BESIEGED.
The two scouts hurried away to execute the orders of their chief. They
were so accustomed to having Ned tell them what to do that any command
he might give was always cheerfully carried out.
The balance of the party remained there where they could command the
break in the stern of the wreck, and which the enemy had once vainly
attempted to rush. If presently another attack were made they would be
in position to pour down a hot fire on the assailants; and perhaps
taking pattern by Jimmy, the rest of the defenders might begin to give
wounds that would gradually put the miners out of the game.
Before three minutes had passed Ned and those with him heard a
tremendous row going on down the deck. This was followed by a great
scrambling, and then came a loud splash.
"Say, they must have found one of the three sneaks!" exclaimed Teddy,
jubilantly.
"Here comes Jack now to report," added Frank.
Jack was breathing hard, but chuckling at the same time, as he came up.
"I have the honor to report, sir, that we discovered a spy aboard, and
made him walk the plank," he started in to say, with all the airs of a
second officer aboard a liner, giving in his account of duties
performed. "He didn't want to make the jump but Jimmy helped him over
the side, while I covered him and kept his hands up. We've looked
everywhere now, and think he was the only one that stayed aboard."
"I hope you didn't drown the fellow, Jack," said Ned.
"Small danger of that," laughed the other; "where he fell the water was
only a few feet deep, even with a wave rolling in. He's ashore long
before now, and can report how we do things aboard the Old Reliable.
Anything else you want done, sir, while we've got our hands in?"
"Nothing but keep an eye out for any creeper along the sides. They may
think to try it over again," Ned told him.
"And next time perhaps we'll do something worse than tossing the fellow
overboard," Jack declared. "I half believe that scoundrel meant to do us
an ugly turn. Why, he had a wicked looking knife in his hand just when
we cornered him, and even raised it as if meaning to strike, when I
knocked it out of his grasp with the barrel of my gun, and then Jimmy
jumped on him like a monkey."
"A good job all around," was Ned's comment; "and it ought to show these
parties that we mean what we say. I'm only hoping they'll get sick of
the business and conclude to let us alone. That is all we ask of them,
to keep their hands off, and allow us to pull out."
"Small chance of that happening, I'm afraid," Jack went on to say. "If
we get away from here it'll be because we've gone and licked the lot
of them, as Jimmy was remarking, out of their boots. I say that, because
we know what it would mean to this fake concern to let the story of the
mine get to New York City."
After that for a while everything seemed very quiet. Watch as they might
they could see nothing of the enemy on the beach below. The waves crept
up higher, as the tide came in, and the sound of their curling over with
a long roll grew more and more boisterous; but ashore all seemed as
silent as death.
"You don't think then they've had enough of fight, and gone away, eh,
Ned?" was what Teddy asked, as he crept to where the patrol leader
stood, looking over the bulwarks, and keenly on the alert.
"Not a bit of it, Teddy," came the prompt reply. "You ought to know that
men like that give up only as the tiger does, grudgingly. They've felt
of our claws, and found that we can scratch; so next time they'll try
and work some other sort of game that may pay them better."
"I don't see how it can be done," urged Teddy. "If there were any trees
overhanging our fortress I might begin to think they'd climb up, and try
to drop in on us. And so far as we know they haven't got an aeroplane to
take the place of the same trees. They can only make a charge through
that gap in the stern and we're able to guard that, all right, ain't we,
Ned?"
"It seems so," the other told him; "but you mustn't be too sure about
there being no other way of getting aboard. We might have said that
before, and yet there was the dangling rope that three of them climbed.
Now, there may be another route; and while we don't know about it, the
only way to make sure is to keep on the alert every minute of the time."
Possibly half an hour passed in this way. The strain was beginning to
tell on some of the boys, for they felt that it was necessary to keep
keyed up to a high tension all the time. They did not know at what
moment loud yells would indicate that the battle had been resumed and
under new conditions.
"Whew! and to think that we've just got to keep this up all night long,"
Teddy lamented, as he shifted from one foot to the other, for, as he
said, they were trying to play tricks with him, by going to sleep on
post.
