CHAPTER XXVI

HOPE DEFERRED

There was a wild babble of questions and answers, and it was a long time before all had calmed down enough to talk coherently.

The captain and Tyke in their frantic search had come just abreast of the outlet at the moment when Ruth and Allen had burst out into daylight and safety.

Their hearts thrilled as they listened to the dreadful perils through which had pa.s.sed the two who were dearest to them on earth and the narration was punctuated with expressions of consternation and sympathy.

"Well now," suggested Ruth after a half hour had pa.s.sed, "let's get back to work."

"No more work this afternoon," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain. "You're going straight back to the ship."

"Indeed I'm not, Daddy," rejoined Ruth. "I'm all right now and I'll be vastly happier sitting here and seeing you go on with the work than to feel I've made you lose a day. We've got some hours of daylight yet."

The captain protested, but Ruth coaxed and wheedled him till he consented and they all went back to the ditch they had started and went to work, Ruth alone of the party being forbidden to lift a finger.

They excavated to the volcanic ledge in half a dozen places. In none did they find a trace of treasure--not a sign that this soil had ever before been disturbed by the hand of man.

"Bad mackerel!" grumbled Captain Hamilton, finally climbing out of his last pit. "This looks as if we'd been handed a rotten deal from a cold deck."

Tyke looked up from his work, and began:

"Mebbe that--Now, if I was superst.i.tious--Oh, well," he went on hastily, "you can't expect to find a fortune in a minute."

"But we got the bearings all right, according to the map, didn't we?"

demanded the captain with some asperity.

"We certainly did," Drew put it.

"We can't dig over the whole island," complained Captain Hamilton. "It would be foolish. Hush! What's that?"

A rumble, a sound from the very bowels of the hill, smote upon their ears. Ruth ran to them.

"Oh, Daddy!" she cried, "is there going to be another earthquake?"

"Look there!" Drew said pointing upward.

Over the summit of the whale's hump hung a balloon of smoke, or of steam, its underside of a lurid hue.

"I say I've had enough for one day," declared the master of the _Bertha Hamilton_. "Let's get back to the schooner before anything else occurs. Maybe a night's sleep will put heart in us. But I tell you right now, I, for one, would sell my share in the pirate's treasure at a big discount."

The captain was the most outspoken of the treasure seekers; but they were all despondent. They hid their digging tools, and departed for the sh.o.r.e of the lagoon, the volcano rumbling at times behind them.

They emerged from the forest just as the sun was setting. As they came out on the beach they were surprised to see that it was bare. Neither the longboat nor the smaller one was in sight, nor could anything be seen of the crews.

The captain called some of the men by name. There was no response.

Then he cupped his hands at his mouth, and his stentorian voice rang over the waters of the lagoon.

"Ship ahoy!"

In a moment there was an answering hail, and they soon saw that a boat was being manned. It came rapidly insh.o.r.e, propelled by four members of the crew, and, as it drew nearer, they could see that Rogers was seated at the tiller.

As the boat reached the beach the second officer stepped out.

"What does this mean, Mr. Rogers?" asked the captain sternly.

"Mr. Ditty's orders, sir," replied the second officer. "The men got scared at the earthquake this morning, sir, and after that second quake they flatly refused to stay ash.o.r.e. So Mr. Ditty let them go back to the ship."

"But why didn't he leave the other boat's crew waiting for me?" asked the captain. "If they were afraid to remain ash.o.r.e they could have stayed in the boat, rigged an awning to shield them from the sun, and laid off and on within hail."

"That's what I thought, sir, and I said as much to Mr. Ditty. But he shut me up sharp, and said it would be time enough to send a boat when you should come in sight, sir."

The captain bit his lip, but said no more, and the party stepped into the boat. They soon reached the _Bertha Hamilton_, and all climbed aboard. The first officer was standing near the rail.

"Come aft and report to me after supper, Mr. Ditty," ordered the captain brusquely.

"Aye, aye, sir," replied the mate.

As soon as supper was over and Ruth had gone to her stateroom the captain started to go on deck, but Tyke put his hand on his arm.

"Going to give Ditty a dressing down, I suppose," he remarked.

"He's got it coming to him," snapped Captain Hamilton.

"He surely has," agreed Tyke. "But have you thought that perhaps that's jest what he wants you to do?"

The captain sat down heavily.

"Get it off your chest, Tyke," he said. "Tell me what you mean."

"I mean jest this," said Tyke. "Often there's trouble in the wind that never comes to anything because the feller that's brewing it don't git a chance to start it. He fiddles 'round waiting for an opening; but if he don't find it the trouble jest dies a natural death.

"Now, this Ditty, _I_ think, is looking for an opening. As far as his letting his own boat's crew come on board when you had told him to keep them on sh.o.r.e for the day is concerned, that can be overlooked. You can't blame the men for being scared, an' any mate might be excused for using his own judgment under those conditions.

"But his not keeping your boat's crew waiting for you, even if they stayed a little away from the sh.o.r.e, was rank disrespect. He knew you would take it so. He knew it would weaken your authority with the crew. An' he expects you'll call him down for it. Isn't that so?"

"Of course it is," agreed Captain Hamilton.

"Well then," pursued Tyke, "if he did that deliberately, expecting you'd rake him fore and aft for it, it shows that he wants you to start something, don't it? An' my principle in a fight is to find out what the other feller wants and then not do it. He wants to provoke you.

Don't let yourself be provoked or you'll play right into his hands."

"I might as well make him captain of the ship and be done with it,"

cried Captain Hamilton bitterly. "I've never let a man get away with anything like that yet."