HEMMED IN BY FLAMES.
In the meantime in the noisome dungeon in which they lay, Frank and
Harry Chester, and the officer they had struggled so bravely for, had
given up all hope of ever seeing the light of day again. As nearly as
they could calculate it was twelve hours or more since Bellman had
thrust his head into their place of confinement and shouted that he
would give them a last chance if they would tell him where the _Golden
Eagle II_ lay and where their companions were encamped. The boys, though
faint from lack of food and almost dead with thirst, refused and Bellman
with a savage curse had slammed the door.
For a time they had heard tramping about overhead as if there were last
hasty preparations being made for the departure and then all grew silent
as a grave. At that time, however, their fears were not so much that
they were to be left behind to be starved in this black hole, as they
had implicit faith in the man to whom Frank had given the Buddha. Time
and again Harry, whose voice was growing momentarily fainter, had
murmured to Frank:
"You don't think he will fail us, Frank?" and Frank, although his own
faith was beginning to diminish as the hours went by, had always
responded reassuringly. He pointed out cheerfully--or as cheerfully as
he could--that to the Oriental mind an oath made in the manner in which
the red-banded serang had made it was sacred and to be obeyed at all
hazards. Anything might have happened to delay the man's coming, he
argued, and there was no doubt that he would appear in due course and
redeem his promise. Frank's thoughts belied his cheerful words, however.
There were a dozen things beside the breaking of his oath that might
have caused the serang to be unable to liberate as he had promised. As
the time passed by the conviction steadily grew in Frank's mind that
they had been deserted and that the three miserable occupants of the
dungeon were at that moment the only living things on the island.
As for the lieutenant, he was sunk in a sort of coma in which it is
doubtful, if he felt anxiety or any other emotion. He seemed stupefied
by his sufferings after his first returning dawn of reason.
Suddenly, and when the boys' hopes had reached their lowest ebb they
were startled by the sound of footsteps walking above them. They shouted
at the top of their voices and the footsteps ceased. Then they began
again. Who could it be?
For a moment the idea of a rescue party flashed across Frank's mind but
he dismissed it as improbable. Nobody could have heard of their flight
or located their place of captivity unless--Quatty!
Could it have been possible that the negro had conveyed word to their
comrades of their plight. Frank hastily communicated his idea to Harry,
but Harry dismissed it as improbable. Frank, too, agreed that Quatty was
far more likely to have saved himself than to have bothered about them.
How unjust they were to the black we know.
But there were certainly footsteps upstairs. The boys shouted and
shouted. Friend or foe it made little difference to them. They were
famished and even their foes would surely not be so inhuman as to refuse
them food. Even the lieutenant aroused himself and set up a poor, feeble
cry.
Hark, what is that they are shouting upstairs?
"Frank! Frank! Harry, where are you?"
A second's listening convinced the boys they were not dreaming. Whoever
was upstairs was shouting their names. They set up redoubled shouts and
shortly after they heard hands fumbling at the lock of the prison door.
A few seconds later the lock having refused to yield, the door came
flying inward, burst from its hinges by a tree-trunk cut and used as a
battering ram by Lathrop and Billy.
The scene after the boys were reunited and Lieutenant Chapin had been
introduced may be imagined. There surely was never a more joyful reunion
nor in more strange surroundings.
Billy described how after their flight from the mound-builders' island
they had decided, after careful reconnoitering, that the island was
deserted. How this had come about of course they did not know, and were
at first in despair as they concluded that the boys and the lieutenant
must have been taken to the coast and carried off to slavery in the Far
East. At the actual baseness of Captain Bellman's mind they had not
guessed till they found the prisoners.
They had agreed, however, to land and explore the island in the hope
that they might find some clue to their comrades, and with that
intention had descended to the large open space where the reducing
operations had been carried on. In course of time they had arrived at
the door of the big bunk-house and here had made a startling discovery.
Stretched across the door of the place was a dead body.
"And what do you think, Frank?" exclaimed Lathrop, "on examining it in
one hand we found tightly clutched a key and--here's the extraordinary
part--in one of the pockets of the loose blouse he wore we discovered a
little green Buddha exactly like the one the moonshiner sold you."
"Poor serang," sighed Frank, "he did then try to keep his word."
His words demanded an explanation and the boy rapidly told the rescuers
of the dead man's oath to release them.
