HOPE DEFERRED
There was a wild babble of questions and answers, and it was a long
time before all had calmed down enough to talk coherently.
The captain and Tyke in their frantic search had come just abreast of
the outlet at the moment when Ruth and Allen had burst out into
daylight and safety.
Their hearts thrilled as they listened to the dreadful perils through
which had passed the two who were dearest to them on earth and the
narration was punctuated with expressions of consternation and sympathy.
"Well now," suggested Ruth after a half hour had passed, "let's get
back to work."
"No more work this afternoon," ejaculated the captain. "You're going
straight back to the ship."
"Indeed I'm not, Daddy," rejoined Ruth. "I'm all right now and I'll be
vastly happier sitting here and seeing you go on with the work than to
feel I've made you lose a day. We've got some hours of daylight yet."
The captain protested, but Ruth coaxed and wheedled him till he
consented and they all went back to the ditch they had started and went
to work, Ruth alone of the party being forbidden to lift a finger.
They excavated to the volcanic ledge in half a dozen places. In none
did they find a trace of treasure--not a sign that this soil had ever
before been disturbed by the hand of man.
"Bad mackerel!" grumbled Captain Hamilton, finally climbing out of his
last pit. "This looks as if we'd been handed a rotten deal from a cold
deck."
Tyke looked up from his work, and began:
"Mebbe that--Now, if I was superstitious--Oh, well," he went on
hastily, "you can't expect to find a fortune in a minute."
"But we got the bearings all right, according to the map, didn't we?"
demanded the captain with some asperity.
"We certainly did," Drew put it.
"We can't dig over the whole island," complained Captain Hamilton. "It
would be foolish. Hush! What's that?"
A rumble, a sound from the very bowels of the hill, smote upon their
ears. Ruth ran to them.
"Oh, Daddy!" she cried, "is there going to be another earthquake?"
"Look there!" Drew said pointing upward.
Over the summit of the whale's hump hung a balloon of smoke, or of
steam, its underside of a lurid hue.
"I say I've had enough for one day," declared the master of the _Bertha
Hamilton_. "Let's get back to the schooner before anything else
occurs. Maybe a night's sleep will put heart in us. But I tell you
right now, I, for one, would sell my share in the pirate's treasure at
a big discount."
The captain was the most outspoken of the treasure seekers; but they
were all despondent. They hid their digging tools, and departed for
the shore of the lagoon, the volcano rumbling at times behind them.
They emerged from the forest just as the sun was setting. As they came
out on the beach they were surprised to see that it was bare. Neither
the longboat nor the smaller one was in sight, nor could anything be
seen of the crews.
The captain called some of the men by name. There was no response.
Then he cupped his hands at his mouth, and his stentorian voice rang
over the waters of the lagoon.
"Ship ahoy!"
In a moment there was an answering hail, and they soon saw that a boat
was being manned. It came rapidly inshore, propelled by four members
of the crew, and, as it drew nearer, they could see that Rogers was
seated at the tiller.
As the boat reached the beach the second officer stepped out.
"What does this mean, Mr. Rogers?" asked the captain sternly.
"Mr. Ditty's orders, sir," replied the second officer. "The men got
scared at the earthquake this morning, sir, and after that second quake
they flatly refused to stay ashore. So Mr. Ditty let them go back to
the ship."
"But why didn't he leave the other boat's crew waiting for me?" asked
the captain. "If they were afraid to remain ashore they could have
stayed in the boat, rigged an awning to shield them from the sun, and
laid off and on within hail."
"That's what I thought, sir, and I said as much to Mr. Ditty. But he
shut me up sharp, and said it would be time enough to send a boat when
you should come in sight, sir."
The captain bit his lip, but said no more, and the party stepped into
the boat. They soon reached the _Bertha Hamilton_, and all climbed
aboard. The first officer was standing near the rail.
"Come aft and report to me after supper, Mr. Ditty," ordered the
captain brusquely.
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the mate.
As soon as supper was over and Ruth had gone to her stateroom the
captain started to go on deck, but Tyke put his hand on his arm.
"Going to give Ditty a dressing down, I suppose," he remarked.
"He's got it coming to him," snapped Captain Hamilton.
"He surely has," agreed Tyke. "But have you thought that perhaps
that's jest what he wants you to do?"
The captain sat down heavily.
"Get it off your chest, Tyke," he said. "Tell me what you mean."
"I mean jest this," said Tyke. "Often there's trouble in the wind that
never comes to anything because the feller that's brewing it don't git
a chance to start it. He fiddles 'round waiting for an opening; but if
he don't find it the trouble jest dies a natural death.
"Now, this Ditty, _I_ think, is looking for an opening. As far as his
letting his own boat's crew come on board when you had told him to keep
them on shore for the day is concerned, that can be overlooked. You
can't blame the men for being scared, an' any mate might be excused for
using his own judgment under those conditions.
"But his not keeping your boat's crew waiting for you, even if they
stayed a little away from the shore, was rank disrespect. He knew you
would take it so. He knew it would weaken your authority with the
crew. An' he expects you'll call him down for it. Isn't that so?"
"Of course it is," agreed Captain Hamilton.
"Well then," pursued Tyke, "if he did that deliberately, expecting
you'd rake him fore and aft for it, it shows that he wants you to start
something, don't it? An' my principle in a fight is to find out what
the other feller wants and then not do it. He wants to provoke you.
Don't let yourself be provoked or you'll play right into his hands."
"I might as well make him captain of the ship and be done with it,"
cried Captain Hamilton bitterly. "I've never let a man get away with
anything like that yet."
"An' we won't let this feller git away with it for long," answered
Tyke. "We'll give him a trimming he'll never forgit. But we'll choose
our own time for it, an' that time ain't now. Wait till we've found
the treasure an' got it safe on board. Then, my mighty! if he starts
anything, put him an' his gang ashore an' sail without 'em."
"You think, then, he wants me to knock the chip off his shoulder?"
mused the captain.
"Exactly," replied Tyke. "An' if you don't, he may be so flabbergasted
that before he cooks up anything new we'll have the whip hand of him."
"Well, I'll do as you say, though it sure does go against the grain."
Tyke's recipe worked; for when Ditty sauntered to the poop a little
later to receive the rebuke which he expected and which he was prepared
to resent, the wind was taken out of his sails by the captain's good
nature and pleasant smile.
"Quite a little scare the men got, I suppose, when they felt the quake
this morning?" Captain Hamilton inquired genially.
"Yes, sir," replied the mate. "There was nothin' to do but to get back
to the ship. Some of 'em was so scared that they would 've swum the
lagoon, and I didn't want 'em to do that for fear of sharks."
"Quite right, Mr. Ditty," returned the captain approvingly. "That is
all."
Still Ditty lingered.
"I ordered the men in your boat to come back too," he said, eyeing the
skipper aslant.
"That was all right too," replied the captain absently, as though the
matter was of no importance. "The ship was so near that it wasn't
worth while keeping the men out there in the sun all day."
Ditty stared. This was not the strict disciplinarian that Captain
Hamilton had always been. He hesitated, opened his mouth to say
something, found nothing to say, and at last, with his ideas
disordered, went sullenly away. If he had planned to bring things to a
crisis he had signally failed.
Captain Hamilton watched the retreating back of his mate with a somber
glow in his eyes that contrasted strongly with the forced smile of a
moment before, and then retired to the cabin to go again into
conference with Grimshaw.