MUTINY.
As the three boys, for Dick Donovan brought up the rear, sprang up the
gangway steps the burly figure of a sailor suddenly blocked their way.
“You kids keep out of this,” he admonished, and tried to push Jack back.
The boy’s fist shot out and the sailor, caught fairly on the point of
the chin, fell in a sprawling heap. Jumping over his prostrate form,
as he lay there swearing and trying to regain his feet. Jack and his
companions gained the deck.
The first thing their eyes fell upon was Mr. Chadwick struggling in the
arms of several sailors. Jack reached the deck just in time to see a
noose thrown over his father’s head, making him a helpless captive as
it was swiftly drawn down and pulled tight about his arms.
“Let my father go!” shouted Jack angrily, springing forward.
The bristly-moustached man stood in his way. As the boy rushed forward
the man thrust out his foot and Jack fell in a heap. In an instant
the sailor pounced on him. But Tom, with a shout, pitched upon Jack’s
captor. In a flash they were rolling all over the deck.
Jack regained his feet as the heavy form of his captor was removed.
Dick Donovan was at his side.
“I’m with you, by Barataria,—I’m with you!” he cried, throwing himself
into an attitude of defense as several men ran toward them. Tom had
by this time managed to throw off the man whom he had attacked and,
springing to his feet, he joined his comrades. The three boys, their
backs to a deck house, faced the crew of the yacht without flinching;
but their faces had grown deadly pale. Mr. Chadwick had been dragged
off and was not to be seen.
The bristly-moustached man got to his feet and glowered at the boys
menacingly. Under one of his eyes, so Jack noted with satisfaction, was
a rapidly-spreading, plum-colored bruise.
“Now see here, you kids,” he barked out, “it ain’t a bit of good, your
putting up a scrap. Your dad tried it and it took a bullet to stop him.”
“You rascal! You wounded my father?” shouted Jack, rushing at him,
completely carried away by anger.
But he had not advanced a foot before he was seized by a dozen of the
crew who, despite all his struggles, held him fast.
“You see it ain’t a bit of use, your kicking,” went on the man,
vindictively. “This yacht carries a crew of twenty men and they’ll all
do just as I tell ‘em to. Now that you know what you’re up against,
I’ll explain a few things to you just to show you that there’s nothing
you can do against my wishes.”
Despite their indignation, the boys listened eagerly for what was to
come. Tom and Dick still held their attitudes of defense. Poor Jack
was too effectively held to do anything but submit, with what grace he
could.
“Them guns you heard was fired by the Professor’s orders. He figured
there was a bunch of life savers ashore who’d come out and clap us all
in irons for mutiny. We rushed him and finally he saw it was no go and
gave in. He’s a prisoner in his cabin now.
“If you and your dad hadn’t come butting in in that contraption of
yours we’d have gone on our voyage all peaceable; but you interfered,
and now you’ve got to pay for it. If we let you go ashore you’d get the
gov’ment after us and we’d get in hot water. As it is, we’ll just lock
you up till we make up our minds what to do with you, and then we’ll
dispense with you someway.”
“Is my father hurt?” demanded Jack.
“No, he’s all right and will be all right as long as he keeps quiet. I
fired a shot at him to keep him quiet, scare him like. That’s all. You
can take ‘em below, men, an’ then we’ll keep on our course.”
“But our ship!” cried Jack, anxiously. “What’s going to become of that?”
“Oh, that blamed contraption? Well, that can just as well go to the
bottom as not, I guess. Take ‘em away, you fellows.”
Jack, half crazed at the last words of the rascal, was dragged
helplessly off. Tom and Dick made a feeble show of resistance, but
they, too, were speedily captured and hauled across the deck after
him. Unarmed as they were, they had no chance of putting up any fight.
And so, within an hour after they had set out to answer the call for
assistance, they found themselves prisoners and their _Wondership_
doomed to destruction. No wonder that their hearts felt like lead as
their captors roughly shoved and pulled them along.
In this way they were propelled down a flight of steps leading, as soon
became apparent, into the saloon of the yacht. From this chamber there
opened off several smaller doors. One of these was open and through
this and into a small cabin the boys were roughly thrust. Then the men
who had made them captive went off without a word, first locking the
door behind them on the outside.
The boys looked miserably at each other as the door clicked.
“Prisoners!” exclaimed Jack.