"If you had taken that key, Lathrop," he concluded, "you could have
opened the door easily without battering it down. Poor fellow--Bellman
must have caught him coming back here and guessing for what purpose, he
killed him."
"The first thing to do is get you out of these stocks," said Billy after
he had detailed how, on hearing the boys' shouts, they had traced them
to the cellar in which they lay.
"Why not try the key," suggested Billy, "it looked a pretty big affair
to me to fit the lock we found on that door."
"That's a good idea," assented Lathrop. He was up the stairs and back in
a very short time and carried with him the key that had been found in
the dead man's hand. It fitted the stocks perfectly and furnished a
further proof that the serang had actually been on his way to keep his
promise when he was killed.
A twist of it in the heavy padlock and the unfortunate prisoners were at
liberty with the exception of their handcuffs. With a cold chisel and
hammer Lathrop struck these off. A few minutes later the boys had been
helped out of the dungeon into what had been the blacksmith shop of
Bellman's gang. With the exception of a great stiffness and soreness,
occasioned by their confinement, the prisoners were soon as well as
ever, and after a hearty meal from the provision lockers of the _Golden
Eagle II_, and a long account from Lieutenant Chapin, who was rapidly
recovering, of his adventures, the boys were ready to start.
So interested had they been in talking, however, and so rapidly had the
time flown that they had not looked about them or taken any note of
anything but each other. Now, however, when they looked up they noticed
a peculiar haze in the air and at the same time became aware of a
choking sort of feeling that made their eyes sting and their nostrils
itch.
"What is it?" asked Harry as they all noticed these symptoms.
Frank and Lieutenant Chapin were both on their feet and had exchanged
grave glances. From where they had been seated they had not commanded a
view of the 'glades. Now, however, as the little party hastily emerged
they saw before them a sight that chilled the blood of the boldest of
them. For as far as they could see, and sweeping down on them at
terrible speed, was a wall of flames.
The Everglades were on fire!
With a quick gasp Frank recollected the dried brush he had noticed on
the trail the day he and Harry left the boat. He realized that if the
flames reached the island with such tinder to feed on they would sweep
it from end to end. The _Golden Eagle II_ would be destroyed and they
doomed to a slow death from starvation.
"What about the other side of the island? Perhaps there is some way out
there," suggested the Lieutenant.
Frank shook his head.
"By the time we get there the flames would be roaring up the hillside
here," he said, "there is only one thing to do. Run for it."
"Run for it?"
"Fly for it rather. In an hour's time this island will be a black
charred ash-heap," was Frank's reply.
"But, Frank," was Harry's exclamation, "the _Golden Eagle II_ will only
carry four, and then she is overburdened, and there are five of us
here!"
"She's got to carry us," said Frank grimly, "or we'll be burned to
crisps, or starved if we escape death by fire."
"What are you going to do?"
"Lighten her," was the quiet reply, "dump overboard every ounce of
weight we can spare."
Feverishly the little party went about the work. First the transoms were
ruthlessly ripped out and thrown aside. Then came the provisions and
other equipment, and lastly even the navigating instruments.
"That's lightened her about 150 pounds," pronounced Frank. "We'll try
her with that and if it doesn't work we'll have to tear out the wireless
and let that go too."
By this time the advance guard of the flames was marching in a long
ruthless line perilously close already to the island. The dry saw-grass
blazed like tinder and the party on the island could distinctly hear the
hungry roar of the flames as they advanced. The conflagration leaped the
narrow water-courses as it came to them like a steeplechaser and the
numerous runnels offered no more check to it than if they had not been
there.
Even the broad water-course, used by Bellman and his men to get to and
from the coast, did not check the progress of the flames. There was a
fair wind blowing out of the northwest and before it red-hot brands were
whisked across the stream and ignited the dry wastes on the other side.
"If we don't hurry," exclaimed Frank, as his eye took in this, "we shall
be hemmed in."
This was a new peril. With the flames only on one side they might have
hoped to escape but if the blaze ringed the island in there would be
grave danger in trying to cross it in their overburdened air-ship. For
one thing the strange cross-currents created by a fire are alone enough
to throw an aeroplane onto dangerous angles and Frank, as he gazed at
the height to which the flames were leaping, added to this menace the
fear that the overladen ship would not be able to rise high enough to
clear them. What that meant there was no need for him to tell the
others--he did not dare to entertain such a thought himself.
