"We have a special reason for being here, as you may learn by to-morrow."
"Do you know anything of a treasure on this island?" went on Sid Merrick curiously.
"We know something of it, yes. It belongs to the Stanhope estate, provided it can be found."
"It doesn"t belong to the Stanhopes at all--it belongs to me," cried Merrick.
"In a day or two the Stanhopes are coming here to take possession,"
went on d.i.c.k. "They will bring with them a number of their friends and uncover the treasure, which is now hidden in a secret place. As I and my brothers and cousins own this isle we are to have our share of what is uncovered. Now we warn you again to go away. We are ten to your four, and we are all armed with shotguns and pistols, and we have the drop on you."
"Good for you, d.i.c.k, pile it on," whispered Tom. Then he pulled Sam by the arm. "Come on, let us appear from behind another rock--they"ll think we are two more of the brothers or cousins!"
"You won"t dare to shoot us," bl.u.s.tered Merrick, but his voice had a trace of uncertainty in it.
"Won"t we?" answered d.i.c.k. "There is a warning for you!" And raising the pistol he carried he sent a shot over the heads of the other party.
"They are shooting at us! We"ll all be killed!" yelled Tad Sobber, who had come back during the conversation, and again he and Cuffer took to their heels.
"Mind the warning!" called out d.i.c.k, and dropped almost out of sight behind a rock. At that same moment Tom and Sam appeared from behind a rock far to the left.
"Mind that warning!" they cried. "Remember, we are ten to four!"
"There are two more of "em," cried Sh.e.l.ley.
"Confound the luck, what sort of a game is this anyway?" said Sid Merrick, much chagrined.
"Well, it is more than we expected," answered Sh.e.l.ley. "I, for one, don"t care to risk being shot down. I reckon they have the bulge on us, if there really are ten of "em."
"I"ve seen but five--the three ahead and the two over yonder."
"There are two more!" answered Sh.e.l.ley and pointed to another rock, to which Sam and Tom had just crawled. "That makes seven."
"Go back, I tell you," warned d.i.c.k. "We"ll give you just two minutes in which to make up your mind. If you don"t go back we"ll start to shoot!"
"Come on back!" cried Tad, from a safe distance. "Don"t let them shoot you, Uncle Sid!"
"We"ll go back to our ship," called out Sid Merrick. "But remember, this thing isn"t settled yet."
"If you have any differences with the Stanhopes you can settle with the folks on the steam yacht which has just arrived," answered d.i.c.k, not knowing what else to say.
The party under Sid Merrick began to retreat, and d.i.c.k, Tom and Sam watched them with interest, until the lights faded in the distance.
Then Tom did a jig in his delight.
"That was easier than I expected," he said.
"Even if we didn"t scare them playing ghost," added Sam. "I wonder if they really thought we were ten in number?"
"Well, they thought we were seven anyway!" answered d.i.c.k. "It was a clever ruse you two played."
What to do next the Rover boys did not know. It was impossible for any of them to calculate how far they were from the spot where they had landed or to determine the best way of getting back to Horseshoe Bay, as they had named the locality.
"If we move around very much in this darkness we may become hopelessly lost in the forest," said d.i.c.k.
"Maybe we had better stay right where we are until morning," suggested his youngest brother.
"I"m agreeable to anything," were Tom"s words.
"If we stay here we want to remain on guard," said d.i.c.k. "Merrick may take it into his head to come back."
An hour later found the three Rover boys encamped in a small opening to one side of the forest trail. They made beds for themselves of some soft brushwood, and it was decided that one should remain on guard while the other two slept.
"Each can take three hours of guard duty," said d.i.c.k. "That will see us through the night nicely," and so it was arranged.
CHAPTER XXII
PRISONERS IN THE FOREST
d.i.c.k was the first to go on guard and during the initial hour of his vigil practically nothing came to disturb him. He heard the occasional cry of the nightbirds and the booming of the surf on the reefs and the sh.o.r.e of the isle, and saw numerous fireflies flit to and fro, and that was all.
"I don"t believe they"ll come back," he murmured to himself. "Like as not they are afraid to advance on the trail and also afraid to trust themselves to this jungle in the darkness."
d.i.c.k had found some wild fruit growing close at hand and he began to sample this. But it was bitter, and he feared to eat much, thinking it might make him sick. Then, to keep awake, for he felt sleepy because of his long tramp, he took out his knife and began to cut his initials on a stately palm growing beside the temporary camp.
d.i.c.k had just finished one letter and was starting the next when of a sudden he found himself taught from behind. His arms were pinned to his side, his pistol wrenched from his grasp, and a hand that was not overly clean was clapped over his mouth.
"Not a sound, Rover, if you know when you are well off!" said a voice into his ear.
Despite this warning the lad would have yelled to his brothers, but he found this impossible. He had been attacked by Merrick and Sh.e.l.ley, and Cuffer stood nearby, ready with a stick, to crack him over the head should he show fight. The attack had come in the dark, the gas lamp and the lantern having been extinguished when the party from the _Josephine_ drew close.
Merrick had prepared himself for his nefarious work, and in a twinkling he had d.i.c.k"s hands bound behind him and had a gag placed in the youth"s mouth. Then he had the lad bound fast to a nearby tree.
In the meantime Tom and Sam were sleeping soundly. The two brothers lay each with a hand close to the other, and with caution Merrick and his party tied the two hands together. Then they tied the lads" feet, so that they could not run.
"What"s the meaning of this?" cried Tom, struggling to rise, as did Sam.
"It means you are prisoners!" cried Tad Sobber, who had had small part in the operations, but who was ready to do all the "crowing" possible.
"Prisoners!" gasped Sam. "Where is d.i.c.k?" he added.
"Also a prisoner," said Tad, with a chuckle. "You thought you had fooled us nicely, but I guess we have turned the tables on you."
"I suspected you Rovers," said Sid Merrick.
"Really!" answered Tom, sarcastically. "You acted it!"