"I warn you, Captain Beauchamp, that although he is young, Jim Darlington is a difficult one to handle," cautioned the steward.

"Jim Darlington!" gasped the captain. It was his turn to be surprised.

"I thought he was dead."

"On the contrary, he is very much alive, as are the other Frontier Boys."

"Well, I'll be blessed," said the captain, "the old innkeeper and the Senor's man told me all the party had gone up with the old hulk."

Amid frequent expressions of astonishment the steward told the story, as he had learned it, of the affair at San Matteo Bay, ending with the rescue of the entire party.

"Poor Reynolds," laughed Captain Beauchamp. "He must have had a jolly meeting with the Senor. I wrote to Reynolds that everybody had been blown sky high, and that the slate was clean."

The mate, whose voice was a low grumble, made some remark which Juarez could not hear.

"Yes, about that Jim," the captain was saying. "What we want to do is to surprise him, take him unawares."

Again the murmur of the mate's voice, but he spoke too low for his words to be heard.

"It's near dusk," resumed the captain. "In half an hour it will be pitch dark. We'll jog along towards the bay and take some observations."

The listener heard no more.

Some bird flitted into a branch close beside Juarez and uttered a gentle chirp. He knew that he was alone. He knew, too, that a serious task was cut out for him. To descend the mountain by the route he had come and reach the shack or shelter at the landing place would necessitate his pa.s.sing the villainous pair he had overheard. This they would likely prevent. The feat was well nigh impossible.

It seemed right good fortune that he had overheard their plans, but how could he circ.u.mvent them? He had it. A sudden inspiration burned into his soul. He must descend by the precipitous route on the side toward the sea down which he and Jo had traveled the day before. They had made the descent for pleasure, then, helping each other, and in broad daylight. Could he do the trick alone and in the dark?

He tried to scramble to his feet. The effort sent a paralyzing pain through his head and neck, and he relaxed again with a stifled moan.

After a moment he tried again, more slowly now, and in spite of the terrible pain, soon staggered to his feet.

He looked about. Directly above him was an overhanging boulder. It was upon its jagged edge he had struck when falling. Below was the stone turreted, bushy mountain side. Supporting himself with his hands he crept around the base of the boulder and soon got a broader outlook. His gun, as too great a handicap to carry on his trip, he discarded, carefully secreting it.

A considerable interval must have elapsed since he received that paralyzing abrasure from the rock against which he had struck, for the sun was gone and a melancholy gloom was settling over the wild landscape. a.s.suredly he must be moving. Those unscrupulous cutthroats would stop at nothing. And was not Jim, his dearest and most admired friend, in danger? It was an agonizing thought that gripped his mind.

He sprang forward with a spasmodic intake of the breath, and sped like a wild faun along the rugged hillside. He did not know that his face and head were caked with clotted blood. He even forgot the throbbing pain.

He would climb down the cliffs by the difficult and undetermined route he had traversed the day before.

Bursting through thickets and stumbling across darkening ravines he reached the point from which the perilous descent of the cliff side could be undertaken. Gloomy crags towered above him, and below, the almost unknown forbidding way, crowded with tragic uncertainties.

But not a moment could be spared. Without hesitation he plunged recklessly into the abyss and in a moment was hugging the cold rocks, clutching at supporting twigs and undergrowths, sliding, slipping, almost falling down a frightful precipice.

Once he lost his hold entirely and felt himself whirling through the darkness, but he writhed himself upright in his fall and brought up with a smash and a crash in the dense foliage of a quertel nut tree. He did not feel the torn skin on face and hands, nor know that a fresh torrent of blood burst from the abrasure on his head. He groped blindly for the splintered rocks at the trees' base, felt their resisting force and lunged forward once more.

Soon he found himself on a sloping bench or shelf whose surface was on a level with the tops of some trees below, and he remembered the spot.

Here Jo and he had enjoyed a grand view of the ocean, enveloped in mystery and obscurity. Owing to the absence of shrubbery it was lighter here, and out of pure necessity he was compelled to halt for breath. He leaned against the wall of rock for a moment before commencing the next stage of the journey.

He remembered that his former pa.s.sage had led him for a hundred feet or more before bringing him to another drop. Straining his eyes along the stretch of shelf he suddenly beheld an object emerge from the darkness and grow larger as it approached. Then appeared another and another till he had counted six, all in regular Indian file and moving in absolute silence.

