BILLY HEARS AN INTERESTING CONVERSATION.
When Billy Barnes opened his eyes, he found himself lying in a white and gold stateroom that seemed luxurious enough in its furnishings to be the cabin on some millionaire"s yacht. Where he was, he had not the slightest idea. All that he recollected of the events preceding his awakening was his shout to the boys to be taken aboard after the fog closed down. Then came the sudden appearance above his head of what seemed a mountainous black steamer bow, a terrific crash, that hurled him from the pontoon raft into the water, and then a frenzied grip for a trailing rope.
As he reflected on these events and wondered where on earth he could be, the door opened and a white-coated steward stepped in. He seemed surprised to see Billy"s eyes opened.
"You came to pretty quick after your ducking," he remarked. "I"ll go call the doctor."
In a few minutes he was back with a pleasant-faced, gray-whiskered man who informed Billy that the ship that had run him down was the Sound steamer, Princeton, bound from Boston for New York. The instant the lookout had reported an object dead ahead, ropes and life-buoys had been thrown overboard, one of which Billy had managed to grasp and hold on to till a sailor could be lowered and the half-drowned reporter dragged on board.
"You held so tight to the rope even after you became insensible,"
commented the physician, "that we had a hard time to break your grip.
How did you come to be out on the Sound in such a fog?"
Billy hastily related to him the events that had led up to his presence on the raft, only omitting, of course, the object of the experiments. The doctor was very curious on this point, but his inquisitiveness was destined to go unsatisfied. Billy had no intention of betraying the boys" confidence in so important a matter as the proposed recovery of the golden galleon. The secret was theirs alone, he reflected. What was his amazement, then, about half an hour after the doctor had left him, with orders to sleep if he could, to hear in the next stateroom a voice, which he had no difficulty in recognizing as Luther Barr"s, utter the following words:
"Then we start for the Sarga.s.so Sea as soon as possible. You have done very well, Sanborn, and you, Malvoise. You need not be afraid I shall not reward you."
"Thank you," the listening boy heard Malvoise reply, in his smooth tones. "We have indeed done all that we could to hasten the scheme. It was lucky that we were able to purchase that dirigible of Constantio"s at Boston, for if we had had to construct one of our own we should have been in a hard fix to beat the Boy Aviators in getting to the golden galleon. As it is we will be there first and when they arrive they will find an empty sh.e.l.l of a ship for their pains."
"Ha! ha! ha!" Billy heard old Luther Barr laugh in his thin piping tones, "it will be as good as a feast to see their faces when they find that we have forestalled them. What is the best part of it is that they will never guess who gave us the secret of the lost galleon"s location."
"I look to you to make that information worth my while," put in Sanborn"s rasping tones.
"And I will," cried old Barr, clapping his withered hands together.
"You shall be well rewarded, never fear. But now about your purchase in Boston--how much did she cost?"
"Twelve thousand dollars," was the cool reply of the speaker, whose voice Billy had recognized as being that of Malvoise.
"Twelve thousand dollars!" almost screamed old Luther Barr, "why you mean to ruin me."
"What, you grudge twelve thousand dollars when there are millions, perhaps, at stake?" demanded Malvoise"s calm tones.
"No, no," old Barr corrected himself, "it"s not that, but twelve thousand dollars is a lot of money. However, I"d gladly give twice that sum to get first to the lost galleon and her golden cargo."
"It"s well worth it," commented Sanborn.
"Anyway, she is exactly the kind of air-ship we need for the recovery of the treasure," put in Malvoise. "Originally intended for Government use, she was turned back to her owner on account of a defect in the machinery which has since been rectified. She carries a fine cabin and a pilot house on her substructure, and is fitted up with sleeping quarters. Best of all, she is capable of lifting five tons beside her own weight. The hydrogen gas to inflate her with, we can carry down in tubes on your yacht and fill the bag when we get to the borders of the Sarga.s.so, although Constantio, her inventor, who will go with us, has ideas of his own about hydrogen."
"But how are you to float her while we are rifling the galleon of her treasure?" demanded old Barr.
"Very simple," was the reply, "merely tether her to the galleon as you would a horse and when we are ready to load, haul her to a level with the deck and then with a full cargo of treasure--hurray for New York!"
"Splendid," cried old Barr, catching the enthusiasm of the other, "we will sail then, shortly?"
"As soon as everything is ready" was the reply of Malvoise, "we need one more man and I have advertised for him--now let us drink to the treasure of the Buena Ventura and may we soon have our hands in the sack."
