“A few moments later,” continued Ned, “we were standing on the deck of
the sinister-looking craft, confronted by her equally sinister-looking
owner, for such we soon found he was, in fact, if not in name. From him
we speedily learned that not only was he the governor of that part of
the province of Yucatan, but that he also controlled large plantations
near the mouth of the river. The principal produce of these was sisal
hemp, a well-known and valuable product of the country.
“Naturally, we supposed that as soon as we had told our story, the first
act of Ramon Herrera, for such he informed us was his name, would be to
aid us in reaching our yacht. But the event proved exactly to the
contrary.
“‘You will take up quarters for the present on my yacht, gentlemen,’ he
said, in a tone almost of command.
[Illustration: General Herrera, commander of _El Tarantula_, the Mexican
gasolene gunboat.]
“Professor Chadwick started to protest, but met with a stern
interruption.
“‘My country is in the throes of a revolution,’ Herrera said, ‘and at
the present time it is unknown to me whether your United States of North
America is involved in the trouble or not. It is my belief, and that of
many of my countrymen, that the massing of troops on the Texan border,
by orders of your President Taft, is a menace to the Diaz government,
and an encouragement to the revolutionaries. This being so, you must
regard yourselves as my guests,—I will not use an uglier word,—till such
time as I receive further advices. Furthermore, I do not mean to make
any secret of my dislike for meddling Yankees.’
“‘Sir,’ exclaimed Professor Chadwick, ‘you are deliberately insulting.’
“‘Senor Yankee,’ was the calm reply, ‘you have deliberately intruded
yourself into a country where you and your inquisitive countrymen are
not wanted.’
“‘I am not aware by what right you dare to assume such an attitude
toward us,’ resumed Professor Chadwick, now thoroughly aroused, and,
indeed, we were all at the boiling-point, as you can imagine. Herrera’s
every word seemed to be a deliberate taunt.
“‘I assume my attitude, as you call it, by right of might,’ was the cold
reply, ‘my ancestor. General Jose de Guzman Herrera, was slain by your
Yankee soldiers in the Mexican war. Judge, then, if I have any reason to
favor Yankees.’
“‘You are likely to pay dearly for this forcible detention of peaceful
citizens of a republic at peace with your country,’ warned Allworthy.
“Herrera shrugged his shoulders.
“‘I’ll take my chance of that,’ he said, ‘besides, as I remarked before,
I am not so certain that my country and your country are not by this
time at war.’
“Well, there was nothing more to be said, and determined to make the
best of our situation we went docilely enough to the quarters that
Herrera had provided for us, which consisted of three cabins in the
extreme stern of the ship. Captain Andrews, MacDuffy and I were thrust
into one cabin, your father and Mr. Jesson into the next compartment,
and Abner Jennings and the two sailors into a third stateroom.
“Here was a pretty kettle of fish, and a fine ending to our hopes of
reaching the coast, which, we were confident, was not far distant. From
scraps of conversation we overheard, for there were gratings above each
stateroom door, we learned that the _Tarantula_ was tied up to the shore
bordering on one of Herrera’s plantations. We heard later that the
slaves,—most of them Mosquito Coast negroes illegally impressed as
slaves,—had made some trouble, and that Herrera was here with his armed
craft to suppress the uprising by stern means. What these means were we
found out later, and without going into detail, we heard enough to know
that the monster,—as we subsequently found him to be,—spared no form of
cruelty to browbeat his luckless servitors into submission. All this was
translated for us by Captain Andrews, who spoke Spanish fluently.
“We might have been confined in our narrow quarters for an hour, or it
might have been longer, when we heard the door of the adjoining
stateroom unlocked, and presently voices came to us through the grating.
It was easy to recognize Herrera’s tones as he cross-examined Professor
Chadwick. One of the Mexican sailors had noticed that when the professor
came on board he had slipped a silver chest—the treasure box—under his
coat. The fellow had informed Herrera, and now that arch-scoundrel was
demanding that Professor Chadwick and Mr. Jesson submit to being
searched.
“I can tell you we exchanged blank glances when we overheard this. It
seemed pretty tough that, after all we had gone through, we were to be
robbed of what was bound to prove a substantial reward, for Professor
Chadwick had insisted that we agree to take an equal share with him
having participated in his dangers.
“But to our astonishment the search evidently resulted in nothing being
found. For before long we heard Herrera bursting out into Spanish oaths.
He wanted to know what had become of the box.
“‘If you had asked me before,’ Professor Chadwick replied, ‘I would have
told you. I threw it overboard rather than let it fall into your hands.’
“We listened for an outburst or worse right then. But none came. The
rascal, in whose power we were, evidently didn’t know the value of the
silver box, for he merely remarked that Professor Chadwick’s act would
not improve our situation, and left the cabin. But we, in the adjoining
stateroom, again exchanged blank glances. It was no joke to think of
that fortune in magnificent stones being consigned to the muddy depths
of that Yucatan stream.
“A short time after Herrera left the cabin, however. Professor Chadwick
climbed up on a bunk in his stateroom, and placing his lips to the
grating informed us that he had not, in reality, hurled the box
overboard, but that it was suspended outside the porthole of his cabin
by a fine bit of cord which he had happened to have in his pockets. The
porthole was beneath the overhang of the stern of the gunboat, and
unless any sailor went prying about under the vessel’s counter there was
not much likelihood of its being discovered. The Professor informed us
also that he was determined not to purchase our liberty at the price of
the precious stones.
