"They are among the "fragile" goods," was the reply, "on the port side of the hold. They were to be the first things ash.o.r.e at Santa Marta. But why do you want to know?"
"Oh, there"s a reason, as the ads. say," laughed Jack.
That afternoon the two young wireless men spent in long and anxious consultation. Dark came, and from the volcano a lurid glare lit the sky, yet no heavy convulsions of the earth occurred. Supper was over and the sailors, after desperately trying to keep up their spirits by singing, turned in. Soon the whole camp was wrapped in silence. The only ones awake were Jack and Sam.
Silently, on the soft sand, the two lads crept from the camp. Around their waists they wore life belts taken from the boats, which lay on the sand where they had been pulled up. The inspiration that had come to Jack when he read that entry on the manifest, was about to be put to the test.
"You are sure you can swim it, Sam?" asked the boy as the two lads waded into the water with their eyes fixed on the black hull of the stranded steamer.
"With this life jacket on I could swim round the Horn," declared Sam confidently.
"All right, then, here goes." Jack struck off into deep water, followed by Sam.
The water was almost warm and quite buoyant. It was a real pleasure swimming through it in the moonlight, while at every stroke the phosph.o.r.escence rippled glowingly from their arms and legs. They reached the ship almost before they knew it, and swam around her till they found the Jacob"s ladder by which the descent to the boats had been made. They scrambled up this with the agility of monkeys, and then made their way along the steeply sloping decks till they reached the wireless room with its silent instruments. Everything there was in perfect order, except for "juice" that was needed to wake them to life. And this Jack intended to have in short order.
Working under his directions, Sam broke into the storeroom where such supplies were kept by the ship"s electricians, and got two huge coils of insulated wire. Carrying these, he followed Jack, who bore a lantern, to Number One hold. It had been broken open at Kingston and the battens had only been loosely replaced for the run to Santa Marta, so that it was an easy matter to gain access to the hold.
Down the steep iron ladder they climbed till they stood among high-piled boxes and bales. Jack flashed his lantern about and at last uttered a cry of triumph.
"There they are," he cried, pointing to some big boxes labeled, "Jose de Ramon, Santa Marta."
"Now for the test," chimed in Sam.
The boys attacked the cases vigorously with hatchets they had brought with them, and soon had the ten powerful storage batteries exposed.
"Now get to work, Sam," said Jack, producing some pliers and seizing hold of a coil of wire.
CHAPTER XL
THE ANSWER TO THE WIRELESS CALL
Most of my readers have, in all probability, by this time guessed Jack"s plan. It was nothing more nor less than to harness up the powerful storage batteries to the wireless apparatus, and thus secure a wave that, while not as strong as the one from the ship"s dynamos, would yet reach for two hundred miles or more.
This was the inspiration that had come to him when his eye had fallen on the momentous entry on the manifest. The boys worked feverishly. At last the batteries were connected, and it only remained to run the wires to the instruments in the wireless room. Then would come the supreme test.
At last everything was "hooked up" to Jack"s satisfaction, and he sat himself down at the key. He knew that his wave lengths would not be very heavy nor his radius large, but he calculated on the fact that already this part of the ocean was alive with scout cruisers and warships hunting for the _Endymion_.
With a beating heart and a choking sensation in his throat, he seized the key. Sam could not speak for excitement and suspense, but leaned breathlessly over his chum"s shoulder.
Downward Jack pressed the key.
A simultaneous shout burst from both boys" throats. The wireless was alive once more!
A green spark, like an emerald serpent, leaped from point to point of the sender. With swift, practiced fingers Jack began sending abroad the message of disaster and the appeal for rescue.
Almost the entire night pa.s.sed away without any answer reaching his ears, although he ran the gamut of the wireless tuning board. He began to fear that the current was too weak to reach any of the ships that he knew were scouring the sea for the Endymion, when suddenly, in response to his S.O.S., came a sharp, powerful:
"Yes-Yes-Yes."
