The Mystery Boys and Captain Kidd's Message

by Van Powell

  CHAPTER XIX CAPTAIN KIDD’S MESSAGE

  When they awoke the three comrades found their clothes, soaked by theirswim the night before, dry enough to put on. There was very littleconversation during breakfast, but immediately after the meal SenorOrtiga drew from his pocket the two halves of Captain Kidd’s map, laidthem on the folding table and summoned the boys to his side.

  There were the two halves of the real map, together for the first timein Nicky’s sight.

  The two halves fitted exactly when Mr. Coleson held them together. Theyshowed the complete sign of the Dipper, with small islands indicating avery close resemblance to the real constellation of the heavens, as thechums saw it at night. Beneath them, the two separated syllables formed,as they had inferred, the name Dipper.

  The faint line, zigzagging among the small and irregular dots below, ranfrom the wreck to a point at what was the eastward of the reproducedconstellation; but the line ended without pointing to any particularislet.

  “There’s your map,” Mr. Coleson said. “Now, lads, you can see that itmeans very little. It shows the point where the wreck occurred manyyears ago. It shows a channel that must have been used by the castawaysin transferring the treasure.”

  “But,” Don Ortiga broke in, irritably, “we have located the islands thatmake the Dipper—they lie inward about half way between the Gulf side andthe inside channel. And we have dug every one of them over, torn rootsapart, plumbed with leads and grappled with hooks——”

  “And all we’ve got for our work,” Mr. Coleson growled, “is the ache inour backs.”

  “There is nothing on the chart to indicate where the treasure was put,”Ortiga commented. “Unless you know something about it that we do notsee.”

  “Do you?” demanded Mr. Coleson.

  His look penetrated the eager interest of the boys and he thought he sawsomething in Nicky’s expression that meant more than it showed.

  “You—Nicky, aren’t you?—you know something,” he declared. “Now, what isit?”

  Cliff and Tom also saw a strange expression in Nicky’s eyes.

  As a matter of fact, Nicky had just recollected a part of his family’slegend that had not come into his mind before for the reason that it wasnot written down anywhere and had been told to him only once by hisuncle.

  Nicky, glancing at his two young companions, wanted to smile. Both weremaking vigorous efforts to make him realize that they were signaling;each scratched a left ear almost wildly. It was the call for a secretcommunication.

  Nicky folded his arms and stood, pretending to pore over the map, hisbrows knitted. He was watching for the next sign, although he alreadysensed what it would be.

  His guess was correct. Cliff was making the sign to call for the part oftheir oath that said “Telling All, I tell nothing!”

  Nicky, deliberately, grinned at his chums.

  Turning to Mr. Coleson Nicky made a flat statement.

  “Yes,” he said, “I do know something!” Everyone bent forward. Ortiga andMr. Coleson had eager, intent faces; Cliff and Tom were anxious andworried. With the key to a treasure in his grasp, was this impulsivecomrade going to “tell All,” or “tell nothing?”

  Nicky grinned, a little maliciously, it seemed to Cliff.

  “Mr. Coleson,” he said, “you’ve got us ‘in your power.’ It’s no use totry to fib to you.”

  “You’d better not!” snapped Senor Ortiga, while the colored man,listening in the after cockpit, rolled his eyes and shook his head andMr. Coleson bored Nicky with piercing eyes.

  “I’ve got to save my friends and myself,” Nicky declared. “If you willpromise——”

  “Oh! Certainly!” broke in Senor Ortiga, impatiently. “You will get whatis coming to you! Let us have the secret!”

  Nicky’s chums were so far forgetting their usual poise that they shooktheir heads vigorously, but Nicky seemed not to notice.

  “When Captain Kidd was in prison, as my family remembers the story, hesent for one of my grandparents—great-great-great, I guess it was! Andhe said——”

  “Yes! Yes! What?”

  “He said, ‘Here is half a map, and I am giving it to you——’”

  “Never mind all that!” rasped Mr. Coleson. “Get to the point!”

  Nicky nodded.

  “Look!” he said, and traced the faint line with his finger. Theyfollowed his movement in fascinated eagerness. “You see, it finally runsaround the top of the islands, the North part, and then straight as anarrow, points South!”

  “Yes. We see that!”

  “Well, the message Captain Kidd gave was, as well as I can repeat it—‘Atthe end of the line, in the lowest part of the Dipper!’”

  “‘At the end of the line, in the lowest part of the Dipper!’” Ortigarepeated. He snatched the map and pulled it closer. He studied it.

  “The line points South,” Nicky said, “so I suppose Captain Kidd meant todig or search down at the part that is the lowest part on the chart.That would be—” He fished out a stubby bit of pencil and placed its tipon the Westernmost of the lowest islands, drew a slim line from it tothe one opposite, at the East, prolonged the line until it was at apoint below the end of the faint line already on the chart. Then he madedots to prolong that one until they met.

  “That’s it!” exclaimed Senor Ortiga, leaping up in such excitement thathe threw over his chair and almost upset the table. “We did not think ofthat place. We dug all the islands, but this is far better.”

  “Come—Jim, get the boat ready! We will go at once!” cried Mr. Coleson.

  “As for you fellows,” said Senor Ortiga, “we can’t take you; we can’ttrust you with the _Libertad_. So we will tie you until we return!”

  In spite of vigorous protests, the powerful men quickly overcameopposition, bound ropes around the boys’ arms and legs, knotted them,dropped the helpless bundles unceremoniously on the cabin floor, andhurried to climb into their own rowboat and the tender which had broughtthe chums. The quick orders, followed by a rythmic plash of oars andvoices dying away gradually in the distance was the story their earstold.

  “You’re a nice one!” said Cliff, sourly.

  “Why?” said Nicky, wrenching futilely at his well-trussed arms.

  “After we’d signalled, and all,” Tom cut in. “Tell all, and tellnothing—oh, yes! Then you tell all!”

  “What would you have done?” demanded Nicky.

  “Gave them a false direction!”

  “Would you?” asked Nicky and worked again on his bonds.