"We might get by and then again we might not," Bob explained as he stepped back a pace.
"Better not take a chance," Jack whispered. "He won't sit there long."
But it was all of a half hour before the mate changed his position and the boys had about lost patience when Bob, who peeped around the corner every few minutes, whispered that he was standing up. Soon footsteps warned them that he was coming their way and they pressed as closely as possible against the side of the cabin and waited. He passed within a foot of them but, so intense was the darkness, he failed to see them. They waited another minute and then Bob whispered now, and in another moment they were up the stairs and safe, for the time, in the wheel house.
"So far so good," Bob chuckled.
They stretched themselves on the floor close to the partition which separated them from the wireless room and waited. There was little danger now of discovery, they thought, even should he come into the room unless he should turn on the light and they did not think he would be likely to do that.
Another half hour passed before they heard his steps coming up the stairs. He stepped onto the bridge and for another long period he made no sound. Then they heard him enter the wheel house and the creak of a chair told them that he had sat down. Followed an agonizing period during which they hardly dared breathe. Once he lit his pipe and, as the match flared up they thought surely they would be discovered, but his back was toward them and he did not turn, at least until the match went out.
"Well, I guess it's about time."
The man spoke the words aloud but in a low tone. Then they heard him get up and, a moment later, pass out of the room.
"Time for what?" Jack whispered, his lips close to Bob's ear.
"That's what we've got to find out," Bob whispered back.
He passed the door of the wheel house and, a moment later, they heard him at the door of the wireless room.
"You guessed right," Jack whispered.
There seemed to be some trouble in getting the door unlocked and the boys hoped that the key would not fit. Several times they heard the man mutter under his breath and more than once he used, what Jack afterward referred to as "quite illuminating language." But finally they heard the door open and close.
"Come on now," Bob whispered as he got quietly to his feet.
Without knowing what plan Bob had in his head Jack followed him from the wheel house and around to the door of the wireless room. Through the crack beneath the door they could see a gleam of light and knew that he had turned on the electric but the shutters of the single window were so tightly closed that no ray came through them.
"What you going to do?" Jack whispered.
"Just a minute and I'll tell you," Bob whispered back as he drew from his pocket a pair of small pliers adapted for cutting wire.
He knew just where the lead in from the aerial entered the room and that just beside the door was a large insulator through which the wire passed. It was the work of but an instant to cut the wire just below this insulator. Then he pulled the upper part of the wire up about an inch and then stuck the piece, which he had cut off, up into the insulator, pushing it far enough so that it securely held but being careful that the two ends did not touch. In this way he put the apparatus entirely out of commission and in such a way that it would be likely to take a long time for anyone else to locate the trouble.
This was done in much less time than it takes to tell it and, taking Jack by the arm, he pulled him gently away from the door.
"He's welcome to all the messages he gets," he chuckled as soon as they were around in front of the wheel house.
"What'd you do?"
Bob explained how he had split the aerial.
"Fine," Jack praised him. "He'll never find out where the trouble is in a week of Sundays."
Just then they heard a faint snapping sound from behind them and Bob whispered:
"He's trying to send."
"But he isn't using much power," Jack added.
"Afraid some of us'll hear it."
"Can we get it?"
"Listen."
For some moments the boys strained their ears to catch the faint sparks which came from the wireless, but finally Bob said:
"It's no use. Either he's using some code which I don't know or else it's so faint I've got it all balled up."
"Same here. I couldn't make head or tail out of it."
"Well, we have the satisfaction of knowing that the person or persons he thinks he's sending to isn't making even that much out of it because he isn't hearing it at all," Bob chuckled.
"But, Bob, if he expects to get him with a spark of that size he must think he's pretty near."
"Reckon that's so."
Just then the sounds of the sparks stopped.
"He's listening for the answer now," Jack chuckled.
"He'll know right off that the thing's dead."
"Sure he will."
"S-s-s-s-h."
They heard the door open and the man step out.
"Something's the matter with the blamed thing," $hey heard him mutter.
"You said it, old man," Jack whispered.
From the sounds they judged that he was feeling for the lead-in wire and they were, for a moment, filled with apprehension lest he find the break for they knew it would take only a slight yank to pull either end from the insulator. Soon, however, their fears were relieved as they heard him mutter: "Must be something on the inside. Everything seems to be all right out here." Then the door shut as he passed in.
"Go to it," Jack whispered. "If you find it in there you're a whole lot better than I think you are."
They were now in the wheel house again and, pressing their ear against the partition, they could hear him as he was evidently testing the different parts of the set.
"Hope he doesn't loose his temper and smash anything," Jack whispered as they heard something drop on the floor.
"I don't think he'd dare do that."
"Nor I. But you never can tell what a man of his stripe will do."
For several minutes after that there was no sound from the wireless room and then the sparking was heard again.
"He's trying to send again," Jack whispered.
"Well, he can't do any harm at that," Bob whispered back. "I only wish we could read his stuff."
"He's sending the same thing over and over again."
"You mean he's trying to," Bob chuckled.
Then all was quiet again and the boys judged that he must be listening again for a reply to his message. Five, ten and then fifteen minutes passed without a sound. Then suddenly they heard the door open and, a moment later, footsteps approached the wheel house. Bob nudged Jack as a signal to make no noise and Jack nudged him back in token of his understanding. For some time the mate stood on the bridge moving uneasily from time to time and finally he entered the room and sat down in the chair which stood directly in front of the wheel.
"I more'n half believe those boys suspect me," they heard him mutter after a few minutes had passed.
"You win," Bob thought to himself as he carefully nudged his brother again.
"Something was the matter with that wireless but I'll be hanged if I could find out what it was," they heard him say.
Then, as though unable to stay long in one place, he went out onto the bridge again and, a moment later, they heard his steps as he descended the stairs to the lower deck.
"What'll we do now?" Jack whispered.
"What do you think?"
"I don't know but we might's well go to bed. I hardly think he'll try anything more to-night.
"What time is it?"
