DISCOVERIES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
The boys landed at the point where they had first gone ashore, well up in
the bay, as that would give them less walking, and pushed toward the
north, keeping as near to the shore as they could in the hope of being
thus better able to see the hidden smuggler in case she was still at the
island.
Making their way over rough ground, they at length came to an opening in
the rocks which was quite high enough for them to enter, and Jack said in
an eager tone:
"It is possible we may find something here, Dick. This seems to be a cave,
and smugglers and men of that sort make such places convenient."
"It looks rather dark, Jack," murmured Percival. "We had a pretty gruesome
experience in a dark cave when we first came to the island and I don't
want to repeat it."
"You won't find any devil fish in there, Dick," said Jack reassuringly.
"Besides, we have our flashes with us and are armed as well, and if we do
find anything uncanny we can put up a good fight, I imagine."
"That's all right, Jack, but once I have an experience of that sort I am a
little shy at venturing into a place anything like it. The mere look of
this cave made me think of the other."
"But there is no water here and it may be only a hole in the rocks after
all. Then it may lead to some retreat of these smuggler folk, and if it
does, so much the better."
"All right, Jack, I am with you," said Percival, and the boys entered the
hole in the rocks, as Jack called it.
It was more than that, as they presently discovered, for they found that
it extended much farther than they thought, and Jack, turning on his
pocket flash when there began to be less and less light to guide them, saw
that the passage went on for some distance.
It was high enough for them to walk upright and wide enough for three or
four persons to walk abreast, there being a few turns, but none sharp
enough to cut off the view ahead for some distance.
"Well, we won't get under water as we did in the other place, Jack,"
observed Percival as they walked on, meeting the first sharp turn and
being now unable to see behind them, "for we are going toward the interior
of the island and not toward the sea."
"No, and there will be no one to tumble down rocks upon us and shut us in,
or think they did, as happened before. In fact, the place seems to be
decidedly uninteresting, Dick."
"Nothing has happened so far, if that is what you mean," laughed the
other, "but you never can tell."
They made one or two more sharp turns and at length came to an opening of
greater magnitude where they could see three or four passages leading in
different directions, some very narrow and one wide enough for them to
walk side by side.
"Which one shall we take, Jack?" asked Percival. "The place begins to grow
interesting now that we have several routes to choose from. Does it look
as if men had been here? Do you see any smudges on the walls or any
footprints in the dust? Is this just an accident, or has it been cut out
and made of use for a hiding place?"
"No, there are no smudges which might have been made by torches, Dick, and
I don't see any footprints except our own. I don't believe any one has
been in here for years."
"Then you think that there may have been some one here at some time, Jack?
It has been used?"
"Yes, for it has not the looks of a natural cavern which has not yet been
discovered. It has been cleaned up to a certain extent. Still, I do not
think that the particular gang of malefactors we are looking for has ever
occupied it."
"Then there is not much use in our going any farther, Jack?"
"No, not if we want to find Rollins and the rest."
"Suppose we take the widest passage, Jack!"
"Very well. Come ahead."
They went on for twenty feet, when the floor of the passage began to take
a sudden decline which increased at every step.
"Hold on, Dick," said Jack, holding his light low and flashing it along
the rough floor. "This thing may take a sudden drop and----"
"So it does!" gasped Percival, lying at full length on the floor and
crawling carefully forward a pace or two. "It takes a drop for fair. It is
a lucky thing you noticed it."
"Then we may as well go back, for I don't care to take a drop I don't know
how deep."
"I'll see," muttered Percival, picking up a loose stone as big as his fist
and tossing it ahead of him.
Not until several seconds had passed did the boys hear the sound of the
stone falling into water, and Percival said with a sigh of relief:
"Well, we didn't go that way, at any rate. Come on, Jack, there is nothing
to be seen in that direction."
The boys returned to the place where the passages diverged, and Percival
suggested that they take one of the narrower paths and follow it for a
time.
"All right," laughed Jack, "but I don't believe we shall find any more
than we have already found. In fact, I don't believe the smugglers know of
this place at all and we won't find out anything."
However, they proceeded down the narrow path till they suddenly found
themselves at the end, where the place widened into a chamber about ten
feet square, and here they saw a sight which made Percival tremble.
It was a pile of human skeletons reaching nearly to the roof of the vault
and thrown promiscuously about like so much rubbish.
