THE PROFESSOR'S STORY.
It was only a short walk to the Golden Gate Hotel, where they found that
the professor was in his room. They sent to him to ask if he would see
them. A moment later the bellboy returned, accompanied by a spare but
sinuously built man of medium height. It was difficult to judge his age,
though Jim conjectured him to be about forty. Still, he might have been
either ten years older or younger. He had a sharp but pleasant face that
had been warmed to a deep brown by the ardent rays of the tropic sun.
His moustache and full beard in the fashion of the day, was dark brown,
almost black, and was closely trimmed like his hair, which was quite
gray--an individual that you would know at once as a man that had done
something worth while. His movements were deliberate, but so easy and
graceful that there was not a fraction of wasted effort, and much
quicker than they appeared to be. His eyes were clear and penetrating,
and, as Juarez expressed it, "seemed to look right through you."
"That's the professor," whispered Jo to Jim as the man came into the
rotunda where the boys were waiting. "There isn't much of him, but he's
all there."
Coming toward them, he cast a rapid glance over the group that seemed to
appraise them all in one moment.
"You are James Darlington," he said in a pleasant drawl, advancing to
Jim with outstretched hand. "I would recognize you anywhere from your
likeness to your brothers. I am very glad to meet you. And," turning to
the engineer.
"Mr. Berwick," answered Jim. "He is the chief engineer of the Sea
Eagle."
"Glad to know you, Mr. Berwick," said the professor. "I suppose,
Mr. Darlington, that these young gentlemen have told you about my
expedition. Not yet. Oh, by the way, have you dined? No? So much the
better. Neither have I, so we will have dinner first and our talk
later."
"But," objected Jim.
"Objection overruled," returned the professor promptly. "You are my
guests to-night. I hope you are hungry."
"No," replied Berwick, "we are way beyond that. We're starved."
"Then we won't delay any longer," returned the professor with a low
laugh that was pleasant to hear, and leading the way to the dining room.
"Shall I order the meal?" he asked, when they were seated at the table.
"There are some dishes they have here that I can specially recommend."
"All right," said Tom. "I'm ready to tackle anything."
When the meal, during which all reference to the purpose which had
brought them together was strictly tabooed, was over, the professor
invited them to his rooms and told them to make themselves at home, and
he would explain the purpose he had in view.
"Now," began the professor, settling himself in a big chair and lighting
a curious looking pipe, "where shall I start?"
"That's a queer looking pipe," interjected Tom, who had been regarding
the object with a good deal of interest.
"It is a little odd," agreed the professor. "What do you think it is?"
"Looks like a skull of some kind," ventured Jim.
"Not a bad guess," replied the professor. "It is part of the skull of an
ophidian."
"An o' what?" ejaculated Tom.
"Not an owat," corrected the professor, "but a giant ophidian of
palazoic times."
"Gracious!" cried Tom. "I thought it was something awful, but I didn't
suppose it was as bad as that."
"I suppose there is a story connected with it," said Berwick.
"Yes," replied the professor, "rather a tragic, though a common enough
one in that region."
"We would like to hear it," suggested Jo.
"Well," began the professor slowly, "imagine if you can the depth of a
tropical jungle with a wilderness of tangled vegetation, of arching
palms and giant forms whose fronds sway in the air high above a man's
head. Through this tangle there creeps a naked savage intent on the hunt
for some animal upon which he can feed. In front of him, pendulous from
an over hanging branch there falls a rounded body like a mighty cable,
whose green and yellow colorings mix in with those of bush and tree. As
the savage creeps beneath, there is a sudden motion in the cable. It
comes to life and coils about the man.
"With a shrill cry of fear, the man tries to unloosen the deadly folds,
grasping the slimy serpent about the throat in a desperate clutch. But
all in vain. They writhe and struggle, but neither relax their hold, and
they fall to the ground beneath the arching palms.
"The seasons come and go. The ferns and palms die and bury the snake and
his victim beneath the fallen leaves and floods bring down the waste
from the hills and cover them more completely."
"My goodness!" cried Tom. "Did you see it?"
"Not actually," answered the professor. "All that happened a long time,
years, centuries, aeons, perhaps, ago. What I know is that one day on
making an excavation we found the two skeletons, that of the man and the
snake in such a position as to indicate the story I have told you. I
picked up the skull and the fancy took me to have it mounted and made
into a pipe. But that isn't getting on with the business."
