ON BOARD BARR'S SHIP.
"Do you surrender?" shouted a voice through a megaphone from the
dirigible as it hovered above the stricken aeroplane.
"Yes, hornswoggle you," roared Ben Stubbs, "but if it hadn't been for
that gas-bag of yours you'd never have got us, and I can lick any man
aboard yer with my fists or any other weapon."
Luther Barr's men paid no attention to this outburst and the boys were
too sick at heart at the complete failure of their venture even to
hear Ben's words. Frank choked back his tears with difficulty and
Harry gazed straight out over the sea.
It was defeat final and complete.
"Make fast the ladder and we'll board you," was the next hail as a
trap in the under side of the dirigible was opened and a long rope
ladder came snaking down.
Ben, although he would cheerfully have slashed it to bits with his sea
knife, had no recourse but to make the end of the apparatus fast to
the Golden Eagle's framework, and a few seconds later Malvoise came
rapidly down it. To guard against any attack on him the men on the
dirigible leaned over the rail and kept their rifles covering the boys
and Ben.
"Hum, you saved us the trouble of packing up the treasure, I see,"
said Malvoise, his eyes sparkling as they fell on the sacks of
treasure.
"If we'd only fixed you last night when you was in the air over the
galleon we'd have done a good job," growled old Ben.
"Ah, you think so," grinned the Frenchman. "I don't doubt that it
feels bad to be the conquered, but you must not grudge us the
treasure, my dear Mr. Stubbs--"
The sneer on his face was unbearable and Ben started forward to fall
upon him, but as he did so a bullet from above zipped down, narrowly
missing his arm. In fact, it ploughed through his loose shirt-sleeve.
"You see, I am well protected," grinned the Frenchman, as Ben started
back.
"Yes, I reckon we've got to give in with as good a grace as we can,"
grumbled Ben; "though I'd give all the treasure in them sacks to get
my hands on you for just five minutes," he muttered to himself.
"Let down a tackle there, you," shouted Malvoise to the crew of the
dirigible, "and you, Sanborn, come down aboard here. We must get the
treasure on board before it starts to blow at all."
Sanborn came hastily scrambling down the ladder, and a few seconds
later a block and tackle were lowered. Malvoise and Sanborn, who
greeted the boys with a scowling sneer, first deprived the boys of
their weapons and forced Ben to give up his revolver and then made
fast the block and tackle to the first of the treasure sacks.
It was rapidly hauled up to the dirigible; the other treasure bags
followed in the same manner. In half an hour the Golden Eagle was
swept clean of the contents of the galleon's chests which the boys had
loaded on her with such light hearts.
"Now, then, I guess we are all ready for a start," said Malvoise, when
the last of the sacks had been hauled into the dirigible's cabin. "As
a matter of fact," he went on, "I suppose I ought to leave you here,
as you only will make a lot more weight in the air-ship, but I am more
humane than that and I'll allow you to come on board. Up the ladder
with you, and briskly now."
Ben went first, followed by the two boys; behind them came Malvoise.
"Come on, Sanborn," shouted the Frenchman to his companion, who still
lingered on board the aeroplane.
"Wait a minute. I've got a job to do first. I want to sink the thing
for all time," cried the other.
The boys, who had by this time gained the swaying deck of the
dirigible, saw the treacherous mechanic deliberately draw a pistol and
prepare to fire a hole in the pontoons, which would inevitably have
sunk the gallant craft.
But as his finger pressed the trigger the man's foot slipped and he
was dumped off the pontoon into the water.
His companions, far from being alarmed, shouted with laughter at his
mishap, as Sanborn, cursing, prepared to climb back on to the Golden
Eagle. But even as the oaths left his lips a change came over his
face. It turned an ashen gray.
"Help!" he shouted.
"What's the matter?" roared Malvoise.
"Something is after me!" came the agonized cry of the man.
As the words left his lips a cry of horror broke from all on the
dirigible's deck who were watching Sanborn's struggles.
A great arm, covered with mouths, like the ones the boys had seen
absorb the rats, shot out of the sea. Another and another followed it,
and hapless Sanborn, screaming in terror, was dragged from the
structure of the aeroplane, to which he clung with a drowning man's
clutch.
"It's a devil-fish," shouted the boys.
"Fire on the thing," shouted Malvoise, pouring the contents of his
revolver down into the fleshy mass of the octopus.
Instantly a great cloud of inky fluid spread over the waters and into
the opaque waves the waving arms sank, dragging with them to the
depths of the sea the treacherous mechanic.
Shocked and sickened by the scene, the boys turned away and even
Malvoise seemed powerfully affected. He hid his face in his hands as
the wounded monster slowly sank without relinquishing its hold on its
victim.
As for Constantio and a red-headed bushy-whiskered man, whom the boys
learned later on was Sam Wells, one of the three men who helped in
working the dirigible, they seemed completely unnerved by the sight
they had witnessed. Malvoise's sharp voice recalled them to
themselves.
"Come now, collect your wits," he shouted; "poor Sanborn's gone, and
we can't save him. Cut loose from the aeroplane and haul up the
rope-ladder. Constantio, you take the wheel. Wells, when you have got
the ladder aboard, turn to and stow that stuff further aft."
He indicated the pile of treasure sacks.
Wells and two other men who had been standing about the deck instantly
busied themselves obeying these orders. It was evident from their
implicit obedience that Malvoise was master on the dirigible.
As the engine was set going and the ship forged ahead, leaving behind
it the wrecked aeroplane and the watery grave of Sanborn, Malvoise
called the boys' attention, in a half-joking way, to the damage Ben
Stubbs' bullets had done to the gas-bag.
"However," he went on, "fortunately it does not make so much
difference as it would in any other air-craft. After dinner I will
send one of the crew aloft to put a patch on the hole and we can then
re-inflate that section from one of the hydrogen tubes."
Precarious as their situation was, the boys, whose interest in
aeronautics was a sort of ruling passion with them, could not but help
being interested with the perfect working out of all details aboard
Luther Barr's craft. After an excellent dinner, in which fresh meat
and vegetables from a well-stocked ice-box formed the staples, they
watched with interest the red-headed sailor, Wells, scramble up into
the network of the bag and sew a patch over the bullet hole made by
Ben Stubbs' shot. The patch affixed, it was coated with a water and
gas-proof solution the sailor carried in a small pot suspended round
his waist. After an interval allowed for drying, a cylinder of gas was
dragged out of the after storeroom where they were kept, and the
section which had been injured was refilled by means of its own
inflation hose, which was provided with a nozzle adjustable to the
mouth of the gas receptacle.
To the boys' surprise, when darkness fell the dirigible still forged
ahead and no change of her course was observable. They had imagined
that she was on her way to join Luther Barr at some nearby
meeting-place, where the Brigand would take the treasure on board,
but, so far, her navigators showed no intention of alighting.
At ten o'clock Malvoise stepped up to the three adventurers and said:
"It is a rule on board that all lights shall be extinguished at this
hour. If you are ready for bed I will show you to your sleeping
place."
He led the way to a small cabin fitted with two bunks and lounge. The
boys wanted to ask a score of questions, but knew it would be useless,
so remained silent.
"I wish you a good night's rest," said Malvoise as he switched on a
tiny electric light with the warning that the dynamo would be cut off
in ten minutes' time.
As he closed the cabin door behind him there was a sharp click.
The cabin door was fitted with a stout spring lock.
The adventurers were prisoners a thousand feet in the air.