"How much longer do you think this storm will last?"
It was Dave who asked this question, of Captain Sanders, when the
latter came down to get a bite for breakfast. To get a regular meal,
with the vessel pitching and tossing wildly, was out of the question.
"I don't know, Dave," was the grave answer. "I am hoping the wind will
die down by sunset. But the storm may last several days."
"Are we in any danger?" questioned Phil.
"There is always danger during a storm," answered the master of the
_Golden Eagle_. "But I hope to weather this blow without much
trouble."
"Can we be of any assistance?" went on our hero.
"No, boys. There is nothing you can do but keep yourselves from
falling overboard. How is Roger?"
"A little better."
"I heard that two of those Englishmen are pretty sick," went on
Captain Sanders, with a faint smile.
"They are."
"It's queer to me that they sailed with us. It's not such a pleasant
voyage."
"I overheard a little of their talk," answered Dave, and, knowing he
could trust the captain, he related what had been said.
"Pirates' gold, eh?" muttered the master of the ship. "Most of those
yarns are fairy-stories. I've known expedition after expedition to be
fitted out, to search for treasures said to be hidden by the old-time
buccaneers, but I never saw a man yet who got even a smell of a
treasure. Where were they going for it, Dave?"
"I don't know. I think one of them mentioned Cave Island. Is there
such a place?"
"There may be, although I never heard of it. Many of the islands in
this part of the globe, being of volcanic origin, contain caves."
"They must expect to get to Cave Island from Barbados."
"More than likely," answered the captain, and then hurried on deck
again.
The storm continued for the remainder of the day, but by nightfall the
wind commenced to die down, and by midnight the clouds had passed and
the stars were shining brightly. In the morning the big sun came out
of the sea to the east like a globe of fire.
"Now we are going to have some warm weather," remarked Billy Dill, and
the old tar was right. As the sun mounted in the heavens it grew
positively hot, until the boys had to go to their staterooms and don
thinner clothing. With the departure of the storm, Roger's seasickness
left him, but the two Englishmen remained slightly unwell for some
time longer.
"Phew! how warm it is!" remarked Phil. "And just think of it!--up at
home they are having snow and ice!"
With the passing of the storm, the boys settled down as before. They
saw but little of the Englishmen, especially of the pair who were
sick. But one day something happened which came close to causing a
crisis.
The boys were seated on the rear deck, talking over matters in
general, when a strong puff of wind caused a sheet of paper to blow
from somewhere ahead towards Dave. He reached out and caught the sheet
just as it was about to go overboard.
"Hello, what's this?" he cried, as he looked the sheet over. "Must be
some sort of a chart."
"It is," answered Roger, gazing at the paper. "See, here is a spot
marked Barbados, and another marked Cave Island, a little to the
eastward."
"Why, look what it says, up here!" cried Phil. "'_Map of the Don
Amorandos Treasure, buried in 1715_.' Say, do you think those
Englishmen----"
"Hi, you! Give me that map!" bawled a voice from near by, and with a
very red face, the Englishman named Geswick bore down on the boys.
"How dare you look at this?" he went on, as he snatched the sheet out
of their hands and folded it up.
"We wanted to see what it was and whom it belonged to," answered Dave,
as calmly as he could.
"You had no right to look at it," stormed Andrew Geswick. "That is
private property."
"Then why did you let it fall in our hands?" asked Phil.
"If it hadn't been for Dave, it would have gone overboard," put in
Roger.
"Humph!" The man fell back a little. "Well, I am thankful for that.
But you boys had no right to look at it," he grumbled.
"Why, it's only a chart, isn't it?" asked the senator's son,
curiously.
"Never mind what it is!" answered Andrew Geswick, sharply. "Did you
read what was on it?" he demanded, an instant later.
"We saw it was a chart," answered Dave, and looked knowingly at his
chums, to make them keep silent.
"It--er--it belongs to Mr. Pardell and he is very particular about it,"
went on the Englishman. And then without another word he walked away.
"My, isn't he sweet!" muttered Phil.
"Just as sweet as a can of sour milk," answered the senator's son.
"Dave, I guess you wish you had allowed that map to blow overboard."
"Not exactly that, Roger. But he might have been a little more
thankful for saving something that he thinks so valuable."
"Do you think there is anything in this treasure idea?" questioned
Phil, after a pause.
"No, Phil. That is, there may be some lost treasure, secreted by the
pirates and buccaneers of old, but I doubt if anybody will ever find
it--excepting by accident."
"If there was a treasure on this Cave Island, we might hunt for it,"
went on the shipowner's son.
"Phil, don't let that bee get into your bonnet!" cried Roger. "Many a
man has gone crazy looking for pirates' gold. Better drop it, and
think of how we are to round up Merwell and Jasniff."
"Well, I'd like to go to Cave Island anyway," said Phil. "We might----"
And then he stopped short, as he saw Geswick and Pardell near by. The
Englishmen had been listening to part of the conversation.