"Half after two."
"Well, I think we'd better stick it out till daylight. You see—" But before he could finish his sentence they heard the mate coming up the stairs again.
He stood just outside the door and, in a moment, they were electrified to see a stream of light dart from his hand.
"He's signalling again," Bob thought.
From where they lay they were, of course, unable to see whether or not he was receiving any reply to his signals and soon Bob was determined that he was going to get out where he could see regardless of the risk. Carefully he urged his body toward the door inch by inch confident that Jack would understand and lie quiet. He reached the open door without making the slightest noise and, even in the intense darkness, he could see the mate as he stood by the railing not more than six feet away. Slowly and cautiously he drew himself to his feet until he was standing erect in the doorway. He knew that the man might turn his head at any moment, but he trusted to the more intense darkness, with the room as a background, to hide him in case it happened.
The mate was now flashing his light rapidly out over the water and Bob strained his eyes to catch the faintest sign of an answering flash from out in the night. But, so far as he could see, none came, and after a few more minutes, the man, with an exclamation of disgust, turned after shutting off his light. Would he see the boy standing like a statue in the doorway? Bob dared not make a move so close was he to the mate and he held his breath for fear he might catch even that slight sound. One, two and then three steps he took toward him and so close was he that Bob could have reached out his hand and touched him. Then suddenly, as though struck by a new idea, he turned and quickly descended the stairs. Had he seen or heard him? Bob was not sure. He had heard no sound from Jack, and, for a second, he was undecided what to do. Then, he darted down the stairs in pursuit of the man. As soon as he reached the lower deck he paused and listened. No sound, to tell him which way he had gone, was audible and he had no way of knowing. But, from the suddenness of the man's movement as he had turned, he felt certain that he had had some definite object in mind and he was determined to find put what the object was if at all possible. So far they had learned nothing that would be of any help. To be sure they had foiled his attempt to send a message to his confederates, whoever they might be, but with that he was far from satisfied.
Perhaps he had gone to see if they were in their cabin. The thought struck him suddenly and, without waiting to analyze it, he started off as rapidly as he dared. But, when he had reached the door of his cabin he had not encountered the man and, after listening a moment, he opened it and went in. Turning on the light for an instant he satisfied himself that the room was empty nor could he see any evidence that the mate had been there.
"Reckon I guessed wrong that time," he thought as he switched off the light.
Stepping outside once more, for some moments he stood leaning against the railing looking out across the dark water. He made no attempt at concealment knowing that he could easily explain his presence in case the man should discover him.
"Up early 'aint yer?"
The question came so suddenly that Bob gave at start. Then, turning, he saw that the mate was standing close behind him.
"Great snakes, I'd as soon be killed as scared to death," he laughed.
"Didn't mean ter scare yer," the man apologized.
"Oh, it's all right," the other assured him. "It was a bit close in the cabin and I thought there'd be more air out here," he explained.
"Yep, it's a close night. Looks 's though it might rain."
"Which way's the wind?
"Nor-east, what thar is of it, which same 'aint much."
"I'll say it isn't."
"Wonder yer brother didn't want some air too."
"Oh, Jack's a better sleeper than I am," Bob laughed easily.
"Reckon I could sleep all right if I had the chance."
"Go ahead and hit the hay," Bob told him. "I'll stand the rest of your watch. I wouldn't sleep any more anyway and I'd rather stay out here than inside."
"You mean it?"
"Sure I do. Go to it."
"But mebby the cap' might not like it."
"He won't care as long as someone is on the watch," Bob assured him.
"Then I reckon as how I'll do it. I'm mighty sleepy."
The mate turned and disappeared in the darkness going toward his quarters. Bob waited a few minutes and then made his way to the wheel house.
"Where you been?" Jack demanded as soon as he was inside.
Bob told him what had happened and added: "You'd better get back to bed."
"Like fun I will and leave you alone."
"But, Jack, there's no danger."
"How do you know there isn't?"
"How could there be? You see, I'm not sure whether he really turned in or not, and if he should see you up he'd know something was in the wind. I honestly think you ought to go."
"Well, all right if you feel that way about it," Jack said after a moment's thought. "But you have to promise that you won't get into trouble or I won't go a step."
"Of course I won't," Bob laughed. "Now run along like a good little boy."
He accompanied him as far as the door of the cabin and then went back to the bridge. During the remainder of the night he made frequent rounds of the boat, half expecting to meet the mate again. But in this he was agreeably disappointed. Nor, although he watched carefully, did he see anything which could be taken for a signal.
They weighed anchor shortly after six o'clock. The wind, which had been increasing in strength since four o'clock, was blowing hard from the north-west and the sky looked threatening but Captain Ole assured them that there would be no great storm as the glass had fallen only a couple of points. He proved to be a good weather prophet for, although it began to rain shortly after they had gotten under way, at the same time, the wind began to fall and by noon there was only a light breeze although it was still raining.
At the first opportunity, which did not come until after dinner as Mr. Lakewood, complaining of a severe headache, remained in his bunk until nearly noon, they told their uncle of the mate's actions.
"I get these headaches once in a while," he told the boys as he joined them just as they were sitting down to dinner.
"Is it better now?" Bob asked anxiously.
"Yes, in fact it's all gone. I took some aspirin and got to sleep again and the two knocked it."
He remained silent for fully two minutes after Bob had told him about the happenings during the night.
"I almost wish you had called me," he finally said.
"What would you have done, sir?" Jack asked.
"I don't know as I could have done any more than you two did. Of course we might have pounced in on him while he was sending but I don't know that it would have done any good. I suppose he would have had some plausible excuse and, on second thought, I guess it's just as well you didn't."
It was just after sundown when they again sighted land. In this latitude there is very little twilight and darkness comes very soon after the sun sinks below the horizon. So they had made but a short distance toward the distant island before it was blotted from their sight. But Captain Ole had the direction and, turning on the powerful searchlight, he kept on at full speed.