"Yes, and mebbe a whole lot longer," Jimmy told him; "because, while I
haven't been saying much about the same, I'm of the opinion that Ned hit
the right nail on the head when he said they'd try to starve us out. Oh!
I could stand nearly anything, but to go hungry. I've often thought
that would be my wind-up some of these fine days, to starve to death.
And I can't imagine a more terrible fate."
"Enough for two decent meals in the larder yet, Jimmy," said Frank. "And
before we get to the jumping-off place, we'll make a move out of this,
let me tell you. I think you'll be able to eat your three meals a day
this long while yet."
"Well, it's kind of you to say so, Frank," Jimmy went on; "but just now
I was thinking how neat we could give these fellers the slip, if only we
had a boat of some sort. There's plenty of water at the bow, with the
tide still comin' in like fun. My kingdom for a boat; any old hooker'd
do to fill the bill, because we ain't particular."
"Could we manage to make a raft, do you think?" asked Teddy.
"There's plenty of loose stuff around," Ned remarked; "but while a boat
might help us out, I don't think we could do anything with a clumsy
raft, even if we had a chance to launch the same, without being found
out. I had considered whether we might get overboard at the bow and make
off up the shore, but the chances of being discovered seemed too great."
"And besides we'd be apt to get our guns wet, and that might keep us
from using the same, when they were badly needed," Jack suggested. "So
it seems as though we'll have to give up the idea of leaving the fort by
the water door."
This started them to canvassing the whole situation over again, and
several ingenious schemes were proposed. Unfortunately, on entering
deeper into the same, they showed weakness in one particular or another,
so that all of them had to be cast aside.
What made it doubly irritating was the knowledge that if they waited
until the dawn came, their position would be doubly dangerous, since
they might not even show themselves along the side of the wreck, without
inviting a shot. As to escaping, it was not to be thought of while the
sun remained above the horizon.
"We've got to do something to-night, that's flat!" urged Teddy, possibly
in the hope that Ned might have a plan of his own, which he was holding
back, just to ascertain what his chums could do along those lines.
"I've got a hunch that they're nearly ready to give us another whirl,"
Jimmy was remarking, as he leaned over the rail of the vessel, as though
to see better.
"What makes you say that?" questioned Jack.
"There's a suspicious movement below that makes me believe some of the
bog-trotters are creeping along close beside the boat. I think they must
have come out of the water, where it slaps up against the wreck. Right
down underneath us they are, Ned. If I had a kettle of scaldin' water, I
could start the biggest yelping chorus ye ever heard right now."
A few sharp words from Ned put them all on the alert. Each one had a
station assigned to him, which he was expected to hold, in case of a
renewal of hostilities; while Jimmy might bemoan the fact that he could
not have a bucket of boiling water with which to startle the intended
boarders, he evidently did not intend to let that deficiency keep him
from doing his duty. Crouching there at a point where he could fire
through the breach in the stern of the wreck, he only waited for the
word to be given, when he evidently meant to start some others among the
enemy to limping on one leg.
"Gee!" Jack heard him saying softly to himself, with a chuckle,
"wouldn't it be a funny thing now, if we went and crippled the whole
shooting match, by tapping every one in the left leg. Think of how
they'd go hobbling around here, like a bunch of old pensioners comin'
after their money. Watch my smoke, now, and see how I fix 'em."
When everything was prepared in this way it made the boys nervous to
wait, for minutes passed and nothing happened. All the while they were
imagining the enemy creeping up the sides of the old hulk, grimly bent
on doing them injury.
Ned passed from one point to another, trying to discover just what kind
of peril it might be that menaced them. Did the miners have some way of
springing on board at a given signal, so that they might attack from all
sides at once?
When a full hour had gone and still there was no attack, Ned began to
wonder if after all any assault had been intended. Surely these men knew
by now that those on board the wreck were well armed, and that they
could hardly hope to carry the fort by assault. Perhaps they had come to
the wise conclusion that there was a far better means at their disposal
than bloodshed. Famine could accomplish what violence failed to do.
All they had to figure on was keeping the scouts there just so long,
when, lacking food and fresh water, they must give in.