"Are you a zoologist?" asked Berwick.
"No," replied the professor. "I suppose you are thinking of my title. I
use that because people generally know me better that way, and--" he
smiled broadly--"it's easy to say. I am a mineralogist--a mining
engineer. I got the title of professor from a college back East where I
lecture occasionally on mineralogy and petrology. People haven't time to
write my name though it's not so difficult to pronounce."
"Sure enough," said Jim. "I do not know your name yet."
"Let me write it for you," said the professor. And taking a sheet of
paper this is what he penned.
Featheringstonehaughleigh.
"You will always be just plain professor to me," determined Jim, and
there was a general laugh.
"To resume," went on the professor, "for the past three or four years I
have been down in the South Sea Islands prospecting. Acting for an
English syndicate which had an idea that there were some gold or silver
mines that could be developed."
"Did you find any?" questioned Jim.
"None that were worth while, but while I was there I came across an old
sailor who had a story of a fabulously rich mine that was located on
one of the islands. He didn't know just where, and had been hunting for
it for a good many years, traveling from island to island in his quest."
"Couldn't he find it?"
"All he had to guide him was a rudely drawn map of the island that was
located somewhere in the Southern seas. He worked all alone, for he was
afraid to share his secret with any for fear that they would kill him to
get it all."
"Are they as bad as that down there?" asked Tom.
"About as bad as they are made, a good many of them are," replied the
professor. "But, to get on with my story, it happened that I was enabled
to do him a good turn on one occasion, and he confided his secret to me.
I tried to help him to find the island, but, as the longitude and
latitude were rather vague, we couldn't locate it. I helped him all I
could, and when he was taken down with the fever, just before he died he
gave me the map on the condition that if I found the mine I would share
with his family, which I agreed to do."
"Do you think there was any foundation for his story?" asked Jim.
"I think there is. At least I thought there was enough in it to give up
my work for the syndicate and organize an expedition to hunt for it. It
seems, according to Brook's story, John Brook was his name, that his
father when a young man was a sailor on an English vessel. On one of his
voyages, his ship was captured by pirates and the crew were made
prisoners. They were carried to the pirates' lair on an island away from
the usual track.
"Here, those who did not join the pirates were compelled to do all the
rough work about the place. As there was no means of getting away from
the island except by the pirates' vessel, they were not kept very close
watch of, and were allowed the freedom of the place. This island, it
would seem from his description, was of volcanic origin, and had a
mountainous ridge, several hundred feet in height at one end. As this
part of the island was exceedingly rough and rocky it had no attraction
for the pirates, who kept to the low ground along the shore.
"In one of his rambles about the island the sailor came upon a ravine
leading up into the mountain, and he followed it up to where it ended
in a fissure in the rocks. He was curious to see what the inside looked
like, and returning another day, entered the fissure, which lead into a
large cavern, where, according to his story, the walls were glittering
with gold."
"Fool's gold," interjected Berwick.
"So I thought at first," responded the professor, "but Brooks said that
his father picked up a half dozen nuggets ranging in size from that of a
bullet to that of a walnut. He seems, like his son, to have been a
secretive sort of a man, for he kept his discovery from his shipmates.
From time to time he made visits to the mine as he had opportunity,
gathering the nuggets, which he kept concealed about his person until he
had accumulated a considerable store, hoping that some time he would be
able to make his escape, which, with several of his companions, he was
finally able to do."
"How did he manage to get away?" asked Jo.
"It seems, from the story, that he and some of his shipmates, having
procured a small boat, which they secreted at the mountainous end of the
island, and stocked with provisions, they set out on a dark and stormy
night when there was less chance of detection. The storm developed into
a gale which they ran before, and which drove them many miles, bringing
them into the course of trading vessels, one of which a day or so later,
picked them up and landed them in a Chilian port. Here Brooks sold a
nugget and got money enough to get home. On his return he talked much of
the mine, and drew a map of it for his son, who started out in search of
it."
"How did he expect to find it when he didn't know its location?"
questioned Jim.
"He had it figured out something like this. The place where they were
picked up by the vessel was about latitude 9 south, longitude 129 west.