“And the _Wondership_ to be cast away,” cried Tom despairingly, sinking
down on the edge of a bunk. “There’s all our work and money gone for
nothing,” he added bitterly.
Dick Donovan said nothing. He felt that of them all he was the only one
who had no right to say anything. He was there by his own fault solely,
and the freckle-faced boy felt that it would have been an impertinence
on his part to have made any complaint.
“Well, this _is_ a fine fix,” exclaimed Tom at length, after a long
silence, during which they had heard a trampling of feet on deck but
had noticed no vibration to show that the yacht was in motion.
“Yes; and that there is so far no explanation for our treatment doesn’t
make it any better,” spoke up Jack wretchedly. “It’s the thought of the
_Wondership_ being cast loose that makes me feel worst, though.”
“Same here,” muttered Tom dismally; “but can you form any idea as to
why we’re being treated in this way?”
Jack shook his head.
“It’s all a Chinese puzzle to me,” he said. “Of course, that ruffian
on deck hinted that there had been a mutiny of some sort, and that
between the time that we answered the signal guns and the moment we
reached the ship the Professor had been made prisoner.”
“Didn’t you see a struggle to pull down the flag when you looked
through the glasses?” asked Tom.
“Yes, two or three men on the stern deck appeared to be battling with
some others whom they finally drove off.”
“Then depend upon it, the whole crew has not mutinied. Probably the
men you saw were the Professor and the Captain or some other officer
who had remained loyal,” struck in Dick Donovan. “Come to think of it,
I believe I saw a despatch in the paper some time ago about this very
yacht,” he went on. “The cable came from the Canary Islands and said
that the _Valkyrie_ had put in there with a mutinous crew and shipped
another one. She then proceeded on her voyage across the Atlantic.
There was some mystery about her destination, but it was generally
supposed that she had on board a party of treasure hunters bound to
recover lost treasure somewhere in South America.”
“From what I’ve heard dad say about Professor Von Dinkelspeil,” said
Jack, “I don’t think the professor is much of a chap for that sort of
thing. Dad said that he was a famous naturalist.”
“Maybe he was going to combine natural history and treasure hunting
in South America,” suggested Dick. “Anyhow, one thing is sure; for
some reason this new crew has mutinied like the old one. They now have
possession of the ship and we are their prisoners. The question is,
what are they going to do with us?”
Dick’s clear way of putting it made them all look serious. It was plain
enough that, after treating them in the manner that they had, the
mutinous crew could not afford to chance setting them ashore. In that
case their ultimate fate remained a mystery.
“What do you think about it?” asked Tom, turning to Dick. In some
way he felt that this bright-eyed, alert lad was more likely to have
the key to the situation than any of them. But Dick shook his head
perplexedly.
“What they mean to do with us depends a heap on what they intend to do
themselves,” he said dubiously. “It’s my idea that, right or wrong, the
rascals now in control of this craft must have had some sort of idea
that she was on a treasure hunt. In that case, I think it’s likely that
they may have secured in some way information as to where the treasure
is, and are going after it themselves.”
“Then I wonder what they will do with us?” insisted Tom.
“By the grinning gondoliers of Granada, you’ve got me stuck. Maroon us,
maybe, on some island, or——”
“Hullo! We’re moving!” cried Jack suddenly.
A perceptible vibration and hum ran through the yacht’s frame as her
engines began to revolve. There was a port-hole in the cabin in which
the boys were confined and Jack thrust his head out. But he could see
no signs of the _Wondership_. Instead, through the rain which was now
falling fast on a sullen, heaving sea, he could perceive, dimly, the
distant coast line slipping by.
It was at this juncture that an odd sound came on the wall of the cabin.
“Somebody’s tapping!” exclaimed Tom, the first to solve the mystery.
“Sure enough,” rejoined Dick; “maybe it is your father. They may have
put him in next door.”
“Hark!” exclaimed Jack suddenly. “Listen to those taps. Don’t you
notice something odd about them?”
They listened in silence for a few minutes. Above the throbbing of the
screw and the rush of water along the moving vessel’s side they could
catch the odd rhythm of the taps being delivered on the cabin wall.
“By the ticker-tapes of Tripoli,” cried Dick suddenly, “somebody’s
telegraphing us!”
“Yes; it’s the Morse code!” almost shouted Jack, and leaning against
the wooden wall of the cabin he energetically rapped out a reply.