After the chances for another desperate charge through the breach had
begun to grow fainter, Ned started to figuring again how he might get
his comrades and himself out of so uncomfortable a scrape.
As Jimmy had said, since they had no airship, they could not fly in that
way; and lacking boats, the sea offered no solution to the puzzle. All
that was left then, apparently, was the land, with those fierce foes
lying in wait to attack them the minute they quitted their fortress.
Ned believed that he had the most difficult problem to solve that had
come his way this many a day. From every side he viewed it, the puzzle
seemed as unanswerable as ever. If only they could manage to slip away
along about an hour or so after midnight, when the darkness was densest;
but there was only the one way to leave, and that was evidently watched
closely, if those silent figures flitting hither and thither on the
beach stood for anything.
But was the breach the only means for leaving? Ned remembered that those
three men had climbed aboard through the aid of a dangling rope. What
was sauce for the goose might be sauce for the gander, too; and if only
they could discover more rope they might also slide down it to safety.
He moved over to where Jimmy was squatted like a big toad, with his gun
resting on his knee, and aimed straight at the frowning breach in the
stern.
"You told us about those three men climbing aboard by means of a rope
that was dangling over the side; am I right, Jimmy?" he asked.
"Just what they did, sir," came the reply.
"You didn't leave that rope there, did you?" continued Ned.
"I should say not," Jimmy answered with emphasis. "Jack pulled it up on
deck, after I'd helped the feller make his getaway jump."
"And you think it's there still?" the patrol leader asked.
"Must be, unless somebody's been and gone and cut it loose to throw it
overboard," was the answer Jimmy made. "But what's a rope got to do
with us now, Ned? Want it to string up one of the dubs in case we get
our hooks on the same? Now, that might be a good scheme. It'd sure warn
'em that we meant business, and didn't expect to stand for any
foolishness."
"Well, you've guessed wrong that time, because it wasn't hanging I had
in mind, Jimmy!" declared Ned. "I was only trying to figure what chance
we'd have to get away, if later on in the night, one by one, we managed
to drop down by means of that rope."
"Gee! that is an idea, now, Ned. And say, it'd give us a chance to skip
out in the dark. Once clear of this pack, we could do some huntin' and
lay in a stock of meat. Oh! I hope you can make it work, Ned. Looks like
it might be our last hope, don't it?"
"I've been thinking right along, and, so far, it's the only idea I've
struck; but we couldn't dream of starting for some hours yet. So keep on
the watch, and don't let the enemy rush us."
"Count on me to hold 'em in check," said Jimmy, with a touch of his old
boastfulness. "I'm Leander at the Bridge, or Leonidas holding that pass
at Thermopylae. I'm here like a rock and can't be budged. Oh! you mutts
down there, I'm sorry for the feller that tries to run the gauntlet of
my fire; because my finger's on the trigger all the while, and just
itchin' to press harder."
Thinking to make sure about that rope, on which it now seemed so much
might depend, the patrol leader passed on down the slanting deck of the
stranded old hulk.
He met some one coming from the other end of the wreck; and it turned
out to be Frank, who, on finding out that he had run upon Ned, took hold
of his sleeve.
"Come down here with me," he said, "I want you to see something."
Curious to know what the other scout meant, Ned readily accompanied him;
but in passing the place where Jack and Jimmy had met with their
adventure, he made sure that the rope was still where the former had
tossed it after drawing it up.
"There, what d'ye think of that?" asked Frank.
He was pointing out toward the great bay, as he said this; and, looking,
Ned discovered that the last of the sea fog and mist had cleared away,
leaving the air as clear as a bell. Far away over the water he saw
several strange lights. They seemed to rise and fall in a mysterious
fashion; and yet Ned knew that there was nothing at all queer about
this.
"The phantom fleet at anchor!" said Frank, and it was hard to tell from
his manner whether he meant all his words implied or not.
"Yes," said Ned, soberly, "whatever those vessels are, they might help
us out of this scrape, if only we could get in communication with them,"
and he stood there for some time, staring reflectively out toward the
twinkling lights on the swelling sea.