"I say, I've got enough of this!" gasped the young fellow. "Let's get out
of this, Jack, before we find anything worse. First the bottomless pit and
then a charnel house. I am satisfied!"
"It is not a very pleasant sight," said Jack musingly, "but they cannot do
us any harm. They have probably been here for years."
The boys returned to the chamber they had left and then went back along
the way they had come without seeking to explore any other passages.
Getting out into the light at last, they proceeded with their search for
the smugglers, resolving not to enter any more mysterious caves, but to
look for places where a vessel might be able to hide.
"There must be a lot of coves along here," said Jack, "that we have not
been able to find on account of the difficulty of making one's way along
the rocks, but now we are looking for them we don't mind doing a lot of
scrambling."
"No, we are used to that, and, besides, we are alone, and haven't young
Smith with us. I suppose he would have been delighted to come, for he
likes being with us, but it would have been too much of a task for him."
"And yet he would not have complained, Dick. He is a plucky little chap.
Just think of his going into the cabin of the wreck, up to his knees in
the water, to get that bag of gold just because he said he would."
"Yes, it was a nervy thing to do, and there are bigger boys in the Academy
who would not have done it. But I say, Jack, it is getting pretty rough
along here. I am afraid we may have to change our route."
They had come upon a mass of high rocks over which it was well nigh
impossible to make their way, and Jack stopped, looked around him and
said:
"It seems a pretty tough job, Dick. Suppose you give me a boost, however,
and let me see if I can get to the top of this one. I am lighter than you,
and perhaps I can make it."
"All right, Jack, just as you say," and Dick bent his back so that his
companion could get upon his shoulders, and then straightened up slowly,
Jack holding on by some of the projections in the rock and going up with
him, being able to reach a bit higher when Percival was at his full height
and saying, with some satisfaction:
"That is fine, Dick. I should reach the top now. Catch me if I come
tumbling down, however."
"I don't think you will, Jack. You are a regular cat to keep your feet,
and I guess you are all right."
Clinging with toes and fingers to the rock and going up inch by inch, Jack
at length reached a point whence it was easier climbing, and here he
advanced more rapidly than before, Percival watching him closely, and
standing ready to catch him in case he happened to lose his footing.
Jack did not, however, and at last, as he reached the top of the rock,
threw himself forward and found himself on a flat, but somewhat rough
surface a few yards in extent with higher rocks on one side, but nothing
in front of him.
Beyond, at some little distance, there were other rocks, but he judged
that if he went to the edge of the rock to which he had climbed he might
see something, and he, therefore, crept along cautiously for fear of being
seen, until he reached the edge.
Here he looked over and saw that there was water below him, quite a good
sized cove, in fact, which ran up from the shore to a considerable
distance, apparently, but had a turn a few rods farther up in shore.
Looking the other way Jack could see the bay in which they lay, and said
to himself:
"That is the way they could come, but now let us see if they did, and if
there is room beyond for a vessel of any size to pass."
The higher mass of rock on his left prevented his going much farther,
however, and he was thinking that he might be obliged to climb to the top
of this, being unable to get around it, when he heard a suspicious sound
below him, and lay flat on his face, peering cautiously over the edge.
There were some bushes and coarse grass here and these hid him somewhat
from observation, while they did not prevent his seeing anything going on
below.
The sound he had heard was the splash of oars and the hum of voices, and
in a few moments he saw a boat containing two men appear around a corner
of the higher rock, which descended sheer to the water's edge, and make
its way slowly toward the open bay.
"I tell you there is one, Davis," Jack heard one of the men say,
recognizing the voice as that of the man with the white mustache, as he
always thought of him, and not as his stepfather.
In fact, he had long since repudiated any relationship whatever with the
man, and regarded him as a stranger who had come into his life without any
wish of his own, and whom he would willingly put out of it, and be
satisfied never to see or hear of again.
"But weren't you in here the other night when I signaled?" asked the other
man, who was rowing. "You answered and told me to come in."
"Me?" with a laugh. "I tell you I was not. I don't know the way in any
more than you, though I know that there is one."
"But I saw lights, and I got flashes from some one on deck, in the regular
code, too."
"They were from the deck of this yacht I told you of, and I will show her
to you if you are patient. Go easy, though, for we may come in sight of
her at any moment."