There was a clinking of gla.s.ses as the toast was drunk, and then the trio conversed in lower tones. Billy had heard enough, however, to convince him that by some strange fate he had been rescued from death in the Sound to become the instrument of the discovery of a plot to beat the boys to the Sarga.s.so and the treasure ship. Gritting his teeth he resolved to do all he could to frustrate the man who had tried to outwit the Boy Aviators in Africa and steal their hard-won ivory.
Two hours later, the Princeton docked at New York, and Billy hastened to despatch a telegram to Lone Cove, telling the others of his safety and that he had important news to communicate.
With what delight the chums received news of their comrade"s safety may be imagined and they boarded the first available train to meet him at the Astor House in New York, where Billy had agreed to be at the appointed time.
As the young reporter hastened from the wharf, taking good care--as he thought--not to let old Barr and his two accomplices see him, he almost collided with a seafaring man who was hurrying down the wharf to board a Boston steamer that was about to pull out. The next instant his hand was caught in a mighty grasp that almost wrung it off.
"Wal, I"ll be hornswoggled, Billy Barnes!" was the exclamation of the stranger.
"Ben Stubbs!" exclaimed the amazed Billy, almost knocked off his feet at the sudden encounter with the brave adventurer who had shared the boys" perils in Nicaragua, the Everglades and in Africa. "What are you doing here?"
"I might ax the same question of you," was the reply, "but one at a time as the feller said when they all wanted to shoot him at once for stealing a horse. I"ve got time and I can wait."
"You are the same old Ben, I see," laughed Billy; "but seriously, what are you doing here?"
"Why I was just on my way to Boston," was the rejoinder. "I seen this "ad" in the paper where it said, "Wanted, brave man, ex-sailor preferred, to a.s.sume dangerous mission--Big pay. Apply No. 46, Charlton Street, Boston."" And Ben flourished a clipping.
"But, Ben," remonstrated Billy, "you have plenty of money from your share of the ivory. I thought you had invested it in a rubber plantation in Central America."
"That"s right," said Ben, with a sorrowful air. "I invested it all right--sunk it, maybe would be a better word, fer when I gets down there to start in developing my plantation, I finds that you couldn"t see my n.o.ble estate fer the water that happened to cover it."
"What!" exclaimed Billy, "you had been swindled?"
"Ay, ay, lad, that"s about it. Some of these here land-sharks had trimmed me from top-gallant mast to bilge keel. They cleaned me out and left me high and dry. So when I see that "ad" I says to myself, says, I, there"s just the thing for me."
"Say, Ben," exclaimed Billy, suddenly, "Let me have a look at that "ad" again, will you?"
"Sure," said the old adventurer, handing him the clipping from which he had taken the address, "here you are."
"Why!" exclaimed Billy suddenly, "L. B. are the initials of Luther Barr."
"What! that old cat-a-mount?" cried Ben, "is he still alive?"
"He certainty is and up to fresh mischief," was the rejoinder. "Of course there are lots of L. B."s in Boston, but coupled with a conversation I overheard, it looks to me as if the man who inserted this "ad" is Barr himself."
"What makes you think so, youngster?"
Billy launched into a narration of what he had overheard on the steamer after his rescue.
"Ph-e-e-w!" whistled Ben, as the young reporter concluded, "so the old varmint is up to his tricks again, is he? Well now, sonny, if this L.
B. in the "ad" should be the same as Luther Barr, it won"t do no harm for me to be along with him. But first, I"ll get my whiskers shaved off and that will make me look a heap different. Then I"ll dress in a different rig and he won"t know me any more than I"d know the old clipper North Star after they turned her into a coal barge."
"You really mean that, Ben?"
"Do I really mean it," echoed Ben, "well, watch me. Hullo!" he exclaimed suddenly, "there goes the last whistle. Well, good-by for the present and give me your address and I"ll let you know as soon as I find out anything. Whoop-ee! it"s good to see you lads again."
So saying, after a hearty clasp of the hand the former mariner ran up the wharf and was pulled aboard clinging to one end of the gang-plank like a fly.
As Billy started for the hotel to meet the others, he was musing deeply over what he had overheard. So engrossed was he in his thoughts, in fact that when a rather roughly-dressed man stepped in front of him and peered into his face once or twice, as if to make certain he was the lad he sought, Billy gave an involuntary start. He was walking beside the gloomy arches of Brooklyn Bridge, some of which are used for refrigerating plants and others to store all kinds of goods, from hides to tin articles. It is a little frequented part of town except by persons walking across town from East River steamers.
"What do you want?" he demanded.