CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AN EXCITING ADVENTURE
“On this little island are pine-trees green.
A nicer little island, I’m sure was never seen,
With a hi-hi-hi, and a ho-ho-ho!
There may be cannibals lurking about;
There are some snakes in the rocks, no doubt;
But if there are, we will scare them out,
We merry explorers, ho!”
Everett shouted, as he and Adele started to explore the pretty Pine Island.
“The snakes are more apt to scare us out,” Adele said laughingly, when the lad paused for breath.
Meanwhile Madge selected a spot with a view of the rocky point. One little pine-tree, bent by the wind, stood on the top. Eva, who had longed to learn to draw and paint, and who had covered many a page with imaginary pictures of fairies and elves, was eagerly waiting for her first lesson. Madge gave her a drawing-board on which a piece of paper was fastened with thumb-tacks, and then she said, “Now, Dryad Fern, you lean back against this stump and sketch for me that pine-tree on the top of yonder rocks.”
Then Madge made herself comfortable a short distance away and continued to work on a sketch which she had started the day before.
Adele and Everett, exploring the island, were nearing the upper end, where the ground was rougher and the underbrush more dense.
Thinking to take a short cut to the rocky point, they found themselves deep in a briery tangle of bushes.
“I hope you won’t think that I’m overly scary,” Adele said, as she stood still, “but I don’t like to walk where I can’t see the ground, for I might step on a snake.”
“Not pleasant to contemplate,” Everett agreed. “But if you will follow close after me, I’ll step on him first, and—”
“Hark!” Adele whispered. “I heard a noise in those bushes just ahead of us.”
“So did I,” said Everett softly. “And, what is more, I saw a strange-looking creature that was trying to slink away. It walked like a man and yet looked like a bear. I am certainly puzzled to know what it can mean, for I am sure that no one lives on this island. If you will stand still here, I will peer over those rocks and see if the creature is there.”
Adele, though usually fearless, could feel her heart beating as she stood waiting, while Everett crept, oh, so still, toward the point of rocks. Suddenly he heard a digging noise which came from behind a bowlder. Stealing toward it, he cautiously peered over and beheld a sight which made even his brave heart beat quicker. A long-haired man, who was dressed in a bear’s skin, was digging in the ground among the rocks with feverish haste.
Suddenly he leaped up into the air, giving animal-like cries of joy. Then out of the hole which he had dug he lifted an iron box, which Everett could see was full of something which glittered.
“I must get the girls away from here at once,” Everett thought, as he stole back to Adele. To her he said hurriedly, “The man is evidently a miser who lives in this wild end of the island.”
Then, as they turned to go back to the place where they had left the others, he added, “Do you know there is something very strange about this? Camping parties are continually coming to Pine Island, and if there were a wild man living here, he would surely be seen by others and the fact become known.”
“That is true,” said Adele. “Then what do you think it may be?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Everett replied; “but having a little of the Sherlock Holmes instinct, I don’t believe that it is just what it seems.”
“Hark!” Adele cried, clutching Everett’s arm. “What was that?”
“It was the report of a gun, and there is another and another! Adele, this is certainly mysterious,” Everett said. “I am going to ferret it out. Will you go back to the girls?”
“I would like to go with you,” Adele replied.
“Then come,” the boy said. “We will creep along the shore and approach the point of rocks from this side.”
The firing had ceased, and there was no noise save the murmuring of the wind in the pines.
Everett led the way up the rocks and Adele followed. Suddenly, as they rounded a huge bowlder, Everett stopped and pointed ahead of them. “Look! There is a cave!” he whispered. “This is evidently where the wild man lives.”
But Adele’s gaze was fastened to the point of rocks beyond. Suddenly she burst into a merry peal of laughter.
Everett was indeed puzzled. “Adele,” he exclaimed, “why do you laugh?”
“Do you see the flag which is flying on yonder rocks?” she asked.
“Whew!” Everett whistled. “Why, that’s a black flag with a skull and crossbones. Surely the days of pirates are long since passed.”
“You are wrong there,” Adele replied, no longer afraid, but desiring further to mystify the city lad. “Follow me and I will show you the pirates.”
The girl now took the lead, and over the rocks she clambered. Down on the other side was a sheltered cove. Adele peered over and then silently she beckoned Everett to come closer.
The lad’s alarm was changed to amusement when he saw, on the shore below, six boys dressed as pirates, with bright handkerchiefs about their heads. One or two of them had earrings hanging from their ears, and each one had a belt containing a knife and a cutlass and a pistol. They were sitting in a circle around a camp-fire, and the two silent listeners could hear clearly every word that was spoken.
One pirate was talking excitedly. “Shiver my timbers!” he said. “At last we have found what we came for. You remember Ben Gunn, who was left on this deserted island three years ago? Well, this minute I sighted the old sea-dog, hairy and almost bent double, but, dash my buttons, men, if he hasn’t found that treasure that we’ve sailed the seas to get.”
Then up rose Pirate the Terrible, and in a roaring voice he issued an order: “Capture the black-hearted scoundrel at once and bring him to me. I’ll cut him limb from limb and show him no mercy unless he hands over the treasure.”
Then, waving their knives in the air, the five other pirates leaped around the rocks, returning a moment later with the wild man securely tied with ropes.
“Yo-ho!” roared Pirate the Terrible. “So you are Ben Gunn. Three years you have lived alone on Treasure Island. What did you live on, you black-hearted scoundrel?”
“Goat meat and such,” Ben Gunn replied, looking about wildly.
“And what have you been doing?” roared Pirate the Terrible.
“Digging for the buried treasure, and, dash my buttons, I have found it, and we’ll all share equal if you’ll take me away with you on your ship,” the wild man cried eagerly.
“Old Sea-Dog,” Pirate the Terrible replied, “you have saved us many days’ digging, and so we’ll share equal and take you off on the good ship Hispaniola.”
Then, to the amusement of the onlookers, the pirates and the wild man began to caper about the fire and sing:
“Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest.
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!”
Adele had risen and was stealing away. Everett followed her, glad indeed that their scary adventure had ended in so harmless a manner.
“Do you know those boys who were playing pirates?” he asked, when they were again on the shore and well out of hearing.
“I do, indeed,” Adele laughingly replied. “I have the honor of being the sister of Pirate the Terrible, but just at first I was certainly scared.”
As they talked, they approached the spot where they had left the others.
“More mystery!” Everett cried. “The girls are not here and the boat is gone.”