"We'll get near enough so that we can anchor for the night," he told them.
"At the rate you're going you want to be careful or you'll jump clear over it before you know it," Jack laughed.
"It looked to me, what I could see of it, as though it would be a pretty good jump," Bob smiled. "I'd say it's a fairly good sized island."
"Maybe it's the one we're after," Jack suggested.
"We'll know in the morning," his uncle promised him.
"Seems as though we ought to pick it up pretty soon," the captain said a little later.
"I reckon it must have been further off than it looked," Mr. Lakewood said.
But when another half hour had passed and there was no sign of the island it was plain that the captain was beginning to be worried.
"It's mighty strange," he muttered.
"Isn't it possible that we've gone past it?" Bob asked.
"Hardly, unless something has happened to the compass and that's not likely."
When another half hour had slipped by and they had not picked up the island the captain gave the signal to stop and the boat slowly lost headway.
"We've gone by it or else it's moved," he declared, "See how much water there is under her," he shouted to the first mate who was standing in the bow.
"Seven and a half fathoms, sir," the mate announced a few minutes later, after he had cast the lead.
"Let go the anchor, then. We'll stay right where we are till morning."
"Yes, sir." And the anchor was run out and soon the Valkyrie was riding at the end of a hundred feet of chain.
The captain still wore a troubled look when, some time later, the boys joined him in the main cabin where he was poring over a large map which was spread out on the large center table.
"Where in thunder do you suppose that pesky island went to?" he asked looking up as they entered the room.
"Maybe one of those whales, Mr. Kelley was telling us about the other night, swallowed it," Jack grinned.
"You don't want to believe all you hear, especially from a sailor," the captain told them with a broad smile, adding: "I don't suppose there was much more'n room on the Atlantic ocean for that whale to turn round in, eh."
"Well, maybe it wasn't quite that bad but I reckon it could have swallowed that island all right without making more'n two bites at the outside," Bob laughed. "But don't you think that it's possible that that island was only a mirage?"
"But we saw it after the sun had gone down."
"I know it, sir, and, of course, my theory may be a bit far fetched but, owing to the refraction of light, isn't it possible for a mirage to happen after sundown?"
"Can't say for sure, but I never saw one then, I mean after the sun had set. But if we don't see it in the morning I reckon we'll have to let it go at that."
"I think you're wrong, Bob," Jack said as the captain paused.
"How come?"
"Because the refraction of light wouldn't do it."
"How do you know it wouldn't?"
"Because we really see the sun for some time after it has set. That's because of refraction. So after we can't see it it would be too far below the horizon. I'll have you understand that I didn't make 97% in physics last term for nothing."
"You win. Go to the head of the class," Bob laughed.
"And another thing you seem to have overlooked, it was too cloudy when the sun set for a mirage anyhow."
"Bull's eye again, professor," Bob laughed. "And now maybe you can tell us just where the island really did go."
"It didn't go anywhere," Jack retorted, flushing slightly at Bob's tone. "It's right where it's been all the time."
"And that's where."
"Right ahead of us."
"How do you know that?" Captain Ole asked quickly.
"I—I don't know it, but I think it is."
"Then you think it was farther off than it looked?"
"Yes, sir. That's what I think."
"And you may be right at that," Captain Ole mused, scratching his head thoughtfully.
The boys learned a little later that the first mate would have the watch after midnight, so, after telling him what they had seen the night before and cautioning him to keep an eye out for signals, they retired soon after eleven o'clock.
"The boy was right."
The above statement shouted in loud tones by Captain Ole whose head stuck in through the half opened door of their cabin, awoke the boys a few minutes before six the following morning.
"You mean the island's in sight ahead of us," Bob asked sleepily.
"That's what I mean and it's a good way ahead at that," Captain Ole told them as he pushed the door wide open and stepped into the room. "There must have been some condition in the atmosphere last night that made it look a whole lot nearer than it was," he explained. "Anyhow it's there now all right."
"Are we under way?" Jack asked as he leaped from his bunk.
"Not yet, but we will be in about two shakes of a mackerel's tail," the captain said as he turned and left the room.
"Never again will I doubt your wisdom," Bob declared solemnly as he started pulling on his clothes.
"'Twas only a lucky guess," Jack said modestly.
"Never hide your light under a bushel, son."
"Aw, quit your kidding."
"I'm not kid—" Bob began, but Jack had gone.
Bob followed him out onto the deck a moment later and found that the anchor had just been raised and the bow of the Valkyrie slowly swinging around to the north.
"Where's Mr. Kelley?"
The captain shouted the question to the first mate who was standing at the foot of the stairway.
"Haven't seen him this mornin' sir," was the reply.
"Any you men seen him?"
No one had seen the second mate since the night before and the captain ordered one of the hands to go to his room and call him.
"Never knew him to oversleep before," he said to Bob who had mounted to the bridge.
"He ain't there, sir," the sailor called a moment later from the deck.
"What you mean, he isn't there?" the captain demanded. "Did you look in his room?"
"Yes, sir."
"And he wasn't there?"
"No, sir. There wan't no one there an' his bunk hadn't been slept in neither, sir."
"Well, you and a couple of others make a search of the ship and hurry too."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"What's wrong now?" Mr. Lakewood asked as he joined Bob on the bridge.
"The second mate seems to be missing, sir," Bob told him.
"Josh Kelley?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do you make of it, captain?" Mr. Lakewood asked leaning over the sill of the window of the wheel house.
"Oh, I reckon probably he's somewhere about the boat."
"You think so?"
"Where else could he be unless he's fallen overboard and that's hardly likely?"
But the captain for once in his life was wrong. The second mate was not on board the Valkyrie. His personal belongings were, so far as they could judge, still in his cabin but the man had disappeared completely. As soon as that fact was thoroughly settled Captain Ole called the first mate into his cabin, leaving the wheel in charge of one of the sailors.
"You didn't see Kelley during the night?" he asked.
"No, sir."
"Nor hear anything suspicious?"
"No, sir."
