"Good for you, Jack. Now, how do you think of getting that stuff to the States?"
"About the same way I tried first, only I shall not try to go behind that spur of the Andes, as I did before.
"I can see my mistake now, though I believe that is the richest deposit I have, and I shall sometime make something out of it. I am going to get a cargo from the bed nearest to the railroad and get the company to freight it for me to the seaboard."
"Then I shall see you occasionally, Jack."
"Oh, yes. I shall not be far away."
Jack was as good as his word, and the following day Plum Plucky proudly took his place as engineer, with a new fireman to help him.
Jack then began to carry out his scheme of getting a cargo of nitrate to his native land.
This time he obtained his supply of nitrate from a bed less than ten miles from the railroad, drawing it to the station with ox teams. With his better knowledge of the country he met with success in this part of the undertaking, and then the train carried it to the sea-coast for him at moderate rates.
Before this had been done he had bargained with a Peruvian captain of a merchantman to carry the cargo to Philadelphia.
This had proved the most difficult part of his arrangements, for with the existing war between the countries it was sometime before he could find a man willing to do it.
But he found one at last and the nitrate was eventually loaded on the vessel.
It was a proud, and yet an anxious, moment for Jack when he found everything in readiness to leave the harbor.
The captain had declared his intention of setting sail under cover of darkness, so as to escape an attack from a Chilian ship should one offer to dispute his pa.s.sage.
That afternoon Jack saw Plum to bid him goodbye, feeling sorry to part with his honest friend.
The latter actually cried.
"Hang it, Jack! I"ve a mind to go with you. Think of me in this heathenish country and you among friends and rolling in wealth."
"All but the wealth, Plum. But I shall be glad to have you go with me."
"I thank you, Jack, but I mustn"t. I must stay here long enough to get the money to pay up the mortgage on dad"s farm, when I shall skip by the light of the moon. You may not find me here when you come back, Jack, but I wish you well."
A little after sunset the Peruvian ship moved slowly out of the harbor of San Maceo, Jack watching the land as it receded from sight with a peculiar interest, and his mind ran swiftly back over the eventful time he had pa.s.sed in that faraway land.
He had given the captain the last pistole he possessed, as he had been obliged to pay him in advance to get him to undertake the task, so he was again penniless. But he had no doubt he would have money enough as soon as he could get home and dispose of his cargo. Over and again he had figured out his profit, if it should prove saleable at the moderate price he had fixed upon it. Is it a wonder his thoughts were in a tumult? Is it strange that he found it difficult to make himself believe that at last after that long waiting, he was really homeward bound?
"How glad they will be to see me!" he thought. "And Jenny! She will not be expecting me. It has been so long since I left. Some of them may be--"
He was interrupted in his meditations by the report of a gun in the distance, and, glancing to the port, he discovered a ship coming up rapidly.
That there was something wrong in the appearance of the stranger was evident from the bustle and excitement which had suddenly sprung up among officers and crew, not one of whom spoke anything but Spanish.
All sail had been crowded on that the ship could possibly carry; but heavily loaded and at best a poor sailer, the new-comer continued to overhaul them at a startling rate.
Coming alongside of Jack finally, the captain said:
"We are lost, senor! I ought to lose my head for undertaking such a mad project."
"It may not be as bad as you seem to think, senor capitan," replied Jack, hoping to encourage the commander.
But all that he could say was in vain.
The Chilian warship, as the stranger really was, continued to keep up its firing, though the Peruvian vessel had not fired a gun.
Jack anxiously watched the approach of their pursuer, feeling that his fortune, if not his life, was at stake.
It is possible if the Peruvian had laid to and allowed the other to come up without the show of running away, that it might have been permitted to continue its course unmolested. And again it may not have been so.
At any rate the Peruvian captain held to his flight as his only hope of salvation, until at last a shot, better directed than the random firing so long kept up, struck the doomed merchantman fairly amidship.
The craft instantly lurched and trembled from bow to stern.
"She is sinking!" shrieked the captain. "Quick--to the boats!"
Chapter XXI
A Panic on Shipboard
A scene of the wildest description followed the frantic captain"s announcement and order. The sailors were panic stricken, and more than half of them plunged headlong into the sea.
The captain was scarcely less distracted than his men, and he only added to the helplessness of the situation by his words and actions.
Jack tried to pacify him by saying:
"Pardon me, senor capitan, but the ship will not sink at once if at all.
You have plenty of time in which to save your lives."
"But the Chilian! We shall be made prisoners of war. Heaven protect me! I was a fool to listen to you, Senor North."
"It is too late to think of that now. It is your duty to see if something cannot be done to stop the ship"s leak."
It was useless to try to reason with the Peruvian captain. He was sure the ship was going to sink, and seemed determined that she should.
Meanwhile the Chilian continued to draw nearer, though it had nearly stopped firing.
The trumpet-like tone of the commander rang over the water just as the terrified Peruvians lowered a boat and leaped headlong into it, that is, those who had not previously jumped into the sea.
Finding himself alone on the sinking vessel, which was going down fast, Jack answered the Chilian"s challenge:
"Ship ahoy! what do you want?"