With all the speed they made the flames were swifter and by the time
they had all scrambled into the chassis the island was surrounded by
roaring flames and the hungry fire was beginning to attack the dried
brush on its sides.
"Can we make it?" gasped Lathrop as he gazed at the terrifying
spectacle.
"We've got to make it," snapped Frank as Harry started the engine.
The atmosphere was by this time so obscured by choking smoke that it was
as thick and dark as a fog. Water streamed from the boys' eyes and noses
and they speedily found that every breath they took seared their lungs
as though a red-hot iron had been plunged into them.
Even if they could weather the flames, could they get through such smoke
alive?
With a prayer on his lips Frank started the _Golden Eagle II_ into the
awful smothering pall. He could not see a foot in front of him and,
indeed, in a second his eyes were blinded by the acrid reek.
"We've got to do it, we've got to do it," he kept saying to himself
through clenched teeth as he drove the aeroplane full into the inferno.
It was as dark as night and as hot as a furnace mouth.
Caught in the currents generated by the heat the aeroplane swayed and
zigzagged drunkenly. Frank, his eyes closed and drawing every breath
with agony, clutched the wheel till the varnish came off on his hands.
He could smell the scorching paint of _The Golden Eagle II_ as the awful
heat blistered it.
It flashed across his mind that the cloth covering the planes might
catch and then? Somehow nothing seemed to matter much then to the dazed,
half-suffocated boy, only one clear idea presented itself repeating over
and over with trip-hammer regularity:
"Keep going ahead."
[Illustration: The dash through the flames in the Everglades.]
But were they going ahead? Frank did not know. So badly was the craft
handicapped by her weight and in such a whirl of heat-engendered air
currents was she caught that it was difficult for Frank, blinded as he
was, to tell.
Suddenly she gave a swoop down.
Was it the end?
No, she righted herself, more by instinct on Frank's part than anything.
The blinded, choked, helmsman jerked up her rising planes. But the next
minute she repeated the blundering stagger downward and Frank realized,
even in his dazed state, that she would never rise again if she wasn't
lightened.
The wireless! That would have to go.
With a cracked voice that sounded like a ghost of his usual hearty
tones, Frank shouted back the command. But there was no response.
Temporarily he checked the aeroplane's downward tendency but he knew
that the next time she would drop into the flames in spite of him and
shrivel up with her passengers like a handful of flax.
Blinded by smoke, with cracked lips and swollen tongue Frank realized
that something must have happened to the others. With one hand on the
steering wheel, he reached back and seized the wireless-box by its base.
It weighed 165 pounds and if he could get it free it meant their
salvation.
He tugged with all the strength in his arms. The case moved slightly on
its base. Frank knew the screws that held it in place did not reach very
deep, but with one hand he could not manage to tear it loose.
Then he did a daring thing. Setting the rising planes at their full
upward tendency he left the wheel locked by its spring gear and reeled
with outstretched hands toward the apparatus. Once he tugged,--twice he
tugged.
The box was coming loose but the aeroplane was sagging, he could feel
it. It was getting hotter, too.
With bursting brain and blistered hands he heaved at the box till the
blood ran from under his nails.
Would it never come?
With an effort that seemed to crack his shoulders, Frank gave a mighty
heft. The box ripped loose with a suddenness that sent him staggering
back; but the next minute he recovered his balance and heaved it
overboard into the roaring vortex beneath them.
Then, with the instinct born of necessity, he groped his way to the
wheel and as he set the _Golden Eagle II_ on a rising course he realized
that she was responding and they were saved.
Ten minutes later they emerged into the blessed air that, though still
smoke-filled, above the fire-swept flats was still breathable. With
blackened face and singed hair and eyebrows, Frank felt the difference,
although his eyes were still closed and giving him agony. He inhaled it
in great breaths of delight, saturating his lungs in its comparative
freshness. Finally, when he could open his eyes, he looked back for the
others.
They lay on the floor senseless, smoke-blackened, without motion.
But the _Golden Eagle II_ under Frank's guidance had passed the ordeal
of flame and as she skimmed through the cooler air the unconscious
members of the party, one by one recovered and grasped the hand of the
boy who had saved them.