"Well, did you see anything that might have been a signal?" was the next question.
"Niver a bit uv it," Pat replied and then, after a moment's pause he added: "'Twas thot dark last night thot it's meself as couldn't see inything ter spake uv, sir."
"I know. Now look here, Pat, either he jumped overboard, which isn't likely, or else someone came in a small boat and took him off. Would it have been possible for a small boat, say a canoe, to have sneaked up to the Valkyrie without you knowing it?"
"Faith an' it's meself as thinks as how 'twould have bin aisy enough if he knew jest where to come to," Pat declared after a short pause.
"And you think that's what happened?"
"Mor'n likely, sir."
"But, since it was so dark, how could anyone have seen where to come? That's what gets me."
"'Tis a bit strange, sir."
"It's more than that, it's uncanny."
"'Tis all uv thot, sir."
"Well," the captain said as he got to his feet, "tell Jim Herrin that he's to have the second mate's berth till further orders. He's the best one for it, don't you think?"
"He's a broth uv a bye an' he'll make a good one," Pat assured him as they left the room together.
Mounting to the bridge he found Mr. Lakewood and the boys looking at the island which was now quite plainly visible.
"I've made Jim Herrin second mate," he announced.
"Then you really think he's gone?" Mr. Lakewood asked.
"Sure he's gone."
"But how?"
The captain told him what had seemed most probable to him as well as to the first mate and he agreed with him that it had probably happened that way.
"Then he's joined whoever he's in league with," Mr. Lakewood said when he had finished.
"Looks like it," the captain agreed.
"Then we may look for something to happen most any time?"
"Not till we find what we're after, I'm thinking."
"It's good riddance to bad rubbish, I'm thinking," Jack declared.
"I agree with you provided the riddance is permanent," Bob added.
"Which it won't be if I'm any kind of a prophet. We haven't seen the last of that fellow yet," Mr. Lakewood contributed.
"Well, never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you," Jack laughed as he turned his eyes again toward the distant island which was now rapidly coming into plain view. "What do you think of it, uncle?"
Mr. Lakewood took the glasses from his eyes, "Looks kind of like it but I can't be sure yet. See that high point on that end?" he asked pointing.
"Yes," both the boys told him.
"Well, that's what makes me think it may be the place. But I reckon we'll have to wait a bit and see."
The Valkyrie was plowing through the water at a high speed as the captain had passed the word to "step on her," and it was only a few minutes before Mr. Lakewood said: "Unless there are two islands almost exactly alike that's our island."
In another twenty minutes the captain gave the signal to slow down and finally the Valkyrie came to rest about a quarter of a mile from the island and near the center.
"Made up your mind yet," he asked as he stepped from the wheel house.
Mr. Lakewood looked slightly doubtful as he answered the question.
"Seems as though I ought to be sure one way or the other but, to be honest, I'm not. It looks like it especially out at that high end and then again it doesn't. It doesn't seem to me that there were near so many trees on it as there are now. There's quite a forest over on that other end."
"But they might have grown there since you were on the island," Bob suggested.
"Perhaps," his uncle agreed slowly, "but it's not usual for new trees to spring up out of the sand on these islands. You can see that the island's pretty sandy."
"I'll say it is," Jack agreed.
"Can you see the trees where you got the cocoanuts?" Captain Ole asked.
"No, I can't, and that's another thing that bothers me."
"Maybe someone has cut them down," Jack suggested.
"Maybe," his uncle said doubtfully.
It was now about nine o'clock and, after a short discussion, it was decided to pay a visit to the island at once and settle the matter. The captain ordered a boat lowered and, leaving the Valkyrie in charge of the new second mate, the four together with the first mate, were soon on their way.
"We'll go up to the top of that hill, though it isn't much of a hill, and see if we can find any trace of that grove that ought to be there," Mr. Lakewood said as the boat pushed its bow on to the sand.
It took them but a few minutes to reach the top of the rise and they all began to look eagerly for marks which would identify the place. But those marks they failed to find. There was no indication that a cocoanut tree had ever graced the spot.
"It looks doubtful," Mr. Lakewood said shaking his head.
"But twenty years more or less can make a big change even in a place like this, I reckon," Captain Ole reminded him.
"That's true, and I'm not saying it isn't the place," the other returned.
"Well, there's one way we can tell," Bob spoke up.
"And that's to go over to the high end, I suppose you mean," Mr. Lakewood smiled.
"You guessed it," Bob smiled back.
"Come on, then, let's beat it," Jack said as he started to lead the way.
But before they had taken a dozen steps there came a startling interruption. A queer half stifled cry, coming from some distance behind them, made them turn quickly.
"What was that?" Bob gasped, in surprise.
"Sounded like someone shouted from over in those woods," Jack said, his eyes fixed on the distant grove.
"But I never heard a human make a noise like that," Captain Ole declared.
"Faith an' it's a quare human thot'd make thot kind of a noise, I'm thinkin'," Pat agreed with him.
"Let's wait a minute and see if we hear it again," Mr. Lakewood advised.
But, although they waited some five minutes the cry was not repeated.
"Well shall we go on?" he asked.
"Might's well, I reckon," Captain Ole said, and they started on again.
But they had hardly turned their backs when the weird sound reached them again.
"I reckon we'd better investigate that a bit before we go any further," Captain Ole advised as he turned in his tracks.
"I think you're right," Mr. Lakewood agreed, adding: "It's a whole lot better to be careful than sorry."
So they started back the other way and, after stopping every little while to listen, in the course of some fifteen minutes, they had nearly reached the other end of the island which, as Mr. Lakewood had said, was timbered with a thick growth of trees. No repetition of the cry had been heard during the time and now, as they stopped about thirty feet from the edge of the woods, they strained their ears to catch the faintest sound which might come from them.
"What kind of trees are they?" Captain Ole asked Mr. Lakewood in a low tone.
"I'm not sure but I think they're a species of a cocoanut," he replied.