"Oh, glory!" cried Jack. "I"ve got a battleship! I know it by the sending."
"This is the _Tropic Queen_," he flashed out. "We are wrecked on Castle Island. Send help quickly. Rush aid. We are--"
A loud, terrified cry from Sam interrupted him. Through the door the whole sky could be seen a flaming, lurid red. The stranded ship shook as if in the grip of cruel giant hands. The boys were thrown helter skelter about the sloping cabin floor.
The place gleamed with the glaring, crimson light. A dreadful roaring sound filled their ears. The sands beneath them appeared to heave up and down in sickening waves like those of the unquiet sea.
Then came a vast uproar, and the two terror-stricken boys clawed their way out on the slanting deck. They looked toward the island. The sky above it was blood red. The rugged sky-line of its peaks stood out blackly against the scarlet glare. The air was full of a gas that burned the throat and choked the lungs.
"It"s the volcano!" cried Jack. "The volcano! Look!"
But Sam was clutching the other"s arm and pointing frantically seaward.
Rolling toward them, its foaming head crimsoned by the lambent glare of the volcano, was a giant wave.
"Into the wireless room. Quick! For your life!" screamed Jack.
They scrambled up the sloping deck and threw themselves flat on their faces in the coop, clinging to stanchions with a death-like grip. The next instant there was a roar like a thousand Niagaras. They felt the solid fabric of the _Tropic Queen_ lifted dizzily skyward, while tons of water roared down on her. Then there came a sickening crash that shook the boys loose from their grips and sent them rolling about the cabin.
The door was burst open and they staggered out on the deck. The _Tropic Queen_ was almost upright now, with her bottom smashed in till she stood flat upon her bare ribs in the soft sand.
Jack could see, by the glare of the burning mountain, the bleak figures of men far up among the rocks. The tidal wave, then, had been seen in time for some of them, at least, to save themselves. He had just time to observe this when before his eyes the sea sucked outward-outward-outward. The ocean floor rose into view, all crimsoned from the flaming volcano. He could see gaunt rocks uncovered for the first time since the creation, perhaps, sticking up blackly in the slimy depths.
And then the sea came back! Out in the far distance across the exposed flats a mighty wave shouldered itself. Its body and huge hollow incurve was black, but its crest was glowing with reflected flame. Jack gave one glance ash.o.r.e. He could see black figures scuttling high up the rocks.
They had just time to rush into the wireless room, with its steel walls and stout foundations bolted to the iron superstructure, when, with a roar, the mighty wave swept landward. Jack and Sam felt the _Tropic Queen_ lifted and rushed toward the sh.o.r.e, then lifted again and again and again till it seemed impossible that anything man-made could resist the awful force.
But at last the ship grounded with a shuddering, sidewise motion that seemed like a last expiring gasp. The boys ventured forth. The ship was lying on the beach almost at the foot of the cliffs. Her funnels and masts had vanished, snapped off like pipe stems. She lay a sheer, miserable hulk in the flaring light of the volcano.
Seaward, the waves were breaking tumultuously, but the tidal wave had spent its fury. Dizzy, sick and battered the boys made their way over the side of the lost liner and crept up the beach. It was littered with the smashed fragments of the two boats and the remnants of the hastily abandoned camp.
Through the glowing darkness a figure came toward them.
"Great heavens, boys, is it you?" they heard.
"Yes, Captain," rejoined Jack. "We"ve come ash.o.r.e."
"Thank Heaven you are safe! We are all right except for four poor sailors who did not awaken in time. But where have you been? How did you get on board?"
"We swam out," said Jack simply, "and had just got out a wireless call when the big blow-up came."
"A wireless call! Are you out of your head, boy?"
"By no means," said Jack. "We got out a call, and, better still, got an answer. I don"t know what ship it was, but it was a naval craft. I gave our position and then came the tidal wave."
"It is our only chance," said the captain. "Both boats were, of course, smashed, and we are marooned till aid comes."