When the young man entered the tent he stood over them for a moment with a supercilious grin on his face.
"How do you like it, boys?" he finally asked.
"Fine!" Jimmie sang out.
"Isn"t it most dinner time?" Jack added.
The young man sat down on a bundle of freshly cut gra.s.s, placed the box by his side, placed his chin on his hands, his elbows on his knees, and sat for some moments regarding the boys with an amused smile on his rather weak face.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"We"re doin" acrobatic stunts on a high wire just now," scorned Jimmie.
"Don"t get gay, now," the other growled. "I"m the son of a United States senator."
"I"m the sister of the sun an" moon," Jimmie replied. "So don"t be givin" me no guff."
"You"re a cheeky little baggage," the son of the senator replied, rising to his feet.
"You might leave that box here," Jimmie called out, "if it"s got anythin" to eat in it. We could eat a crocodile."
"Be careful that the crocodiles don"t eat you," warned the other and, seizing the box in a firmer grasp, walked out of the tent.
"What do you make of it?" asked Jack.
"The son of a senator," Jimmie replied, "is here representin" some big interest, an" that"s the treaty box he"s got. Say, if they ever get all these native kings an" queens an" prime ministers to goin", there"ll be b.l.o.o.d.y war in the Philippines, an" j.a.pan, or China, or Germany, or France will b.u.t.t in, an" there"ll be a fine time."
"Of course," Jack replied. "That"s why we"ve got to stop it."
"It might be stopped by scatterin" these chiefs, an" kings, an" all the rest," Jimmie concluded.
"Not so you could notice it," Jack insisted. "Didn"t we scatter them when they met on that other island? Well, they"ve come together again, haven"t they? I"ve heard Ned say that the only way to stop this thing is to get a good grip on the man at the head of it. The thing now is to find who that man is."
"I should say so, with the military men all mixed up in it!" Jimmie said. "It seems to me that the head of it must be in Washington, in Manila, or in Yokohama. I wish Ned was here."
"Tied up?" echoed Jack. "If he was, we"d never get out. Let me tell you this, little man," he went on, the tan on his cheeks showing browner than ever against the sudden paleness of his face, "let me tell you this: These men are here in the guise of soldiers to put this treaty through. These chiefs think they represent men high up in our government. If they didn"t think so they wouldn"t listen.
"When it is all over, and war has been declared, and our t.i.tle to the islands has gone up in smoke, these traitors will go back to their posts in the army. Now, this being the case, they won"t want to see us around, will they?"
"Hardly," was the reply.
Jimmie saw what his chum was coming to and opened his eyes wider than ever.
"You mean," he added, "that when the ruction breaks out, or even before, we"ll be put out of the way?"
"Of course."
"Then I"m goin" to duck right now!" Jimmie said, moving toward the wall of the tent. "I"m not goin" to stay here an" be bolo meat. If we can get to the first thicket we stand a chance of gettin" to the _Manhattan_."
"That"s all right, but it won"t do," Jack said. "Don"t you suppose these gazabos heard the fuss the engine was makin"? Well, then! But we"ve got to go somewheres, so come on. Me for a point opposite to the direction of the sounds we heard."
There was a sudden commotion in the camp just then, and the boys reached the first thicket.
CHAPTER XV.
SIGNAL LIGHTS IN THE CHINA SEA.
The boys reached the first thicket and quickly disappeared from the sight of those in the camp. There they listened for an instant, but heard nothing which sounded like pursuit. Then they dug into the jungle and worked around toward the bay where they had left the _Manhattan_.
There came no alarm from the camp as they pa.s.sed through the thickets, using only their hands in fighting the creepers and snake-like vines. It was afterwards learned that the arrival of a particularly powerful chief had caused the commotion which had so a.s.sisted in the escape.
Luckily the attentions paid to the new arrival stretched over a long period of time, otherwise the boys would certainly have been retaken.
Disturbed by the noise made by the lads in pushing through the jungle, the monkeys, birds, and other creatures of the forest lifted up their voices and seemed to point out the path of flight. Jimmie declared that a bra.s.s band could have done no more to locate them.
It was after noon when they came to the little bay where they had left the _Manhattan_. There was the bay, shimmering in the sun, there was the beach where they had landed. But where was the motor boat?
"They"ve had to run for it," Jimmie decided, gazing gloomily over the waste of sea and back to the jungle. "What"s the next move? This spot must be watched, so we"ve got to get out of here. I guess we"re in for it, all right."
The situation seemed to be a desperate one, and the boys crept back into the jungle to study it out. If the _Manhattan_ had left the vicinity of the island there was no hope for them; still, they decided to make sure that it had before giving over the search for it. In considering the situation they did not at all censure Ned, for they saw that he might have been obliged to take the _Manhattan_ away from the little bay in order to avoid capture.
At last when, in their tracing of the coast in the faint hope of finally coming upon the _Manhattan_, the boys came upon the little stream where the boat was hidden, they remained concealed from the sight of those on board while they took careful note of the surroundings. It did not seem possible that the _Manhattan_ had not been discovered by the Filipinos, and naturally the boys suspected that some trick to gain possession of her without an open fight was being worked.
The boat lay quietly drawing at the cable which held her to the bank of the little stream, with everything apparently in order in the c.o.c.kpit and in the cabin, but there were at first no signs of the boys.
Presently, however, Pat"s red head shot up out of the c.o.c.kpit, where he had evidently been lying down.
As the head appeared, an arrow whizzed almost over the heads of the watching boys and struck the side of the boat with a force which seemed equal to cutting a hole in it. Pat was out of sight in a moment, with the cabin door closed behind him.
"Going back to old methods, are they?" whispered Jack. "Do you see anything of Ned or Frank there?"
Jimmie shook his head.
"I"m afraid they"ve gone to look us up," he said, "an" in that case, their return to the boat is likely to bring about a fight."
The battle was on in a moment, for Ned, Frank and the Filipino boy were now approaching the boat. It was decidedly a desperate charge they were making through the jungle when shots from the right of the pursuers caused the latter to believe that their peril lay in that direction.
When the Filipinos turned to beat off this attack Ned and his companions made a rush for the boat and reached her in safety. Then the Filipinos rushed to the bank, a dozen or more of them, in a rash attempt to board the _Manhattan_.
They were met by a hot fire from the cabin and the c.o.c.kpit as soon as they came out on the little rim of clear s.p.a.ce on the bank and turned to the thicket for shelter only to meet a volley of revolver shots from the interior. This was too much for the untrained natives to endure, and they fled up the sh.o.r.e of the stream and disappeared.
The boys themselves were uninjured, but spots of blood on the sh.o.r.e and on the leaves indicated that their bullets had not all gone astray. The wounded natives, however, had been carried off by their companions.
Of course those on the boat understood where the fire which had a.s.sisted them had come from. Jimmie and Jack were the only persons on the island who would be apt to come to their aid.
"Come out of that!" Frank called, as the last Filipino disappeared.
"Don"t stay there in the thicket all day! We"ve got to get out!"