"But I've seen lots of cocoanut trees and I never saw any like them," the captain objected.
"Nor I, but it seems to me I can see some big nuts on that nearest one," he said pointing to a large tree which stood a little apart from the others.
"I can see them," Bob agreed with him.
"And they sure do look like cocoanuts to me," Jack added.
"Well, you may be right, and I reckon you are," the captain gave in.
"What we going to do now?" Bob asked after a moment's pause.
"Have you got your revolvers with you," their uncle asked.
"Sure," Bob replied pulling the weapon from his pocket.
"I too," Jack said.
"I left mine on board," the captain confessed a bit chagrined.
"Me too," Pat acknowledged.
"Well, I've got mine so I reckon we're well enough armed," Mr. Lakewood told them. "But, before we enter the grove let's try turning back as though we were going off to the other end."
They fell in with his plan and, no sooner had they turned their backs and started walking away from the grove, than the cry came again and this time it was so loud and weird that, as Jack afterward confessed, it made his skin crawl.
"That's a man," Captain Ole declared as they came to a stop.
"But what would a man be doing on this island?" Mr. Lakewood asked skeptically.
"I don't know, but if that wasn't a man I'm a Dutchman."
"Then it's meself as believes yer Dutch," Pat grinned.
"But I ain't," the captain retorted somewhat hotly, "and to prove that I ain't I'm going to get that fellow and show him to you."
Before he had finished speaking he had turned and started back toward the grove on the run and they barely caught the final words. But, as if by common assent, the others quickly followed him and were at his heels by the time he had reached the edge of the grove.
"Better take it easy," Mr. Lakewood cautioned as he caught hold of the captain's arm.
But he shook him off and plunged into the woods, and for a moment, was lost to sight. In a very short time, however, the others caught up with him and together they worked their way as rapidly as possible through the trees which grew so closely together that anything more than a slow walk was out of the question. Every few feet they stopped to listen but no sound, indicating the presence of anyone outside their party, reached them and in less than twenty minutes from the time they had entered the wood they emerged from the other side and found themselves only a few feet from the ocean.
As they stood for a moment looking out over the water was it fancy or did Jack's sharp ears catch a faint sound of what seemed to him to be a wild mocking laughter far back in the depths of the woods?
"Did you hear that?" he asked turning to Bob who was standing a few feet away.
"Did I hear what?" Bob asked.
"Sounded like laughter to me."
"No, I didn't hear anything except the swaying of the trees back in there."
"Maybe that was what I heard," Jack said but he did not look as though he believed it.
"Well, what now?" Mr. Lakewood asked a moment later.
"Let's walk along the edge here," Captain Ole suggested. "We'll come to your end of the island about as soon that way as to go back," he added as he started to lead the way along the edge of the grove. "I reckon you were right about these being cocoanut trees," he said after they had gone a hundred feet or so. As he spoke he stooped and picked up from the ground beneath one of the trees a large nut which looked like an ordinary cocoanut except that it was much smoother.
"Break it open and see what's inside," Jack suggested.
"Just what I was going to do," the captain said throwing the nut with all his strength against a large rock.
The blow cracked the nut wide open and nearly a half pint of white milk ran out on the ground before he could pick it up.
"It's a cocoanut all right," he declared as he showed them the white meat inside. "And it has a mighty good flavor," he added as he broke off a piece and thrust it into his mouth.
They all sampled it and found it, as the captain had said, of excellent flavor.
"Maybe that was Mr. Burbank," Jack grinned as he swallowed a good sized mouthful of the meat. "He may have moved out here and is inventing a new kind of nut."
They were walking slowly along listening with all their ears and keeping their eyes turned, for the most of the time, toward the grove. The captain was in the lead with Mr. Lakewood close behind him; then came Jack followed by Pat, while Bob brought up the rear. They had just passed the last of the trees when Bob felt the swish of some object as it flew past his head and landed on the back of the first mate's head with a resounding crack. That worthy at once pitched forward and fell face down. Bob sprang and turned him over at the same time calling to the others.
"Something hit him on the back of the head," he explained as they turned and rushed back. "It was that nut there."
Pat was unconscious but only for a minute. "Was it lightning?" he gasped as he struggled to his feet.
"No, it was nut," Jack grinned, but the hot-headed Irishman was in no mood to catch the pun.
"Whot was it thin," he demanded rubbing the back of his head.
"Someone or something threw this nut at us and hit you," Bob told him as he picked up the nut.
"An' it's meself as he can't do thot wid and git away wid it," he sputtered starting back toward the grove.
But the captain caught him by the arm and held him back. "Easy there now," he cautioned.
"Aisy me eye. I'm going ter git the spaleen whot threw thot nut, I'm tellin' yer."
"Not that way you aren't," the captain insisted easily holding the struggling mate. "Maybe it was a gorilla or an orang-outang and if it was he'd make mince meat of you if you go rushing in there."
"But—"
"No buts about it. You do as I say or I'll put you in irons when we get back to the ship," the captain told him, but the boys caught the twinkle in his eye and knew that he was only bluffing. Evidently the Irishman caught it also for his look of fierce determination vanished and a good natured grin spread over his face.
"All right," he said. "Yer're the boss," and the captain let go his hold.
"We'll investigate this grove when we're better armed," the captain promised them as he started off again.
Once more it seemed to Jack that he caught the sound of laughter from back in the depths of the woods, but as none of the others seemed to hear it, he said nothing.
It was just eleven when, finally, they reached the other end of the island and stood on the edge of the cliff. Three or four times they had asked Mr. Lakewood what he thought about it being the right place during the walk from the grove. But he had refused to commit himself until they had reached the very end of the island.
"I think it's it," he said slowly, "but I'll knew for sure in a short time now. If I'm right there's a passage a short distance off there which leads down to the water and in that passage is the entrance to the cave of pearls."
"Let's go then," Jack said impatiently.
"At once," his uncle told him as he turned to lead the way. "Here it is for a fact," he declared a few minutes later as he stopped and pointed to a narrow defile which separated the cliff into two parts.
