"I thought you left your dream book at home!" cried Frank.
"There was a boy named Pat Mack," Jimmie went on, "who enlisted and went to the Philippines a year ago. He was sixteen when he enlisted, but looked older, and so they let him in, he bein" a husky chap. He belonged to the Wolf Patrol, an" was a chum of Ned"s. You remember him, Ned?"
"Pat Mack?" repeated Ned. "Who would ever forget him? Why, that red-headed Irishman is not a person to be forgotten, if once known. Why do you think he is with the party we are following, Jimmie?"
"Because Captain G.o.dwin said one of the young men with the Lieutenant has hair so red that he didn"t need a light to go to bed by. That"s Pat Mack! And if he is with that bunch there"ll be something doing before long. That boy will fight a rattlesnake an" give him the first bite."
"He is all to the good as a pugilist," Ned said. "That was the trouble with him in New York. He was always in some kind of a mess because of his quick temper and his ready fists. I hope it is Pat who is leaving these signs."
"You bet it is," Jimmie insisted. "Say, look here! Who"s rockin" this boat?"
The boys were all sitting quietly in their seats, but the _Manhattan_ was rocking in a manner not accounted for by the storm. Motioning the others to remain where they were, Ned arose and pa.s.sed out of the cabin.
The boat was still swaying violently, and Ned could at first see no good reason for it, but presently a commotion in the water, a commotion not caused by the wind and rain, caught his eyes and he advanced to the stern. After looking into the water for a moment he went to the cabin and beckoned to the boys.
"If you don"t mind getting soaking wet," he said, "come out here."
"What is it?" asked Frank, lazily.
"Is it anything good to eat?" asked Jimmie.
Jack made no response but bounded forward and looked over the edge of the boat into the bay. What he saw was a great head with protruding jaws and a long, dark back covered with enormous half defined scales, like armor plate.
"What is it?" he asked, drawing a revolver from his pocket.
Ned pushed his hand back and the weapon was returned to a pocket.
"Don"t shoot," he said. "We are not yet ready to announce our presence here."
"But what is that thing?" demanded Jack. "Is he trying to eat up the boat?"
"That is a crocodile," Ned replied. "Corker, eh?"
"Will he bite?" asked Jack, reaching for a boathook.
"Jump in and see," laughed Ned. "They live on fish, but eat dogs and men when they feel just right. The rivers and lakes of the Philippines swarm with them."
Jimmie and Frank now came out of the cabin and looked down at the crocodile.
"He"s scratching his old nose on the boat!" Jimmie said. "That"s what makes it rock so!"
"He thinks it"s a sandwich, with meat inside," laughed Frank. "Suppose we give him a poke in the ribs?"
He reached forward with the boathook, which he took from Jack"s hand, and jabbed at the creature, which did not appear to mind the presence of the boys at all, but continued his nosing of the boat.
"His hide is as tough as the crust of the pies Bridget used to make!"
the boy said, jabbing harder than before and throwing his weight on the handle of the hook.
Just then the boat shunted to one side, the crocodile swished away, and Frank fell headlong into the agitated waters of the little bay. Jack saw him going and tried to catch him, but did not succeed.
The crocodile had turned away from the boat when Frank struck the water with a great splash, but he turned back and surveyed the submerged figure with some degree of interest.
Frank of course went down under the surface as he fell, and remained there for a second. When his body rose toward the surface the crocodile approached him. Jimmie and Jack drew their revolvers.
"Don"t shoot!" commanded Ned.
"He"ll eat Frank alive!" whispered Jimmie.
"He"s making a grab for his leg now!" Jack added.
Frank came to the surface and struck out for the boat, which was only a few strokes away, the crocodile following in his wake, the giant armor-plated body moving through the water stolidly and without visible means of motion. The rough back looked like a log which had lain long in the waters of a swamp and had caught rust from mineral deposits and a nasty brown from decaying vegetation.
Frank knew the danger he was in, but did not seem to understand that the boys on the boat were aware of his peril, for he swung his body out of the water and whirling, pointed to the crocodile. As he did so the monster speeded forward and snapped at his arm.
"Shoot! Shoot!" cried Jimmie.
But no shots were fired. When the great mouth of the monster opened something shot out from the boat and landed squarely between the extended jaws of the crocodile. There was a snap, a crunching sound, then the water was whipped into commotion by the writhing body of the monster.
A rope was thrown to Frank and he was soon on board, not much wetter than his chums, standing in the driving rain, and not at all injured by his adventure.
"Cripes!" Jimmie cried, as Frank stood panting by his side, "I thought he had you where the whale had Jonah."
"What was that you fed him?" asked Frank of Ned.
"Just a bottle of gasoline which lay here," was the reply.
"You couldn"t make a throw like that again in a hundred years!" Frank said.
"If you"re goin" to feed gasoline to the crocodiles," grinned Jimmie, "I"ll notify the government."
"If the breed listens to what that fellow has to say of gasoline as an article of food," Ned laughed, "there won"t be much demand for it."
"He"d have had my arm if you hadn"t hit the mark," Frank said. "I"ll owe you an arm as long as I live, old man!"
"And that big fish owes Uncle Sam a quart of gasoline and a good blue gla.s.s bottle," laughed Jack. "I wonder how it will set on his tummy?"
"Now," Ned said, "I"m as wet as it is possible to get, so I"m going on sh.o.r.e to see if our Boy Scout left any mail for us. I"m getting anxious to catch up with the Lieutenant and his abductors."
"I"m goin" too!" said Jimmie.
"You"re not," Ned replied. "I"m not going to the trouble of keeping track of you in that wilderness."
"All right!" Jimmie grunted, apparently resigned to his fate, but when Ned rowed ash.o.r.e and disappeared in the thicket which skirted the bay the little fellow recklessly slipped into the water and came out unharmed on the beach farther to the south than Ned had landed. He stood for a moment with the salt water running out of his hair and over his freckled face, made an amusing grimace at the boys in the boat, and scurried into the jungle.
"The little dunce!" Jack exclaimed.
"If he keeps close to Ned he will be all right," Frank observed, "but if he goes to wandering about on his own account he will get into trouble.
I"ve got a hunch that the people we are following are on that island."