There was a moment of dreadful uncertainty. Clearly these were the natives of this or some nearby island, and the first that he or any of his party had seen. The only weapon that Juarez possessed was a hunting knife. He pressed himself against the rock and held his hand to throttle the beating of his heart. They approached. Now he heard the soft shuffle of their feet. Closer, and the first was nearly abreast of him. Closer still, and the man glided by not three yards away, as--happy relief--did his followers.

They pa.s.sed, and still he moved not. The subdued twinkling of the falling gravel, the swish and rattle of the boughs and he was alone.

Then his breath came back with a spurt, and he realized that he had been near to suffocation. It was not that he feared for himself. But that awful responsibility, the warning of Jim. He must do nothing, attempt nothing, that would involve the possibility of delay.

But there was no time for musing. The half of his dangerous descent was before him. He hurried forward again, almost running along the shelving bench although he knew that a perpendicular drop of many yards was but a few inches from his nimble feet. He knew where to make the next plunge downward for the shelf pinched out, and there was no other way of advancing.

Down he went among insecure boulders, fragments of the upper cliff thrown off by some convulsion of nature, and again he had a dangerous fall. He struck upon his side and slid for a rod not unlike a log, bringing up with a serious injury against a boulder. Below were dwarf compametos trees, and beneath them he squirmed, the meager light shut out entirely by their dense foliage. Soon a bed of p.r.i.c.kly leaves and ferns told him that he was over the worst of the road.

Still there was much treacherous footing ahead and he stumbled and tripped more than once. But now he was nearing the shack, and he must exercise all his caution taught by long experience with the Indians.

Noiseless and as stealthy as a cat he squirmed through the tangled underbrush till he reached the sandy margin of Crescent Bay. Still keeping within the shadow of the forest growth, he advanced rapidly, fearing every moment that some overt act would advise him that he had not been swift enough.

Now he was within call of the shelter, and he gave a peculiar signal, a note of warning for Jim if he were awake. There was no response. None when the call was again repeated louder. Horrible thought! Was he too late?

CHAPTER XXI.

THE CAPTURE.

Selecting a convenient resting place, Jim had sat down, and for the second time, taking up his rifle, went over it carefully, testing the lock and cleaning and oiling the various parts. He gave the same attention to the other guns. When this was done, he went over the ammunition to see that it was all in order.

Then, having no further task to engage his attention, a drowsy spell appealing, he lay down upon a moss covered bed of nature's fashioning, and was soon fast asleep. When he awoke he knew that a considerable interval had elapsed, and that the day was waning.

He looked toward the ship, but all was quiet there.

"It is time that Juarez was getting back," he thought. "I hope that he hasn't got into any trouble. And the boys, too, were coming ash.o.r.e. But I suppose," he added whimsically, "they had to wait till Berwick was satisfied that Manuel wasn't anywhere around. I don't see any signs of their coming," again looking toward the yacht, "I think I will see if I can find Juarez."

He had little difficulty in following Juarez's trail as he had gone straight forward in the direction of the valley which skirted the peak or elevation for which he had started.

Although he was not apprehensive of an attack, Jim went forward cautiously, looking about him as he proceeded, with his gun ready for use in case of need. He had gone a little more than a quarter of the way to the cliff when the ground became rugged with large rocks and occasional deep crevices.

He became impressed at this point with the fancy that someone was about.

He stood motionless, and himself hidden discovered that someone was in fact approaching. The man was moving slowly and seemingly without special caution. In the shadow of the underbrush Jim did not at first recognize that it was the steward whose movements he was observing. Then he knew that it was that individual.

Here was an opportunity perhaps to learn something of this suspected person, and intent on this object Jim stealthily followed in the other's footsteps. He was mystified by his actions, for the steward seemed to have no definite motive in view. He moved slowly about in an erratic course, first in one direction then another, without apparent reason.

The precautions Jim would ordinarily have taken to keep a lookout about him were omitted, and of a sudden he was himself set upon by two muscular individuals who seemed to spring from s.p.a.ce, and taken so entirely unawares, before he recognized his danger, his arms were pinioned. Notwithstanding his strenuous struggles he was quickly bound and a helpless captive.

He had had no opportunity even to get a look at his captors before he was blindfolded.

"We want yer company for a period," a soft well modulated voice, with a southern accent, was speaking. "Make no trouble, and I will know that you are a wise young man."

"I do not know you. What do you want?"

"First and foremost the chart you have in your pocket. I will, since your hands are tied, with your kind permission, help myself to that now."

Needless to say, the speaker sought out and took possession of the desired doc.u.ment, carefully bestowing it in his own pocket.

"Now to introduce ourselves, for you doubtless observed that there are two of us. This is Mate Marion, and I am Captain Beauchamp, at your service."