"Hurrah!" shouted both of the boys.
"Follow me, now, and be careful where you step; it's a bit rough if I remember rightly," their uncle said as he started down the narrow defile.
He was right when he called the path rough and they had to go very slowly picking their way over rocks some of them as large as a barrel. But they had only a short distance to go and soon the leader stopped and pointed to an opening which appeared as though cut in the wall of stone.
"Now for it," he said, pulling a flashlight from his pocket.
The opening was tall enough for them to walk upright but so narrow that they had to go single file and even then their arms sometimes touched both sides of at the same time.
"Good thing none of us is very fat," Jack chuckled as he followed close at his uncle's heels.
"It's only a step or two farther," Mr. Lakewood said and, a moment later he stopped and threw the light from his flash about a small chamber just in front of where they stood.
Then a great wave of disappointment swept over the boys for the floor of the cave was bare. Not a single oyster shell was to be seen.
"Stung," Jack gasped.
"Looks that way, doesn't it," his uncle said with no trace of disappointment in his voice.
"But where did they go?" Jack asked.
For a moment no one replied and then Bob said: "Well, I've never heard of oysters walking so I reckon we've got to conclude that some one has beaten us to them."
"Faith an' it's a great brain you got," Pat laughed.
"Well, boys, it's getting along toward dinner time, so I reckon we'd better be getting back to the boat," Mr. Lakewood said as he turned and started out through the opening.
"He's got something up his sleeve," Bob whispered to Jack as they fell in behind the others.
"What makes you think so?"
"Because he didn't seem to mind it."
"He didn't for a fact. But what can he have up his sleeve as you put it?"
"We'll have to wait and see. He knows."
It was well past twelve o'clock when they were back on board and Wong, having kept dinner waiting all of ten minutes, was in a bad mood.
"You velly mooch late," he snapped as they entered the mess cabin.
"But we're hungry enough to make up for it," Jack told him.
"You velly lucky to gleet anything," was the answer he got.
"It's a good thing for us that Wong's bite isn't as bad as his bark," Bob laughed as they sat down at the table.
"You didn't seem to be much disappointed, Uncle Si," Jack ventured when they were nearly through the meal and he had not mentioned the subject.
"No? Well, you see, I didn't expect to find them there."
"You didn't?" both boys gasped. "Then what did you come for?" Bob asked, a look of amazement on his face.
"Pearls," laconically.
"But—"
"Give me time and I'll tell you all about it," his uncle interrupted. "You see, the chances are that those oysters would have rotted long before this if no one had found them."
"Would that have spoiled the pearls?" Jack asked.
"I hardly know about that but the chances are that the shells would have split open and the tide would have washed them out to sea. I think I told you that the tide makes up in the cave through some opening that we didn't see. So, that's why I didn't really expect to find any pearls in the cave."
"Then you just took a long chance?" Jack asked.
"Not quite so long as you think, perhaps, although I might as well confess that it's a chance all right."
"You mean——"
"I mean that, although those particular pearls are undoubtedly gone, I hope to find others."
"Where?" Bob asked.
"In the water just off the head of the island."
"But what makes you think there are any oysters there?"
"I saw some there when I was here before, and for another thing, I believe that whoever hid those oysters in there gathered them close by. These natives around here are a mighty lazy lot as a rule and, for that reason, I figure that they didn't find them a great ways off."
"But where—"
"So when I outfitted the boat," Mr. Lakewood went on ignoring the interruption, "I included some oyster rakes and to-morrow we're going oyster hunting."
"How about a diving suit?" Jack asked.
"Well, to tell the truth, we've got a first class outfit on board but, unless the water's deeper off the end there than I think, we won't need it."
"Looks as though you had thought of about everything," Bob grinned.
"Had to. You see, it's too far to go back for something you forgot to bring," his uncle smiled.
"How about this afternoon?" Bob asked.
"No, we're not going to start till to-morrow; the old man needs this afternoon to get rested up in after that tramp."
"Didn't I tell you he had something up his sleeve?" Bob asked a little later after they had finished dinner and their uncle had announced that he was going to his cabin for a nap. The two boys were sitting beneath the awning on the forward deck and chafing under the enforced delay.
"Well, I didn't bet against it, did I?" Jack returned. "Reckon I suspected it as much as you did."
For half an hour they sat and talked about the coming oyster hunt and again thrashed over the adventure of the morning. Several times Bob had yawned and finally Jack advised him to go and take a nap.
"Believe I will," he said, getting up from his chair. "Coming along?"
"I'm not sleepy," Jack returned in a disgusted tone. "I use my nights for that purpose," he added turning his eyes toward the southern end of the island.
As Bob started for the cabin Jack arose and leaned on the rail. "Just a minute, Bob," he said, and Bob quickly returned to his side.
"What is it?"
"Look over there just at the top of that knoll."
"I don't see anything."
"Keep your eyes glued on it while I get the glasses," Jack ordered. "I saw something move there."
He was back in less than a minute. "Seen anything?" he asked.
"Lots of sand," Bob replied.
For a minute Jack gazed through the glasses and then handed them to Bob.
"Look just to the right," he ordered.
"It's nothing but a stump," Bob said after taking a long look.
"Stump, your eye."
Jack snatched the glass from his hand and looked again.
"It was moving when I looked before," he said as he handed them back to his brother.
"And it is now," Bob declared excitedly a moment later. "It's either a man or—or—"
"Or something else," Jack finished the sentence.
"It must be a man. No other animal would crawl along like that."
"But what's he trying to do?"
"Trying not to let us see him, I'd say."
"Of course, smarty, but what's he after?"
"Probably wants to find out something about us."
"Well, he's coming in the right direction if he does."
"He's stopped now," Bob announced a moment later. "Now he's crawling back."
"Reckon he didn't find out much."
"He's gone over the knoll, now."
For nearly an hour they watched the distant knoll but the object did not again appear.
"How about that nap?" Jack asked.
