THE BLACK SQUALL.
The boys were so engrossed in discussing the sudden conversion of their
late enemy to a friend--or at least to no longer a source of
menace--that it was not till a good ten minutes later that Frank
suddenly exclaimed:
"The canoes!"
The spot where they had drawn them up was near the margin of the sea and
the heavy waves that the approaching storm would stir up would be sure
to swamp them if they were not moved from their present position.
"Come on, boys, we've got to hurry," shouted Ben, and followed by the
young adventurers he dashed off down the trail that the others had
traversed a few minutes previously. They reached the shore just in time
to hear three shrill blasts from the released captive's whistle. He was
in his small boat about a hundred yards off shore and looking anxiously
about. He had good reason to. The thunder-growls were coming nearer, and
far to the south, across the dark cloud curtains, great jagged flashes
of lightning were ripping and tearing. The sea, too, was beginning to
rise with that peculiar moaning sound that precedes a mighty disturbance
of its waters. The rain fell in torrents that whitened the surface of
the sea.
The work of getting the canoes hauled into a safe place was soon
performed, more especially as they had the aid of several of the
moonshiners who had accompanied them to the beach to see the last of the
man they would have cheerfully hanged a few minutes before. The small
craft were hardly snugly stowed when round the point through the
downpour, glided the motor-boat. She was low and long and painted dull
black and must have been equipped with powerful engines for she shot
through the water like a snake. The man in the dinghy soon clambered on
board and turned to wave farewell to the soaking group of watchers on
the beach.
"Gee! I'd give a hundred dollars for an umbrella," remarked Billy.
"I hope that's his good-bye and not _au revoir_," remarked Lathrop. "I
think you let him off much too easy, Frank," he added.
"So do I," put in Lathrop, "he really deserved some punishment."
"What were we to do?" asked Frank. "Anyhow if he doesn't keep his word
we know his measure now and can look out for him and see he doesn't get
off so easy next time. Besides, if we had left him here these
moonshiners would have been sure to have killed him. Ben Stubbs told me
they don't hesitate to make away with any stranger-----"
"Who hasn't got a letter of introduction," Billy finished for him.
"Well, it's a good thing we had a sponsor, or we might have been
ornamenting the foliage."
As the boy spoke there was a sudden shout from Ben of:
"Holy skysails, look at that!"
The boys' eyes followed the direction in which he excitedly pointed.
To the southward, before the advancing curtain of lightning torn
storm-clouds rolled a great wall of green water, ridged on the top with
a line of flaky-white foam. It was tearing along toward them at the rate
of an express train.
Fascinated by the spectacle of the mighty wave the boys stood watching
it for a moment in awed wonder. Its great volume was outlined against
the background of cloud as it reared its foamy crest above the dark
level swells like a watery parapet.
As they gazed the same thought struck them simultaneously and a cry of
horror broke from the lips of every member of the group.
The motor-boat!
It was directly in the path of the advancing mountain of water.
The two men on board the boat, who had been busied in attaching the
dinghy's painter to the stern cleats, looked up almost at the same
moment as those ashore realized their peril. The boys saw them hastily
rush to their posts; one forward to the wheel in the bow, the other
bending over the engines which had been stopped when the dinghy had been
picked up. They were evidently panic-stricken. The noise of their
terrified, confused shouts was borne shoreward on the wind.
"Can we do nothing?" asked Harry, horrified at the vision of the two
doomed men struggling aimlessly to escape the deadly peril that was
bearing down on them.
"Nothing," responded Frank, as agitated as the younger boy; "if their
boat cannot weather that wave nothing can save them."
The sea in the immediate vicinity of the island began to heave in heavy
shouldering swells as the Black Squall advanced and the wave grew nearer
and even more menacing as its distance from them decreased. It was
apparent that far back as even the canoes were hauled, they would have
to be hauled further inland if they were to escape damage. This work was
at once set about and the canoes dragged fully a hundred yards from the
beach.
"The wave will be all bust up by the mangroves and they'll not get much
more than a wetting up here," remarked Ben.
This work done, Frank suggested that they climb into the branches of a
wide-spreading guava tree so as to be out of harm's way and also be able
to watch the motor-boat's fight for life.
"We might see a chance to help the poor fellows," he said.
The moonshiners, with impassive faces, followed the adventurers' example
and soon all of them were roosting in the trees. Hardly had they settled
when the mighty wave towered within a few hundred yards of the black
motor-boat.
The occupants seemed to have lost their heads completely at the
imminence of the danger and were not even attempting to do anything to
relieve the situation. The man who owed his life to the boys stood erect
in the stern and with his arms folded gazed at the advancing doom. The
other was groveling in terror on the boat's thwarts. Suddenly they saw
the man in the stern spring to the engine and crank the machine
desperately. The boat began to move rapidly through the swells, tossing
their heads in spray over her sharp bow.
"She's going to race it," amazedly exclaimed Harry.
"There's not a chance," cried Frank, as the boat gathered speed and fled
like some frightened creature before the pursuing peril. She fairly
leaped through the water like a live thing. With parted lips and
throbbing pulses the boys watched the beginning of the unequal struggle.
Gamely as the helmsman guided the flying craft over the swells the great
wave gained on him. The man who had been groveling in the boat in sheer
terror was now on his feet. He hung onto the stern coaming and gazed
back as if fascinated with awe at the pursuing Nemesis. The man in the
bow never turned his head; he gazed straight forward.
Suddenly a cry that even the boys could hear broke from the lips of the
man in the stern.
"The engine's stopped!" cried Frank.
Even as the words left his lips the giant comber caught the boat's
stern. It raised her up and up till she seemed fairly to stand erect on
her bow, stern in air. For an imperceptible segment of time she remained
so.
The next second she was blotted out of existence in a mighty vortex of
water.
Before the cry of horror at the swift tragedy that had been enacted
before them had died from the boys' lips the wave broke on the shore.
With a crash like the explosion of a powder magazine it smashed itself
on the beach and a mighty inrush of water followed. The spray of its
landing flew as high as the tree-tops.
"A good thing we're up here," cried Billy, as the water came swirling
through the jungle beneath them.
"A good thing we hauled the canoes up, you mean," said Frank, as he
anxiously watched the frail craft--as far inland as they lay--picked up
like feathers and dashed about by the inroad of the sea. To his relief,
however, they survived their buffeting undamaged, thanks to their extra
strong construction.
The water rushed back down the sloping shore of the island as swiftly as
it had advanced. A few minutes later they were able to descend and hurry
to the beach. There was no danger of a second monster wave Ben assured
them.
They suddenly realized though that they were dripping wet through from
the torrential downpour that had accompanied the storm, but their
anxiety to see if any trace of the motor-boat or her occupants
reappeared prevailed over their discomfort. They stood on the beach
scouring the sea with burning eyes, but it was empty of life. They
remained silently gazing before them for several minutes--it was Ben who
broke the silence:
"What about the _Carrier Dove_? Has the wave struck her?" were the words
that brought them all out of their reverie with an anxious start.