"But how about the signals I got? How could any one know I was out there,
and how would they know the code?"
"They got you by accident, perhaps, and then were smart enough to take
your signals and answer them. I know a boy who is clever enough for that.
He is on the yacht, too. She has a lot of schoolboys who are on a trip to
these seas. They were carried in here by a tidal wave, and now cannot get
out, not knowing the passage."
"Well, I don't know it myself, and I never would have come in only for
finding a pilot who knows the ins and outs of all the islands in the
Caribbean, but if I noticed any lights when I came in I must have thought
they were yours."
The men rowed on out of sight, for Jack did not care to lean over too far,
partly from fear of falling and partly because he might be seen if any one
else should happen to pass that way.
There had a vessel come into the bay, then, and she was now probably up
the cove out of sight, and the man in the boat with the other was her
captain.
"That is the man whose vessel I signaled the other night," thought Jack.
"Rollins must have come over to this side and met him. They know each
other, it seems. Birds of a feather flock together."
Not caring to expose himself to the risk of being seen by the men when
they returned, Jack now crept back to the other side of the rock and began
to descend carefully, Percival being at length able to help him.
"Well, Jack," said the latter when his friend was safe on the ground, "did
you discover anything!"
"Yes, I did," and Jack told him briefly what he had seen and heard.
"H'm! then there was a vessel coming in last night, and old Ben was not
mistaken?" exclaimed Percival.
"No, he was not, and she is in a cove somewhere on the other side of the
rocks. I don't know how far up it goes, but there is one there. I could
not see the vessel either."
"We must try to find it, Jack."
"Yes, and we must get around these rocks. There is no way of getting to
the cove this way, unless we climb another high rock, and it is dangerous
and we might be seen also."
"Then let's look for another way."
They went back for a distance, and then began clambering over masses of
other rocks they came to, getting higher and higher, but at last coming to
a great mass of ledge rock, which rose sheer above their heads for twenty
feet without a single projection upon which they could rest their feet and
without a crevice where they might get a finger hold.
"There is no use trying to get up there, Jack," murmured Percival in
disgust. "A goat could not climb up there. Nothing without wings could
manage it, in fact."
"No, there is clearly no getting around this way, Dick. We shall have to
go back and try some other place. There is a vessel on the other side of
those rocks, but how to get a sight of her is the question. I think we
would better try to find the head of the cove."
They went back, therefore, to where they had tried to ascend the rocks,
and pushed on toward the interior of the island, finding the way
difficult, but at length getting clear of the rocks and after struggling
through a perfect jungle coming out upon one of the paths they had
themselves made in their explorations.
"Well, we know where we are now!" exclaimed Percival with considerable
satisfaction, "but we seem to be no nearer the head of the cove than
before. What are you going to do, Jack?"
"Look for the cove," said Jack tersely.
"All right, my boy, I am with you," said Dick with a chuckle, as if the
idea was a most amusing one.
"Seems funny, doesn't it?" said Jack, smiling. "Well, we have had a lot of
trouble, I admit, but you are not the one to give up when you undertake a
task, and you know that I do not like to."
"Not only that you don't like to, Jack, but that you don't do it."
They set out toward the shore again, determined to find the cove if it
were a possible thing, and looking for every possible clue to its
whereabouts, and plunging into what seemed the most impassable thickets in
their efforts, halting at nothing, in fact.
"We should have brought axes, Jack," muttered Percival in disgust, as both
boys paused at length, tired and hot in a little glade where the way was
clearer than before, and yet having no assurance that they were anywhere
near the place they sought.
"Yes, but that is just like a couple of boys who are bound to do a thing
and don't make all their calculations ahead. Our hind thought is better
than our forethought, Dick."
"Yes, but we could not think of everything. I think we have done pretty
well, considering."
"Yes, I suppose so, but it rather takes the conceit out of a fellow to
meet with so many obstacles. Why, I always thought I was good in making my
way through tangled woods, but I begin to think that I am not."
"There is one thing you have forgotten, Jack. We are in the tropics, the
woods here are regular jungles and the temperature is something
considerably above what you have been used to. You must not scold yourself
too much, Jack. I think we have done very well--'sh, what's that!" in a
hoarse whisper, and looking around him with alarm.
"Some one coming, Dick. Hide, quick!"