ON GIBRALTAR'S PEAK
That afternoon the Battleship Boys got leave to go ashore. Their good
conduct always earned a quick shore leave for them when many others were
denied it.
The quaint old semi-Moorish town at the base of the great mountain
appealed to the lads and impressed them deeply. Red-coated British
soldiers were everywhere about, wearing their jaunty caps tilted to one
side, carrying their swagger-sticks airily, and now and then deigning a
glance at the Battleship Boys.
"Do you know what those fellows remind me of?" questioned Hickey.
"Not being able to read your mind, I cannot say," answered Dan.
"That cap, at least, reminds me of the organ grinder's monkey that
passes the hat for pennies. But they are the real thing, aren't they?"
"The caps?"
"No, the monk--I mean the soldiers."
"Boom!" roared a gun.
There was no answer to it, and Dan, wondering, asked a citizen what the
meaning of the shot might be.
"One o'clock, me lad," was the answer.
Sam laughed aloud.
"Do--do they announce the hours here by firing guns?" he questioned.
"They do."
"Then--then I guess I would prefer to sleep at sea. What do you think of
that?"
"It certainly is a curious custom," agreed Dan.
The boys wandered about the quaint town, peering into out-of-the-way
places, talking with a soldier here and there, when they found one who
was willing to unbend sufficiently to answer their questions.
What impressed them most was the tremendous masses of masonry, parapets
and guns. In whatever direction the boys glanced their eyes rested on
the frowning muzzles of big guns.
"How would you like to have all those guns turned on a ship in which you
were?" asked Dan.
"If they all shot straight it would be all day with us. But, Dan, don't
you think that rock is a pretty good mark itself?"
"Yes. And if it is all like what it is here at the bottom, I think a
shot from a seven or eight-inch would crumble it. I----"
"Look!" cried Sam.
What appeared to be a basket of some sort was rising in the air far
above their heads.
"What is it?"
"It looks like some kind of air-ship. But that cannot be possible."
"There's some one in it!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," answered the red-headed boy, now all excitement.
"I know now what it is," cried Dan. "I've read about that--no, I haven't
read about it either. A jackie on the 'Long Island' told me about it.
That is a metal basket in which the signal men and watchmen go up to the
lookout station that you see on top of the mountain."
"You don't say," muttered Sam in amazement. "How does it soar through
the air that way?"
"It doesn't. It is on a cable that is pulled up by some sort of power."
"Let's go over and look at the thing," urged Sam.
Dan was willing. He was as curious as was his companion, and even more
enthusiastic, for all this was new and full of interest.
It was after making numerous inquiries that they found their way to the
landing platform from which the basket started on its way upward. By
this time the metal basket had returned. There was room in it for four
men. The boys looked it over curiously and enviously.
"How would you like to take a ride in it?" questioned Dan, smiling into
the solemn face of his companion.
"I'd give a dollar and a half," answered Sam earnestly. "Let's get in
and look the thing over."
"I am afraid strangers are not allowed to do that. Yes, we'll get in. We
can imagine we are going up to the top of the mountain, anyway."
Both boys climbed into the basket, gazing up into the air, where the
thread-like cable grew smaller and smaller until it was lost to view
entirely.
"I wonder how it works?" questioned Sam, turning to the mechanism of the
basket.
"Perhaps by electricity. Sh-h-h!"
"What is it?"
"Some one is coming," whispered Dan.
The boys crouched down out of sight in the basket, laughing delightedly
as they nudged each other.
"They'll be surprised, if they find us here," said Sam.
"Keep still. He's going away now, whoever he is." Peering over the
basket, Davis saw that the man, a soldier, was walking rapidly down to
the engine house, just below the landing platform. The man disappeared
within.
"Look out! We're moving!" howled Sam.
[Illustration: "We're Going Up!" Howled Sam.]
A glance over the side showed the platform dropping from beneath them at
a rapid rate.
Sam made a move as if to jump from the basket.
"Sit down!" commanded Dan. "Do you want to kill yourself?"
"But we're going up," protested Hickey.
"We can't help it. We don't know how to stop the car, and even if we
did, I doubt whether we could do it from here. I have an idea that the
car is controlled from that engine house down there. I know now why the
man came up to look at the car. He wanted to see that everything was
right before he started the basket upward."
"Do--do you think we are going to the top?"
"It looks very much that way," answered Dan, with a mirthless laugh.
The basket appeared to be gaining a little speed as it moved upward. It
was swaying giddily from side to side, and had the boys not been used to
being in high places on a rolling ship, they no doubt would have been
made sick by the swinging of the basket.
"Hurrah!" cried Dan. "I know what I'll do!"
"Are you going to jump overboard?"
"No. Do you see the 'Long Island' lying out there in the harbor?"
"Sure I see her."
"I'm going to wig-wag to her."
Dan stood up while Hickey held him. Then Davis began making signals to
the ship with his handkerchief.
"There they go. Some one is answering," cried Davis in high glee. "Won't
they be surprised?"
"What are they saying?"
"I can't read the message so far away. I wish we had a glass."
"Come on up, fellows. We're having a ride up to the clouds," wig-wagged
Dan.
