by one of
the moonshiners, he vanished down the trail leading to the shore. The
moonshiners turned to the adventurers with sardonic looks as he
disappeared.
"You 'uns might better have let us hang him," said one of them, "he'll
work you a pesky lot of mischief yet."
"I don't believe he will trouble us any more," rejoined Frank, who had
been impressed by the man's earnest manner and evident gratitude. How
soon and how literally his words were to be fulfilled he little
imagined.