"So you'd like to go to Cave Island, would you?" cried Andrew Geswick,
his face red with rage. "You take my advice and keep away from that
place!"
"Say, do you own that island?" demanded Phil, getting angry because of
the other's dictatorial manner.
"No, we don't own the island. But we----" Andrew Geswick stopped short
as his companion plucked him by the sleeve. "Never mind, you keep away
from it, that's all," he growled.
"We'll go there if we want to," called out Phil.
"If you do you may get into trouble," called back Pardell. Then he and
his companion disappeared in the direction of the cabin.
"They are touchy enough," was Roger's comment. "Phil, you had better
drop Cave Island after this."
"I'll talk about it as much as I please," grumbled the shipowner's
son. "Those fellows make me tired. They act as if they owned the
earth!"
Sunday was a quiet day on shipboard. The Englishmen did not show
themselves excepting at meals, and the boys were content to leave them
severely alone. They told Captain Sanders of the chart and of the talk
that had occurred.
"Let them alone, lads," said the commander of the _Golden Eagle_.
"I'll venture to say that sooner or later they'll find out they are on
a wild goose chase."
"The only one that seems to be anyway nice is the fellow named Giles
Borden," said Dave. "He is rather quiet. The other fellow, Rumney, is
almost as bad as Geswick and Pardell."
"So I've noticed, Dave. And the queer part of it is, Borden paid for
the passages. He appears to be the only one with money."
"Maybe he is backing the expedition," suggested Roger.
"I'm sorry for him if he is," answered the captain.
The Bahama Islands had been passed, and now they were in the vicinity
of Porto Rico. Then commenced the trip southward, through the Lesser
Antilles.
"This is the spot for active volcanoes," observed Phil. "Don't you
remember how the Island of Martinique suffered?"
"Oh, don't speak of volcanoes!" cried Roger. "I have no use for
them--or for earthquakes either."
"There must be hundreds of islands around here," observed Dave. "The
charts are full of them."
"That must make navigation difficult," came from Phil.
"Oh, I reckon Captain Sanders knows what he is about."
"Wonder how soon we'll run into the harbor at Bridgetown?" mused the
shipowner's son, the place he mentioned being the main seaport of
Barbados.
"Inside of three days, I hope, Phil," answered our hero.
"Merwell and Jasniff must be there by this time."
"It's more than likely--unless something happened to delay them,"
returned Dave.
At last came the day when they sighted Barbados and ran into the
harbor of Bridgetown. The place was a picturesque one, but the boys
had just then no time to view the scenery or the shipping. As soon as
it could be accomplished, they went ashore, and Captain Sanders went
with them, leaving his vessel in charge of the first mate.
"You may have trouble with those two rascals, if you find them," said
the commander of the _Golden Eagle_. "I'll be on deck to help you all
I can."
"Shall we go to the hotel first?" questioned Roger.
"Might as well," answered Phil. "They'd strike for the hotel first
thing, after a sea trip like that. Maybe they were both seasick."
"I hope they were--it would serve them right," growled the senator's
son.
Dave and the captain were willing, and a little later walked into the
Royal George Hotel. Here the boys looked at the register, but found no
names that they could recognize. Then Dave brought out his photographs
of Merwell and Jasniff and showed them to the hotel proprietor and his
clerk.
"Nobody here that looks like either of them," said the proprietor,
while his clerk also shook his head.
"They came in on the _Emma Brower_," said Captain Sanders.
"The _Emma Brower_!" cried the hotel man. "Is she in?"
"Why, I suppose so," and now the commander of the _Golden Eagle_
showed his surprise.
"She wasn't in last night, and the agents were a bit worried about
her. I know the agents personally, you see."
"Then maybe she isn't in yet!" cried Dave. "Let us go down to the
docks and find out about this."
They lost no time in visiting the docks and the shipping offices.
There they learned that nothing had been heard of the _Emma Brower_
since the vessel had left Jacksonville.
"We must have passed her on the way!" cried Dave, to Captain Sanders.
"Could we do that?"
"Perhaps, since we only had half a cargo, Dave. Besides, maybe that
vessel was damaged by the storm."
"I wonder how soon she will get in?" mused Roger.
At this the captain shrugged his shoulders.
"It is impossible to say. I've known a ship to be a week and sometimes
nearly a month overdue. And I've known a ship to drop out altogether,"
he added, soberly.
"Oh, don't say you think she has gone down!" cried Dave, in alarm.
"Let us hope not, Dave."
The day passed, and also the next and the next. The cargo of the
_Golden Eagle_ was unloaded, and the Englishmen, who had been
passengers, left for parts unknown. As each day slipped by, Dave grew
more serious. What if the _Emma Brower_ had gone down, carrying
Merwell, Jasniff, and the Carwith jewels with her?