"Nothing doing."
"Then I'll beat you a game of checkers."
"You mean you'll try."
They played checkers until supper time and, to Jack's great joy, he was two games ahead when the bell rang. During the meal they told their uncle and the captain what they had seen.
"And you think it was a man?" Captain Ole asked, when they had finished.
"I'm not sure," Bob replied, "but it looked more like a man to me than anything else. It was too far to be sure."
"Well, whatever it is we'll have to look out for it," Mr. Lakewood declared, "It evidently doesn't like our company."
It was sometime during the night when the boys were awakened by the noise of what sounded like a fight just outside their cabin.
"What the dickens!" Bob cried as he jumped from his bunk wide awake.
He pulled open the door and rushed out on deck closely followed by Jack. There, close to the rail, two figures were locked in each others' arms and swaying this way and that, while loud hoarse grunts came from one or both of them. For an instant the boys hesitated as though uncertain what to do. Then, with a loud shout to Jack to "come on" Bob sprang forward. Only a few feet separated him from the fighters but, before he could reach them, one was hurled violently to the deck while the other, with a wild bellow of rage, leaped for the rail and disappeared over the side. A loud splash followed as he struck the water.
Knowing that it would be too dark to see a swimming object in the water, Bob quickly turned to the man who was lying motionless on the deck.
"It's Pat," he cried, as he turned him over.
"What's all the rumpus?" Mr. Lakewood asked the question as he came running toward them.
"It's Pat," Jack told him. "Something threw him down and then jumped overboard."
"Is he dead?" Mr. Lakewood asked anxiously.
"Only got the wind knocked out of him, I think," Bob, who was working Pat's arms up and down, replied.
After what seemed a long time the breath slowly came back to the mate's lungs and, finally, he was able to speak.
"Thot makes twice," were the first words he gasped.
"Take it easy a bit," Bob cautioned helping him to his feet.
By this time Captain Ole and two of the sailors had joined the party and, after waiting a few minutes until he had fully recovered his wind, Pat told them what had happened.
"Faith an' it's meself as was standin' by the railin' thar lookin' out over the water, whin somethin' grabbed me from fornist before I had time ter turn. He got his arm around me neck an' all but had me wind shut off fer a minute. But I got me neck free an' we wint at it. But it's meself as'll tell the world he's strong. Sure an' I'm some scrapper meself but that guy'd had me if the byes had'n scared him off so he would."
"And you heard nothing before he tackled you?" Mr. Lakewood asked.
"Niver a bit."
"You think it was a man?"
"Sure an' whot else could it uv bin?"
"How about a big monkey?" Captain Ole asked.
"Well, it moight have bin a monkey but it's me bet it was a man, an' as I said before, ut's the second time. First he hit me wid a nut an' thin he knocks the wind out uv me. Oh, he's got sumpin comin' ter him all right an' don't yer fergit ut."
"Hope I'll be there to see it," Jack told him.
"An' it's some fight yer'll see if yer are," Pat promised him.
"I should have thought you could tell by the feeling whether it was a man or a monkey," Captain Ole said.
"Well, the thing was hairy enough ter be a monkey if thot's whot yer mane," Pat told him.
"And the noise he made sounded more like a monkey than a man to me," Bob added.
"But fer all thot I'm bettin' 'twas a man," Pat insisted. "Sure an' I niver heard yit uv a monkey swimmin' an' thot feller must've swum out here from the shore."
"Well, I reckon he's gone for to-night whatever it was," Captain Ole said. "I'll stay up the rest of the night and the rest of you'd better get back to bed."
"Nuttin' uv the sort. I'll finish out me watch," Pat insisted.
"It'll be light now in about an hour and you'd better get a little sleep after that jolt," the captain told him.
But the mate refused to leave his trick and, after a little more arguing, it was decided that both the captain and the mate would stay up.
"He might come back and it'll take two to watch the boat securely in the darkness," Captain Ole said.
The boys went back to bed but were too excited to sleep and, after talking together for a while, they decided to get dressed and join the captain and Pat on deck.
"So you thought we might need protection, eh," Captain Ole laughed as they joined him on the bridge a few minutes later.
"Not that, sir, but we couldn't get to sleep again and it's mighty hot in there so we thought we might's well call it a night," Bob told him.
"Well, I'm mighty glad of your company anyhow."
The rest of the night passed without incident and, as soon as breakfast was over, the following morning, the anchorage of the Valkyrie was changed to a position about two hundred yards off the north end of the island. Here they found the water but a little more than five fathoms deep and it was then high tide.
"It'll be shallow enough to use the rakes for at least a hundred yards off shore when the tide goes out," Mr. Lakewood declared as the anchor touched bottom.
"Hadn't we better be getting the rakes ready?" Bob asked.
"Sure we will, right away."
He gave the order to a couple of the sailors and they went below and soon returned carrying four of the rakes in their arms. They were about twelve feet long, each rake consisting of two poles bolted together about four feet from one end, which had fastened to it a curved jaw fitted with long teeth. These jaws when shut made a kind of basket capable of holding a peck or more of oysters.
"They're more like a big pair of pliers than a rake," Jack said as the sailors laid them down on the deck.
"But they call them rakes just the same," his uncle told him.
"How soon can we have a try with them?" Bob asked.
"Right away if you want to."
"I'll say we do," Jack declared.
"All right, then, we'll start in near shore where the water's shallow enough to work out as the tide recedes."
"Gee, but I hope they're thick," Jack said as his uncle ordered two of the small boats lowered.
It was quickly arranged that the two boys and their uncle would take one boat while Pat and two of the sailors went in the other.
"The one what gleets the flirst loyster velly slure gleets two pieces of plie for dinner," Wong told them as they started down the ladder.
"You save 'em for me, Wong," Jack shouted back.
"All lightee," Wong told him.
At high tide the water lapped against the cliff and it was not until they were within a few feet of the land that they found the water shallow enough for their purpose.
