It was the next night. The disconsolate castaways were huddled near the pathetic wreck of the lost liner. Food had been obtained from on board, so that there was no actual suffering, but the volcano still glared and rumbled and at any moment a disastrous eruption was to be feared.
De Garros and Miss Jarrold stood together apart from the rest.
"And your uncle"s influence over you is broken forever if we ever escape from this?" he was asking.
She nodded.
"That time in Paris when he tried to persuade you to give up the aeronautical plans was when I first began to mistrust him. I never thought I should see you again after our engagement was broken off, but fate has brought us together. It has been like a dream," she went on. "I think sometimes that he exercised a hypnotic influence over me. But I know it all now and can see things clearly."
De Garros was about to answer, when suddenly his body stiffened. He pointed to the northern horizon.
"There," he cried. "Look there!"
His excitement was mounting high.
"See," he shouted, "that white light! It"s sweeping the sky! What is it?"
Far off, a faint pencil of light swung across the zenith as if on a pivot. It dipped to the horizon, rose again and swung like a radiant pendulum across the sky.
"Signals," the girl choked out. "It"s a searchlight!"
From the seamen there came a hoa.r.s.e cheer.
"It"s a battleship! She"s signaling!" shouted Jack in a voice that shook. "It"s Morse!"
He took a long breath or two. Then he choked out the message that was flung on the sky.
"Courage! We are coming!"
And then pandemonium broke loose. Under the glaring sky, seamen danced and shouted and the other members of the party shook hands. Only Jarrold stood silent and aloof, looking at his niece and De Garros. It was as if he knew that his hold over her was broken forever, and that the approaching warships, speeding to the rescue, meant for him shackles and iron bars.
The scene shifts to Colon harbor. Into port are steaming the _Birmingham_, scout cruiser, and the _Wasp_, torpedo destroyer, the craft that rescued the castaways of Castle Island. Already by wireless the story of the lost liner and the wonderful resourcefulness of Jack Ready and Sam Smalley has gone out to the world. Big crowds are waiting to meet the rescuing warships. Among them are the military attaches to whom Colonel Minturn, thanks to Jack, will be able to hand the Panama doc.u.ments so nearly lost forever.
At the stern of the _Wasp_, under the ensign, are standing Jarrold"s niece and De Garros. He is telling her that Colonel Minturn has promised to intercede for her uncle, and that in all probability he will be deported with a warning never to tread American soil again, in place of being imprisoned. Nations do not care to advertise their troubles with international spies, if it can be avoided.
Jack and Sam, on board the _Birmingham_, stand happily by the wireless operator of the cruiser. He is taking a message. Presently he turns to them.
"Some news that will interest you, fellows," he says. "All the boats from the _Tropic Queen_ have been picked up, without the loss of a single pa.s.senger."
"Good work!" exclaim the two listeners heartily.
"And the _Endymion_," continues the operator, "has been in port for a week, and her crew and captain are detained pending an inquiry."
"Well, I guess they"ll get out of the sc.r.a.pe, all right," says Jack, "for they didn"t know what schemes Jarrold was up to when he chartered the yacht."
"What about c.u.mmings?" asks Sam.
"So far as I am concerned, I shall take no action," replies Jack. "All that I am anxious for now is for a sight of the good old U. S. A. and Uncle Toby and--"
"Somebody named Helen," chuckles Sam, while Jack turns red under his tan.
And here, with their adventures on the lost liner at an end, we will say farewell to our ocean wireless boys till we encounter them again in a forthcoming volume dealing with their further stirring adventures at the radio key.
THE END.