“‘This is the twentieth century,’ he said, ‘and I refuse to believe that
this rascal, for such Herrera has shown himself to be, will dare to hold
captive free American citizens for any length of time.’
“We agreed with him in this, but MacDuffy, who, as an engineer,
possessed with an investigating turn of mind, still busied himself, as
he had since the moment of our imprisonment, with trying to find some
means of escape. There was a nine-inch porthole in our stateroom, and
also in the other two. But, of course, this offered no opportunity for
escape. By peeping out through it, however, we could see that our
dugouts had been attached to the stern of the _Tarantula_ by a line. If
we could only reach them we might be able to attain freedom.
“All at once MacDuffy uttered an exclamation. He had discovered that
under the porthole was a square plate, bolted into the stern frames, and
seemingly devised, when removed, to permit of a gun being thrust through
the opening. The nuts which held the bolts in place were inside the
cabin, and MacDuffy produced from his pockets a serviceable-looking
monkey wrench, which was the engineer’s constant companion.
“‘I’ll undertake to have those nuts unscrewed in half an hour,’ said he
in a low, excited tone, ‘and then what’s to prevent us dropping through
the stern to-night, hooking the dugouts and floating down to the coast?’
“What indeed? we thought. The plan looked feasible enough. But,
naturally, we did not, for a minute, countenance the idea of making good
our own escape and leaving the rest to their fate. But Professor
Chadwick, when we communicated our plan, decided at once that we must
make the attempt that night, and, if we succeeded in reaching the coast
and the _Sea King_, must summon help.
“After a lot of persuasion we agreed to do this. Then we waited, with as
much patience as we could muster, for the night to fall. Food and drink
was brought us at dusk, and we ate all we could, knowing that we might
have strenuous work before us. After dark MacDuffy fell to work on the
bolts. It took scarcely an hour to loosen them. This much accomplished,
we waited till all grew quiet about the _Tarantula_, which was not
before midnight.
“Whispering a good-by to Professor Chadwick and Mr. Jesson, we dropped
through the opening, after MacDuffy had removed the plate which left a
hole some four feet square. The rope by which the dugouts trailed astern
was just above our heads. Captain Andrews seized it and pulled the first
of the frail craft toward the _Tarantula_ till it was under the opening
we had made. Then they told me to drop down as silently as possible.
When I was on board MacDuffy followed, stuffing his wrench into his hip
pocket, and last came Captain Andrews. Before we cut loose we, according
to Professor Chadwick’s instructions, cut the string by which the jewel
casket was suspended, and stowed it safely on board the dugout.
“This done, I cut the painter with a slash of my knife, and the dugout
drifted silently off down the current into the darkness. Our escape had
been made in safety. We reached the coast, and after paddling northward
for half a day, sighted the _Sea King_. All was as we had left it, and
mighty glad every one was to see us. I can tell you. But the plight of
Professor Chadwick, Mr. Jesson and the rest, cast a gloom over us all.”
“Tell me,” begged Tom, interrupting again, “are they still on the
_Tarantula_?”
“I don’t know,” replied Ned.
“Well, hurry your story,” exclaimed Jack. “We must go to their rescue
wherever they are!”
“Captain Andrews lost no time in ordering me to the wireless,” continued
Ned hastily, “and as we steamed northward I kept pumping away at my key.
At length, as you know, I got into communication with you. But as I did
so there was a sharp and sudden shock through the _Sea King_, and she
came to an abrupt stop. That shaft had parted again. There was nothing
for us to do but to anchor. At almost the same time one of the crew
shouted that a craft resembling the _Tarantula_ was on the southern
horizon and overhauling us fast. It didn’t need a second look to show us
that the strange vessel was indeed the _Tarantula_. As she drew close to
us there was a flash and a puff of smoke from her bow, and ‘crash!’ our
aerials parted,—shot through at the foremast.
“There we were, crippled and helpless, and I didn’t even know for sure
if my message to you was clear or no.”
“One question,” put in Jack, “has the _Tarantula_ a wireless?”
“Yes; I meant to tell you about that. She is fitted with a collapsible
military mast, and, from what we overheard, Herrera has a complete plant
at his plantation ashore likewise.”
“That disposes of X. Y. Z.,” said Jack, glancing at Tom. “It’s plain
enough now that some one ashore intercepted our message, just as we
caught theirs, and flashed it to Herrera.”
“Guess you’re right,” agreed Tom gloomily, “and we are responsible for
giving away the exact location of the _Sea King_.”
“How’s that?” asked Ned, in a wondering tone.
“I’ll explain all about it later,” said Jack, “the thing is now to
formulate some sort of plan to get out of this tangle. Is Captain
Andrews or Chief MacDuffy about?”
“MacDuffy is below, trying to fix the break in the shaft,” was the
response. “Captain Andrews is asleep in his cabin. He was worn out, and
I didn’t wake him when our rocket signals were answered by you.”
“Well, I think we’d better rouse him now,” Jack was beginning, when the
cabin door was flung open and a sailor, whose face was chalky beneath
his tan, burst in. The group at the table looked up, startled and alert.
Ned’s narration had taken almost an hour, and although they had not
forgotten the dangerous proximity of the _Tarantula_, they had had no
way of guessing in what way their enemy would next become active.
“That yaller-faced Greaser’s craft is bearing down on us. Mister Bangs!”
exclaimed the man. “She looks as if——”
There was a sharp crash overhead, and the booming detonation of a gun
resounded an instant later. The boys sprang to their feet and scrambled
up the companion way, headed for the deck.