Now, when they were picked up they had been driving for some thirty-six
hours before a southwest wind at not less than fifteen knots an hour.
This would make about five hundred and forty miles they had come from
the island, which must, therefore, lie somewhere between five or six
hundred miles to the southwest."
"I should think that would be the spot where he would look for it," said
Juarez.
"That is what he did, and so have I," was the reply, "but we were,
neither of us, able to locate it."
"Do you think it really exists?" asked Jim.
"I am quite certain of it," answered the professor. "At any rate, I am
going to make another attempt, and I want you to go along with me."
"What do you want with us?" questioned Jim.
"Well," replied the professor, slowly, "I need some efficient help, and
I have had my eye on you boys for some time. I had heard of you, that
you were thoroughly trustworthy and could be depended upon in any
emergency, and I decided that you were just the kind of companions I
wanted. But I may as well tell you right at the start that this is not
going to be a picnic party; we are going to have our work cut out for
us, and plenty of it, so if you go along you are likely to see some
pretty exciting times before we get through."
"That don't scare us any," put in Jo.
"I didn't think it would," the professor went on, "and if it turns out
as I believe it will, we shall all have all the money we need for the
rest of our lives."
"But why should you take us in?" persisted Jim.
"Why, if we should succeed in finding the treasure," the professor
explained, "it would be a great temptation to those who learned of it to
use any means, fair or foul, to get possession of it. That is one of the
reasons I want you. I feel that I can depend upon you through and
through."
"I think you can," responded Jim quietly, but not the less emphatically.
"What we say we are ready to stand by."
"I am quite sure of it. Now, the proposition I have to make is this: I
will finance the expedition, taking all the risk. Now wait"--to Jim, who
was about to interrupt. "If we succeed I will take one-half of what we
get. Out of my half I will provide for Brook's family. The other half I
will divide, one quarter for you and one quarter to the crew. How does
that strike you?"
"That's fair enough," agreed the boys.
"Should we fail, I will pay you for your time."
"Oh, we'll take our chances on that," broke in Jo. "We'll get enough fun
out of the trip to pay for that."
"When do you want to start?" asked Jim.
"I'm ready now. If you are, I think we can get off within a day or two."
"I would like to go with you," went on Jim, "but there is something I
would like to attend to first."
"May I ask what that is?" inquired the professor.
Whereupon Jim told him of the seizing of the Sea Eagle, and of the
abduction of the Senorita de Cordova.
"Broome!" exclaimed the professor, when Jim had concluded, "is that old
rascal mixed up in that?"
"Do you know him?" asked Jim in turn.
"A little," replied the professor, dryly. "He tried to work off some of
his little tricks on me, but I wasn't to be caught napping. Do you
happen to know a particular friend of his, one called Manuel?"
"Ugh!" broke in Berwick. "Don't speak of that incarnation of wickedness
or I shall begin to smell brimstone. I'd rather contend with his satanic
majesty, himself."
The professor made no comment, but asked, "Have you any plans?"
"Nothing definite," answered Jim, "except to get to the place where the
girl is to be returned and see that the bargain is carried out."
"Good!" agreed the professor. "That is the first step, of course. Now,
if you want us, I and my boat are at your service."
Jim sprang to his feet. "Oh, thank you!" he exclaimed enthusiastically,
"we shall be ever indebted."
"Don't mention it," returned the professor. "I have a little score to
settle with Broome, myself. I have reason to think he is after me. In
some way he has found out about the mine and the map that I have and he
is ready to resort to any measures to get possession of it. So you think
San Matteo is the place appointed?"
"I feel sure of it."
"Where are you stopping?" continued the professor.
"At the Commercial Hotel," replied Jim.
"Well, then we won't waste any more time. Suppose you meet me at the
foot of Market street to-morrow morning at six o'clock. We will then go
on board of the Storm King and be ready to take up the chase at once if
the emergency arises. It is late now, too late for you to go aboard, so
I will arrange for Jo and Tom to stay here to-night." Then to Jim and
Juarez he added:
"Good-night, and remember to-morrow it's six o'clock sharp."
"Good-night," responded those addressed. "We'll be there."
A room adjoining that occupied by the professor was secured for the boys
and their baggage was brought up from the office where it had been
temporarily deposited.