"All right now, one of you in either end," Mr. Lakewood said as he ceased rowing. "I guess you know how to work the things without being shown."
"Seeing there's only one possible way I reckon we do," Bob assured him.
"Then go to it and remember the reward," he laughed.
"Those two pieces of pie are as good as under my belt right now," Jack declared as he stood up in the bow and lowered the rake into the water. "Gee, but I've got something," he added a moment later after he had opened the rake as wide as possible and then slowly closed it. "I must have a bushel," he continued as hand over hand he pulled in the load.
Jack's rake was nearly full sure enough but, after he had dumped the contents onto the bottom of the boat, he was greatly chagrined to find that he had brought up nothing but stones.
"There's where you lose the pie," Bob taunted as he swung his load over the edge of the boat.
But he too had brought up nothing but stones.
"I'll get that pie yet," Jack laughed as he finished throwing his stones back in the water and lowered his rake a second time.
But for fully half an hour they raked the bottom of the ocean, as Jack put it, and nothing but stones rewarded their efforts. And the men in the other boat had no better luck.
"I reckon we're in too near shore," Mr. Lakewood declared as he noted that the boys were getting rather discouraged. "After dinner the tide will be out and we may have better luck."
"Here's hoping," Jack said as he dumped another load of stones into the boat.
"But let's not give up yet," Bob said throwing the last of his last failure over the side of the boat. "I got a stone that time which looks something like an oyster."
"Then we must be getting warm," Jack laughed.
So for another half hour they persisted working gradually further from the island as the tide receded. Then, just as they were about to return to the ship for dinner, Jack brought up the first shell.
"Hurrah!" he shouted as his quick eye spied the bivalve among the load of stones he had dumped. "I told you that pie belonged to me."
It wasn't much of an oyster, as Bob told him, and there was no pearl in it, but Jack insisted that even so it was worth two pieces of pie.
"And where there's one there's bound to be more," he exulted. Before they had time to try again the dinner gong sounded and, much against their inclination, they had to hurry back.
"We'll fill the boat after dinner," Jack declared as he took the oars and started to row back to the Valkyrie.
Jack got his two pieces of pie and Wong, seeing the wistful look on Bob's face, gave him an extra piece as well.
"You'll have to earn that after dinner," Jack told him.
When they started in again after dinner the tide was more than two-thirds out and a strip of sand showed at the foot of the cliff. They began operations at about the same place where they had left off and, after a few trials Bob brought up the second oyster.
"There, that's a real oyster," he announced as he picked it out from the stones.
"It's big enough to hold a good sized pearl at any rate," Mr. Lakewood smiled as he reached out his hand for it.
With his oyster knife he quickly opened it and, to their great joy, found a pearl about the size of a small pea.
"Not very large but it's a good one," he told them.
"Think it would buy two pieces of pie?" Bob asked.
"You had the pie anyhow," Jack reminded him.
"Well, you can't say I haven't earned it now," Bob retorted with a grin.
It was an hour before they found another pearl although they pulled in one or more oysters with nearly every haul.
"It must have taken whoever covered the floor of that cave some time unless he found them thicker than we are," Jack declared after he had dumped two loads of stones without a single oyster.
"I believe we'll strike them thicker somewhere around here," Mr. Lakewood said. "I think the others are doing better than we are," he added.
"Let's paddle over and see," Bob suggested.
The other boat was some hundred feet distant and the two men who were handling the rakes seemed to be putting a good deal of enthusiasm in their work as Mr. Lakewood paddled toward them.
"How's tricks?" Bob called when they were only a few feet distant.
"Coming in pretty fast now," Pat, who was sitting in the middle of the boat, answered.
"Found any pearls?" Jack asked.
"Six."
"Six?"
"Faith an' thot's whot I said an' here's another," and the mate held up a pearl nearly as large as the end of his thumb.
"You've got us licked by five," Bob told him as the two boats touched.
It was evident that they had struck the bed for, as one of the sailors pulled in his rake, they could see that it was nearly filled with oysters.
"Why didn't you tell us you'd struck them?" Bob demanded.
"Faith an' it's only a minute thot we hit 'em thick. It's meself as was jest goin' ter shout ter yer whin I seed yer comin'."
The boys pitched in with renewed effort and soon had the oysters coming in thick and fast.
"I'll say these are real oysters," Jack laughed as he dumped a rake full of them in the boat.
"If the pearls are there and of a size in proportion we'll be all right," Bob added.
The oysters were now coming in much faster than Mr. Lakewood could open them although he was working as rapidly as possible.
"Here's a good one," he announced soon after they had started work in the new place.
"I'll say it is," Jack laughed. "Just keep 'em a-coming."
They worked industriously until the bell called them back for supper and, as soon as the meal was over, they finished opening the remainder of the oysters, a task which kept them busy until dark. As a result of the day's work they found that they had gathered thirty-three pearls, many of them of good size and three were very large.
"What do you suppose they're worth?" Bob asked as he threw the last of the shells overboard.
"Well, I'm not much of an expert at valuing them but I'd say we've got close on to two thousand dollars' worth."
"You mean it?" Jack gasped.
"I believe it'll run over that amount rather than under it," his uncle assured him.
"But isn't it unusual to find them so thick?" Bob asked.
"Indeed it is. I happen to know that as a usual thing not more than one oyster in a thousand has a pearl in it and probably not that."
"Then what makes them so thick in these fellows?" Bob asked.
"I'm not sure, of course, but, you know, it is thought that a pearl comes from a grain of sand getting into the oyster's shell and setting up an irritation. Now, you may not have noticed it, but these oysters are slightly different from those we're used to not only in size but in shape as well. Their shells are more nearly round and are slightly rougher. My theory is that this kind of oyster, for some reason which I can't explain, is more liable to the pearl disease than any other varieties."
"It's a good theory, I'll say," Bob agreed.
"And let's hope they don't get over it in a hurry," Jack added.
"Get over what?" Bob asked.
"Why, that irritation that makes pearls," Jack laughed.