"Boat ahoy," boomed out his voice.
"Indian fishermen," cried Yaquis. "Stop, take me ash.o.r.e."
With a growl, the Captain sent his ship ahead, paying no attention to the "Indian fisherman" in distress. There was a gleam of white teeth as the Indian smiled at the hearty congratulations of the boys and their glee at his stratagem. Then the Spaniard and Yaquis took the oars while Jim steered and Jo slept.
CHAPTER x.x.xI
CONCLUSION
When morning came, they were but a few miles from the Northern end of the longer Island and the fog was over the whole sky. The sea was gla.s.sy with a sullen glaze. Nowhere was there sign of any steamer or ship. The Sea Eagle had made good her escape.
"I wish we had a stiff breeze to help us along," said the Spaniard, who loved not manual labor, as did the boys.
"It will come, the strong breeze, soon," said the Indian.
"When we make the Island, what are we to do?" asked Jo.
"Who can tell, maybe Tom and Juarez have been taken along with the Skipper, instead of being marooned."
"That"s so," replied Jo, and gloom settled down upon his spirits, heavier than the fog upon the sea.
"We will keep after them," said the never despondent Jim, "even if we have to chase them around the world."
The boat seemed to crawl so slowly along, and the boys began to fret in their eagerness to find out whether their comrades were on the island or not, but they were not yet close enough to make out any object upon its surface. Then from the West there came a breeze rippling the gla.s.sy water.
"Up with the sail," cried Jim. "Here"s where we fly."
As the breeze strengthened to a wind, they went towards the island at a clipping gait. When they got within a half mile of the sh.o.r.e, they began to look eagerly for some sign of a living being and they were disappointed at first, but they drove their boat along as near the sh.o.r.e as they dared.
"Say, did you hear that?" cried Jim in excitement. "That was a rifle shot, or my name is Dennis."
"Three men on the sh.o.r.e," said the Indian, imperturbably.
"I see them," cried Jo, "on that beach yonder. I believe it is Tom and Juarez. Hurrah for the Frontier Boys."
"It is they," declared Jim as they drew closer, "but how Tom has grown.
He looks over six feet."
"That isn"t Tom," said Jo. "It"s some one else. The short one is Tom."
Then he saw Jim grin and realized that he had been kidded.
"If this wasn"t my busy day," said Jo, "I"d give you a punching for being so smart."
Five minutes later, the boat had grounded on the pebbly beach and The Frontier Boys were again united. There was a great jubilee for a while with the Spaniard, the Indian, and the lanky shepherd on the outskirts of the family celebration, but in a short time they were all good friends, each according to his different nature; the Spaniard, suave and courteous, the Indian stolid, but with his share in the general good-will, and Jeems Howell, the shepherd, lankily humorous.
"We met our old friend Captain Broom in the channel, boys," said Jim, "steaming along like the Devil was after him."
"I"ll give him reason to think so," growled Juarez sullenly, "if I ever get on his trail."
The Indian, Yaquis, grunted approval, for there seemed to be a bond of sympathy between him and Juarez, as the reader can well understand.
"How far is that cave, Tom, where the old codger left you?" inquired Jo.
"Just around the bend," said Tom. "Here"s the rock where Juarez made his famous jump."
"How did you ever get up there?" asked Jo in wonder, looking up at the pinnacle of rock.
"You"d a done the same if those fellows had been chasing you," replied Juarez, "but if it hadn"t been for Jeems here catching me when I jumped they would have got me after all."
"I was afeard you might have fallen on the Skipper and a hurt him. He"s a kind of a tender plant you know." The Shepherd made this remark with a perfectly sober face, in no wise disturbed by the hilarity of the boys, over the idea of the tenderness of the Skipper.
"Here"s the cave," said Juarez, and he led the way through an arched opening in the wall of the cliff. Picking up a lantern, he went ahead as guide.
"This is certainly a dry cave," said Jim.
"It ought to be," said Jeems Howell. "It don"t rain on this Island more than twice a year, but I feel it in my bones that it is coming on to storm today."
"I hope you don"t feel it in _all_ your bones," remarked Jim, quizzically, "because it is liable to be a long drawn out storm if you do."
The lanky Shepherd gave himself over to spasms of silent mirth at Jim"s queer humor.
"Here"s where we found Tom," said Juarez. "Just discovered him a couple of hours before you discovered us."
When the Captain had made his sudden change of plans, Tom made himself as comfortable as he could for the night, intending to search for Juarez in the morning.
"Sometime I hope that this wretched Captain will be captured and imprisoned right here," said the Spaniard with a cold, vindictiveness.
"If he comes snooping around here again, that is what will happen to him," remarked Jim quietly. "I suppose, Tom, that he hid some of the loot he took from us in this cave somewhere. I bet this is his safe deposit vault, all right."
"He went back in there with his small satchel," said Tom, indicating the depths of the cave as yet unexplored.
"It will keep," said Jim, "but before I leave this island for Hawaii, I am going to search every corner of this cave and see if I cannot find our property."
"We discovered it in a cave and perhaps we will lose our treasure in a cave," said Juarez, who was something of a fatalist.
"Don"t you believe that we won"t find it," declared Jim stoutly, "but no work for me for a while. I"m going to take a good rest."
"So say we all of us," chanted the boys.
"Gentlemen," said Jeems Howell oracularly, "If it pleases you, and Christopher Columbus," with a wave of his hand toward Jim, "who discovered this savage group, we will now adjourn to my castle on the distant hillside."
"We are with you," declared those a.s.sembled in unison, and in a short time they were making their way up the slope towards the "castle" on the hillside, where they made themselves at home.
All the new arrivals at the island were soon fast asleep.