THE MAN WITH THE WHITE MUSTACHE
In the morning Jack told the captain, Dr. Wise, and a few of his most
intimate friends among the boys under the promise of keeping it quiet, the
strange event of the previous night, asking the doctor if he had done
right in not calling the captain.
"If you had aroused me I would probably have been mad," chuckled the
captain, "and could not have done anything anyhow. It is clear that there
is a way in here, although we don't know it, and that this fellow you saw
signaling mistook our lights for those of one of his evil associates. I'd
like to watch him, but there is no use in crying over spilled milk, and
you did all right in not calling me."
"It is all very singular," said the doctor, knitting his brows. "Of course
we would like to get out of here, but as to seeking the assistance of a
smuggler----"
"I'd as soon go out under his escort as that of any one else," laughed
Storms, "although we might get in trouble afterward if a government vessel
happened to see us in company with smugglers. Well, I guess it won't be
long now before the relief steamer comes, but----"
"But they may not know the way in, and we are as badly off as before,"
finished the doctor. "I don't see that we have advanced any, except,
perhaps, to let people know where we are."
"And you think there is little satisfaction in that?" with a grin. "We
might be worse off, however, so I guess we had better wait and trust to
good luck. Clever game, that of Jack's, wasn't it, stealing the fellow's
despatches?"
"Why, yes, clever in a way," admitted the doctor, glaring at the captain
through his big black-rimmed glasses, "but does it not savor somewhat
of--h'm--of deception? Pretending to be one person when he was another,
and quite a different one, by the way?"
"But he did not pretend to be anybody. He simply flashed a message, and if
that fellow outside took him for another person it was not Mr. Sheldon's
fault. All is fair in love and war, you know."
"H'm! so I have heard, but as I have been in neither I cannot say whether
it is so or not. However, I am not accusing you, Sheldon, you understand?
I suppose, under the circumstances, that what you did was perfectly
justifiable. At any rate, we shall not have to wait for this person to
come and take us out. But where was the person to whom he was sending
signals? You did not see him, Captain?"
"No, indeed, and I wonder that my man on deck did not see them. Asleep,
I'll warrant. That means loss of shore liberty to him for some time. The
other fellow was not here, of course. How could he get in?"
"I believe there is a way, sir," spoke up Jack, "and that this place is
used as a retreat for smugglers. If not just here, then some part of the
island. How about the calf we saw? I thought at the time that there were
people here, but did not think of smugglers."
"Why, I guess you've been reading about Captain Kidd and Blackbeard and
those old pirates, and have got your head full of secret lairs and all
that sort of stuff."
"Oh, no," smiled Jack in reply, "but evil men hide in woods and mountains
and all sorts of odd places as much now as they did in the old days. There
is just as much of this in modern times as there was in the old, but it is
accompanied with greater danger."
"Yes, I reckon it is. At any rate, I'd like to get hold of these rascals.
There'll be a pretty big reward for them, I fancy."
The boys left the cabin and during the afternoon Jack, Dick and young
Smith set out for a stroll over the island, taking one of the paths
already made, so as not to subject the younger boy to too much trouble.
"I hardly think these smugglers are on the island," said Jack, as they
walked on, "or, at least, I don't think that they got in through the
reefs. They could have landed on the other side, although there are many
difficulties connected with it, not to say dangers. You remember the
rocks, Dick? And there is a good deal of surf there also. One would need
to be careful in making it. A vessel could lie to, of course, while boats
landed the men, and that has probably been done."
"Yes, I suppose so," said Percival carelessly, thinking of other things at
the moment, and not paying much attention.
The boys walked on without paying much attention to where they were going,
young Smith being greatly pleased at being with the older boys, but at
length Jack stopped, looked around him, and said with the least bit of
alarm in his tone:
"H'm! I believe we are where Billy was treed by the calf the other day or
pretty near it, at any rate. We thought there might be people in the
neighborhood, but we did not see them."
"I suppose it might be as well to go back," said Percival. "It would not
be pleasant to run across a lot of half-civilized natives to say nothing
of smugglers."
"No, it would not," and at that instant there was a rustling in the bushes
not far away, and two men stepped out, the singular appearance of one of
them causing Jack to turn suddenly pale.
This man was of good height and build and evidently quite strong, and was,
besides, a person of superior intellect if not of the best tendencies, as
his face indicated, but what attracted most attention was the fact that
while his mustache was snowy white his hair and eyebrows were quite dark,
this making him noticeable in a moment.
"You here, George----"
"Rollins," said the other, evidently thinking that Jack was about to
pronounce another name, which was the fact. "Yes, I am here. It is safer
than back in New York state or any of the states, in fact. May I ask what
you are doing in this part of the world! I am as much surprised to see you
here as you are to see me," and the man made a sudden quick signal with
his left hand.
Jack heard a rustle behind him, and turned quickly, but not soon enough to
escape the quick rush of three big, strong, bearded men who sprang upon
him and his companions and held them fast.
"What does this mean, George--Rollins?" asked Jack, hesitating at
pronouncing the name, "Who are these men!"
"Friends of mine," laughed the man with the white mustache. "Business
partners I might say."
"The majority of your business partners get in jail or are shot by the
police, Mr. Rollins," said Jack. "Are these the same sort? What business
are you in now?" and then a look of intelligence shot across the boy's
face, as he remembered that Rollins was the name of the smuggler he had
but recently heard mentioned.
The other saw this look, and said with an evil glance:
"I think you have heard the name before. What are you doing here? You are
in the government service, you and your boy friends? What is this uniform
you wear?"
"That of the students of the Hilltop Academy. You knew that I was one of
them, for on the occasion of our last meeting----"
"I say, Jack," said Percival suddenly, "this is the man who was concerned
in the robbery of the Riverton Bank, your----" and the boy suddenly
paused, a deep flush on his face.
"His father, you were going to say," laughed the other, an evil look
crossing his countenance. "Yes, you are quite right, I am----"
"You are not!" cried Jack hotly. "You married my mother a year or so after
my own father's death, and made her life miserable, but that does not make
you my father, and you well know that I have never admitted your claim. No
court would admit it. Courts? You take good care to keep away from all of
them, Mr. Rollins, as you choose to call yourself."
"Take them away," said the man with the white mustache. "Let no harm come
to them. I don't understand why they are on the island, but it would be
awkward if any of their friends should know of our presence here. Don't
let them get away, but don't hurt them."
The men were much stronger than the boys, and Jack saw the futility of a
struggle during which the younger boy might be hurt, and he, therefore,
submitted to being led away, hoping to escape at some later time.
The boys were led some little distance to a little opening where they saw
a number of small crudely built houses, several dark-skinned men, who were
neither Indians nor negroes, but perhaps a combination of both, and a
number of domesticated animals, calves, pigs, a sheep and several fowls.
There were people on the island, therefore, as they had supposed, and
these men visited the place on occasion as in the present instance.
There was a strongly built house somewhat larger than the rest on one side
of the little village, and here the three boys were taken and locked in a
small square room with one window, this being small and protected with an
iron bar, evidently to make it safer, Jack noticing several cases in one
corner opposite the window.
"Make yourselves comfortable, young gentlemen," laughed Rollins, as he
called himself. "You will be set free, but not at present," and with that
he went away, and the door was stoutly locked.