Glasses already were trained on them from more than one ship in the
harbor.
"Two enlisted men going up on the cable, sir," said the officer of the
deck to the captain of the "Long Island."
"Who are they?"
"I'll ascertain, sir."
Dan caught a flash of the signal flag as the sun shone down on it, and,
with quick intuition, he understood that the ship was asking who they
were. He signaled their names back.
"I can't read you so far away. Have no glasses," wig-wagged Dan. "Going
up by accident."
The information was quickly conveyed to the captain of the "Long
Island."
"Those boys are both wired for electricity," laughed the commanding
officer. "All they need is a dynamo to set them in operation, and they
usually carry the dynamo about with them."
"I'm afraid they will get into trouble with the authorities, sir," said
the executive officer.
"Why so?"
"They have no business to go up there. The English government is, as you
know, very secretive and very strict about its fortifications here at
Gibraltar."
"Never mind, Coates. Leave that to the lads. They have a way of getting
out of scrapes."
In the meantime the swaying basket was mounting higher and higher into
the air. So lost were the Battleship Boys in admiration of the wonderful
view unfolded before them that they almost forgot to take note of their
sensations.
A gun was fired from somewhere below them. The boys instinctively threw
their hands to their ears. It sounded as if the gun were right beside
them.
"We are a pair of landlubbers," announced Dan Davis, with a sheepish
grin.
"I thought it was right here."
"So did I, for a minute," answered Dan. "Sound travels up fast and
strong, you know. There is the signal tower. We shall be up there pretty
soon. Look out for a row when we get there, Sam."
"I'm ready for any old kind of a row. I'm having the time of my life
this morning."
Looking up with shaded eyes, they saw the lookouts examining their
basket with their glasses.
"They have spotted us," said Dan.
"I don't care. Let them spot. Maybe they will know us next time they see
us."
The basket mounted the last stage of the journey, going more and more
slowly. At last it reached the landing. Dan was the first to leap from
the car, followed quickly by Hickey.
"Good morning," he greeted, coming to a salute, as he found himself
facing three red-coated soldiers.
"Who are you?"
"Men from the U.S.S. 'Long Island.'"
"What are you doing here?"
"Just taking a little pleasure trip," answered Hickey, before Dan could
open his mouth to explain. "You've got a fine place up here, but it
must be rather drafty in winter time. I never did like drafts at that
time of the year. Do you know----"
"Get back into that basket!" interrupted the lookout sternly. "You have
no business, up here."
"Well, I must say you fellows are not very hospitable," grumbled Sam.
"Can't we take a look around your shack?"
"You cannot. You will be lucky if something worse doesn't happen to
you."
"I am sorry if we have done anything wrong," spoke up Davis. "We got
into the basket to look it over and the machinery started. But that is
no reason why you should be so gruff about it."
"Get in there!"
"Come on; he's a grouch," exclaimed Sam. "I'd rather be viewing the
scenery on the way down than standing here looking at that. Why, he
needs only a cake of soap in his hand to make a full-page ad. of him."
Sam made a dive for the basket.
"Start your machinery going as soon as you want to," said Dan. "We are
ready."
There followed a peculiar grinding sound. The basket began to move,
gaining speed as it proceeded. It was going down much faster than it had
ascended.
The boys waved their hands in farewell to the grouchy sentry.
"That's what I should term a formal call," announced Davis with a laugh.
"It wasn't a call at all; it was a call down," retorted Sam. "Wow! Just
look over the side!"
Dan took one peep, then withdrew his head.
"What a fall that would be," he breathed.
"Yes, we'd be the Batteredship Boys instead of the Battleship Boys, were
we to fall down the rest of the way," jeered Hickey.
"That was an awful joke, Sam; but perhaps it is better to get a thing
like that out of your system. My, but we're going fast!"
The basket seemed to be gaining momentum every second. Sam Hickey's hair
was rising, his cap having soared away on the breeze.
"Stop it!" howled Sam.
"I'd like to, but I can't."
"Put on the brakes! There must be a brake. Do something!"
"Do something yourself. I don't know how the machine works."
"We are nearing the bottom. I think the car has slackened its speed
some. I see that I've got to do whatever is done here, or we'll both
land in the middle of the bay with a loud splash," retorted Sam.
Hickey ran his hands over the mechanism, finally discovering a lever on
the outside of the basket.
"Here it is. Here's the brake. Now you'll see me steer the old tub. I'll
make a landing that would make our quartermaster green with envy."
"Be careful. We are nearly at the bottom now, Sam. I think it will slow
down without any effort on our part. That evidently is the way the
basket always comes down."
Sam gave the lever a shove.
"Shut it off! What have you done?" yelled Dan.
The basket shot forward, as if impelled by some sudden force.
"I--I can't. The--the thing won't work."
"You've done it this time," groaned Davis.
"You've killed us both----"
"Wow!" howled Hickey.
Dan made a grab for his companion just as Sam's heels were disappearing
over the side of the basket. Davis missed the heels, then he followed
Hickey, while the basket was smashed with terrific force against some
solid object. The boys shot from the basket, turning somersaults in the
air as they plunged downward.
They did not cry out, but each lad believed that his time had come.